Mind Soup

Linkedin is the premiere social network for business, yet most people do not know how to use it effectively. Cloud961 Magazine's Editor in Chief, Mohammad Hijazi, will be giving a seminar for entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs about using Linkedin to promote their start-ups, find investors, partners and employees and build a solid connection base. This seminar is part of Global Entrepreneurship week that is taking place on November 17-23 and is FREE OF CHARGE . Date: November 20, 2014 Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: Coworking +961, Sursock Palace ( View Map ) Get your ticket on ihjoz now before they run out again! About Mohammad Hijazi Mohammad Hijazi runs the Online Collaborative, a non-profit initiative that aims to promote awareness about technology and social media, and is the organizing entity of The Social Media Awards which took place last year in Beirut and launching in several Arab countries this year. In addition, he is the Editor in Chief of Cloud...

Online Collaborative celebrates its 3 rd year anniversary with the support of Converse’s global ‘Get Loud’ movement as they take to the streets of the city Beirut, November 2013 - Online Collaborative, the student initiative bringing together online influencers in Lebanon, celebrated its 3 rd year anniversary in style, taking part in Converse’s global ‘Get Loud’ Movement.  The movement took over the country’s digital platform, through the hype created on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Through a series of events in Beirut, a number of the Lebanese youth were brought together and engaged in activities including street art, walking photo booths, and a rocking party until dawn.  Young uprising talents took to the streets of Hamra where they expressed themselves and got loud with their street art. Spectators around the area got excited and contributed to the drawings while the music rocked in the background. Meanwhile, sneakers got even louder in other areas of ...

M Gourmet and Online Collaborative hosted a sushi tweet-up on October 21, 2013. During the tweet-up, invited tweeps got to mingle of over 60 members of the Lebanese Online Community and experience the different sushi selections at MGourmet in addition to the specialty dessert wraps made with Nutella and fruits. M Gourmet lights up the streets of Ashrafieh with its innovative sushi, pop vibes and upbeat mood. At M Gourmet, you are invited to taste innovative Japanese food overseen by the master chefs of Buddha Bar. Whether you are coming to have a meal with loved ones, or a Martini at the bar, everything about the place is bound to glam up your experience. Spread among three stories, the eclectic decor is highlighted by dim neon lights, frequent nods to pop art and playful notes (think hopscotch on the floors or snakes and ladders on the wall), making it a place that does not take itself too seriously.

In celebration of launching its new burger, Crepaway, in partnership with Online Collaborative and Cloud 961, invited a few bloggers and tweeps to try the Hole Good Burger at their newly designed Beirut City Centre branch on Wendesday September 25, 2013. The topic of the night was online dating, as part of Crepaway’s hashtag campaign. Attendees got to discuss their experience with online dating from meeting people online to long distance relationships. Each attendee als o got a Crepaway Eco Cup and a ticket to enter a draw to win 2 tickets to attend Rihanna’s concert in Abu Dhabi this month. The night ended in delightful desserts and it was ALL GOOD!

My name as it appeared in the event brochure I was invited earlier this week to talk at Hadeer Conference about how NGOs can use social media to benefit their organizations and campaigns. I gave a general lecture and discussion about the basic tools that they can use and some tips. These include: a brief introduction of Social Media and its importance, objective, target audience, monitoring, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, blogging, Facebook advertising, crisis management, content calendars and integrated campaigns In the presentation, there are also two local case studies of Be7ke and Donner Sang Compter . Check out the slides from the presentation below. If you have any questions or would like more details about my presentation, feel free to email me mhijazi [at] onlinecollaborative [dot] org. Social Media for NGOs مواقع التواصل الإجتماعي للجمعيات from Mohammad Hijazi

A while back I was asked to give a couple of lectures at the American University of Beirut for the Strategic Career Planning course on how to use the internet and social media to find a job or present oneself professionally. It seems that not many people are aware about the potential that social media holds in recruitment and job search. Many students and job seekers have found this presentation useful from the number of comments and messages that I received so I decided to share it here in hopes that it can reach more people. This presentation starts off as general tips that can apply to everyone in the world, but the job recruitment websites are resources are mostly tailored to Lebanon and the Middle East. If you have any questions or if you'd like me to check your professional online presence, feel free to drop me an email: moudz [at] mindsoupblog [dot] com. Good luck on your job search! Finding a job online in 10 simple steps from Mohammad Hijazi

After the success of “Blogging Lebanon” last December, Online Collaborative at the American University of Beirut proudly announces its annual conference for this year “Social Media Changing Lives”. There is no doubt that social media is expanding drastically in the world, and especially in the Middle East, yet this change is not only related to technology and the internet. Social Media is revolutionizing every aspect of our lives. The aim of this conference is to discuss how social media is changing fields such as education, culture, business, media and journalism, music and art, NGOs, politics, religion, human rights, science, the environment and the personal lives of everyone who is using them. This conference will be taking place on December 16, 2011 at 12:00 PM at Issam Fares Hall at the American University of Beirut . The conference is open to the general public, and is free of charge. However, due to the limited capacity, it is required that you register beforehand so yo...

Yesterday, Mind Soup has turned two years old. I can't really believe it. It still seems like yesterday when I spontaneously decided to start a blog and worried about design layouts and content. Now, after two full years I stand proud of my commitment to my blog and it subsidiaries. This year has brought a lot of accomplishments which include: having the great Daisy join in and continuously post about her experiences and opinions being featured in several newspaper and magazine articles both online and offline. being the first google search for several articles. 300,000 hits on several pages integrating with several social media sites such as facebook and twitter recently creating a supplementary tumblr page giving me the inspiration to establish Online Collaborative and enriching my interest in social marketing. being known as a relevant source of news and opinion articles and a place where freedom of speech is exercised Even though this year has also...

December is proving to be a very busy month for me, as well as social media enthusiasts and Arab intellectuals. Below are four conferences/forums/conventions To kick December off, AUB's Online Collaborative will be hosting its first Blogging Lebanon convention on December 3 where Lebanese bloggers and Arab and International bloggers in Lebanon in the area will be joining to share their experience and give valuable insight about the blogging scene in the Arab World. Click here for the latest information about this event . The Arab Thought Foundation is holding its annual conference " Fikr 9 " which will take place this year in Beirut on December 8 & 9 with a special workshop for youth on December 7. This year's conference has the theme of "Building the Future." The conference will address the major issues facing the Arab World. During my meeting with the organizers last week, they have expressed their great enthusiasm about welcoming bloggers who...