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.

read more

Go Gaga Genius on Social Media Branding

I’m not really a fan of pop stars. I’m more of an alternative-jazz-punk-fusion kind of guy, more like Incubus, Rage Against The Machine or Red Hot Chilli Peppers. But I couldn’t ignore the aura and the charisma of Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta or popularly known as Lady Gaga!

Gaga’s talent, unique sense of style, and exceptional music has made her one of the hottest female artist of the decade. But what has this pop sensation have to do with social media?

Let me break it down to you with just a couple of her social media statistics (as of May 16, 2010):

1. Facebook Fan Page – 7,132,043 Fans
2. Official YouTube Channel – 122,233,383 Total Upload views (which also made her the first franchise to reach one billion views)
3. Verified Twitter Account – 4,023,719 Followers
4. Lady Gaga Alejandro Myspace Page – 1,298,665 Friends
5. According to Adage.Com,
   

   Since fall 2008, her digital-single sales have exceeded 20 million and her album sales hit 8 million…

*Photo Courtesy of SpreePix-Berlin

Fine, I know she’s a celebrity and is expected to have those digits on her social media space. But name me a celebrity who has achieved this kind of feat to this date? I didn’t think so.

The point is she was (and still is) smart enough to use social media in distributing her music across the globe, extending her brand name, and reaching out to her fans (which are ultimately her customers). So what are the take aways from these amazing achievements?

Well Just Dance a bit and let me break it down to you how an ordinary Poker Face can rock the social media Paparazzi:
read more

Everything Boils Down to Online

While purchasing Gatorade, at our nearest supermarket, to sober up on a Friday morning, I saw this headline on the newspaper stand: “UAE laws translated into English, online soon“

I knew TheNational has its wonderful website and so I found the article online.

That’s great! Isn’t it. The government is setting a firm foundation on transparency and what better way than to do it online. Even better, Mr. Abdulla al Majid, Adviser of Abu Dhabi’s Ministry of Justice has stated:

“The best feature about this is the search engine which allows you to find even one word amid a sea of legal documents. That changes the face of research for academics, lawyers, judges, businesses and the public. You can imagine the kind of impact this will have on the overall justice system.“

So the government not only knows the importance of online presence but also has embraced the power of search in information. Two thumbs up I have to say. read more

The Importance of Online Marketing (Particularly SEO, SEM, and Social Media) in the Middle East

Before I came into this metropolitan bedazzling city of Dubai, I wanted to have an outlook of the online media in the Middle East particularly of search industry. Yes, there were notable companies and individuals who have demonstrated great skills & knowledge in SEO and SEM. I knew for a fact that the Middle East had a talent pool of experts, the technology with all its resources, and a growing market.

But I somehow felt there was not much awareness of SEO, SEM, or even Social Media in the region, or was I expecting too much? But Husam Jandal seems to have sustained my observation. Husam is an internet business consultant with WSI Internet Consulting.

In an article in TheNational.Ae – Searching for an online solution, Husam Jandal said:

“In general they [Middle East] are very ignorant about the fact that their potential clients and existing clients are using the internet, while they are not [doing so themselves].

I think we’re still behind when it comes to the business community recognising the importance of being in front of their potential clients.

With more than 90 per cent of all traffic generated on the internet coming from search engines, it is important for the local business community to identify various ways of utilising these internet tools to achieve the desired visibility for their businesses”

I couldn’t agree with him more. Well there are a lot of reasons to consider though in the Middle East market. I won’t dwell on them for now. But let me help in pointing you to the right direction as to why online media, particularly SEO, SEM and even Social Media will be a vital tool for Middle East businesses:

read more