Mohtab Arabiat

  • The Joy of New Platforms and an Ode to Those We’ve Lost

    With the looming deadline for the TikTok ban, many active users have been promoting and encouraging others to join another Chinese social media platform, Red Book. While the reasons driving this migration are worth analyzing, I find myself more drawn to the emotions behind the movement.

    The #TikTokRefugees, as they call themselves, have been sharing videos that are nothing short of heartwarming. One common thread runs through them all, people being welcomed into a new community. Users of Red Book are posting welcoming comments, extending invitations for friendship, and embracing new members with open arms. They are even sharing videos teaching new users Mandarin to help them navigate the app. 

    The keyword here is community. It’s not just about a platform, technology, or an app. It’s about people coming together and how they engage with each other. That’s the magic of social media, the thing that so many platforms have lost or struggle to maintain.

    Looking back, every social media platform, even those that no longer exist, had its own sense of community, however small.

    • MySpace: The OG of social media. I met some fascinating people there, bonding over an obscure Icelandic band that I couldn’t find fans for anywhere else.
    • Google+: It was a haven for tech geeks, where news and discussions about the latest gadgets and innovations thrived.
    • Path: A beautifully designed platform with the promise of creating and maintaining close connections with a small group of friends.
    • Vine: A creative playground where many creators launched their careers through collaboration and a shared love of content creation.
    • Yahoo Answers: Yes, I’m counting it as a social platform. While trolling was abundant, it also delivered real value when you needed an answer fast.

    TikTok, however, won’t be gone anytime soon. Outside the U.S., it remains a major player, and time will tell if it can reenter the U.S. market and reconnect with its passionate users. But the emotional heart of this story isn’t just about TikTok. It’s about belonging.

    At the end of the day, what everyone is chasing is the sense of belonging. A tribe to call their own. Social media, at its best, has always been about that. It’s not the algorithms, the features, or even the content, it’s the people. Platforms come and go, but the desire to belong never changes.

  • Emotional Content Always Wins

    In 2011, I wrote my first social media caption for a brand. Well, it was more than just a caption, it was the entire post. Back then, photos or videos in posts weren’t common. In fact, brands barely had a presence on social media, and we were all just trying to figure things out.

    What we did know was that conversations were happening, and marketers wanted their brands to be part of them.

    We didn’t know much about how to market on social media, but we did understand two key things:

    1. We had to be present consistently. Content would disappear from users’ timelines within 24 hours, so we needed to post daily. That’s how social media calendars became a thing.
    2. We had to capture attention without being overly commercial. A balance was crucial to avoid pushing people away with hard-sell content.

    Most brands adopted an 80/20 approach: 80% fun, entertaining, or engaging content to connect with the audience, and 20% promotional or commercial posts to push products.

    This split gave us the opportunity to have fun with the brands we managed. For 80% of the time, our job was to create entertaining content, how exciting is that? The key was to ensure that this content evoked emotion, and on social media, the most common emotion was humor.

    Luckily, the brands I managed back then made humor part of their DNA. For example, Cadbury Dairy Milk was all about Moments of Joy. What better way to spread joy than through funny or witty content? This was around the time Cadbury released its iconic Gorilla ad, yes, the one with the drumming gorilla to Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight. If you haven’t seen it, or even if you have, it’s worth a watch (or rewatch). Watch it here.

    Even years after its release, reposting that video would still generate incredible engagement. At the time, it was a 4-year-old ad, yet it resonated because it brought pure joy.

    It became clear people engage with content that makes them feel something. The best performing posts weren’t overly polished, they were simple, emotional, and relatable. Whether it was a silly joke, a witty one-liner, or even a fun fact, the common denominator was emotion.

    Those were simpler times, but what worked then still works today. Post something that evokes emotion, and you’ll always strike a chord with your audience.

  • Outcome vs Output

    A colleague of mine recently climbed all the way up Mount Kilimanjaro. I’m super proud of her for setting that goal and actually achieving it.

    The outcome of all her planning, effort, and hard work is that she can now proudly say she reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

    She didn’t celebrate the output. She didn’t dwell on the 6 days she spent hiking to the top or the estimated 70,000 steps she took along the way. The outcome was clear, standing at the peak of Kilimanjaro.

    We often find ourselves focusing on the wrong things. It doesn’t matter if you send out 100 emails a day if none of them get a click. It doesn’t matter if you publish 100 social media posts if none of them convert a customer.

    Measure the outcome, not the output.

  • Why Is It So Hard to Hire a Social Media Manager?

    Anyone running an agency or hiring for a social media manager knows how challenging it can be to find the right fit. The perfect candidate is often expected to be a master-of-all-trades, mastering everything from strategy and creativity to analytics and community engagement.

    Before diving into the key traits I look for in a social media manager, it’s important to acknowledge one thing, it’s nearly impossible to find all these qualities in one person. That’s why you should consider the strengths of your existing team when hiring. For example, if you already have someone who excels at analytics and project management, you might focus on hiring a creative thinker or skilled copywriter to complement them.

    Here are the key areas I evaluate when hiring a social media manager:

    1. Hungry and Curious

    While many skills can be trained, curiosity and hunger to learn are non-negotiable for this role. Social media is an ever-changing landscape, with new trends, strategies, and platforms emerging almost daily. A world-class social media manager must have the drive to stay up-to-date and continuously improve their craft. They should be actively seeking out the latest news, trends, and strategies to keep their approach fresh and relevant.

    2. Creative

    Creativity is essential in navigating platform algorithms and making content stand out. This involves more than just making things visually appealing—it’s about solving problems in innovative ways and leveraging the latest trends and creative formats to capture attention.

    3. Storyteller

    Storytelling is a separate skill from creativity. It’s about weaving purposeful narratives that hook audiences and create a meaningful connection between the content and the brand. Social media managers need to balance this with the understanding that they’re not creating art—they’re crafting content that must resonate with an audience and serve a brand’s objectives.

    4. Analytical

    On the flip side, data-driven decision-making is just as important. A great social media manager should be able to turn raw data into actionable insights. These insights not only inform better storytelling but also enhance the overall marketing strategy. Analytics provide the foundation for iterative improvement and help track the effectiveness of campaigns.

    5. Social

    This might seem obvious, but it’s often overlooked, being genuinely social matters. A candidate’s ability to connect with people in real life often translates to how well they build connections online. If they lack passion for engaging with others, chances are their interactions with an online community will feel robotic. You can always tell the difference between authentic, meaningful engagement and canned, rephrased responses.

  • Process Over Tools

    Before jumping to buy the next fancy tool, take a moment to understand what you need it for and how it will help. If you lack a clear process or method, a tool will likely just accelerate the chaos rather than fix it.

    Ask yourself: what exactly do you need this tool to manage? How will it support your workflow without trying to do the work for you? Many companies end up paying for over-engineered, bloated tools when simpler and cheaper alternatives could have done the job just as well.

    For instance, do you really need a $1,000-a-month dashboard if an Excel sheet can get the job done? If you don’t know which metrics or numbers you need to track, no amount of fancy dashboards or features will make your work easier.

    It might be worth taking a step back and looking at all the tools you have. Do they genuinely add value, or are they masking gaps where a better process or method is needed? Sometimes, the best tool is the one you don’t need at all.

  • How to Grow on Social

    Focus on Your Audience

    Speak directly to the people who need your message. Don’t write for everyone, write for the ones with specific challenges you can solve.

    Focus on Their Problems

    Understand your audience’s struggles and offer solutions. They’re here for answers, not fluff. Make your content practical and helpful.

    Focus on Better Ideas

    Platforms change, tactics expire, but valuable ideas endure. Share insights that empower your audience to think differently and solve problems for the long term. Be impactful, not trendy.

  • You Can’t Win a War with One Bullet 

    You can’t win a war with one bullet, or fall in love at first sight, unless you are a hopeless romantic. It takes time, effort, and a lot of resources to succeed in war, love, or marketing. 

    The same goes for social media. Too often, everything gets crammed into a single post. Check most brand posts and you can clearly see this. Sure, it’s tempting to include opening hours, location, terms and conditions, and 20 other “important” messages in one post. But let’s be honest, expecting your audience to read, let alone engage with all that, is wishful thinking.

    Instead, simplify. Break down your messages into smaller, focused pieces. Build a narrative around them, allowing each one to stand out and connect meaningfully with your audience.

  • Writers Write

    In 2025, I’m challenging myself to write and publish a blog post every single day. It might sound crazy and blogs feel so 1999 and definitely aren’t trendy right now. But this isn’t about reach, likes, shares, or any platform metric. It’s about showing up, refining my ideas, and building a writing habit.

    I owe this idea to the man who inspired me to get into marketing in the first place, Seth Godin. He’s been running his daily blog since 2002, and showing up every day.

    Also inspired by Seth Godin, I’ve set some rules for myself. These are the guidelines I’ll follow throughout this challenge.

    1 – Show up every day and write. This challenge is about building a daily habit, so no batch writing or scheduling posts in advance. Each article will be fresh, written, and published on the same day. The posts won’t be perfect, and that’s okay.

    2 – Be real. And no, I don’t mean the social media app that had its moment. I mean authentic and genuine. Every blog will be rooted in personal experiences, real stories, real lessons, and real reflections.

    3 – Keep it Simple. To remove any unnecessary barriers I will keep the format simple. Every post will have a simple format, a title and a body. 

    The posts don’t have to be as long as this one; they just need to communicate an idea clearly each day.

    4 – Ignore the urge to promote and distribute. No social media posts or cringy LinkedIn posts promoting my blog. This challenge is personal. If you, the reader, want to follow along, you’re welcome to visit the website. I may add a subscription option later, but for now, my focus is entirely on the writing.

    5 – No metrics, no monetization. I won’t even have Google Analytics installed, feel free to check for yourself. This challenge isn’t about reach, subscribers, or making money. I won’t track how many people read these posts. They’re free and available to anyone, but the focus is solely on the act of writing.

    6 – Authenticity before trends. Avoiding metrics will help me stay focused on writing what matters to me, not chasing topics just because they might get more clicks or attention.

    7 – Full transparency. Life happens. On the days when I’m unwell, traveling, or facing personal challenges, I will probably have pre-written articles to go out but they will be labeled as such. 

    8 – No ChatGPT. Sure, it’s tempting to write a prompt and have 20 articles churned out by everyone’s favorite LLM, but that would completely defeat the purpose of this challenge. I’ll only use it for proofreading and grammar improvements. 

    9 – Full commitment. I will not go to sleep without publishing a post. This single rule will drive push out a blog every day, no matter what. 

  • The Silence of Social Media: Meta Censorship of Palestine

    Social media platforms have long been hailed as spaces for connection, entertainment, and sharing joy. They serve as windows into the lives of others, allowing us to peer into the world and, at times, marvel at the experiences they offer. However, over the past few days, this narrative has taken a sad turn, as a wave of distressing news continues to flood in from Palestine.

    In the digital age, social media plays a pivotal role in disseminating information. Meta, who knows this all too well, seems to be limiting any mentions of Palestine on its platforms. As a significant global event unfolds before our eyes, content creators and social media users have awakened to a disheartening reality—severe reductions in the reach of their content. What’s more troubling is the scarcity of attention this issue has received, with major tech news outlets remaining conspicuously silent on the shadowban affecting Palestine-related content.

    This shadowban, which has gone largely unnoticed, involves Meta labeling content related to Palestine as “sensitive.” This tagging severely limits the number of people who can access and view such content. The labeling process is driven by picking up on keywords within the content and an analysis of the images accompanying the posts or Stories..

    Overcoming the Shadowban:

    In response to this situation, users have been experimenting with various methods to bypass the shadowban. Here are some strategies that have proven effective for those affected:

    • Adjust Sensitive Content Settings: Users can modify their account settings to allow sensitive content. By going to Settings > Suggested Content > Sensitive Content, you can change it to “More,” enabling you to view Palestine-related content.
    • Diversify Your Content: To break the cycle of censorship, it is advisable not to solely post about Palestine. Intermingle your posts with unrelated content to regain visibility in the Stories feed.
    • Create Original Content: Instead of merely sharing content from others, try to recreate and remix it to make it appear fresh. Original content is less likely to be flagged as sensitive.
    • Explore Alternative Platforms: Instead of relying solely on Meta-owned platforms like Instagram and Facebook, consider using platforms like X (Twitter) and Telegram, which have not imposed similar restrictions. These platforms are used by journalists for a reason. 
    • Engage Actively: Engaging with other content within the same topic can elevate your content’s visibility within the algorithm. Think of it as a way to “force” it to reach a broader audience.
    • Direct Sharing: Don’t limit yourself to Meta-owned channels or mainstream social media. Share your story through various networks and channels to ensure it’s heard widely.

    Remember Your Humanity:

    What is currently transpiring in Gaza is an affront to humanity. In times like these, it is imperative that we remember our shared humanity. Human lives are at stake, and as the world watches in pain, censorship is inexcusable. We must not allow the silencing of this critical issue.

    The apparent shadowban on Palestine-related content on social media platforms raises significant concerns about censorship on a global scale. As users strive to overcome these limitations, the world must pay heed to the broader implications of such actions and champion the values of free expression and empathy in our interconnected digital age.

    How Can You Help?

    How can you make a difference? There are several humanitarian organizations that you can lend your support to. 

  • Your Business Is More Than Just a Website or App

    The reason many new businesses (and even some old ones) fail is that they focus too much time and energy on the wrong things. Sure, having a good website or well-designed app will attract people to your business, but if you neglect the hard work of growing and maintaining your business, you will not succeed. This is because time spent focusing on the wrong things means time taken away from making your product or service the best it can be and is especially true when you are first starting your business. To learn how to focus on the right things and set your business up for success, read on.

    Not Sure How to Start? Try Starting Lean

    To effectively start and grow your business try starting lean. This means figuring out what product or service you want to provide, making sure it will exceed your customer’s expectation. Take steps to connect with your audience and get what you have to offer into their hands. A common misconception is that you need to build a full app or website to get your business off the ground. The truth is, you just need to develop a product and figure out a way to connect with your customers. Use whatever you have on hand, even just a laptop to check emails or a phone to speak with customers and clients. Many businesses have found success with just Whatsapp and an Instagram account. Of course, you must spend money to make money, but you can help even a lean business get started if you spend strategically from the start. Make sure you check out The Lean Startup by Eric Reis if you havent already.

    Don’t Let Fear Hold You Back: Just Go For It

    There will always be reasons to delay launching your business. Maybe you feel like your website could be better or that you would be more successful if you had a larger following. If you change your thinking, you can break your business down to its smallest form so you can start connecting with customers and testing your service or product as soon as possible. Many businesses can find success with a simple online listing or a social media project and grow from there. The first step is identifying what your customer wants, followed by finding a way to make that a reality. Once you are more established with a happy customer base, turn your energy and efforts to development projects like building a fancy website or launching an app that optimizes your business. It’s all about the timing, so if you are at the beginning of your business journey, just go for it and remember that you will have many opportunities as time goes on to make additions and changes to your business.

    Don’t Forget About Your Customers

    A fundamental mistake business owners make is spending too much time focusing on outward-facing things that are less directly related to their success. Businesses fall apart because they forget about their customers. Your customers should love the products and services your business provides, not just how your business appears to the outside world. No matter how lean you start your business, be sure to take note of the things that work and the things that don’t. This feedback will be helpful as you move on to new projects and focus on new business priorities.

    What Your Business Should Be

    If you remember that your business is a mechanism of access and delivery, you will help your business thrive. Prioritize the things that matter most. The quality of your product and the happiness of your customer. If you can only talk the talk but not walk the walk. None of the work or money you’ve invested into building your website or setting up your app matters.

    Build a business not a website.

  • What we can all learn from the “Hello World” Programming Lesson in Designing Training Programs

    When teaching someone a new skill or lesson, a way to quickly alienate and frustrate them is to focus too much on the theoretical and not enough on the practical. Practical lessons keep students motivated to complete the training program and move toward their goals. It is actually much simpler than most people think to design a training program that uses practical approaches. By looking at Hello World, the most fundamental programming lesson people can learn, you, can learn lessons in designing effective training programs for any topic.

    What is Hello World?

    Hello World is the first lesson anyone learns when trying to learn a programming language. It is one of the most famous programs and is often a new programmer’s introduction to effectively communicating with a computer.

    main()
    {
    printf("Hello, World!");
    }

    The Hello World program dates back to 1972 when Brian Kernighan included the test phrase in his book, A Tutorial Introduction to the Language B. Decades later, it is fair to assume that essentially every programmer has written a program using Hello World at some point in their training or career.

    By Brian Kernighan (1978)

    What Does the Hello World Lesson Teach Us?

    To understand why Hello World is such a brilliant lesson, you must first understand how the program works. You can run Hello World in virtually any coding language. The idea is to type “Hello World” as a line of code, and if you have done it correctly, your computer program will output “Hello World” back to you, letting you know that you were successful immediately. Hello World is a simple program, and most codes are more complex, but the important thing is that you could run a test by yourself, get feedback in real-time, and find out right away if what you wrote was accurate.

    Learning in this way helps students get familiar with a new topic from the inside out and learn how to navigate a new environment by diving right in. This lesson could apply to any subject, such as marketing, programming, engineering, or biology, and the results would still be successful. When you complete Hello World, you have just made your own program, probably for the first time ever, which gives you the satisfaction of building something new, seeing it come to life, and knowing you did a good job. When students learn like this, even if they are brand new to the subject, their confidence in the teacher, the topic, and themselves quickly grows, and they are left hungry to learn more and keep growing.

    Best Practices to Follow When Designing a Teaching Program

    When building any training program or lesson, think of it this way: Build your own Hello World. Create something that rewards students for trying to learn, no matter how small or short the lesson. If we know anything from looking at Hello World, it is that it works well enough to be the trusted lesson of virtually every new programmer, and this is likely because it helps students gain knowledge and confidence as they practice. 

    As a teacher, it is easy to get lost in the weeds from time to time, especially if the topic is complex. Remember that too much theory can interfere with how well your students learn. If they are focusing only on the theoretical without practice and without positive reinforcement, results will be slow, leading to frustration, burnout, and getting in the way of success. The amazing thing about Hello World is its simplicity. While users might start small, as they get better, they will be able to create more and more until they are fluent in the programming language and can create whatever they put their minds to. Whether you are a teacher or a student, remember that it’s completely fine if your project or program is not perfect or complex. What matters is that you made it, that it now exists, and that you will improve with time and practice.

  • Why You Haven’t Started Your Project Yet

    They say getting started is easy. Not when you have a project that has been growing in your head for too long. The beginning becomes a dreaded thing that you keep pushing off. Always ready with an excuse as to why you will do this one day, but not today. You want to start a new business, YouTube channel, or maybe a newsletter. But not today. 

    There are many challenges that keep you from getting started with your next great idea. Many of these you can should try to identify early on and get them out of your way. 

    Not having the right reasons to start

    Many projects die young. One of the main reasons for a premature death of a project is that the people give up. They never had the drive to see it through. They forgot what got them excited about the idea in the first place. The purpose escapes them. 

    Define your purpose before launching any project, business, or idea. Why should you sacrifice your time and energy on this? Write it down and revisit this often. This will help you find the motivation to get started and more importantly help you maintain the discipline to carry one once you do begin your project. 

    Motivation vs discipline 

    Projects fail when they depend on the mood of the creator. Motivation is great to get started but you have to walk into a project with the understanding that it will take a lot of discipline to see this through. Intentions will only take you so far. Plan your project in a way that works around your resources. Your resources are your time and energy. When is the best time for you to work on this project? Lock that time in and just commit to the work. 

    Don’t dream it, schedule it 

    Plans and dreams are amazing. They give us a dopamine rush as we fantasize of what it will be like turning this amazing idea into a real thing. Sadly many ideas stay in this phase. 

    Schedule the time to turn this into a reality. Want to start a Youtube channel? Allocate an hour a day for creating videos. Want to write a book? Make sure your diary has an hour locked for writing. We somehow always come up with an excuse to push things. Kill your excuses. Life will always get busy. Ask yourself “If not now then when?” If you don’t think you will have the time to start this in the next week then kill the idea. It is obviously not a real priority for you. Your Purpose or motivation to start is not strong enough to prioritize this over other things. 

    Waiting for Perfection

    Don’t spend too much time cooking up the perfect plan or product. Here is the truth. Your product will never be perfect. In the words of Reid Hoffman “If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” 

    Image of Sony rice cooker. First product they launched
    Source: https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/SonyHistory/1-01.html

    Sony’s first product was a failed rice cooker. It failed at the main purpose it was built for. The rice was overcooked or undercooked most of the time. Yet they kept on going and kept on improving. 

    Understand that what you put out is not the final chapter in your story. You hold the pen and can keep on writing. 

    Don’t Build the whole machine at once

    Speed is key. You want to learn from your failures early. Don’t build a full machine and spend months or years on it to later learn that your audience has moved on and no longer want your product. Don’t wait till the full machine is ready to go out to the public. Learn from how tech companies go out and launch their products. People start sharing their expectations or feedback on the prototype early on. This helps you build a product that your audience wants. 

    Your first audience or users are usually early adopters. They are usually more forgiving. Embrace the imperfections and just ship. Improvements and additions can come in later. 

    Focus, focus, and focus

    Great ideas come from creative people. They usually have more ideas that come to them often. Find the right idea and then be ruthless. Kill all others for the benefit of one. Focus on one project at a time. There are many layers and elements that you have not discovered about your project yet. Many challenges will come up. You will need a focused mind to help you overcome these challenges. Think of this as pruning. The branches you cut will help the tree get stronger. 

    Focus on one idea at a time. Launch it before moving on to other projects. 

    The longer you wait to get started on your project the less likely it is to see daylight. Get something out there even if it is not perfect. People have higher expectations of themselves than others expect of them. 

    It is fine if your project is not perfect. At least it exists. 

    p.s. Every week I send out a newsletter that aggregates the top news in marketing that you should be aware of. I add my insights and take outs to save you time. I didn’t wait till it was perfect to launch it. It exists here.

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