This was a crux of debate hosted by the Capital Club Bahrain, where two experts presented the motion The Benefits of Social Media is Worth the Consequences.

In the hot seats were Ali Sabkar, Founder and President of the Social Media Club MENA, and Steve Royston, Managing Director, Anfield Information WLL and blogger. The Debate was moderated by the Club’s own Andrea Antal-Al Borno, Club Relations Director.

Supporting the motion that social media is worth the consequences Ali Sabkar, advocated the notion with the key points that social media expedites the spread of information faster than any other medium, empowers businesses, facilitates interaction among family, friends and associates; and allows people to collectively accomplish a goal through ‘crowd sourcing.’

Against the motion, stating that the consequences of social media far outweigh the benefits, Steve Royston argued that social media deludes genuine relationships, hinders productivity and attention spans; and is not properly monitored nor has there been enough education to protect the actions of the impressionable.

An audience vote was taken at the beginning and end of the Debate, with a final tally of 85% supporting the motion that the benefits of social media are worth the consequences, compared to the initial vote of 65% before the arguments began. The Debate’s overwhelming message was that social media is an integral part of professional and social networking; however, it must be used sensibly. Individuals and parents of younger networkers must practice and impart terms of use, such as managing privacy settings, keep personal information personal, and generally take precautions to ensure responsible use.

Capital Club’s Debate series focuses on topics that affect the community at large.

Participants will be learning & practicing the TOOLS of famous Social Media Networks and develop their own Social Media Channels on Spot!

The Camp is open to everyone interested in learning about Social Media, whether for personal reasons or professional ones. Anyone works in office, runs small business and do marketing or public relations for your company will get great value from this Camp.

The Biggest Learning in Town will be conducted under the slogan of “UNITED WE SHARE” presented by the leaders & experts of Social Media in Bahrain.

Social Media Camp (Level 1) Schedule

08:30 – 09:00 – Registration
09:00 – 09:30 – Introduction to Social Media
09:30 – 10:15 – Facebook Fundamentals
10:15 – 10:45 – Twitter Fundamentals
10:45 – 11:00 – Social Break
11:00 – 11:15 – Instagram Fundamentals
11:15 – 12:00 – LinkedIn Fundamentals
12:00 – 12:30 – Google+ Fundamentals
12:30 – 13:15 – Social Lunch
13:15 – 13:30 – Foursquare Fundamentals
13:30 – 13:45 – Pinterest Fundamentals
13:45 – 14:00 – Social Media Networks Security
14:00 – 15:30 – Group Practicing – Q&A.

For registeration, please contact: events@SMCBahrain.org (Limited Seats available)

You can find interesting news, views and photo features, which I will post on a daily basis. You also have the option of having ‘inboxed’ updates if you ‘follow’ me.

Looking forward to your comments and suggestions on topics of your interest.

There is a real war in the cyber world; this war is between countries, business organizations, and even between good and bad guys.

Although web sites and social networks update their security features regularly, they are still can’t face the tremendous kinds of attacks. Every day we hear about hundreds of new attacks and hacking accidents. So we can ask ourselves, why this is happening?

From my point of view, the main reasons for successful attacks on web sites and social networks are:

• The Internet is evolving in a fast manner but it doesn’t offer much security measures. If we compare the importance of the Internet with its security features we can say only one word, “weak!”
• Starting a security attack using the Internet is so easy and fairly cheap, the attacker only needs a computer and an Internet connection to start an attack, and he/she could get a lot of advantages with a successful attack.
• Popular operating systems for clients and servers still offer little or no security at all against viruses or other malicious software.
• Web sites and social networks have been made by humans and they can have security flaws and errors that could compromise their security measures.
• Although web sites and social networks keep adding more features to their security controls and refining existing ones, but at the same time they are also continue to innovate on their platforms and add exciting new features. These new options need to keep up with the security features or they will too suffer from security weaknesses and this actually what is happening.
• Weak administration practices for web sites and social networks can help attackers to hack users’ accounts or help them stage bigger attacks.
• Some web sites and social networks don’t have enough privacy controls in place, or the ones they have do not protect all user data.
• Business organizations should use strong security policies. These policies should be clear for the employees and the customers as well because these policies essentially useless if all of the involved parties do not know and understand them.
• Eavesdropping and acting under false identity in the Internet is very simple and stealing data is undetectable in most cases.
• User awareness for security risks is threateningly low. The user also don’t use the available security controls because they appear too complex or time-consuming (laziness or lack of knowledge).
• The user doesn’t choose appropriate passwords nor use passwords rules and policies such as changing passwords regularly, making passwords as meaningless as possible, or using biometric passwords.

What is your point of view?

Please feel free to watch my seminar and provide your feedback

ILC 2013 Topics:
• Effects of Organizational Culture on Business Performance
• Impact of Leadership Styles and Organizational Culture on financial results
• How to Assess and Measure Organizational Culture?
• What are the ways that leaders take to reinforce organizational culture?
• How is Organizational Culture communicated?
• What actions managers can take to change organizational culture?
• What can organizations do to strengthen their culture, especially for their new employees?
• How to build a strong organizational culture?
• What are the core competencies that outline Organizational Culture?
• What lessons can organizational culture take from nature?
• Towards effective organizational cultures: People, process and progress

ILC 2013 Conference Fees:
• BMS Members : BD 95 = US$ 252
• Non BMS Members : BD 145 = US$ 385
• Register 10 or more delegates and SAVE 20%
• This Conference is supported under Tamkeen’s Conference Attendance Scheme

ILC 2013 Registration Contact:
Mr. Suliaman Ebrahim
Bahrain Management Society,
P.O. Box 3268 Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain,
Tel: +973 17827676, Fax: +973 17827678, Mob: +973 39479791
eMail : admin@bms.org.bh – www.ilc-bh.org

For Social Media Club Members, Please contact events@SMCBahrain.org for your Exclusive Special rates. Join our Event NOW

The Arabian Social Media Forum is an inspirational two-day, tactic-rich event that covers all key issues for getting the most out of social media networks. The goal is to identify and improve social media and communication strategies, accelerate information flow and drive business performance in enterprise and government.

The Arabian Social Media Forum is a highly strategic and technical conference that aims to bring together leading social media experts to discuss the newest technologies, practices and developments in the field. If you are responsible for your organization’s branding, marketing, strategy development, monitoring, customer relations, community engagement, public relations, media sales, business development, or legal, this event is designed with you in mind.

There are also workshops accompanied along with the conference:

Workshop A: “ Social Media: Creation to Management “ and the Instructor will be Mr. Ali Al- Moosawi, a Web Consultant from March1 Corporation. During 6th – 7th May 2013 ( two days ), he will discuss about the introduction to social media, explaining the four major social networks: Twitter, facebook, Youtube and Instagram. How to create an account, every network glossary, how to do a proper setup, how to manage each network. Content creation, Risk and Reputation Management. The importance of a blog to social media and how to create one and manage it. How to monitor all networks through professional platforms and follow positive and negative feeds.

Workshop B: “ Social Media Crisis Management “ and the instructor will be Mr. Amer Almassimi, Managing Partner, Hashtag Social Media Agency – KSA, on 7th May 2013 ( one day only ), he will talk about Social Media Crisis- the downside of social media, Global & Local Case Studies- One song, too much damage. Also, what is Social Media Crisis- how to easily detect a social media crisis, Social Media Crisis Management- Steps to survive a social media crisis. Regain Control on Your Social Media platforms- Power of engagement and Case Studies- Brands that Survived a Social Media Crisis.

For more information, www.arabiansocialmedia.com

The Summit attracts business professionals from across the MENA and the world under one roof, with speakers and attendees coming from more than 25 countries. This year, the Summit will reach out to adjacent markets beyond the Middle East, including Italy, Greece, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, India, Singapore and others.

Meet some speakers from the Forum Track at the ArabNet Digital Summit 2013

Mashable.com launched #SMDay in 2010 as a way to recognize the digital revolution happening right before our eyes.

Social Media Club Bahrain will be announcing the Social Media Day Awards Competition very soon; inviting you to join fellow social media enthusiasts to submit your nominations for the best Social Media Networks users in Bahrain.

Last year, Social Media Club Bahrain in association with Zain Bahrain awarded best users in an amazing event.

Social Media Day #SMDay Awards 2012 Winners:

• Best Facebook Page > Bahrain City Centre  https://www.facebook.com/BahrainCityCentre
• Best Social Media Customer Service > Gulf Air
• Best Business Use of Twitter > Blaze Burgers
• Best Social Media Product/Technology > Seef Mall https://www.facebook.com/SeefMallBahrain
• Best Social Media Campaign > Gulf Air
• Best Social NGO > AIESEC Manama
• Best Social Blog > www.DvLZGaME.net
• Best Student Project > Hopeship
• Best Social Community Builder > Khalid AlQoud
• Best Social YouTube Video  > DvLZGaME
• Best Media Personality > Ali AlSabbagh
• Best Business Personality > Hussain Husaini