Dubai Small Business SEO & Search Marketing Tips – SaktoSEO

Interview Fridays – Akanksha Goel of Socialize.Ae

It’s been a while since I’ve had someone on Interview Fridays. Ever since I’ve re-branded my site (previously on Click-Dubai.Com), it’s been hectic making things right this time and keeping up with good content to deliver to the readers.

I have a special treat for you social media aficionados in today’s Interview Friday. I consider her the darling of Dubai’s social media industry, especially on Twitter (and she looks prettier in person).

She’s the founder of Socialize, UAE’s first dedicated social media agency, headquatered in Dubai. She’s also an actives peaker for marketing trainings across Asia and the Middle East. Without further ado, please help me welcome Ms. Akanksha Goel.

Thank you for this opportunity Akanksha. For the benefit of SaktoSEO readers, can you please tell us more about yourself and your work?

Thanks Dave. The short of it is that I was invited to Dubai almost 2 years ago as the Marketing Director for the Sherazade group, which specializes in loyalty marketing solutions. Before that, I’d worked on special projects with the TATA group in India, marketing with the TAJ group of hotels and finally getting involved with the Singapore media circuit as the Editor of STUFF Magazine. Social media is a subject close to my heart and I’ve had many adventures with it, like co-organizing Asia’s first podcamp a few years ago and researching the subject with Professor Michael Netzley, in Singapore. Plausibly, after coming to Dubai, I couldn’t stay away from the subject so I started doing trainings with Murdoch University after which many more followed getting me in-sync with social media marketing in the Middle East.

What is Socialize? What do you specialize in?

The idea for Socialize was born when a team of social media enthusiasts came together as a result of the above-mentioned trainings and we saw the need to have an entity in UAE dedicated to educating the business community on social media marketing, helping them see through the clutter and successfully leverage it as a part of the marketing puzzle.

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Interview Fridays – Yousef Tuqan Tuqan, CEO of FlipMedia

I’m very excited in this 2nd part of this episode on Interview Fridays. I have great respects for this next individual.

He’s the chief of one of the leading digital agencies in the Middle East. He has been a strong figure in the online industry in the region. It was a privilege to have interviewed Mr. Yousef Tuqan of FlipMedia.

It’s an honor to have one of the most important names in region’s online media industry. Please tell us about your success story and your journey with Flip Media?

Thanks for the compliment. Flip’s had a trajectory of success over the past six years – particularly early on – enabling us to become the most successful digital agency in the Middle East. From a team of two, it’s now very well established, with an enviable portfolio of clients and a team comprising over 150 people in 8 countries, throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

I’m pleased to have been a part of this process, having joined Flip as an Account Director back in September 2005, progressing to CEO in July last year. Perhaps what I’ve enjoyed the most is guiding the overall business strategy, in terms of the work we do, the clients we take on and our resulting market position.

I credit the success I’ve enjoyed to a couple of factors: I’m naturally passionate about digital (OK, OK I’m a natural born geek; there, I’ve said it), with communications and marketing as founding skills. My dad worked for IBM, so maybe it’s genetic but I’ll never forget the time when he said he could show me how to build a website in 20 minutes, back in 1996. So we opened up Netscape Composer and the rest is history, really.

How does it feel to be the Chief of the region’s leading interactive agency? What are the challenges?

It’s a tremendous honor for me. Even before I joined Flip, I had always admired what the agency stood for, and the energy Flip brought to the industry. To be entrusted with its continued growth and success is an enormous responsibility, and one that I don’t take lightly.

Luckily for me, Flip has attracted the best people in the industry, and my job is a lot easier when surrounded by people who are truly dedicated to digital marketing, and to Flip’s vision.

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Interview Fridays – Jitendra Jain of TalentJungle.Com & HoteleMarketer.Com

It’s been a while since I’ve fulfilled the responsibility of a religious blogger. Apologies for the delay folks.

As a way to make it up to you guys, today’s Interview Friday episode is a double special featuring two top-flight personalities in the industry.

First stop, this is a guy I’ve looked up to in online marketing. He’s probably one of the most humble experts I know. Boys & Girls please help me welcome Mr. Jitendra Jain of HoteleMarketer & TalentJungle.

J, you’re probably one of the very rare people I know who became really successful in focusing on a niche for an online marketing career. How did you end up being the guru for the digital hospitality industry?

Thanks Dave – firstly, I think in the world of new media marketing and innovation there are no “Gurus” We’re all disciples – any other claims would be arrogance. There’s just so much happening in terms of development and changing trends that most of us barely scrape the surface of this goldmine of information, interaction and marketing potential. For me, building a career in digital marketing was more chance than anything else…I’ve always been passionate about technology and the internet, so when I had the opportunity to combine my passion with my academic background in Tourism & Hospitality, I jumped at it!

You’ve had impressive degrees on hotel & restaurant management including an MBA from London Business School. How did these help in establishing your current profession?

I’ve always loved learning – at the end of the day, degrees and paper achievements are just that. Its what you bring to the game and what you can do for your clients and employers that makes a real difference. Each degree, more than the academic content (which was great), offered the opportunity to form new connections and experience different cultures and perspectives – these are things that you won’t find in any book and are crucial to how you go about doing business.

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Interview Fridays – Mais AbuSalah, eMarketing Manager of Maktoob.Com

It’s always great to know people within your industry. It’s even more interesting to share experiences with work with people who understand what you’re going through. Last week I’ve met an eMarketing Manager from Maktoob, one of the largest internet portal and Arab online community in the Mimddle East.

Ladies and gentleman, please help me welcome Ms. Mais AbuSalah.

Thank you very much for giving me the privilege for this interview. Please tell us about yourself and your current profession?

My name is Mais AbuSalah; I graduated from the University of Jordan – Computer Science as a major. I am currently the eMarketing Manager in Maktoob.com – Jordan.

How’s the online media industry of Jordan in the last 3 years, particularly that of SEO/SEM?

I believe that the online media (especially SEO/SEM) is still not on the basic checklist for many websites, not only in Jordan, but also in the Arab World.

From time to time, I check local websites (radio stations, newspapers… etc.) and most of them lack the basics of online marketing (especially SEO).

And if we want to talk about websites and forums owned by individuals, we will find that unfortunately most of them use black hat SEO. They also focus more on what brings traffic (series, songs, rumors… etc.) more than what brings value to users and online browsers.

Some people in the industry started as web developers, some as designers, while others like me started as content developers, what was your main background that helped succeed in being an SEO?

I started with Maktoob.com as a junior product/channel officer, then a project coordinator (still handling channels and projects including content deals and content management), then I started with SEO. So I guess being a coordinator among different teams helps understanding what should be done by whom and whether or not it’s doable, and how the flow of work should be especially with large organizations.

You’re a graduate of Search Engine College, a highly regarded institution for SEO/SEM certification. What’s your stand on industry certification? Would you recommend it be mandatory or is the industry not ready for that yet?

I believe SEO/SEM should start to be mandatory and by trusted institutes. You might find many people aware of bits and pieces of SEO, but many of them use black hat ways (especially in the Arab region). Online marketing in general is a rare specialty here. It’s very hard for example to find online marketers in Jordan with hands-on experience. It’s either that they have more than 7 years and very fresh and never had hands-on experience in online marketing.
The certification or training shouldn’t only be theoretical, but should also include actual implementation (and that was the case with Search Engine College).

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Interview Fridays – Kevin Gibbons of SEOptimise

I’m proud to announce that today is the official launch of Click-Dubai’s Interview Fridays and we have a very very special guest to kick things off with the program. So let’s forget about Jacko’s conspiracy or Sotomayor’s drama and let’s give our attention to one of the well respective names in the search marketing industry. Ladies and gents, let’s give it up for Mr. Kevin Gibbons of SEOptimise.

For those who are new to the SEO scene, would you be kind enough to introduce SEOptimise and a little background about you and your company?

Hey Dave, thanks for asking me to do this interview.

Well firstly, I’ve been involved in the search marketing industry (SEO in particular) since 2002. During this time I was working for a web design agency whilst still on a placement year from University and I began getting more and more involved in the SEO side of projects.

I then went back to Uni with my free .ac.uk webspace and quickly realised it wasn’t too difficult to dominate for competitive terms in Google! I actually had an assignment to create a website for a made-up driving school and within a few days the site was number one in Google for “Oxford driving school” and I was receiving several daily enquiries to take people out on driving lessons! I even managed to make some cash out of it by putting some AdSense ads up, shame they took the webspace away ?

Anyway, I graduated from Uni, built up a few of my own website’s (which I would thoroughly recommend as a fast-track to learning SEO) and shortly after decided to spend a year in Australia. Rather than getting a job out there, I found that my interest and ability in SEO allowed me to win a few clients and work as a freelance SEO consultant. I decided it would look more professional to set myself up as a company, which is how the early days of SEOptimise were formed.

You’ve been into search engine marketing since 2002, how did the industry evolve over these years? What were the notable changes in history?

In terms of search marketing 2002 seems so far away now it’s unreal. We’re obviously used to seeing the daily algorithm changes or clever new tactics on blogs and Sphinn almost on a daily basis.

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Interview Fridays – Coming Soon…

I think I just committed one of the mortal sins in blogging – being on a “dry spell” for quite a long time. Apologies folks! Client projects have been crazy lately and getting a single post up was just impossible. But don’t worry, I’ve come up with a couple of interesting ideas to keep you updated of the search marketing industry.

Yup you read it right, I’ll be starting on Interview Fridays. I’ve started inviting SEO/SEM professionals, online marketing gurus, branding experts, and top CEO’s of search marketing companies to give us a piece of their thoughts, experiences, and most importantly success stories.

Although I have asked a couple of people already for the upcoming Interview Fridays, I will be needing more to keep program alive in the next couple of months. So if you would like to recommend someone or would like yourself to be featured, please don’t hesitate to drop me a message on the contact page or send me an email at dave [at] saktoseo [dot] com.

What sort of professionals are we looking for? Well here’s a list of industries that would be relevant to the program: read more