A number of factors, mainly the ongoing financial crisis and intense competition from newcomers to the global tourism industry, make the coming years a critical period, as it is important for both Greece and Cyprus to remain resourceful and in the spotlight.

Destination Marketing has always been a challenging discipline, one where strategy and creativity are of critical importance. There have been a number of excellent campaigns over the last few years, while advertisers and communication consultants have in some cases even proposed extreme actions by countries and regions! New Zealand was the recipient of such a proposal: change the country’s name and flag, in order to make it more exotic as a destination! Last time I checked, they still haven’t adopted this!

The Web and specifically Social Media are transforming the way countries and regions are marketed. Gone are the times when TV would attract the largest part of a National Tourist Bureau’s budget. Also, the high cost of running Tourist offices in other countries and participating in exhibitions has stimulated the demand for a cost-effective platform.

Social Media are increasingly gaining the attention of Marketeers: they are effective and produce results that can be tracked and acted upon. Travel and vacations are inherently social functions. Prior to the advent of Social Media, friends would discuss and exchange views offline.

Apparently, research data shows that 60% of Europeans are influenced in the selection of holiday destinations, by comments, posts, suggestions that they read on Social Media, such as Facebook and Twitter.

In the case of Facebook, approximately two out of three users globally (in actual numbers, this translates to 700 million people), post pictures and discuss their holidays, while 50% admit that they are influenced by friend’s suggestions and comments, when it comes to picking a holiday destination.

It is also worth mentioning that research indicates that by 2016, social media will be a primary way to generate travel bookings and revenue for half of the travel industry.

Where do the above data leave Mediterranean countries as well as other aspiring tourist destinations?

Social Media should be placed at the center of the Promotional Strategy, as the return on investment will be much higher than any other Medium. Print Media and TV should be used as supportive Media and no more than 30% of the annual budget should be allocated to them.

There are a number of successful case studies of National Tourism organizations and their Social Media campaigns. Two of them are worth mentioning.

First, Tourism Australia’s Facebook fan page has 3.4 million fans already, with 200,000 of then engaging and talking about Australia as a tourist destination every week!

Visit Britain’s Facebook campaign brought a staggering 42,000 new fans to their Facebook page in one day!

Keeping in mind the tremendous growth in people engaging with Facebook and Twitter around the world, which is 1.1 billion and more than 600 million, respectively, makes them the most important Social Media platforms for Greece and Cyprus, for the years to come.

So, time is precious. Engage and Tweet to get more tourists talking and eventually visiting these beautiful countries!

Like the majority of candidates and parties, all around the world, he invested heavily both in time and money, on communicating online. This was the case during the 2008 Presidential campaign. The emphasis then had been on Facebook, while the latest campaign focused on Social Media as a whole.

Is there any relation between winning an election and online presence? Are heavy spenders on web activities more likely to do better in the political arena?

It seems that Obama championed the Social Media by an impressive lead versus Romney. He communicated policy agendas, feedback from the campaign trail, human interest stories, photo-ops. Literally, he exploited Social Media’s unique features of intimacy, speed, involvement as fully as possible.

A few figures should shed some light. As a result of an integrated online campaign which used Social Media and other platforms, Obama ended up with 32 million Facebook fans and 21 million Twitter followers.

On the other hand, Mitt Romney had 12 million Facebook fans and only 1.7 million followers on Twitter.

Who would disagree that the huge lead in Social Media boosted Barack Obama’s campaign?

In a number of European countries, the situation indicates that incumbents and their parties tend to enjoy higher Social Media followings than the ones not in office.

Of course, in order to achieve this, a devoted, highly professional Social Media guru team is required. There must be a clear and precise Social Media strategy beforehand. Contrary to the belief that Social Media is based on impulse and enthusiasm, if there is no plan, the desired following won’t be achieved.

Could we say with certainty that he who controls the web, controls the game? I am yet to witness the contrary!

Robert Pefanis is a communications specialist, lecturer at the University of Indianapolis, Athens.

Their only crime was to disseminate information and spread the truth about the bloody crackdown that is still in progress against the Syrian people. Their main weapons are mobile phones and the Internet.

To pay tribute to the unprecedented number of citizen journalists who have lost their lives to send out pictures of the uprising, Reporters Without Borders and its advertising agency JWT Paris, through a unique live Tweet, are bringing to life the experiences of people who find ways of circulating information in the midst of danger.

The campaign image shows a lifeless hand covered in earth and blood. Next to it, there is a smart phone with a QR code on its illuminated screen. When it is scanned, a Twitter-style application starts up, taking the user into the live tweet of an imaginary citizen journalist in the midst of the conflict in Homs. The application shows his final minutes in detail through his feed. Events gradually take an unexpected turn until the final outcome.

Known as #DeadTweet, the press and poster campaign uses the QR code to raise awareness about citizens’ efforts to cover conflicts in countries where authoritarian governments impose a media blackout by trying to keep out foreign journalists. When journalists can no longer do their job, these citizens are an essential information link and play their part in informing the world, sometimes paying the price with their lives.

At the end of the experience, a short awareness-raising message appears and the user can share it on social networks and help spread the message to as many people as possible.

The Internet-based initiative aims to further promote the positive publicity of Greece as a tourist destination on the Internet utilizing social media. On this basis, it was considered necessary to develop an online reputation management mechanism and brand monitoring mechanism to oversee and manage the comments, opinions and observations made about Greece as a tourist destination.

The initiatives’ key priorities are: a. The promotion and communication of key elements and competitive advantages of the Greek tourism product; b. The promotion and dissemination (through social media) of positive messages/opinions that visitors have about their experiences (via video spots, web testimonials, reviews, posts, tweets).

The aforementioned will focus on three key subject areas: 1. Business as usual; 2. Value For Money/Affordability; 3. Safety.

The initiative is already being supported by a series of government agencies including Greek Radio Television S.A, Athens News Agency and the Hellenic Foreign Ministry. The agencies will be assisting the effort by tracking and gathering news and other related material as well as working with local, national and international media outlets.

On average, users make 7 new Facebook friends per month; they initiate 3 requests and accept 4. Women average 21 updates to their Facebook status per month while men average 6. In a month, about half of our sample made a comment on a friend’s content, and about half received a comment. Fewer than 5% of users hid content from another user on their Facebook feed.

Of people who use social networking sites, 63% have deleted people from their “friends” lists, up from 56% in 2009; 44% have deleted comments made by others on their profile; and 37% have removed their names from photos that were tagged to identify them.

A majority of social network site users – 58% – restrict access to their profiles and women are significantly more likely to choose private settings.

Most Facebook users receive more from their Facebook friends than they give, according to a study that for the first time combines server logs of Facebook activity with survey data to explore the structure of Facebook friendship networks and measures of social well-being.

Over a one-month period, 40% of Facebook users in our sample made a friend request, 63% received at least one request. Users in Pew Research Center sample pressed the like button next to friends’ content an average of 14 times, but had their content “liked” an average of 20 times; users sent 9 personal messages, but received 12; 12% of users tagged a friend in a photo, but 35% were themselves tagged in a photo.

Facebook, on an Average Day is described as follows: 15% of Facebook users update their own status; 22% comment on another’s post or status; 20% comment on another user’s photos; 26% “Like” another user’s content; 10% send another user a private message.

Facebook users are more trusting than others. A Facebook user who uses the site multiple times per day is 43% more likely than other internet users and more than three times as likely as non-internet users to feel that most people can be trusted.

Facebook users have more close relationships. Someone who uses Facebook several times per day averages 9% more close, core ties in their overall social network compared with other internet users.

Facebook users are much more politically engaged. Compared with other internet users, and users of other social networking platforms, a Facebook user who uses the site multiple times per day is an additional two and half times more likely to attend a political rally or meeting, 57% more likely to persuade someone on their vote, and 43% more likely to have said they would vote.

Facebook users get more social support. A Facebook user who uses the site multiple times per day receives more emotional support and companionship offline (such as having someone help you when you are sick in bed.)

Note: For years, the Pew Internet & American Life Project has been polling people who use social media, asking how they use it and what they get out of it. The story’s figures come from a series of research surveys in the US.

Rumors surround and girdle Egypt these days as her Islamist-dominated parliament members are intending to pass a law, legalizing husbands (widowers) in engaging in sexual intercourse with their deceased wives for six hours following her death. This is in a way, they say, enables every husband to bid his last farewell.

The diffusion of such rumors easily reached the minds of people in the west, since the perspective of Islam is based on media coverage, most of which is biased or portrays an unbalanced and negative image of Muslims, and thus, of Islam. Those who are not very much acquainted with Islam started to believe this is based on Islamic doctrine and teachings, which permit such act of disgrace.

Though, one needs to indulge themselves in understanding that this, “Farewell intercourse”, is just a judgment of one specific Islamic scholar. Alarabiya.net reported in 2011 that Zamzami Abdul Bari, a Moroccan Islamist cleric, said that in the name of Islam, men are permitted to have sex with their wives following her death and that the same applies to women. This I would say is a deadly cholera reaching Egypt from Morocco this month especially when in May 2011, the Morocco Board News Service reported that this person is an imposter.

How did this happen? It all began when a columnist for Al Ahram newspaper, Amr Abdul Samea, published an opinion article stating the existence of such draft law, which is being discussed in the Egyptian parliament and that the Egyptians are very active in making their voice heard. As he states, the National Council for Women in Egypt has appealed this and many women are in the street protesting to this outrageous “Farewell Intercourse” law from being enforced. This information was then borrowed by Alarabiya news (English version) and soon was circulated around the world via different social network sites depicted as news. Irresponsible journalism to its core.

One should not forget to mention that Abdul Samea is “a past stalwart supporter of the deposed Hosni Mubarak” while Al Ahram is a state run newspaper, according to Christian Science Monitor report.

The Daily Mail, through its journalist Sarah Carr, stated that all this is a mere rumor and the existence of such draft law is far from true and reality as it all began with one opinion article.

The other part of the controversial law Egypt intends to pass as rumor has it, concerns the legalisation of the minimum age of 14 for girls to be married. This age represents a beginning of adolescence and a time where girls experience many physical and psychological changes as well as intellectual and rational growth. How can an undeveloped girl be a woman and a wife at the same time?

If one supposes that such draft law exists and it should be enforced as it is in the name of Islam, they are fortunately mistaken. For Islam “religion of peace” is based on respect for the dead.

The Christian Science Monitor last week stated strongly “the chances of any such piece of legislation being considered by the Egyptian parliament for a vote is zero”.

Obeying and respecting laws as Socrates did, cannot be pursued today. For laws are being issued or are in the process of being announced yet stand on no essence or value. But, what happens if such law exists and hence will be passed? Should the Egyptians be Socrates and therefore accept and respect this law?

According to a white paper by ComScore, social networking is the most popular online activity worldwide; the field hosts 1.5 billion people whilst social networking behavior both transcends and reflects regional differences around the world.

At the end of 2011, there were around 18.2 million Facebook users in the Middle East, namely around 8.4% of a total population of 216.2 million (total internet users reached 78.6 million, 35.7% of the population).

Guardian’s Peter Beaumont, correspondent in the Middle East wrote that the defining moment that unites Egypt with Tunisia, Bahrain and Libya is a young woman or a young man with a smartphone. In Egypt, details of demonstrations were circulated by both Facebook and Twitter and the activists’ 12-page guide to confronting the regime was distributed by email.

Micro-blogging is gaining ground amongst web-enabled public figures. Fb-status updates and Tweets are increasingly replacing TV soundbites in the subjective recording of timeliness. Regular news stories incorporate more and more of that. Special stories are written on tweeted reactions of prominent people to events and sayings of others.

In 2008 in the US, Barak Obama used the Internet to target youth of 18 to 29 years olds, the age group most reliant on new media for information about politics and election. A few years later in northern Africa, crowds used the same means to target authority, calling for change.

Dr. Demetris Kamaras is the Editor of AlYunaniya.com

In theatres of war or civil conflict, sources play a prominent role as regards media coverage. News organisations tend regularly to seek official sources and to rely heavily on them for their output. Edward S. Herman, an old friend of Chomsky’s has argued: “The more authoritarian and credible the source the easier it is to accept statements without checking, and the less expensive is news-making”. Lots of case studies have verified the accuracy of Herman’s argument; a major one has the first Persian Gulf War, during which the US government played the role of the dominant source for mainstream media. The well-known “pool” system was later on replaced by the complicated, but highly effective embedded system in the second Iraq campaign.

All these have happened before the explosion of social networks and citizen “journalism”. Nowadays, once upon a time advanced communication technologies that allowed the global audience to watch a real-time broadcasting of events during the Persian Gulf War, are now replaced by Skype. Peter Arnett, who was risking his life in the terraces of Bagdad, was succeeded by young people who run on the streets of Homs, Cairo or Tripolis holding a smartphone that shoots footage immediately uploaded on Youtube.

Digital technology makes things possible, undermining any kind of political or military attempts to control the free flow of information. Any way we call it, “amateur” or “citizen journalism”, the power of first hand reporting makes words and images go viral in no time. When people start “liking”, “retweeting”, “sharing” or forwarding material, nothing can stop information reaching a global audience.

What is important in cases like these is to depict the truth, not propaganda, mainstream or “amateur”.

Dr. Demetris Kamaras is the Editor of AlYunaniya.com