Yousef Tuqan Tuqan, CEO at Flip Media

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.

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Jitendra Jain of HoteleMarketer

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.

You’re also the founder of 3 great websites HoteleMarketer.Com, The Talent Jungle, and YoungHotelier.Com, please tell us a little bit about these projects.

I created www.TheTalentJungle.com in 2003 after completing my Tourism degree in Switzerland, initially as a portal to keep students connected and informed – this has since evolved into a very different base, however the link with education and hospitality remains. www.YoungHotelier.com was created in 2007 to shine the limelight on the people that define hospitality…you hear so much about the industry but rarely about the people that make it what it is. YoungHotelier.com was also the first hospitality industry site that heavily used video content to communicate its message. I created www.HoteleMarketer.com initially as a repository of the articles I had written for offline publications like Hotelier Middle East, Hotelier India, etc but this has since evolved into a blog for like-minded ‘digital’ hoteliers.

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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?

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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?

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