Mind Soup

The art of sharing has taken on a whole new dimension in today's digital age. With the rise of social media and content-driven platforms, sharing has become an integral part of our online behavior. From heartwarming videos and inspiring stories to hilarious memes and thought-provoking articles, the content we encounter every day is ripe for sharing. As marketers, understanding the psychology behind why people share content is crucial for crafting successful viral marketing campaigns. In this blog post, we'll delve deep into the intricacies of content sharing and explore the psychological triggers that drive people to hit that "Share" button.   I. The Desire for Connection At the core of human nature lies the fundamental need for social interaction and connection. Social media platforms have become virtual meeting grounds where people gather to interact, share experiences, and express themselves. The act of sharing content allows individuals to forge and maintain r...

JCI Beirut hosted me on Wednesday March 2, 2016 to conduct a hands-on training about Social Media Strategy at Berytech Beirut Digital District. In this workshop, where more than 50 people from different backgrounds (students, fresh graduates and professionals) attended, I explained how to create a social media strategy for business. The points discussed included examples of brands that do not have a proper strategy, defining social media goals, the sales cycle, asset mapping, defining the audience and creating personas, choosing channels, voice & tone, posting frequency & time, crisis management, and understanding Facebook's algorithm. The session was followed by a Q&A session. I was really overwhelmed by the positive feedback from the attendees after the session especially that several ha said that they learned so many new things that they have not learned when they took expensive workshops or companies. It had been almost two years since I had given a public so...

I was invited to speak at the 4th Arabian Social Media Forum in Kuwait last week. I spoke about some case studies that reflected the state of social media in the Middle East. In my presentation, I discussed successful campaigns from Lebanon, UAE, KSA, Jordan and Egypt. I have also included examples of bad conduct from brands and celebrities on social media, in addition to examples of really bad (ugly) examples of social media customer service from Lebanon and Kuwait. Some key takeaways from the presentation: A simple campaign can go viral for a long time if implemented properly. (# MyDubai ) Negative content spreads much faster than positive content. Campaigns that use negative content in a smart way can take advantage of this with a smaller advertising budget. (Ugliest Couch campaign) You must know and study your demographic before you launch an online campaign. (Samsung Levant's Secret Valentine) With a small budget, small businesses can hugely increase their sales wh...

Read the full magazine here . I was recently interviewed by Youmna Naufal  for  ECONEWS  magazine by The Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture. A version of the interview below appeared in print in the June 2014 edition. Named the Social Media Consultant of Lebanon, Mohammad Hijazi is a young man who, like many, has mastered the art of social media. In his words, social media is no longer just a tool to communicate or connect with people that we know. Its opportunities have become much wider. People can now get acquainted with professionals in their fields, get exposure for their work, get funding for their start-ups, find jobs and even meet new people with similar interests or hobbies. In Lebanon, there is a thriving community of well-educated and interesting members who are worth connecting with on a professional or personal basis. However, he believes only a portion of the Lebanese are aware and knowledgeable enough about proper ways of using social med...

Many businesses have finally started to realize the importance of social media for their success, but few have relied so heavily on it in Lebanon to promote their concept. A perfect example of this would be Pizza Cups, an all-homemade catering business with a fresh, delicious idea that was launched solely on social media platforms. To know more about Pizza Cups and its social media strategy, I interviewed Wassim El Haddad, co-founder, about this innovation. El Haddad has been working in social media for the past year in Cleartag, while co-founding Pizza Cups with Khajag Apelian and currently handles the communication matters of the brand as they get ready to open their new outlet and expand. What is Pizza Cups and how did you come up with the concept? Pizza Cups are cup-shaped pizzas prepared with fresh quality ingredients and baked with care and dedication. They're available in different savory and sweet flavors, with different crust choices. The starting point of...

Interview with Leila Khauli Hanna, a pioneer in social media adoption in the Lebanese classroom Leila Khauli Hanna is a full time Instructor of Marketing Management at AUB’s Sulaiman S. Olayan School of Business since the year 2000.  She holds a Masters of Business Administration with a specialization in Marketing and Econometrics from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. Ms. Hanna has taught courses at the Undergraduate and Graduate level in the fields of Marketing and Economics in the US, Lebanon, and France.  She has introduced and coordinated several highly specialized and cutting edge courses at the school and was nominated three times for the teaching excellence award at AUB. Her research interest lies in the Creative Industry of Lebanon and the Digital Transformation of businesses in the region.  Ms. Hanna was the first to introduce full-fledged social media integration into her courses in Lebanon. Her students use these tools to com...

When looking for a job online, most people tend to go directly to Linkedin.com and create a profile while disregarding their existing social networks. What they don’t realize is that most employers search for potential employees on personal social networks before professional ones. I am going to discuss a few measures that you should undertake to survive an unexpected stalking from a potential employer. Firstly, your email address should be professional. Try to create a professional email address using your first name and last name, or first initial and last name. Email addresses like sexybeast69@aol.com or puppy_loveXOXO@msn.com will deter an employer from considering your resume. In addition, your email provider says a lot about you. If you are using AOL for example, you would give off an internet newbie vibe: "Hi. I'm from 1996. What is this internet that you speak of?“. If you use Hotmail, you are perceived as an amateur or a teenager: “Hi, I’m 16. Would you like...

I was honored to be interviewed on Future TV's English News last week. Check out the video below where I talk about the state of social media in the Arab World , the Lebanese online community, the Social Media Awards and University for Seniors . I'm also very humbled to have been called The Social Media Consultant of Lebanon. Thank you Youmna for the superb interview! For more information about what I do, you can connect  with me on Linkedin. 

This is a feature story done for Cloud 961 Magazine Issue 4 . The main purpose of medicine and the thousands of years of trying to perfect it is to extend a human’s life and eventually achieve immortality (through robotics for example). What the internet, social networks in particular, unexpectedly achieved is another type of immortality: digital immortality. Yet, people don’t usually think about what happens to their social profiles online once they are deceased, until they are forced to when someone close to them dies. According to a study done for the purpose of this article, 65% of the respondents have at least one deceased person as a connection on their social media platforms. Only 12%, however, are aware of Facebook’s and Twitter’s procedures for deceased people. Facebook’s official policy for deceased people who have profiles on their site is to turn it into a memorial where “people can save and share their memories of those who've passed.” This setting hides the prof...

When was the last time when you saw a QR code in an advertisement and were excited to scan it, or on the back of your soda can and put it down to see what the code redirects too? Or even worse, when was the last time you stopped your car to snap a QR on a billboard? Chances are that the answer is long time ago, and you’re not alone. There are many reasons as to why QR codes are not getting hype anymore. The most common reason is that, believe it or not, a lot of people are still not aware what QR codes are or how to use them. Many don’t even notice their presence. QR stands for Quick Response. These codes are two dimensional barcodes and are supposed to be a simple way to link the user to other content such as website links, phone numbers, contact information or other text. The user scans the code using an application on their smartphone to encode its content. But even after you explain the concept to many people, they still do not use it very regularly out of inconvenienc...

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

If you own or manage a Facebook page for a brand, cause or personal reason, you are bound to get spam messages from people claiming to get you more Facebook likes for cheap or free, something like the below: What is more annoying is how they try to convince you that their services are legit. Check out the below conversation that occurred on one of my client's pages. To begin with, I do not allow any of my clients to purchase fans or likes on any platforms. If you know anything about marketing, you would know that purchasing bulk followers does not get you anywhere, for the following reasons: These users approach uniformed or uneducated page owners to take advantage of them. These "companies" work by hiring a bunch of underpaid people in China, India or Egypt and stuff them in an overcrowded room to create fake Facebook accounts with randomized named and their only job is to like "client" pages. ( Side article:   83 million Facebook accounts are fake...

ArabNet Digital Summit 2012, the biggest event for web and mobile in the region, is less than 2 months away. Last year’s summit brought over 1000 attendees, 100 speakers, featured 18 panels and 17 talks, in addition to 20 entrepreneurs pitching their ideas and startups. This year’s event is even bigger! Cutting-edge panel discussions, specialized workshops, exciting competitions, focused networking sessions, social activities and more, spread over 5 action packed days including: Two Developer Days with technical discussions and workshops for programmers An Industry Day about how web and mobile are transforming traditional industries like healthcare, travel, education and banking Two Forum Days , the largest gathering of digital business leaders in the region featuring over 100 globally renowned speakers covering the latest trends and technologies in web and mobile A Community Day raising public awareness about the the power of digital The Digital Summit will also include ...

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...

What is the "Istibaneh"? On the 29th of Sha’aban, the people of Beirut and the people of the heights surrounding the city used to gather on the shores of Al-Awzai, Ramla Al-Bayda, Al-Rawsheh, Al-Manara and Al-Somteya, with the purpose of identifying the al-Hilal, which is the inaugural sign of the Holy month of Ramadan. They took with them to these shores some food to spend the time while waiting for the sunset in order to spot the Hilal. Once they would spot the emergence of the crescent, canons would be fired on the hilltop of the seraglio (al-Sarai) declaring the start of the Holy month of Ramadan. What's happening this year? " Istibaneh " is taking place this year on July 30th, 2011 at Ein El Mraysseh Corniche facing the Mosque . The event is organized by three NGOs: Kitaf El Kheir Association (President Dr. Abla Bsat Jumaa) Sinno Family League : (President Mhamad Khales Sinno) Moultaka Chabab Beirut : (President Cheick Omar Chebaro) The event, wh...