RABI HAMAMSAH (DUBAI)
The 1 Billion Followers Summit, the world’s largest gathering of thought leaders and influencers in the digital space, in Dubai featured discussion panels for influencers and content creators on its second and concluding day.
The largest event of its kind globally, the summit brought together over 3,000 content creators, influencers and creatives from all around the globe, including 100 expert speakers, to address and inspire over 1 billion people around the world and discuss new media’s role in supporting economies and contributing to sustainable development agendas.
Arab Nation Platform
Yousef El Begeshi, the director of Arab Nation platform, told Aletihad that the 1 Billion Followers Summit is “an ideal place” to meet content creators from the Arab world to build partnerships and have future cooperation through the Arab Nation platform.
“Arab Nation platform is a UAE production company that looks for talented Arab creators to enrich the Arab content with new topics from our region. The summit is a great place to do so. We are here today to meet with different content creators and influencers to learn about what they do, and in return, they can learn about us and how we can help them and support them,” he said.
The Arab Nation platform is keen on attracting talented youth from the Arab world to empower them in the content creation field, El Begeshi noted.
“We work on their ideas and help them shape and generate genuine and distinguished Arabic content for different platforms,” he added.
El Begeshi pointed out the role the UAE plays in supporting Arab content creators by organising events and summits that bring together experts in this field.
“Our wise leadership always focuses on supporting youth at all levels. The UAE organises summits and events to get all content creators involved, namely Arab content creators. This summit is a clear example of how the UAE is interested in helping Arab content creators to be successful in what they deliver,” he added.
Fitness Influencer
In an interview with Aleithad, Egyptian fitness influencer Dina Abd Elmaksoud said that the summit is an opportunity to encourage “Arab women to take part in content creation and get more involved in producing original content about different topics”.
Abd Elmaksoud hailed the efforts of the UAE in supporting Arab content creators, especially Arab women to be part of the “Arabic content revolution”, stressing the need to have more summits like the 1 Billion Followers Summit to help Arab content creators excel.
“Big thanks to the UAE for its efforts to help us ‘women’ to be part of the Arabic content creation and production. I think this summit will pave the way for a new era in Arabic content and Arab women’s involvement in this regard,” she added.
Mindvalley
Vishen Lakhiani, the founder of Mindvalley, a platform for world-class teachers, elaborated on his journey as an influencer and how he got into social media “the slow way” in his 40s after meeting author Jay Shetty, and how he is earning $10 million in revenue and has 3 million followers.
He recollected his start on Instagram in 2018 with “the picture of an awful haircut by going to the wrong barber”.
He estimated that his company built on zero venture capital is close to generating a revenue of around $200 million in the coming years.
Lakhiani shared with the audience his formula for achieving success on social media: “Know your contribution, know your company values, scaling and bringing in revenue”. “You must understand what is your reason for being here and that becomes your social media,” said the influencer.
He reiterated that human beings connect better with human beings than with companies and therein lies the power of storytelling.
Lakhiani, who has working relationships with Emirates and the Government of Dubai, advised his audience not to worry about being “amateurish” in their attempts “because you learn on the go”.
He also gave the three-second rule for a video: if you can’t hook your audience in the first 3 seconds, your video doesn’t go viral.
He pointed out that a controversial post can also go viral as it gets angry as well as curious responses.