Mind Soup

Inspiring People from the Lebanese Online Community A version of this article appeared in the April issue of Cloud 961 Magazine . You can download it here . In an attempt to promote inspiring stories about people from the Lebanese Online Community, we, at Cloud961, have decided to dedicate a monthly column to interview an inspiring figure that has left a mark in the Lebanese online sphere. For your suggestions for this column, feel free to email me on mhijazi@cloud961.com . If you ask anyone in Lebanon about blogging, Gino’s blog is bound to get mentioned eventually. This 4-year-old blog, which is run by Gino Raidy has been read over a million times and won the Best Personal Blog Award at Beirut’s Social Media Awards 2013. It is both the most praised and most criticized blog in Lebanon. In this interview, I will be addressing some of the rumors about this blog as well as some insights from Gino’s experience. Gino is a 23 year old blogger who currently works as a ...

Photo by @AUB_Lebanon on Instagram Have you wondered why very few people find jobs at the AUB job fair? AUB charges each company a minimum of $2,000 to be present at the job fair. Obviously, big companies and agencies can afford this and that is why most of them are there. But most of these companies and agencies are not there to hire, very few of them even have fresh graduate positions. These companies are there for three reasons: prestige and brand awareness, a change of scenery for their HR staff and to get the student's emails and phone numbers for spamming purposes. Many start-ups and small companies that are actually recruiting may not be able to afford (or do not have the budget) to participate in the job fair. Thus, AUB students will not be exposed to these new or small companies and struggle more before or after graduation to find jobs in Lebanon. In comparison to other universities in Hamra, LAU charges $300 per campus and Haigazian promotes the companies for ...

A version of this article was originally published as my editorial for Cloud961 Magazine 's April issue . It seems that everyone is sticking their noses in the bloggers’ business these days, with no regards to their feelings—as if they are not living breathing human beings, but rather products that they can exploit or manipulate as they see fit. (If you cannot pick up on OR do not master the art of sarcasm, I suggest that you do not go through reading). First, there are the agencies who proudly announce to their clients that they are so close to the blogging community in Lebanon that they practically “own” them. They brainwash their clients into believing that they can push any content they want publicized to these bloggers and those  would gladly oblige because they “crave content” and they would “do anything to please the agency” or get the opportunity to test the latest smartphone model or car. Second, there are those washed-up-advertisers-turned-bloggers who tr...

How to piss off the online community in 10 simple steps The online community is an important part of a brand’s public relations strategy. It can make a huge difference for your brand resulting in more profit or loss, and in some cases even bankruptcy. That is why it’s crucial to handle these relationships very delicately. In general, this community is mostly made up of 16-30 year-olds who are extremely tech savvy and connected round the clock. As a brand, you should be extra careful about navigating this demographic, and here are the 10 things you need to avoid. 1. Discrimination We all know that discrimination is something that we want to avoid, but when it comes to social media, it is even worse because it’s public and you will get a lot of heat. This includes the different forms of discrimination including ageism, disability or so forth. 2. False News Fact-checking and research are the key words here. On the internet, news travels fast, even if it is untrue. Eventually,...

Inspiring People from the Lebanese Online Community David Munir Nabti works to support high impact innovation & entrepreneurship, and youth/alternative media. He is Co-founder and CEO (Chief Entrepreneur & Organizer) of AltCity.me, a new media/tech/social impact collaboration space and startup accelerator/support space in Beirut. AltCity includes a newsroom/media café, business support services, co-working spaces, offices, meeting rooms, and more, and is designed to be the ideal place for startups and freelancers to work. He is also co-founder of DevIneMedia/Hibr, a youth-powered alternative media outlet in Lebanon. He grew up between California and Beirut, studied at UC Berkeley (political economy), worked at the UN-FAO in Syria, Stanford University (Communication Dept., Journalism Program), UC Berkeley (Education Dept, Service-Learning Research & Development Center), and Google, as a freelance journalist, and interned at Cisco Systems HQ and KQED (SF public media...

Celebrities Should Not Trust their Social Media Accounts with Agencies or Employees. Paula Yacoubian is an established Lebanese journalist who currently hosts a prime-time political and social talk show on Future Television, Inter-Views. She previously hosted another show on Al Hurra TV and was part of the morning talk show Nharkom Said on LBC. Additionally, Paula is a media trainer and a political strategist. She has interviewed high-profile figures throughout her career, including George W. Bush when he was in office back in 2005. I sat down with Paula to discuss her social media presence. Personally, I believe that she is doing a great job on her social media accounts and is among the best Lebanese journalists online. Very few use social media effectively, consistently and continuously. You can follow Paula on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on PaulaYacoubian . What motivated you to start using social media as a media professional? I think that I started ver...

Thanks Wael for the photo! Last week, I spoke at the Lebanon Opportunities' "Economic Sustainability During Crisis" Conference on February 19-20, 2014 at Phoenicia Hotel. I was on a panel with Darine Sabbagh  – Marketing Collaborator of Online Collaborative, Luciana Younis – Social Media Strategist at Medco, Marie José Abed – Regional Communication Manager at HST (GS) and Ziad Kamel – Owner, Couqley and moderated by Maya Karanouh – Founder of TagBrands. The topic of the panel was:  Online Community Management. Description:  What do community managers do and why should you care and invest in this emerging and fast growing profession. What should you know about if you are in charge of a brand? How has this new job description started and what issues does it face. What are the pros and cons of having an agency or in-house community manager? How does the community manager engage the consumer? What tools and third party services do they use? Does ...

During their second anniversary ceremony, Lebanese Memes honored some Lebanese people who they believe are contributing positively towards a change in Lebanon. The honor list also included: Late Actress Amalia Abi Saleh, Comedian Nemr Abou Nassar, Movie Director Sam Andraos, Crepaway's Mario Thoumy, Virgin Radio's Naji Cherabieh, Women in Front's Joelle Rezkallah and For Lebanon's Najy Sfeir. I would like to thank Lebanese Memes for this great honor and to everyone who has supported me and my work for Online Collaborative , The Social Media Awards and Cloud 961 .

We have, beyond a doubt, dawned on a new era: the era of online stalking. Whenever anyone wants to know more about you, you can bet your life they turn to Google. For people searches, Linkedin profiles tend to show up higher in search engines results when compared to other websites. This is why you should be taking this opportunity to create and maintain a professional presence on Linkedin to leave a great impression on anyone (especially potential employers) who might be lurking around your profile. THE EMAIL ADDRESS The first step to a professional Linkedin presence is a professional e-mail address. It is advisable not to use your work e-mail because you might not have access to it indefinitely and it might be monitored by your employer- not a great idea if you’re looking for another job. DO Create a professional email address using your first name and last name or first initial and last name. DON’T Email addresses like sexybeast69@aol.com or puppy_loveXOXO@msn...