Today marks World Social Media Day, it is quite known by now that social media has been part of human evolution for some time.
Brands have started focusing on social media influencers to promote their products and campaigns.
We have interviewed and asked our influencers about the impact of social media on their lives, and their main purpose on Instagram.
Rawan Bin Hussain
View this post on Instagram
We can’t but start with none other than the half Palestinian and half Kuwaiti beauty mogul that has taken the Middle East by storm. It’s not a coincidence that MBC has called her “Kuwaiti writer that looked like Brooke Shields.” The new mommy’s rise to Instagram fame started ever since the famous statement was made by MBC. Rawan started her journey on Instagram by posting her poetry, and sharing pictures of her travel life.
As she gained gradual recognition, her favourite brands started contacting her and collaborating with her for campaigns, something Rawan says was “surreal to work” with. To date, Rawan has amassed over 4.6 million followers on instagram (and counting). Her successful launch of House of Rawan, her beauty brand was the impact of the people she was able to reach and influence because of her authentic personality on Instagram.
Rawan describes her social media to be like a chain reaction. She gained social media attention and following which translated into working with global brands and experience in their turn translated into growth and firmness in her entrepreneurial work. Rawan’s purpose on Instagram is to encourage young girls to be unique and proud of themselves, she assures everyone that beauty comes in all shapes, colors, and sizes.
Rawan is going nowhere anytime soon, her success is here to stay and further prosper.
Hala Ajam
View this post on Instagram
An A list makeup artist in the Middle East, Hala Ajam is a Lebanese artist who has been working in the industry for over 3 decades. Her extensive work experience in her field, along with her fight for perseverence were only normal to translate to online platforms. Hala Ajam tells us that no one can decide to be an influencer, if you like what you do it is possible that people would be influenced by it. In spite of her experience, Hala says social media has helped her be further known and introduced her work to a wider audience.
Hala’s purpose on Instagram is to tell women to be themselves and express themselves as they see themselves, and not “hide behind masks.” Hala Ajam has certainly done as she speaks. What an inspiring woman!
Naomi D'Souza
View this post on Instagram
Naomi D’Souza is a beautiful Indian influencer based in UAE. By degree she’s a mechanical engineer, by profession she’s a digital strategy consultant, and by passion she’s a content creator! Apart from this, she has a black belt in Karate, and has done her trinity examination in music. Naomi has a fan following of a whooping 90,000 fans. Naomi tells us, she never set out to become an Instagram influencer. It all just happened by fluke. She used to post pictures of the desserts she ate, similar to how anyone would share their travel pics, and suddenly people started noticing and started coming to her for recommendations. Then restaurants noticed and started inviting her to tastings. She says that she was so shocked to find out that so many people she didn’t even know personally were following her just because they trusted the content. That inspired her to put out only the best possible.
It is quite apparent that social media has affected and impacted her life in a positive way. She says “All my success, achievements, blessings, moments of pride, everything came because social media paved the way for me. People usually underestimate the power social media has, it has definitely helped me grow in my professional career, improved me as a person, and given me opportunities that I never would’ve thought possible.” but no doubt that it has its downs too, but she for sure is learning to have a better hang of it every day.
When it comes to the purpose of her account, Naomi says it is a work in progress, as her purpose is subject to evolution. Nowadays, she is focusing on activism directed at millennials saying “Now I’m using my platform to speak out about a lot of issues. There’s a lot of terrible things going on in this world right now, and I want to make a change, in whatever capacity I can. I’m also a person who believes in equality, so that naturally translates to speaking about women's rights, ageism, sexism, racism,and millennial power.” She has been invited to speak at several TEDx events. Such a beautiful woman in and out. Kudos to her.
Brahms Chouity
View this post on Instagram
Brahms Chouity, better known as DaddyFoody on Instagram is an award winning Lebanese serial entrepreneur who has spent the last 20 years of his life building some of the region’s most successful companies. Chouity earned his degree in International Business and Hotel Management from the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne University, as well as an Economiste D'Entreprise certificate. He has amassed almost 30 start ups, but his major breakthrough came in 2005 by foundingTrait d’Union. An entrepreneur who has dipped his soul in many projects and companies like “Saudi Sports Group”, “Radical Sports Cars”, and “At7addak” are just to name a few.
2017 was the year he decided to take a step back, and finally follow the one passion that “fuels his soul”: food story-telling. So he started his first personal food blog, DaddyFoody on Instagram.
After having created award-winning photo and video content, and producing several food and travel shows, he gained a huge and loyal online following. His instagram success pushed several global and local brands to collaborate with him. Chouity has been chosen as a brand ambassador for Dewar’s, Starbucks, Lipton, Zomato, along other brands. Social media has transformed a success story to an even bigger success story. His social media success has translated into being a keynote speaker at 2 TEDx events, and organizing and hosting launches of many local restaurants. He has hosted and / or produced many full-length shows and documentaries, like “Dewar's Fork Off”, “Dewar's The Drinks Challenge”, along with others. What can you say to a person who has turned his passion for eating food to a success story other than WELL DONE?
Bernard Gharib
View this post on Instagram
A massive food lover Bernard Gharib, widely known with his account @tasty.lebanon on Instagram. Gharib is commonly referred to as “the guy under the cap.” Bernard is a 21 year old Lebanese instagram influencer, who gained the attention of over a dozen of thousands of users on the application by reviewing the food he ate, he says “ I wanted people to taste every dish through pictures.” Bernard describes his account as a “virtual restaurant.” Bernard further tells us that Instagram has impacted his life positively by allowing him to meet new people, and has ended up forming family-like relationships with the people he met through his work on Instagram.
Bernard has a plan to visit all restaurants by 2023! If that isn’t a goal, we don’t know what is. The 21 year old prefers to hide his face under a cap to make sure his content is highly focused on the food.
We hope we can interview him again in 2023.
Eric Stoen
View this post on Instagram
Eric Stoen, better known with his Instagram handle @travelbabbo, is a California based travel blogger. He previously worked as a healthcare worker for 18 years. He quit his job and started a blog and social media accounts to write about his travels with kids to unique destinations.
As he started gaining a following he started to document everything more and more. Stoen says his primary interest is still to encourage other people to travel with their kids. He says social media has impacted his life both on personal and professional levels. The impacts include meeting up with friends around the world, seeing more of the world with his kids, and staying in amazing hotels and having amazing experiences, without breaking the budget.
Stoen tells us that his purpose is to always search for the best, most unique, most interesting, most kid-friendly places and activities in the world to recommend to others. His social media presence has allowed Forbes to name him the World’s 4th “Most Influential Traveler.” Likewise he has been named as the “Top Family Travel Influencer In The World” by Fodor’s. His influence is so big that he has done campaigns for the likes of FIFA, the Discovery Channel, Universal Orlando, Mastercard and many more. Is he the coolest dad or what?
Jad Assi
View this post on Instagram
Jad Assi is a Lebanese multidimensional blogger, Marketing Specialist, and a content creator. He blogs about his fitness journey along with tips. The most apparent facade on Assi’s instagram is his travel blogging. Apart from designing his feed on Instagram Assi also creates content for his clients.
The Lebanese influencer has acquired over 45 thousand followers for his travel and fitness posts. People often come to Assi for advice, and that’s what makes him want to show more of his experiences.
Assi tells us that his main purpose on Instagram is to grow his network and content so that he is able show the world the beauty of lebanon. Well, we definitely will keep an eye on his account.
Omar Spaneshi
View this post on Instagram
Omar Spaneshi is a 29 year old Albanian- Italian fashion influencer. Omar says he’s been passionate about fashion since his early ages, but it was until his Instagram fame that he started receiving job opportunities in the field. He names Mariano DiVaio as his inspiration to start making use out of Instagram, saying “ He was the first that started this “ new job “ and I’ve always been looking at him as an example.”
Omar tells us that social media has positively impacted his life, he says he has worked so hard during these years to achieve what he has now and is still working even more to reach his goals in life. Omar’s purpose on Instagram is to be authentic, and share his own sense of style rather than focusing on what’s trendy. He says he doesn’t wear high end brands just for the sake of it.
What an authentic style icon here.
Amar Sibai
View this post on Instagram
Amar Sibai, is a Lebanese fashion influencer. She is an architect working at her family’s firm as well as a content creator on both platforms Instagram & Tiktok. For Amar, the social media journey did not start with specific intentions of fame.
Amar, although aware of her influence, does not see herself as an influencer, rather she describes herself as “a friend who people can relate to.” Amar further explains her journey as a fashion influencer and tells us the impact it had on her, we quote, “ It takes a lot to stay consistent & active so I believe that sucked a lot of energy out of me. However I used to struggle with being a social person (i know the irony) & social media has really broken down my walls. I’m able to interact & connect with different people & different topics all at once. It definitely has its ups and downs but I’m strong today because of it.“ So to Amar social media is a way to build herself and connect to as many people as possible.
As for her purpose on instagram, Amar says she initially started with organizing, preplanning, and designing an aesthetically pleasant grid. However very recently, during the pandemic, her main focus was to make people smile. She says she felt the need to be that spark of happiness on her followers’ home feed. While still maintaining her unique visuals. Inspiring? Yes!
Maya Nassar Maalouf
View this post on Instagram
An owner of a gym that has 2 branches, and an online e-shop where she sells online-coaching programs, she is none other than Maya Nassar. Maya is a fitness specialist, entrepreneur, mother, and an international fitness model champion. The fitness specialist says that she never planned to become an influencer. She started her online journey by creating a website, blog, and mobile application named “Start Living Right.” Her goal was to share her passion for fitness with others. Maya’s application has been downloaded more than 75,000 times. Her already successful ventures, and appearances on the media inevitably translated into social media success.
Maya certainly knows how to attract the attention and interest of over 220,000 followers, and directs them to a healthy lifestyle. She says her social media exposure has led her followers to become clients at her gyms. At the moment, Maya is pregnant with her third child and using her Instagram account to promote pregnancy fitness. Maya says the purpose of her instagram account is to always be real and honest with my followers. She says she has turned down many offers and sponsorship deals to not indulge in what she calls a “scam” and stay true to her factual and raw content.
Well her personality and honesty certainly come first.
All of them have had 2 common points:
1- None of them had planned to become an influencer.
2- All of them encourage individuality.
So the main lesson here is to be yourself online, and put the saying “fake it till you make it” on the shelf, because guess what… it doesn’t work.
About Bobolink
Bobolink is the master crafter of strategic and creative marketing services. We deliver an impressive, memorable and unique experience, thanks to an avant-garde thought process coupled with the implementation of the latest technologies. We adopt a user-centered approach to bring business to life.