1. 71September 2013 | Bahrain Confidential |
Social Media
70 | Bahrain Confidential | September 2013
Social Media
HowTo Make It“BIG”Cyber Edition – Blogging
ompetition is something we face throughout our lives;
whether we’re competing for our mother’s attention
as toddlers, university acceptance as young adults or
even while running our own business.
Since the Internet, competition has become
more evident; it’s like a large exhibition where
everyone is able to showcase his or her work
freely. Although it has brought about opportunities
and exposure to some, others struggle to keep
up. Recently links to emerging blogs have flooded our timelines
and it seems as though those who kept journals can now be called
‘bloggers’. From microblogging such as Twitter to blogging on official
sites such as WordPress, this trend has snatched the spotlight.
Bahrain Confidential’s Ameena Adel brings to you some of Bahrain’s
most well known bloggers.
In August 2012, a group of dedicated bloggers in Bahrain
formed a club called ‘Bahrain Bloggers’. They “recognised an
untapped opportunity for bloggers and businesses alike to use
this communication platform for customer outreach and product
promotion”. The members were already in contact through social
media websites such as Twitter. However, it was a well-known
Bahraini entrepreneur that took that cyber friendship to the next level.
They met face to face for the very first time to discuss blogging as a
medium for businesses.
The club today consists of nine members, with blogs varying from
travel journals and photo blogs to all types of reviews. One of the founding
C
members, ‘Bahrainipreneur’, anonymously
started blogging in August 2011. She
noticed the sudden rise in the number of
local home businesses and realized how
difficult it was to find any information about
them online; consequently she got the idea
to blog about entrepreneurs in Bahrain. “I
believe Bahrain has a wealth of talents just
waiting to be discovered”, she says, “I am
just doing my little bit in giving them some
exposure”. Before starting her own blog
she followed many Kuwaiti blogs such as
‘ConfashionsFromKuwait’ and ‘Meblogging’,
which were also one of her sources of
inspiration to start her own.
Although there are many bloggers
she says she does not believe blogging
is a competition as she is an advocate
of variety. “It is all about individual
perspectives and that is what makes
it such an interesting experience. Two
bloggers can write about the same thing
yet have completely different views.”
Along with the many people that
follow her blog, Twitter and Instagram, she
recently launched an app with over 115
downloads, which is the first of its kind
in Bahrain, providing her readers with her
latest posts without having to check her
blog every time. The key, she believes, to
getting many followers is being consistent
with your posts but to also to build trust
between the blogger and the readers,
which takes time.
To her, a successful blogger is
one that is committed. “The number of
followers is not as important as the quality
of engagement the blogger has with his/
her readers.” She says, “A blogger will
always be your trusted source for the
things they write about. To me that is the ultimate success.”
Another founder of ‘Bahrain Bloggers’ is Rana Rushdy
also known as ‘Fun To Be A Mom’. Rana first started blogging as
‘Bahrainivents’ in February 2012. It was in September 2012, that she
woke up one day with the idea to start her own personal blog about
motherhood and parenting. Without any delay, she chose the name
and bought the domain and started blogging. Her inspiration to start
blogging was in fact ‘Bahrainipreneur’, she was encouraged by her
success and trusts that if you believe in a cause or theme you will
excel in it. “In my opinion a successful blog
is all about having a theme, focus on it, and
commit to it. I also think the name of the
blog should be easy to remember and not
complicated to type.”
Although being a mother makes it difficult
for her to manage blogging and parenting,
her blog is devoted to her sons because
without them, she says she wouldn’t have
started the blog. She believes that her blog
is a true reflection of who she is; you will find
a piece of her with each post whether its
parenting advice or product reviews. “You
will only find me blogging about products
that I genuinely like. I will, by no mean, flatter
a product and write a post about it without
trying it first”.
She feels that blog posts are not time
sensitive and that is a huge advantage to
businesses. “Business must use blogs as a
medium to reach their audience.” She says,
“You visit blogs on a daily basis, sometimes
more than twice a day, and by placing
promoting through blogs, you are definitely reaching a big audience”.
The success of bloggers from Bahrain is not limited to only Bahrain;
and Mai Al-Moayyed is a great example! Better known as ‘The Makeup
Manual’, she now has over 25 thousand followers on various social media
Scan for
Bahrainipreneur
‘s App.

2. 72 | Bahrain Confidential | September 2013
Social Media
websites and has become the ultimate makeup guide for girls around the
Middle East. Although she wasn’t into blogs when she first started her
passion for makeup, her love to write and teach lead her to start her own
blog in June 2011. She wrote and posted over 20 posts in a day all at once
because she wanted her blog to have content before going public.
She believes this cyber fame has effected her positively “Girls
constantly send me wonderful texts complimenting my hard work. It
makes me proud and inspires me to work harder
and achieve more”. Twitter, Instagram and email
subscribers helped her a lot in building her
reputation. But mostly, it is the word of mouth that
she believes has helped her. Business wise, the
popularity of her blog has helped her promote her
makeup classes and promote her work to other
businesses and brands.
Mai has dedicated her life to do what she
loves as she left her career with zero regrets
“If you are passionate about something, go for
it- because life is too short to do something
you don’t love”, She says, “I blogged about
makeup for a year while I was a banker. Later, I
left banking not only to blog but to give makeup
classes as well. My ability to teach about
makeup is a result of deep research & intense
blogging.” She does admit that in the beginning
it’s difficult to just do what you want, and not
following the norms. Nevertheless, she pushed
herself to do it and loved how people responded!
Her advice to bloggers is to be original, share their experiences,
post pictures along with their posts and most importantly to never
stop posting because she says “Once you stop for a month, your
readers will lose interest”.
One of our younger bloggers in Bahrain is 16-year-old,
Zayn Qahtani who has been blogging for 2 years. She
created her blog in 2009 but only started to blog in 2011
after the encouragement from family and friends.
Though she mainly blogs about beauty and fashion on
blogspot as she finds it simple and easy to navigate, she
also does a different type of blogging that we rarely see
in Bahrain and that is Video Blogging. “Video blogging is
so much fun!” she says, “It’s actually a funny story how
it started - my first video that went viral was one of me
eating crisps. It had thousands of views before I deleted
it (for pretty obvious reasons). I definitely would not have
gotten half the success I have if not for my fashion and
beauty vlogging.”
Zayn believes that the number of bloggers in
Bahrain will increase over the next few years seeing
as the next generation is very outspoken. Yet, she
does admit that as result of being blunt she has faced
some challenges “I’ve gotten criticism and even flat-out hate for being
different, and for my style choices and beliefs.” She says, “You’ve just
got to block that all out, because for every hater there are a hundred
supporters. Carry yourself with originality and confidence and you will
succeed.”
Now Zayn’s blog has over 44 thousand hits. “It feels absolutely surreal
to know that my voice is being heard. I freaked out when I hit 40 hits, and
basically panicked when I hit 400. So 44,000? I’m very grateful to my
readers - they’ve been there from the very start.”
Each one has a different blogging experience, but they agree on one
thing - “Blogging in Bahrain is not just a phase”
Keep up with our bloggers:
Bahrainipreneur: Twitter/Instagram: Bahrainipreneur
http://www.bahrainipreneur.com
Rana: Twitter/Instagram: FunToBeAMom
http://www.funtobeamom.com
Mai: Twitter/Instagram: themakeupmanual
http://themakeupmanual.com
Zayn: Twitter/ Instagram: zaynalqahtani Blog:
http://musingsofamoonchild.blogspot.com