Perfecting the Art of Social Media

DohaCreatives Community asked some of Doha’s social media gurus to exclusively share the one piece of advice they would give to social media enthusiasts. I was chosen as one of those gurus to participate with a few tips.

Perfecting the Art of Social Media

Perfecting the Art of Social Media

My advice was the following:

  • Always remember that Social Media is a Human to Human (H2H) interaction. Forget about business to Consumer (B2C) or Business to Business (B2B) interaction, it’s all about H2H! Be authentic, have a transparent attitude and a genuine tone of voice.
  • Don’t over-market your content! Rather than promoting your brand and advertising it yourself, it’s always best to focus on earned media attention whereby your fans and followers speak positively of your brand.
  • Content is king! Without creative, entertaining, and relevant content your social media platforms will lose traction no matter how hard you try to promote your brand.

Checkout the full guide here

ahussam Tips

ahussam Tips

 

Roundup For The 2015 Ramadan Commercials

Every year, Ramadan Commercials, Programs, Series become the most talked about topics in Egypt. Brands compete to capture the hearts and minds of the audience whom are becoming ever harder to please with every passing year.

Here is my roundup (in alphabetical order) for the 2015 Ramadan commercials

To view the full review and videos, proceed to Digital Boom here: http://adigitalboom.com/roundup-2015-ramadan-commercials/, I’ve covered the below commercials:

    • AAIB
    • Al Arousa
    • Banque Misr
    • Crunch Egypt
    • Cottonil
    • Degla Palms
    • Embrator
    • Etisalat
    • Fox
    • Italian Square
    • Lamar
    • Lion
    • Mega Ice Cream
    • Mobinil
    • Mountain View
    • Mousa Coast
    • Nescafe
    • Telecom Egypt
    • Om Hassan
    • Unionaire
    • Universal
    • Vodafone
    • and lastly, The Donations Collection:
      • 57357 Cancer Institute
      • 500500 Cancer Institute
      • Magdy Yacoub Institute
      • Ma3an Institute
      • Masr Al Kheir Institute
      • Orman Hospital for Cancer
      • Baheya Hospital

Learn How To Win Like Obama on Social Media

We might all remember how US President Obama proved the importance and power of Social Media in his 2008 presidential campaign against senator McCain. He was able to secure 55 million US dollars in one month from campaigning through Social Media channels, while senator McCain was only able to secure 11 million during the same period using traditional methods.

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The New Obama Twitter Account Smart Activation

Although Obama has been always an active and prominent figure on Social Media since then with almost 60 million followers on Twitter, yet he was still able to surprise us and draw our attention to his new official government account, @POTUS (President of the United States)

read the full article on Digital Boom here: http://adigitalboom.com/learn-how-to-win-like-obama-social-media/

The Creative Twitter Account of the British Ambassador

When I first noticed the tweets of Mr. John Casson, The British Ambassador to Egypt, he was addressing the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and referring to someone who had tweeted to his account asking to work as the Egyptian Ambassador in the UK! Instead of giving a blunt official answer or ignoring the sarcastic tweet, the Ambassador simply quoted the tweet to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying “Someone wants to work with you”.

I immediately realized this as a perfect example of “Forget about B2C & B2B, it’s H2H” from my recent article “The 10 Social Media Facts They Are Not Telling You”

The British Ambassador is Promoting Tourism to Egypt!

I started reading through his recent tweets only to find them all interesting and fun to read. I was surprised to find 2 threads of hashtags that one would usually expect from the Egyptian Tourism Authority or the very least by Egyptian influencers interested in promoting their country, #ReasonsToLikeCairo and #ReasonsToLikeAlexandria, the posts show someone who is both very knowledgeable with the local culture and having a creative sense of humor.

british-amb

Continue to full article on Digital Boom here: http://adigitalboom.com/creative-twitter-account-british-ambassador/

Think Different!

Following rules and instructions to cook food from a cookbook might ensure your food will not taste bad, but does it make you a good chef?

I’ve been lucky to have gained extensive experience in management throughout my professional career ever since my graduation in 1994, looking back at those 21 years, I realize that I’ve been managing teams for almost 17 years and throughout these 17 years, I have been noticing a fixed pattern – and this is the topic of this article.8731aa676b25524bdee2f7b1cfa21407

Is profit bad?

Why do most companies, specially larger corporations eventually fall into the mistake of morphing into a dinosaur, even if they were once successful ventures? the answer lies in the ultimate goal… profit

No one can deny that profit is important, and without making a good profit no company can sustain it’s business and grow, but the mistake everyone makes is looking at profit as a goal rather than a result. And when you focus only on results you don’t make any progress, but when you focus on progress you always get results.

A research done in 2009 based on survey data gathered from 520 business organizations in 17 countries (which was conducted with Mary Sully de Luque, of Thunderbird School of Global Management; David A. Waldman, of Arizona State University West; and Robert J. House, of the University of Pennsylvania) – This research stated that if a company management’s primary focus is on profit maximization, employees develop negative feelings toward the organization. They tend to perceive the company as autocratic and focused on the short term, and they report being somewhat less willing to sacrifice for the company. Corporate performance is poorer as a result.

But when the company makes it a priority to balance the concerns of customers and employees, employees perceive the company management as visionary and participatory. They report being more willing to exert extra effort, and corporate results improve.

JetBlue… from innovator to imitator.

Let’s look at a different perspective through the airline industry, airlines sometimes find they are suffering from high costs and try to maximize their profit margin by cutting on in-flight entertainment, reducing quality of food served (or just removing it all together), maybe reducing aisle width and spaces between seats to add a few extra, cut back on salaries and employee count… but then what happens?

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The boutique airline JetBlue started by offering low-cost travel, but sought to distinguish itself by its amenities, JetBlue’s first major advertising campaign incorporated phrases like “Unbelievable” and “We like you, too”. Full-page newspaper advertisements boasted low-fares, new aircraft, leather seats, spacious legroom and a customer-service-oriented staff committed to “bringing humanity back to air travel.” With a goal of raising the bar for in-flight experience, JetBlue became the first airline to offer all passengers personalized in-flight entertainment, flat-screen monitors installed in every seatback allow customers live access to over 20 DIRECTV channels at no additional cost.

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JetBlue’s interiors with screens on every seatback

As JetBlue gained market share, they found a unique positioning where they competed with other low-cost carriers as well as major carriers. Amenities such as their live in-flight television, free and unlimited snack offerings, comfortable legroom, even business-class seats in addition to unique promotions fostered an image of impeccable customer service that rivaled the major airlines while competitive low fares made them a threat to low-cost no-frills carriers as well. In 2013 JetBlue announced that TrueBlue (their frequent flyer program) points will never expire for any reason as oppsed to other similar programs where points expire after a specified period.

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JetBlue’s business class cabins

There are hundreds of low-fare airlines around the world, and 7 in America competing with JetBlue, but what made them the most successful was their focus on being different rather than making more profit.

The old JetBlue could soon be a thing of the past, the carrier announced that it would add checked bag fees in 2016 and it will also pack passengers more tightly into its planes by increasing the number of seats on its Airbus A320s to 165 seats from 150 meaning less legroom. JetBlue had in the past avoided these moves, in an effort to preserve a brand that once redefined budget flying but that in recent years has disappointed investors looking at the success of “no frills” operations like that of Spirit Airlines.

Ultimately, the arrival of checked-bag fees, along with charging for Wi-Fi and adding seats to aircraft, is expected to increase JetBlue’s earnings per share by over 50 cents, but the short term positive financial news doesn’t mean JetBlue is on the right track. The carrier’s challenge is significant. The company is caught up in a familiar dynamic for the airline industry. It innovated when it arrived on the scene, tapping an appetite for a low-cost boutique flying experience — something akin to boutique hotels, which could be simultaneously less expensive and more stylish than established luxury lodging options. But the innovation tends to run its course, and then the upstart finds itself playing the same game as everyone else: competing on price. And because the carrier has put customers first for more than a decade, the trick will be figuring out how much like the rest of airline industry JetBlue can become without ceasing to be JetBlue.

Sculley’s Apple:

Remember Apple’s Macintosh 1984 Ad? how about the 1985 Macintosh Office (Lemmings) Ad? what messages do these Ads have in common? the short answer is Think Different… Be Different… But being different proves harder than you might think.

The majority of people prefer staying in their comfort zone and advocate the phrase “We’ve always done it this way.”, “this is how the client wants it” and “that’s just the way we do things.” But basically each of these is literally someone telling you they are either too dumb to think of ways to make things better, too lazy, or just too afraid to risk trying something different.

John Sculley is an American businessman, entrepreneur and investor in high-tech startups. he was vice-president (1970–1977) and president of Pepsi-Cola (1977–1983), until he became CEO of Apple on April 8, 1983, a position he held for 10 years until 1993. Under Sculley’s management, who focused on current product lines and profitability, sales at Apple increased from $800 million to $8 billion. But when Sculley was ultimately was forced to step down as Apple CEO in May 1993 Apple had $2 billion in cash and $200 million in debt.

Jobs and Sculley

Jobs and Sculley

Jobs on the other hand focused on future innovation, and people realized later that Sculley’s initial success was due to the fact that he joined the company just when Jobs’ visions and creations were becoming highly lucrative.

When Steve Jobs returned to the company in July 1997, Apple was 90 days from going bankrupt and they needed a good products to turn things around. They started by reinventing the ‘boring beige box” and introducing the iMac in 1998. Apple also returned to the software space that year with an acquisition of Macromedia’s Final Cut product. And for the first time since 1993, Apple turned a profit of $309 million and in 1999, Apple’s sales grew 3.2%, and profits doubled to $601MM.

In 2001, Jobs announced their next big hit, the iPod. The portable music player went from concept to market in about 8 months.  The iPod undoubtedly changed the music industry, but iTunes, which was also introduced this year, was Apple’s true genius.

Through selling dreams, not products… Jobs kept the company new and fresh by coming up with out-of-the-box concepts. He did this in all aspects of Apple, in new products, and even in hiring decisions, drawing inspiration from everywhere. Under the reign of Steve Jobs, Apple proved they weren’t afraid to take risks and fail. Jobs has said, “We’re gambling on our vision, and we’d rather do that than make ‘me-too’ products.”

2007-the-iphone-revolutionizes-the-mobile-industry-apple-tv-is-announced

In January 2006, and at roughly $80 per share, Apple’s stocks had increased ten fold in ten years, up from $6 in 1997. The iPhone and Apple TV were announced at the 2007 Macworld Expo, and by May 2007, Apple’s shares broke $100. In 2010, the company’s shares reached $300, the company has never been stronger and there seems to be no limits to what the company can achieve.

I was only by thinking differently and finding new ways to produce products, that Apple became a technology titan.

“Money can be a great motivator, but if you’re just in it for the cash, good luck building a billion-dollar business”, says John Sculley, looking back at how things turned out. “That they both – referring to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates – went on to build billion-dollar businesses was simply a byproduct of their intense passion. Never in any of those conversations did they ever talk about making money.”

I’ll end part 1 of this article with Sculley’s biggest advice to young entrepreneurs is “Business plans are almost obsolete these days, there’s nothing more powerful than customers that are happy.” but why are they obsolete? simply because business plans focus only on revenue and profit… transforming it into a goal rather than the result of a successful enterprise.

 

The 10 Social Media Facts They Are Not Telling You

Agencies usually fail to tell you about these 10 Social Media facts that have proven true over the years despite the diverse policies and strategies each company applies for their online marketing.

Understanding the truth about Social Media when you are working online will save you a lot of headache and frustration down the line and will make you stand out from competition.

1- No, It’s not about how many fans or followers you have

Having lots of fan or followers is a good thing, but this should not be your sole goal, People often fall into the trap of chasing follower numbers which is like trying to book more empty seats (more fans), forgetting that you need audience to fill up those seats (engagement) by liking, sharing, retweeting, commenting…etc

Screen-Shot-2015-05-07-at-5.35.11-PM

2- No, You don’t have to be on every platform

Choose the platforms which are more likely to have your target audience and which better serves your industry and content, you do not need to be on every single social media platform and jump into every new platform. Find focus on providing value on the networks where your customers and prospects are most active. Better to not be somewhere than to have a presence there and ignore it.

Continue to full article on Digital Boom here: http://adigitalboom.com/the-10-social-media-facts-they-are-not-telling-you/

Ayadina Restaurant, A Brand Attack Gone Wrong?

Usually in any brand attack we “the public audience” are clearly aware of the one specific reason that sparked the attack. United Airlines guitar and Domino’s Pizza cases in 2009, Kevin Smith vs Southwest airlines in 2010, and in Egypt #VodaFly the Anti-Vodafone “Abbas Ibn Firnas Ad” campaign also in 2010, or the Left Bank valet case just last year (2014) just to name a few examples – however in this specific case I was confused.

Let’s go through this in detail and try to understand and analyze the case

The first time I noticed the case is when Ahmed Wasel posted this photo on his timeline Saturday 28th complaining about a Minimum charge of 150LE per person being enforced on them by the restaurant and above that over 400LE worth of items were added by the restaurant to sum up to a large invoice.

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The total invoice amount is 1616.39LE

which leads to problem #1

(150LE x 15 = 2250LE not 1616LE), so I started to wonder if there was really any forced minimum charge?

Ahmed Wasel also mentioned that 400LE worth of extra items being added to the invoice, so if we take that into consideration and also remove the 12% service charge and 10% sales tax (which is added by law to every café or restaurant invoice)
1616.39 – 157.44 (service charge) – 146.95 (sales tax) = 1312LE – 400LE = 912LE

and this amount leads to problem #2

It is ordinary in Egypt to pay anywhere from 100 to 200LE per person when dining out at a similar restaurant and 912 / 15 persons = 60LE (and even 1616 / 15 = 107LE) which is low amount to pay and should be considered cheap – You can’t blame a Ferrari for being expensive if you don’t want to pay for it.

Reading down through the comments I notice Heba M. Jackoub trying to re-explain the case stating that the initial invoice was 800LE and the waiter informed them about the 150LE policy and just added 800LE worth of items (so is it 400LE or 800LE!!?) to sum up the amount to 1600LE

and here comes problem #3

If this is actually what happened then this is a pretty straight forward case! Just don’t pay, speak with the manager and/or report to the authorities or Consumer Protection – case closed, why all the fuss and noise? (Although in my personal opinion – how much should a person expect to pay in a Lebanese restaurant in City Stars? 107LE per person is normal if not cheap)…

Continue to the full article at Digital Boom here: http://adigitalboom.com/ayadina-restaurant-a-brand-attack-gone-wrong/

Intel: ‘Sponsors of Tomorrow’ Ads

I came accross these strange series of Ads created by Intel for their new campaign ‘Sponsors of Tomorrow’, pretty weird yet cool in a “geeky” way! I’ve decided to compile them here as it took me a while to find the whole series together online, also Intel has provided them for download on their presskit page http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/sot/

Generations: 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOLo7dQBzP4]

Lunchroom: 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHw6XQSEKoo]

Our parties aren’t like your parties: 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9xg2aBoRi4]

Our perks aren’t like your perks: 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yCcEJ-GYMI]

Our co-workers aren’t like your co-workers: 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQHZtA8JC54]

Our team players aren’t like your team players:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HdhtlOir78]

Our jokes aren’t like your jokes: 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwfcKFrjCdg]

Our doodle aren’t like your doodles:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=981OA_BZ42Q]

Our big ideas aren’t like your big ideas:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhEEhoUnw5w]

Our rock stars aren’t like your rock stars:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQZPz0a8whA]

Our dedication isn’t like your dedication:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EvoLeyhIyw]

Our meetings aren’t like your meetings:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_fYC4Mg0Ks]

Madagascar Penguins Ads:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kplhLS7oYB4]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zKZLdSfCYw]

The Web Designer’s Theory of Relativity

Relativism is the concept that points of view have no absolute truth or validity. For web designers, this has monumental implications. What is beautiful? Which typeface is perfect for this design? Red or Blue? The questions that we have to deal with on a regular basis often leave us, knowingly or not, returning to notions of relativity in order to walk away from a project without going insane. For the perfectionists among us (and most of us are perfectionists, are we not?!), this is little consolation though. Today we’ll discuss the theory of relativity as it applies to us… Read on Young Einsteins!

My grandfather told me this story once: He was buying some cloth and when looking at one of the cloth designs… and he thought to himself “that is so ugly!” He barely finished the thought when another customer came running in with her fiancé and mother-in-law and went directly to that same design he was thinking about shouting, “Here it is, the design we were looking for!” and bought the whole lot!

Read my full article here: http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/design-theory/the-web-designers-theory-of-relativity/

Twitter Madness! – a unique case-study (Part 2)

In continuation of my “field study” – which is mentioned in part 1 of this post –  here are some more unexpected findings:

  1. In total I gained 105 new followers (15% extra followers)
  2. I lost only 15 followers (only 2% loss)
  3. 12 (10%) of the new followers followed me after I had stopped tweeting (my conclusion is they are coming from RTs by other tweeps)
in further analyzing my new followers I noticed the following:
  1. 59 (over 50%) of my new followers had a Klout score of 40 or more – 27 of which were above 50
  2. 30 of my new followers had a Klout score between 20 & 39
  3. 22 of my new followers had more than 10,000 followers  themselves (9 were above 20,000)
  4. 39 of my new followers had followers between 1000 & 9999
The below chart shows my new followers by the number of followers they have:
Number of followers
This next chart shows the distribution of my new followers according to their Klout score, apparently they are mostly ‘good value” tweeps, and not 3rd rate as some may expect.

Klout score for the new followers