Mind Soup

Can you put borders on social media interactions? In January 2012, Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri unknowingly responded to a “Good Morning” tweet by Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Avichay Adraee and Hezbollah affiliated media such as Al-Manar Television and Al-Akhbar newspaper had a field day with it, dubbing it as “tweeting with the enemy.” Soon after, Hariri publicized a formal apology that reads: "When I answered today's good morning greetings, I answered one some of you say belongs to an Israeli official's Twitter account. If that's true I would like to clarify that I did not know it when I answered him, since I consider Israel to be an enemy state.” In January 2013, blogger Elie Fares from Separate State of Mind received a supportive email from an Israeli and wrote about his dilemma of answering him back. “I recently received an email from an Israeli […] and the email was touching. People advised me not to reply. So I didn’t. But I really, really wan...

After two years of using Mobi as my primary internet at home [I have to because I can't install a phone line since I move a lot and cable is not reliable] and spending more than $2,000 on subscription costs (around $100 per month for around 10GB of internet with "unlimited" night quota, I have decided to to explain to everyone how horrible this company is. If you are ever going to invest in an internet device (portable iBurst, router or 3G) from Mobi, save yourself the trouble and the initial investment and go with something else. What you will pay to get this service is definitely NOT worth your hassle. Some background information first: Mobi offers wireless internet in iBurst (slow older technology that goes up to 1Mbps) and 3G that is a bit faster. They also sell the equipment that is needed to run the internet (special cards, routers, modems, dongles, 3G cards, signal boosters etc...). I currently subscribe to a new bundle they have, called the twin card which...

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...

Following up to my earlier " What's missing in Hamra " post and after the awaited reveler for the unfortunate teaser campaign (online and offline), it became apparent that this campaign is for a "clubbing" experience by the Democratic Republic of Music having free-entrance clubbing parties every Saturday. After getting reaction from many people online and in my office, everyone agreed that the "What's missing in Hanra" teaser campaign was inadequate for this campaign for many reason, primarily because Hamra is not lacking such "parties" especially that it is slowly becoming a new Gemmayze, Everyone was expecting something more meaningful from such a campaign like a public library, public garden or something that would benefit the general public. But this is not the bad part. After being criticized by many on facebook, they have failed to respond positively to criticism. In a facebook message sent to the attendees of the facebook eve...

Screenshot of OTV's twitter page I just stumbled upon OTV's account on twitter. Not surprisingly, they fail at the first rule of social media: Social Media is an INTERACTION between a company and its customers (fans, followers, etc..), i.e. there should be TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION between the brand and the fans. If you check OTV's twitter account, they have almost 2000 followers but they are following ZERO people. If you look closely at their tweets, they are basically regurgitating news headlines in their tweets, no interaction, no responding to replies, no nothing. This totally beats the purpose of social media. If you think being on twitter will get you more viewers, then you are wrong. THE WHOLE POINT IS FOR YOU TO DIRECTLY INTERACT WITH YOUR FANS . By not following anyone, it not only shows you as an egocentric company who only cares about blasting your opinions to everyone, but you are also not creating any value for yourself or your customers. If you decide t...

I don't know if its a Freudian slip or absent-mindedness, but if you check the AUB homepage, the photo that is supposed to raise awareness against smoking, alcohol and drugs is giving conflicting messages. "Hash is amazing! But don't do it regularly," it says. I'm glad AUB knows that the stress it puts it students through calls for occasional drug use. Hash is amazing! But don't do it regularly Thanks to Timmy for pointing it out!

And they say we don't have laws in Lebanon, in such cases please call 112 instead of 140... :S

At the risk of looking obsessive and repetitive about Outlook, I had to post this hilarious photo that was posted by @ schazzenan . I'm just hoping that the next time I pick up Outlook, it wouldn't have turned to a playboy/playgirl sort of publication! (although that idea isn't really impossible, considering where the newspaper is headed). No offense to Gino ! :D P.S. I'm using the same citing technique as they use in Outlook. #latche Photo from Facebook