Blogging
Giving people what they want
One of our first learnings on entering the new world of social media was that you have to be given permission to sell to people and that that permission can be earned by giving them what they want. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? The trick is figuring out what your audience wants (and not simply dressing […]
Create more compelling content
Five questions to ask your content before you let it go into the wild The Internet these days is getting pretty busy. There are millions of us out there churning out words and adding them to the growing pile for dumpster diver Google to sift through and select whenever someone has a question. How can […]
Are you being genuine?
One of the great challenges for companies investing in digital communications is content. As we’ve said before on Spot On’s blog, we are all publishers now. However, if your company is not currently structured to create great online content there are good reasons to take care. Whilst there is room for both editorial and advertising […]
Why retiring Google Reader is anti-social
The web is now full of reactions to this week’s announcement that Google will retire its RSS feed reader on 1 July 2013. Perhaps, as pointed out by Tech Crunch’s Matt Burns, the retirement of Google Reader will pave the way for more innovative feed management apps from competitors that have hitherto been too intimidated […]
Are brands at risk from the UAE’s new cyber-crime law?
Taking many media watchers by surprise, the United Arab Emirates President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has approved a new cyber-crime law for the UAE, Federal Legal Decree No. 5, this week. The online law was duly announced by the Emirates official news agency WAM yesterday evening (you can find the contents […]
It’s Social Media Forum time again!
The Social Media Forum is to take place in Dubai next week and it’s already sold out. This is interesting news for those in the Middle East who thought we really didn’t want to listen to another word about social media and don’t ‘need another talking shop’. I must admit, we’ve been avoiding the term […]
Communication first, technology second
As usual, Phil Lynagh’s column in the latest issue of Campaign Middle East magazine is bang on the money and this month he’s touched on a particular bug-bear of mine in ‘This social media bubble needs to pop‘. Having been more than a little prone to geekiness in my time, I am reminded of my […]
The Freedom Meme
A new report from the University of Washington’s Project on Information Technology and Political Islam comes to the conclusion that social media played a central role in the events we have all come to call ‘The Arab Spring’. Ever since the events of early 2011 started to unfold around the region, there has been debate […]
Middle East bloggers on air!
Tune in to Alexander McNabb on Dubai Eye 103.8FM on Tuesday January 25th at 10am to listen to the Dubai Today show and hear about Middle East blogging from seven bloggers in the region.
Mrs. Google and her five lovely daughters
Have you ever Googled yourself? Feel free to go ahead and try it. There’s no shame. Everyone does it, they just don’t tend to boast about it in public much. Are you the first search result? If not, someone else owns you. Now if you’re called Amy Winehouse or Barack Obama, the chances of you […]
