Digital Minds was part of the NDU job fair 2015 that took place on May 27-28 at the NDU open court.
The event was organized by Mrs. Layal Nehme Matar, Head of Public Affairs & Communications at NDU in the presence of Labor Minister, Sajaan Azzi, who underscored the importance of such events in shaping the future of students graduating from universities.
The students got the chance to meet Digital Minds' team that offered them the opportunity to join their offices either for internship, part-time job or even a permanent job to explore the real feel of work in the field of Digital Media with a long list of clients who are the pioneers in their field.

Digital Minds is celebrating the 10th anniversary...10 years already!!!

Digital Minds has been operating for 10 consecutive years in Lebanon and in the MENA region.
Founded in 2005, the company first starred in the Lebanese market when the presence of the digital marketing was still shy in the region.
After 10 years of success, we are proud to say that we are now operating in 3 areas; Beirut, Dubai and Erbil and we are serving class A clients who are pioneers in their fields.
Digital minds, with a constant growth, has expanded its services and now it is a design, web, branding and advertising agency, not skipping the latest necessity "Social Media".

Our team in Lebanon, UAE and Iraq is always committed to work and never relieved before delivering the project.

Digital marketing in the Middle East have been growing and expanding, but what about effectiveness? The Arabic consumers have changed. The digital experiences are no longer new in the local markets … they are expected to bring a value.
While there is a massive amount of digital campaigns in the region, the Arabic consumers are eagerly looking for something more specific, personalized and unique. The gap will increase between the consumer and the marketers if the digital experiences doesn’t adapt to these changing expectations.
I have spoken to a large number of brands in the region looking to increase their digital marketing and while there is a definite desire for investing into digital, there is an equal lack of understanding in critical objectives such as how to measure and track the results, or how to personalize content. In most of the cases, they are more convinced with quantities and the short term results. I have been watching digital agencies running everywhere on social networks to just fill the plate with numbers.
So what is next? We all know that the market will certainly have to consider new expectations or to be more accurate “the right expectations”. To put digital marketing in perspective, you have to implement it in your overall strategy. It is not any more something you can just assign it to an agency or team and expect it to work like magic. Yes, digital marketing not anymore a “plug-and-play” tool.
The Evolved Customer
It is clear to everyone now that the evolution of marketing is moving beyond the goal of creating new customers to the concept of creating evolved customer. No wonder that the content-driven experiences are now the natural-selection process that moves the customer along.
To succeed in the Middle East, marketing departments must themselves evolve. They must not only advertise the brand by describing the value that has been created in the product, but also to create differentiated experiential value that is separate from that product.

Personalized Digital Marketing
Personalized digital marketing is no longer a luxury. Some would even say it is the future. I believe that the consumers in the region are more interested in relevancy more than anything else. With those multiple social networks feeds and buzz feeds at every corner, there is a major need for personalization. Arabic content is still suffering from the lack of quality and quantity. Companies and brands are still relying on translating their marketing messages from English into Arabic instead of creating original content. Products are not providing enough content targeting the behavior of the Arabic users.
Personalization is one of the major gaps that digital strategists and content marketers should work on to achieve a better results in each market.
Conversion Optimization
Conversion metrics is not only helpful for setting the right expectations and ROI, but it’s very effective to learn more about your consumer. Understanding the audience is always the key for creating a targeted message and digital experience that appeals to that particular audience. Put in mind that every local market in the Middle East should have a different conversion and metrics. I always brought the conversion as the main topic for every campaign discussed with a client and with that I was able to set the right goals for the campaign.
Finally, digital marketing is not always about the top 10 practices or following the notes from speakers and gurus, it is all about innovation and testing. Middle East markets are not a major challenge if you get closer to your target segmentations and learn how to avoid the gaps.
By Yasser Ahmad

The latest white paper by CTPartners Executive Search Inc., reveals that Cutting-edge companies across the Arab World recognise that digital marketing holds the potential to redefine the playing field in sectors and regions across the globe.

These organisations are taking a variety of steps to position themselves to thrive in this brave new world, first and foremost by adding executives who combine proven consumer, technology, and marketing expertise to the leadership team.

There are a number of reasons why digital marketing has become such a vital element in a company’s toolkit. The pace of consumer online activity keeps gaining momentum, as consumers become comfortable with purchasing an expanding range of goods and services by smart phone or tablet as well as computer.With ecommerce revenues skyrocketing, companies are gaining a greater appreciation of digital marketing as a major revenue stream, ROI channel, and, quite simply, competitive advantage.

Digital media will more than double its share of the Arab world’s advertising market by 2015, according to a recent study by Deloitte. Its Arab Media Outlook said digital is the fastest growing media platform in the region and accounted for 4% of the total advertising spend in 2011.

The Deloitte research is evidently reaffirmed by the recent movements of top notch social media giants into the Arab Region. Companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, all have started operations in the region.Facebook and Linked have opened their first offices in the Middle East. Twitter has also joined Facebook and LinkedIn in boosting its operations in the Middle East and North Africa, having appointed a local representative to handle sales.

Deloitte said it expects digital to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35 percent over the next three years, generating about $580m across the region by 2015.The growth of social media across Mena is one of the highest in the world, paving the way for growth in digital advertising. Capitalising on the digital boom, Forward-thinking Arab companies are now bringing in digital marketing executives, tasked with the mandate of developing an in-depth understanding of their customer demographics and buying preferences.

The ultimate goal is to engage these customers in the most effective and convenient way, thereby achieving a profound competitive advantage in the market. This new breed of executive typically reports directly to the Chief Marketing Officer, while also being closely aligned with each business unit leader. After all, it is essential that digital strategies are in sync with the varying needs of each business.

Digital marketing executives will be expected to drive all product engagements toward customers via online channels. These will include CRM, SEO, SEM, Paid Media, Social Marketing, and Display Advertising. While performing this multi-faceted role, the executive must work collaboratively with the rest of the organization’s marketing team and its communications arm, in order to ensure that all messaging to customers is well integrated and consistent with the company’s branding.

Additionally, this executive will be responsible for managing the data analytics team to ensure that the company has the right technology and data-oriented strategies in place to gain an accurate view of customer behavior, preferences, and buying habits, with processes also in place to extract and utilize data that measure ROI.
The talent profile for such an executive is complex. Successful digital marketing executives are well versed and experienced in areas relating to consumer, technology, and marketing. They will be expert in developing integrated, outbound marketing campaigns that leverage multiple channels and disciplines. Such executives must be capable of handling marketing responsibilities across multiple geographies, with the ability to leverage global capabilities while maintaining regional flexibility.

Fluent in consumer marketing within mobile and social channels, they must bring to the management table an in-depth understanding of the participants, community dynamics, and architecture of different digital media platforms.
Above all, the right digital marketing executive will be able to develop and execute successful multi-channel, integrated marketing plans with consistent, brand-designed positioning and messaging across channels and be able to produce quality content both in English and Arabic. The pool of such executives is limited, so competition for them is fierce. But as with any high impact, high-reward position, digital marketing executives are too valuable to overlook.

by Arabian Gazette

Success on social media is relative, but knowing what metrics to measure is critical for uncovering weaknesses and improving your strategy where others fall short. Here’s a look at three important social media metrics you should be monitoring right now.

Social media is a constantly changing landscape, and as it matures, the way social media success is defined and measured evolves with it. Remember the race for acquiring as many fans as possible? Today, merely having a social presence is not enough, and building communities needs to be just one aspect of a brand’s social strategy.

Now social media managers have data at their fingertips to measure a wide range of performance metrics from engagement and reach to customer care and deep advertising demographics across countries and regions. The challenge lies in focusing on those metrics that truly matter – some of which aren’t the first ones that come to mind, and require a little bit of digging to uncover.

By now social marketers are very familiar with engagement – in Socialbakers Analytics, we use theInteractions per 1,000 Fans metric to track engagement, which enables marketers to compare the engagement on their Pages’ posts against one another, and broadly paint a picture of performance across fan bases. It gives a more accurate depiction of how brands compare to competitors that have a much larger Page size by way of more fans.

Here are three less-familiar metrics that nonetheless provide an interesting perspective into how you’re performing on social.
 

3 Important Social Media Metrics to Measure

Frequency

Engagement has been an important metric for understanding if your audience is interacting with your brand. However, if you’re stuck on only analyzing the numbers of those who have taken an action on your content (like, comment, share, click) then you’re not seeing the complete picture. Reach and frequency are arguably just as important as engagement. When it comes to brand marketing, it’s all about striking that balance of reaching the appropriate number of people at the right amount of frequency.

Repetition is key, and reaching larger audiences and exposing them to your brand messaging is what strengthens brand awareness and grows revenue. Frequency is calculated by dividing Total Reach(the number of times your content appeared in Facebook users’ News Feeds) by Unique Reach(unique Facebook IDs to which your content was displayed, not counting multiple views by the same Facebook user). It shows you the average number of times your post (or ad) was shown to each person. It’s important to monitor your volume of posts because a high frequency can result in negative feedback, which can hurt reach and lead to ineffective spend. Looking at this will put you on the path to finding the ideal amount of posts for publishing based on your content quality. The better the content, the more Facebook will show your ad to a given user, thus giving you more value for your budget and allowing you to publish more in a given period.

Negative Feedback

This metric measures how many people are hiding your content from their News Feed. This clearly affects your reach since it tags your content as uninteresting or spammy, and it will become shown less frequently. No matter if you put money behind your post or not (paid or organic), this number shows whether your content is resonating with your audience. **If this number is quite high, take it as a sign that you are likely targeting the wrong audience. **

Deep Demographics in Paid

This metric segments other top-line metrics such as CTR (Click Through Rate), CPC (Cost Per Click), reach and so on by demographic. This enables you to measure your ad performance by region, so that you can benchmark and identify where your ads were the most effective and ineffective.

The American University of Beirut has inaugurated a new media and digital literacy academy that is tailored to the Arab world and aims to promote, vitalize, and advance digital media literacy education in the region.

A joint initiative between the AUB Media Studies Program and the Regional External Programs, the three-week Media and Digital Literacy Academy of Beirut (MDLAB), is sponsored by the Open Society Foundations, a US-based grant-making operation that promotes democratic governance and social reform and was founded by philanthropist George Soros.

The academy will be held annually and will be mainly open to professors and students from the Arab world.

This inaugural year hosted 50 media professors and students from universities in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria.

Jad Melki and May Farah, both assistant professors at AUB’s Media Studies program, co-chaired the 2013 academy, and Lubna Maaliki, an AUB alumna, served as the academy’s director.

“Digital media literacy has become a staple of education all around the world, except in the Arab region,” said Melki, also the director of the Media Studies Program at AUB. “We hope to bridge this gap, particularly since media literacy is very important to help solve many of the social and cultural problems we face in the region.”

Melki added that media literacy is an international academic movement whose aim is to empower citizens with critical thinking skills so they could understand how media affect their lives and their societies. “It can also help turn citizens into critical consumers and producers of media so they could actively participate in national and global dialogues using digital media. They can then act as responsible global citizens and civic participants in their cultures.”

The three-week annual academy, conducted in Arabic, brings pioneering instructors and professionals to teach advanced digital and media literacy concepts and debate skills to young Arab university instructors and graduate students, who will eventually spread the knowledge to their institutions and countries.

International speakers and trainers included Renee Hobbs from the University of Rhode Island, Ahmad Al Rawi from Erasmus University, Susan Moeller from the University of Maryland, Paul Mihailidis from Emerson College, Moses Shumow from Florida International University, and Stephen Salyer, president of the Salzburg Global Seminar.

MDLAB will also act as an incubator of innovative ideas and a hub for a network of regional universities and media educators. “We hope that faculty members participating in the academy will carry back the knowledge and curricula to their universities, schools, and countries, while students simultaneously benefit from the teaching and training,” noted Melki.

MDLAB was conceived by the Media Studies program after several years of success in teaching media and digital literacy courses, engaging in related study abroad programs, such as the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change, and organizing public lectures and conferences on this issue, including the 2011 conference of the Arab-US Association for Communication Educators at AUB.

MDLAB’s launch coincides with the launch of a new BA in Media and Communication at AUB. The Media Studies Program now offers a BA, an MA, and a Diploma in Media Studies, and will continue to expand its offering and scholarship.

As countries in the Arab region experience political and economic upheavals, a frequent explanation is that these events are the result of differences among generations. This argument claims that protests stem from an unemployed youth clashing with a system dominated by hidebound, older leaders.

This explanation, however, is too simplistic. Experience from around the world shows that generational differences and their impact are more subtle. For example, the UK's younger generation is socially liberal but unsympathetic to the welfare state that the older generations support and need.
Of course, young people in the Middle East are experiencing high unemployment levels, 25% on average, with women in the Gulf even worse affected. In response, some governments have developed specific policies for these groups. The problem is that these measures only go part of the way.
By applying the correct lens, Middle Eastern governments can build on the common ties among generations, and turn their differences into a source of complementary strengths, rather than competing priorities. If Middle Eastern states are to craft more effective economic reforms, and keep their societies intact, they will need a more subtle approach than reallocating benefits from one group to another. Instead, they should accurately grasp the relationships among generations.
Take, for example, technology. We recently carried out some research of three main defined Arab generations: the Arab national generation (ages 49 to 65 years old); the Arab regional generation (ages 36 to 48 years old); and the Arab digital generation (ages 15 to 35 years old). Surveying nearly 3,000 Arabs in 11 countries, we found surprising commonality around digital media and technology.
All three generations have a strong and growing appetite for technology, with minimal statistical differences in access to devices and connectivity.
The one key divide, however, exists in their relationship to content and in the specific use of technology. While the oldest generation is much more inclined to in-person, face-to-face dialogues with the public sector, the youngest generation is more reliant on digital platforms and social media. This has major implications on the pace and depth of integration of digital platforms and social media within public service broadcasting but also the pace of development of electronic, mobile and smart government initiatives.
New technologies provide governments with the means to directly engage with their constituents, becoming more accessible and transparent. Many governments have not yet capitalised on technologies like social media that allow for two-way communication channels; they continue to focus on one-way means to issue official announcements.
To take full advantage of digital technology, Middle Eastern governments should also increase the range of government services offered electronically. A means to let citizens express their views on infrastructure projects – voting on whether to fund a new bridge or airport, for example – would increase transparency and give people a sense that they have a say in how their country is run.
Our research also found some differences in attitudes to the workplace. For example, while the eldest generation values punctuality and willingness to teach, the younger generation is inspired by a higher level of flexibility and innovation. Given that many Middle Eastern states are seeking to diversify their economies away from natural resources and to promote knowledge-based industries, this particular difference is vital. The technology companies that will drive future growth need the qualities exhibited by the younger, Arab digital generation, such as innovative thinking, risk-taking and flexible working arrangements.
The Middle East is characterised by highly adaptive generations with active two-way exchanges of ideas and behaviour that means populations are moving at a faster pace than governments. As governments seek to develop their economies, better meet their citizens' needs, and build more stable societies, they must understand the differences among generations – and the technological ties that unite them.

Digital Minds is working on a new project called City Brands. New online shopping experince for the middle east and will take birth in Dubai soon. 
After months of research around the world, we found that Code and Theory base in New York was the perfect partner for consultation. We are now working on the development phase for this project in Beirut.

Code and Theory is an independently-owned and creatively-led agency that creates products, content and campaigns across physical and digital worlds. The agency has helped brands tell stories and design the systems that carry them since 2001. From redefining the publishing industry with clients like Los Angeles Times, Vogue and Mashable, to creating award-winning marketing programs for brands like Dr Pepper, Maybelline New York and BURGER KING®, to designing physical products for companies like Brown-Forman and Outernet, Code and Theory is a creative agency for the entire ecosystem. Additional information available at www.codeandtheory.com.
Specialties
interactive products, campaigns, advertising, branded experiences, design, branding, user experience, interface design, graphic design, strategy, engineering, product UI, website design and development, motion graphics, 

Digital Minds asked Fueled to create an innovative mobile experience for City Brands that enables customers to digitally interact with products, buy online and discover exclusive mobile content as they explore the store and pass through Bluetooth-powered geofenced zones within the store.
As one of the Leading Digital Agency in New York, Digital Minds had the opportunity to meet up in their offices in New York to discuss City Brands Project as an App not only as responsive website. 
Fueled was a very welcoming team. We made several meetings that helped us in many decisions taking concerning our project City Brands. 
Also we had the opportunity to discuss the latest applications available on the market in USA (New York and Los Angeles).

1. Smart and Responsive Design
The key to designing an SEO-friendly website is that it should be attractive yet responsive. If your website looks good and harmonizes well with numerous devices, it is an absolute winner. With the advent of Google’s mobile-friendly algorithm and the rate of  smartphone usage going up, it really is useless to design a website that doesn’t respond.

2. Speed Matters
Modern day searching is all about fast pace. If your website doesn’t load quickly, you are not only going to lose customers, you are also going to lose valuable traffic. Slow speed definitely affects your viewership, which in return harms the rankings. So, make sure your web page loads rapidly or be ready to say goodbye to your customers.

3. Give Clear Instructions to Customers
When users visit your website, it is imperative to give them clear instructions so that it is easy for them to find what they are looking for without any hassle. Make sure that your subscription offer, shopping cart, or any other service is obvious to them. It may not affect your visibility, but it impacts your sales value.

4. Code Cleaning
The code is something due to which a lot of amazing things happen on a website. However, there are two tips that every good designer should keep in mind.
1. Don’t stuff your web page. If there is too much matter on a site, it becomes impossible to comprehend what is going.
2. It is the sign of a good developer that he/she can minimize the code and still work wonders with a web page.
It becomes too complicated for the search engines if there is too much code on a web page. On the surface, everything may appear to be in a proper order, but your bloated code may cause the search engine crawlers to detect some things going haywire. Due to this, crawlers may face difficulty in recognizing your page easily.

5. Limited Use of Flash
Limit your use of flash. Most of the devices and search engines do not respond to flash in a friendly manner.  It would be advisable to avoid it completely if possible in the design of an SEO friendly website. However, if you are using flash then there is no need to use flash for the complete website. Secondly, no need to employ flash for navigation. The last tip is that do not apply flash to your text.

6. Make Navigation Easy For Everyone
Easy navigation on your website for both the users and the search engines is essential. Your menus need to be helpful and functional. You must link your pages together properly. If your users can’t figure out your navigation method, they will close your page and move on to another website.

7. In harmony with Various Resolutions
Another factor that plays a key role is that your website should have the flexibility to be scaled down. Your website should harmonize extremely well with multiple resolutions and screen sizes. It’s not just cell phones that have numerous screen sizes and resolutions (iPad, smart phone, etc.) Desktop screens also boast of a variety of screen sizes and resolutions

The Google Analytics Query Explorer is a fantastic way to retrieve raw web analytics data for your website. You can export data from the tool as a TSV (which you can format into a CSV) or using an API query. Exporting Google Analytics data via the API is beneficial because you can rerun the query any time you want to refresh the data. In this in-depth post, I am going to teach you how to use the Google Analytics Query Explorer to export data.

What is the Google Analytics Query Explorer?
The Google Analytics Query Explorer is an interface that lets you construct API queries which you can use to retrieve data from your Google Analytics account. You can build queries that collect data from a specific account, property, and view. The query tool lets you specify data based on pre-defined metrics and dimensions. More advanced users can even apply custom filters and segments to craft powerful queries.

Why use the Google Analytics Query Explorer?
The Query Explorer allows non-technical users to craft a URL endpoint that can be used to export data from Google Analytics. As you construct your query using the menus in the Explorer interface, it will automatically build your URL endpoint with the proper syntax, parameters, and URL encoding. You can even apply advanced operations (like Filters, see below) to export rich data sets from Google Analytics.

Why export Google Analytics data in the first place?
You might be wondering, why go through all the bother of exporting data from Google Analytics using the Query Explorer in the first place? The answer is that the Query Explorer provides unfettered access to the raw data in a way that isn’t available in the Google Analytics reporting interface. I personally like this method because I can export the data to create custom dashboards and reports.
Our customers use the Query Explorer to build rich web analytics dashboards for themselves and their clients. The benefit of this method is the ability to automate data refreshes. After configuring the dashboard, you can essentially set it and forget it.
You can also do some interesting things with the raw data that you can’t with the Google Analytics interface. For instance, we built the Google Analytics Daily Overview dashboard. What makes this dashboard unique is the expected values, which helps folks gauge whether their website is performing within norms. Here’s what it looks like:

Every SEO Company In Lebanon,Digital Marketing Agency, webmaster, web development company
and digital marketer has a powerful tool at their disposal.
We would go so far as to say that this tool is a must-have. You can’t do SEO without it.

What is this powerful tool?

It’s Google Search Console, or GSC for short (former Google Webmaster Tools, or GWT).
GSC is a free service provided by Google to manage your website’s search functionality. 
The search console is a collection of reports and tools that help you rectify errors as well as 
strategize and optimize your search engine rankings.
We want to show you exactly how you can use this powerful tool to improve your SEO.
Putting it bluntly, GSC is to SEO what oxygen is to humans. You need it. Your site can’t live without it.
And it’s going to make a huge difference in your SEO special in the Mena Region in general and in Lebanon Web design industry in particular!