The Domino’s effect (Part 1): Social media use the MENA region can learn from
We are all fascinated with social media even though recent reports and surveys from the MENA region have stated that most marketeers in the region are facing difficulties with it especially dealing with negative feedback from consumers and creating value for their brands from it. So I did some research about social media case studies that have occurred recently and one that kept popping up is how Domino’s Pizza dealt with a crisis that... Read More
The rise of the social customer in the MENA region!!
Social media has changed the way customers interact with brands, forever! Customers have evolved with the growth of social media, one-way-messages through traditional media channels and the interruptive method is at its lowest point in history. Customers now are engaging with different social platforms every day that are constantly influencing their behaviors and decisions, people are not putting their trust neither conviction on the so glamorous... Read More
Dubizzle bigger than Twitter in the UAE!
I read a tweet today that was quite interesting, according to alexa Dubizzle ranks higher than Twitter in the UAE. Dubizzle which is a classifieds website that was launched from Dubai quickly gained popularity in the past years and has now expanded all over the MENA region. So if this could be done within 5-6 years, I think with the right marketing strategies they can obtain the same level of success across the region. Check it out: Read More
Twitter vs. Facebook traffic
I was taking a look earlier today at our Google Analytics report to see how we’re doing in terms of visitors and traffic sources and I think it is safe to say that if you’re running a blog focus on Facebook rather than twitter. Our referrals from Facebook are more than double the referrals from Twitter even though we have over 1,400 followers on twitter and only 137 fans on our Facebook page. Now here are some reasons as to why (in my... Read More
And you say social media doesn’t do any good!
We, people in the MENA region, know how powerful social media is, just ask the ousted leaders and they’ll give you a better idea. Not just pulling down governments can happen like magic through social networks, finding missing people is just another social service it can provide. Well, 2 days ago a 16-year-old youngster by the name of Faisal went missing in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and it was the time to rescue. But guess who came to the rescue,... Read More
BRKG: A New Guide to Venture Capital in the MENA Region
Just few minutes ago, our colleague Habib Haddad, founder of Yamli, shared a link on twitter about new fresh informative document that is much needed in the MENA region. This document was named: “A Guide to Venture Capital in the MENA Region” which could answer a lot of questions and turn down a lot of controversial wisdom. This report is a collaborative effort between the MENA Private Equity Association, the VC Task-force Team (team members... Read More
ictQatar: Taking the lead on online engagement in Qatar
ictQatar, the supreme council of Information and Communication Technology and the most active government body responsible for setting ICT policy and regulation in the region, has released a comprehensive case study on their social media efforts. This paper showcase ictQatar brand engagement with various online stakeholders since 2008. The paper unveils ictQatar thought leadership among Qatar corporations and government bodies. There is a case study... Read More
Avenue Social: new social media player in the MENA region
Everybody by now knows the power of social media especially with the recent uprisings and demonstrations being organized on social media networks in the MENA region. However not all social media usage is political, brands are increasingly getting on the social media networks to engage with their consumers and create a new channel of communication with them. That’s why the US-based mobile app developer AvenueSocial has decided to expand into... Read More
Google and Twitter (with the help of Saynow): let there be tweets from #Egypt
CNET has reported that Google and Twitter teamed up to provide people in Egypt a way to send out their tweets without an internet connection. As reported the country’s internet has been offline for a while now. Users with a voice connection need to dial one of three numbers which are: +16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855 and their voice messages will be converted to tweets, using the SayNow platform recently purchased by Google, with... Read More
Why aren’t more companies using social media in the MENA region?
With the new year here and with new marketing budgets and strategies being placed for 2011, we hope to see more integrated marketing campaigns with the “social” element. However I’m not very optimistic, I think we might see more Facebook pages popping up and some more tweets tweeted in cyber space, it’s a good start, but I don’t necessarily think that is entirely social. The problem in the region is that there is a high... Read More
Zoofs.com a fresh idea from the Middle East
Who is Zoofs? Zoofs is the latest product from TootCorp, for those of you who are not familiar with TootCorp they are the people responsible for the very succesful ikbis, Watwet and Toot web startups. What is Zoofs? Zoofs is a new way to discover YouTube videos that people are talking about on Twitter. Zoofs orbits around the Twitter sphere, eating through piles of tweets everyday, in search for the most tweeted YouTube videos. It basically displays... Read More
Robin Sloan of Twitter is speaking at Aljazeera Event in Doha (Live Blogging)
Robin Sloan is speaking now at today’s event of Aljazeera which is titled “Unplugged Real-Time Media: the power of now”. Robin who works on media partnerships at Twitter is talking about Twitter and real-time information. Here is a brief of the important points edited from his keynote speech: Twitter as real-time media is coming closer to TV live broadcast influence. Real-time media is the information that has been put to real world... Read More
The Twibbon
This post is contributed by Maya Zankoul who is the author & illustrator of comic blog (mayazankoul.com) & best-selling book “Amalgam”. She currently illustrates for ELLE Oriental magazine. Her work has been featured in local and int’l newspapers. She is also a Graphic & Web designer who is active on the Lebanese social scene. She lectures and gives workshops in local universities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... Read More
Buzz off!
This post is contributed by Maya Zankoul who is the author & illustrator of comic blog (mayazankoul.com) & best-selling book “Amalgam”. She currently illustrates for ELLE Oriental magazine. Her work has been featured in local and int’l newspapers. She is also a Graphic & Web designer who is active on the Lebanese social scene. She lectures and gives workshops in local universities. Welcome Google Buzz! For... Read More
The First Step in Social Media Marketing
Everyone is talking about harnessing the power of social networks to further brand messages. But the key element in successfully using social media is not identifying the social network’s tools of communication, but rather understanding how people use the network.All social networks, be it facebook, myspace, youtube or twitter, are built upon the population’s contributions and interactions. If there is no one watching or participating, there... Read More
6 Reasons why you should include “Social Media” in your media plan
This post is written by Firas Steitiyeh a Social Media expert with an immense experience of over than 15 years in the Internet field. Firas is your go to guy for anything Internet related with his willingness to share his experience with those who request it, he will certainly assist you with pleasure. With focus on Social Media and Internet Marketing, Firas have helped various startups in building their online strategies and their social media presence... Read More
It’s Not Twitter Fail Whale, It’s Iranian Cyber Army
Twitter is down! Fail Whale, Fail Whale!… Whenever Twitter is down, a holding page of a whale design appears that supposedly means that Twitter is facing large user-access capacity or on a scheduled/un-scheduled downtime. Yet, this time it was none of the mentioned. Twitter reported in the morning that there is un-scheduled downtime and they are working on resolving it, but later it turned out to be a complete hack attack through DNS. The homepage... Read More
Breaking: Google Launches Real-Time Search; Check Out How It Works
All technology entrepreneurs are talking about real-time search, which is meant to change your behavior on how to access to information, it’s the main natural starting point for discovering the world’s information with emphasis on the freshest, most comprehensive, and relevant search results over an ever expanding universe of content on the multitude of devices you use to access it. This latest innovations in the areas of real-time, mobile... Read More
Google’s Top UAE Searches of 2009: Gitex, Twitter, FlyDubai, Star Academy
Google announced its annual Zeitgeist, a look at 2009 through the collective eyes of the world on the web. The 2009 Year-End Zeitgeist offers a unique perspective on the year’s major events and hottest trends based on global searches, as well as searches conducted in UAE. 2009 has been an interesting year for the UAE and people are looking to Google for access to information. Here are some of the fastest rising results this year in the UAE. UAE... Read More
World Economic Forum Announces Technology Pioneers 2010
The World Economic Forum announced today the 2010 class of Technology Pioneers. The 26 companies selected as Technology Pioneers 2010 represent the most innovative start-ups from around the globe that will have a critical impact on the future of business and society. These innovators will join the wider World Economic Forum community for the first time during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010 in Davos-Klosters, in January. The Technology... Read More
