Tag Archives: Saudi Arabia

Understanding the #Gulf through the #Olympics

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It’s always interesting to view the Gulf through the prism of global events such as the Olympics. Much has been made of the ping-pong played by Saudi Arabia’s Olympic committee with the International Olympic Committee in respects to sending Saudi females athletes to the 2012 Olympics. A good overview of the affair can be read here in a piece by the Wall Street Journal’s Ellen Knickmeyer.

The paragraph below is from Knickmeyer’s article (Knickmeyer can be followed on Twitter at @EllenKnickmeyer)

“Saudi Arabia ended its status as the last Olympic nation to refuse to send women athletes to the Olympics, agreeing just two weeks before the start of the London games to field two young female competitors, the International Olympic Committee announced.”

The Saudi female athlete saga has been making headlines globally, both in print and via broadcast outlets. Al Jazeera covered the news extensively and featured clips of one of the two Saudi ladies. Sarah Attar is a 17-year-old, California-raised and -trained track competitor who will race in the 800-meters.

Knickmeyer and others have noted that despite the gravity of the decision to finally send Saudi female athletes to the Olympics the news has not even been registered by the country’s official media outlets. “The kingdom’s state media, which recently announced the men’s teams for the games, made no public comment by Thursday evening on sending women as well.”

Contrast this to Kuwait, which is sending its first female swimmer (yes, swimmer) to the Olympics. She’s interviewed here by the Kuwait Times.

Faye Sultan is also featured in an interview below with the BBC (unfortunately this video can’t be embedded but can be accessed via the link below).

Kuwait's Faye Sultan to make Olympic history

She was also documented at a semi final Women’s 50m freestyle race at the Hungarian National Swimming Championship 2012 a couple of months back. The video is embedded below and you can make out Faye from her swimming cap which has the Kuwaiti flag emblazoned on it.

And then there is Bahrain. According to Bahrain’s largest circulation English newspaper fourteen Bahrainis will be going for gold when they compete against the world’s best at the London Olympics later this month. The article goes onto say that Bahrain’s medal hopefuls include Mahboob Hassan, Adam Ismail, Shawqi Jamal, Haleem Jabry, Bilal Ali, Mariam Jamal, Mimi Salim, Shama Mubarak, Taj Baba, Jamila Shami and Maitha Lahdan.

Now we get to the fun part. If you’re a Bahraini or know Bahrain you’re probably going to know that those names aren’t your typical family names found in Muharraq, Manama or Riffa. Mahboob Hassan is a Kenyan who was naturalized in 2005/2006. Bilisuma Shugi is an Ethiopian, while Tareq Mubarak Taher is also a Kenyan who changed his name from Dennis Kipkurui Sang.

Meet the Bahrain Olympians and spot how many are actually Bahraini

Bahraini nationals often voice concerns about the number of naturalized Bahrainis in certain segments of government (the best example would be the police force which employs few native Bahrainis). And what has been the reaction of Bahrainis to the above? One person started a hashtag called #uniteafrica while the most popular tweet was the below.

All in all, an interesting view into the culture of the Gulf through their Olympic policies. And no, I’m not even going to cover Qatar and their Brazilian/Uruguayan B football squad.

A female Saudi #graffiti artist? In Jeddah?

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Jeddah is a remarkable place, a city of seven million souls which is the most diverse city in the Middle East bar none. There’s a phrase which is often used when talking about Jeddah, which is Jeddah ghrayr, or Jeddah is different/unique. Here’s one video which I spotted on my Tweetdeck from BBC journalist Gabriela Pomeroy (@gabrielapomeroy). The video, which has made the official selection for the Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival 2012, gives us a brief insight into one young female Saudi artist who uses graffiti to express herself in Balad, the oldest part of Jeddah.

Did you ever think you’d be watching a video about a female Saudi graffiti artist who works in broad daylight, in Saudi Arabia? As they say, Jeddah ghrayr!

Paint The Way from Next Door Films on Vimeo.

A role model from the GCC’s government sector, Dr Saleh Al-Awaji

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I’m not easily impressed, and I don’t often give compliments. It’s a character flaw of mine. However, every now and then comes along a person who amazes me by their determination, their work ethic, and their belief that they can make a difference.

One of those people who I have not only had the absolute pleasure to meet, but actually to work with is Dr Saleh Al-Awaji. Dr Al-Awaji is the Deputy Minister of Electricity and Water. Not only that, he is the Chairman of Saudi’s electricity provider, the Saudi Electricity Company.

Now, usually senior government officials can be heard to reach, they’re surrounded by their staff, and they are difficult to talk to. When or if you do get the chance to talk to them, don’t expect more than a couple of lines before they move on to their next engagement.

To me, Dr Al-Awaji is everything that a government employee should be. He’s incredibly hard working (how many times  have you received an email from a GCC government official out of office hours) and he’s passionate about what he is doing. I’ve always been struck by Dr Al-Awaji and his determination to make a difference through his work. He’s also eloquent and knows more about the energy sector in Saudi than anyone.

Have a look at the gallery below to see more about Dr Al-Awaji and what he is working on. We need more government officials like Dr Al-Awaji. I for one am grateful for knowing and having worked with the Deputy Minister and Chairman of Saudi Electricity Company. If you’re interested in Dr Al-Awaji’s full bio then go here (yes, he even has his own website!).

 

Link

ImageThe past couple of months have been unusual for the Kingdom’s English language media sector. First, Saudi’s leading English language newspaper by circulation appointed a new Editor-in-Chief Abdulwahab Al-Faiz in October 2011. Al-Faiz, who was previously Editor-in-Chief of the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Eqtisadiah, replaced the long-standing incumbent Khaled AlMaeena.

Since then, Arab News has changed some of its print layout and pulled more news from Arabic-language newspapers particularly those owned by its publisher the Saudi Research & Publishing Company. Al-Faiz was known at Al-Eqtisadiah for increasing advertising revenues through supplements and special reports.

AlMaeena has been associated with Arab News for over twenty years. He built the editorial team. For many reader AlMaeena was the newspaper, he was as much Arab News as Arab News was him. Even after he’d left the Arab News in October of last year, AlMaeena still held the title of Editor at Large for Arab News (even on Wikipedia he’s still listed as their Editor-in-Chief).

The announcement of AlMaeena as the Saudi Gazette’s Editor-in-Chief two weeks ago was a shock to many. However, the decision by Okaz, the publisher of the Saudi Gazette, may be a masterstroke. In many ways AlMaeena is just as much of a brand as is the Arab News. He has always supported issues associated with the expatriate community in Saudi Arabia, especially Asians.

In those two weeks at the helm of Saudi Gazette AlMaeena has already hired a number of his team. The ex-deputy Editor at Arab News Somayya Jabarti and Laura Bashraheel among others are now plying their trade at Saudi Gazette. I for one hope that AlMaeena keeps doing what he does best, namely focusing on editorial quality and running stories that are in the interest of the expatriate community. Already people have been writing into the newspaper wishing AlMaeena and his team success.

A letter written by a Saudi Gazette reader from Toronto congratulating AlMaeena and his team on the news of their appointment at the newspaper.

So what now for the Arab News? For me, it wasn’t a natural decision to appoint Al-Faiz who had never edited an English-language paper. The announcement hinted at the publisher wanting to increase advertising and other non-advertising revenues. The danger to Arab News is that with a lack of good editorial their readership numbers will fall, and consequently their advertising revenues.

My other hope is that Saudi Gazette will start adopting more social media channels to promote the newspaper. AlMaeena is a social media enthusiast who has embraced Twitter. Let’s hope that the bold move by Okaz will raise the standard of English-language media in Saudi Arabia. I can’t wait to see what AlMaeena and his team do at the Saudi Gazette.

PS for a fascinating insight into Khaled AlMaeena by one of his Arab News writers, read this blog post by Siraj Wahab

To #socialmedia or not to social media – #Gulf newspapers say yes, Gulf governments say no

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The last twelve months have been a defining year for social media across the Middle East. Citizen journalism has flourished. Most of the mainstream media publications have also adopted or begun to adopt social media as another channel to reach the general public.

The first adopters were media outlets in the UAE, particularly those who were already well established digital media. You have the likes of arabianbusiness.com who tweet at @ArabianBusiness – the site has over 27,000 tweets and 13,000 followers on Twitter and almost 3,500 likes on Facebook. Dubai’s largest English-language newspaper Gulf News which tweets at @gulf_news, has over 21,000 followers on Twitter. Abu Dhabi’s The National has a number of prolific social media users on its writing staff, including @ben_flanagan…

http://twitter.com/#!/ben_flanagan/statuses/151940336132964352

…and @amna_alhaddad

http://twitter.com/#!/amna_alhaddad/statuses/151968268817661952

Interesting for those based outside of the UAE is how media re now turning to Twitter and Facebook. Saudi’s largest English-language publication, the Arab News, has long had a Facebook site. Arab News has more likes than Arabian Business. Rival publication Saudi Gazette has a Twitter feed on its site, and recently launched its Twitter handle, @TheSaudiGazette, last month.

http://twitter.com/#!/TheSaudiGazette/status/140188317839917056

Similarly in Bahrain, its largest English-language newspaper the Gulf Daily News now has Twitter and Facebook aggregator tools on every newspage. We’ll doubtless see more media using social networks to reach a wider audience.

While the Gulf’s media is moving ahead with social media, the region’s governments are clamping down on what could be termed anonymous social media users probably due to the role that social media has played in the Arab Spring.

Bahrain was the first to propose legislation. The country’s parliament discussed new punishments for cybercrime that include 10-year prison sentences and fines of up to 300,000 Bahraini Dinars. Kuwait and UAE are following suit. Both countries have questioned and/or detained bloggers of late for varying reasons. One article this week in Kuwait’s media suggested that the country could ban anonymous social media activity.

http://twitter.com/#!/Shusmo/statuses/151729250351845376

UAE officials have suggested that anyone caught using social media ‘irresponsibly’ will be punished.

http://twitter.com/#!/KABRASS101/status/151644446029647872

Will the drive to regulate social media in the Gulf work? Can’t wait to find out!

Viral conversations – Saudi Women’s Forum streamed live with #womanforum hashtag

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I often get asked about Saudi Arabia, about its people, customs and culture. But every so often you can get a glimpse into this magic kingdom and enjoy a peak at the real Saudi. Last week, on the 10th and 11th of December, the Saudi Center for Women’s Studies held a conference on women’s rights and responsibilities. For the first time I can remember for such an event, it was streamed live on the internet, including with commentary in English.

While I’d love to have a peak at the number of unique users on the site, social media activity in the Kingdom surged during the two days. Writing with the hashtag #womanforum Saudi and Arab nationals shared and commented on the views presented by the speakers (as this is Riyadh/Saudi women speakers did not share the same hall as the men and so were not visible in the video if you were wondering why there seemed to be no women at a women’s conference).

Most of the tweets and updates were in Arabic, but others did post in English.

http://twitter.com/#!/commitmentphobi/status/147175873446019073

The organizers of the event even used Facebook to upload pictures of the event and the speakers involved. If I can dig out the link I’ll add here.

Several days later in both English and Arabic media articles were published on the event. Here’s the link to the Arab News story, and the other for the Saudi Gazette piece.

While the media did pick up on important aspects of the event, the pieces were published several days after and lacked both the immediacy of the social media feeds as well as the cut and thrust of the debates online. With Saudi women and their rights being such an important topic in the Kingdom today, you’d have to ask if one article in a newspaper could do justice to the entire event.

As an addition to the above much of the argument for Saudi women working has been waged online. This is one video that was circulated this week using the womanforum hashtag. The video was uploaded in March but was circulated again this time round due to the renewed focus on women’s rights and work in Saudi. There’s nothing like a viral conversation, even in the magic kingdom.

Choosing your words carefully – Dr Kamal Subhi, coffee shops and ‘no more virgins’

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SNL mocking Saudi study about women drivers (with Arabic subtitles) There’s always more than one way to say anything. This isn’t communications advice, but rather common sense pure and simple. There was nothing unusual in terms of the gist of a report on the effects of Saudi women driving which was handed to the Kingdom’s Shoura legislative Council. The document, written by Saudi academic Dr Kamal Subhi, basically said that women shouldn’t be allowed to drive (a basic document of what purports to be the report can be found here).

What unfortunately made headlines was the reasoning for Dr Subhi’s conclusions. Rather than rolling out the traditional lines of culture, of traffic congestion, or of legislative and practical difficulties, Dr Subhi was much more imaginative in his language.

To quote from the Associated Press:

The report by Kamal Subhi claims that allowing women to drive will threaten the country’s traditions of virgin brides, he said. The suggestion is that driving will allow greater mixing of genders and could promote sex.

Continuing the story, the UK’s Telegraph newspaper reported:

[The report] warned that allowing women to drive would “provoke a surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce”.

Within 10 years of the ban being lifted, it claimed, there would be “no more virgins” in the Islamic kingdom.

It pointed out that “moral decline” could already be seen in those other Muslim countries in which women are allowed to drive.

In the report Prof Subhi described sitting in a coffee shop in an unnamed Arab state where “all the women were looking at me”.

“One made a gesture that made it clear that she was available,” he said. “This is what happens when women are allowed to drive.”

The news report spread across the internet. Comments poured in online and through social media. Twitter users posted their own views using the hashtag #drkamalstudy. The news story even made its way onto US television, with Saturday Night Live including it in their material (watch the video below).

There’s no doubt that there are many in Saudi who are against women driving. However, today’s local news goes global in an instant. It goes without saying to me that the comments attributed to the report and to Dr Subhi do not do any good to the image of the Kingdom or its women.

The same point could have been made, but with language that was banal, boring, and staid. Unless you really believe that women driving will mean more divorces, extra-marital sex, and looser morals. With more and more attention being paid globally to local media, thanks to digital and social tools, there’s no such thing as a local story that will stay local. It’s often the case that people would double-speak, ie say one thing to one audience and pass off another message to a different audience (Yasir Arafat was known for his double speak in Arabic and English). You cannot do this today. Someone will always relay your message, translate it and then distribute to and through their own networks.

Prominent Saudi blogger Eman Al Nafjan wrote a piece on this issue for the English newspaper The Guardian.Saturday Night Live mocking Saudi study about women drivers (with Arabic subtitles) As envisioned, Dr Subhi blamed the Western media for twisting his message. To quote Eman:

“In this statement he writes that he knows the west, and his study follows international scientific standards no one can refute. He claims that he is so greatly respected by his western counterparts that they offered him citizenship. The problem with the international press report, he says, is that it was commissioned by a Saudi hater who used a miserable reporter to write a piece that unfairly summed up his 16-page paper into half a page.”

I’m a huge fan of the Kingdom, its people and cultures following the years I and my family lived there. While I may not agree with everything that the country’s government does I still have to respect the laws of the land. However, no one can defend the indefensible. And the reasoning and language used in this report just makes me cringe. It’s not what Saudi Arabia should be making the headlines for.

Shaping awareness on breast cancer in Saudi – how a local firm won globally for its communications approach

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There’s nothing better than getting recognized for good work. What’s even better is to make a difference through your actions. We don’t often get to celebrate our local, Saudi-based public relations industry either because everything comes out of Dubai or our local agencies and companies believe that communications with the media and public begins and ends with a press release.

That doesn’t have to be the case any more in Saudi Arabia. One agency has been looking to change how communications is viewed in the Kingdom. That agency’s name is Adalid, and the founders are Saudi nationals who understand and know not only how the media works but also what communications is capable of.

They’ve notched up a series of impressive wins and campaigns locally since founding the agency two years ago. However, Yahya and Sohaib’s crowning glory is an event that has earned them global recognition. To quote directly from the piece in this summer’s edition of Gulf Marketing Review which can be found here.

“Saudi PR agency takes home two SABRE awards for breast cancer awareness campaign

Jeddah-based Adalid has beaten out 2,000 entries to become the first Saudi-managed and owned public relations firm to win a platinum and gold SABRE award for the one campaign. The much-coveted trophies, which were handed to Adalid’s top executives during the Holmes Group EMEA SABRE Awards ceremony in Prague this May, was in recognition for the success of A Woman’s Stand, a public relations campaign designed to raise awareness of breast cancer among females in Saudi Arabia.

The program, conducted by Adalid Public Relations on behalf of HRH Princess Reema Bint Bandar Al Saud and the Zahra Breast Cancer Association was the unanimous first choice of the SABRE judges…

The campaign, which aimed at raising awareness of breast cancer among women in Saudi Arabia through attempting to create the world’s largest human pink ribbon, worked with traditional media channels such as MBC, women’s magazine Sayidati, and Saudi’s Al-Watan newspaper.

Adalid also utilized social media to both spread awareness of the event as well as mobilize supporters to attend the record-breaking attempt. Thousands of people subscribed to the campaign’s Facebook page and Twitter feeds.

“While this was a professional campaign, it is also one where the benefits reflect directly on my mother, sisters and every single woman, not only Saudi Arabia but across the world,” said Adalid PR’s Managing Director, Yahya Hamidaddin. “Now the Kingdom has demonstrated that there is enough concern to establish a world record and been recognised for its efforts to bring concern over breast cancer out into the open, I am sure we can move forward in the battle to overcome this deeply distressing affliction.”

Adalid was founded in 2009 in Jeddah by a number of Saudi nationals with experience in the public relations industry. The agency extended its geographic reach following the opening of an office in Riyadh last year.

SABRE awards are bestowed annually by The Holmes Group in recognition of a company’s superior achievement in branding and reputation. They are awarded to those public relations, reputation management and brand building campaigns that exemplify a strategic approach in research and planning, innovative thinking, integrity and effectiveness. Gold SABREs recognize the best programmes in specific brand-building and reputation management categories. Only one platinum SABRE is awarded by the judging panel for the best campaign in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. ”

Just for good measure the boys and their team of dedicated PR professionals not only won the European SABRE award in May, but topped it off with a global award for the best public stunt of 2011. Adalid’s A Woman’s Stand campaign also made the shortlist for the Holmes Report best global public relations campaign of 2011.

What’s amazing about this campaign is that it’s opened the doors for a comprehensive debate on breast cancer in Saudi. The disease, or more to the point discussion about the condition, is often considered a taboo in this conservative country. Since the campaign there have been calls for more initiatives from the public and private sector, and even an order for breast cancer to be a lead topic during Friday sermons (I still cannot imagine how most Muslim preachers would react to this, to discussing a topic that they’d most likely never thought about before, let alone preaching to their followers).

Thank you Yahya, Sohaib and the rest of the team for making this campaign possible, for promoting breast cancer awareness and for showing how good public relations can be in Saudi Arabia. You and the client have I believed made a huge difference to the women of the country and you’ve been awarded for that. Long may your success continue. I just hope the rest of the public relations industry in Saudi as well as Dubai takes note that we can do more than just send out a press release.

The power of social media in Saudi – How consumers took on Almarai and won

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The past year has been one of transformation across the Middle East. What has happened on the ground has been mirrored online. Today fewer people out there across the Arab world would deny that the internet will make a difference.

The Arab Spring as it has been labeled by the media has affected the way that consumers interact with brands and their products/services. Arab consumers, particularly young consumers, are much more willing to voice their frustrations and concerns online. If pushed, they will also take on brands and coordinate their actions with others online in what could be dubbed concerted campaign-like actions.

We’ve seen a number of examples of consumer-led action in 2011. There’s been the widely publicized #Qtelfail campaign which highlighted how unhappy both foreigners and Qataris were with Qatar’s government-owned telecommunications firm Qtel. Then there was the #VodafoneShokran hashtag which was used by Egyptians to criticize the global telco for its decision to turn off its network during the Egyptian uprising.

Even Saudis have gotten into the habit of getting online to flex their consumer muscle. On July 3 the largest dairy producer in the Middle East Almarai raised the price of a two-liter bottle of fresh milk from seven to eight Saudi Riyals and reduced the size of its one Saudi Riyal laban from 200ml to 180ml. The company had justified the price hikes by pointing to increasing costs for raw materials, packaging and higher wages.

Saudi consumers went online to protest at the price rises. Those on Twitter used the hash tags #mara3i, #StopMara3i to voice their concerns, noting that other diary companies had not raised their prices. A Facebook page calling for a Gulf-wide boycott also attracted hundreds of followers.

Boycott-related images posted on Twitter internet included a photo of Almarai-branded laban bottles in a store overlaid with text reading “Let it rot.” Another picture, from a Saudi Twitter user, featured a bottle of Almarai laban with the caption “Go to Hell My Friend – Saudi Citizens.”

“Usually, companies raise their prices if it suffers losses,” said statement written on a Facebook page set up to boycott Almari’s products. “Well, this is absolutely not the case for Almarai, one of the biggest Saudi companies in terms of revenue. Why does it want to raise profits? Is it willing to form an economic empire at the expense of the crushed citizen?”

Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram published a few of the thousands of comments published online. “They exploit us by increasing prices and consumer protection doesn’t turn a hair,” Abdul Aziz Al Qobeishy said on “together to face the greedy Marai.”

Another Facebook user, Yasser El-Harbi, said “Go on people and AlMarai will remain an unforgotten lesson for vendors in different sectors.”

The outburst and consumer backlash was so pronounced that the Saudi Ministry of Commerce stepped in. The Minister himself issued a decree to force Almarai to revoke the price rises which the company duly did on the 11 July.
In a written statement Almarai defended its initial decision to raise the price of its products.

“In compliance with the resolution issued by the ministry … Almarai is taking the price of its two litre fresh milk and laban pack sizes in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the level that prevailed with immediate effect,” the company said on its website the day after complying with the ministry’s ruling.

“However, Almarai believes that the rationale and justification for the price increase is still valid. We will continue to work with the relevant government authorities to address this issue.”

What’s so striking about the Almarai incident is that it took less than eight days of anger to surface through sites such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs or discussion boards for the Saudi authorities to take action. Almarai is listed on the Saudi stock exchange and its founders/owners include the Saudi Royal family.

It’s even more remarkable when you consider than hardly any traditional media outlets had covered the story prior to the ministry’s decision. That the ministry took notice of the thousands of Saudi consumers who had vented their anger online is an indication of how powerful social media has become.

Contrast this to the decision by Coca Cola and Pepsi to raise the price of a can from one Riyal to one and a half Riyals several years back. Despite a consumer backlash which was led by traditional media outlets such as newspapers the Ministry of Commerce did not step in to rescind the price rise.

I feel in part that social media has become a much better barometer of consumers’ feelings than traditional media in countries like Saudi Arabi. The Almarai boycott is a simple example of this.

What Almarai also proved is how bad Saudi firms are at communications and public relations. Rather than reaching out to consumers the company acted as if it was immune to criticism. The company’s CEO talked to a business news channel, MBC Al Arabiya, rather than talking to his customers. Almarai issued statements to the Saudi stock market rather than getting people online to start a discussion with disgruntled consumers. The company failed to talk with Saudis who buy its products and was duly punished for ignoring them.

Following the boycott Almarai has set up a communications department, in part to tackle reputational management issues as well as crisis communications. However, I’m not optimistic that if Almarai does try for a second time to raise prices the company will be ready to tackle the backlash. For that to happen, the management needs to understand that they have to reach out to consumers, talk with them both online and offline, and understand their concerns. I hope I am proved wrong.

Empowering women in Saudi through Glowork

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Despite the size of the Kingdom and the importance of the country both in terms of its GDP and population, it’s not often that I get excited about anything online over here in Saudi. Recently, one initiative which I’ve been fully behind has proved that there are people out there who understand the power of the internet and who are determined to harness it for the good of progress in Saudi Arabia.

I was introduced to the team behind Glowork before its official launch. Put as simply as possible, Glowork is the first employment website dedicated to women looking for work in Saudi Arabia. Remarkably, there’s never been any similar initiative that I’ve been aware of in the country despite the millions of women over here both in employment and wanting to work. This is even more surprising considering that the majority of Saudi university graduates are females. There’s a wealth of talent out there that few companies have tapped into.

The team at Glowork have worked flat out to build awareness about the site among all the women out there online in Saudi as well as with employers. They’ve identified a niche and they are matching women with companies who they may not otherwise have been able to connect with. The likes of Panda, Microsoft and KPMG are today using Glowork to advertise positions for women in Saudi Arabia.

What is also striking is that Glowork’s marketing people are not using conventional advertising to promote themselves. Instead, they’ve gone online and are busy posting updates on Facebook and tweeting about new positions. This approach has allowed the site to build up a loyal following among thousands of women in the Kingdom as well as enable these women to interact with those behind the site and learn about the recruitment process.

We’re still a long way off having women being an integral part of the workforce in Saudi Arabia. However, sites such as Glowork will make a huge difference to all those women looking to start their careers in Jeddah, Riyadh and Al-Khobar. When you think that there’s over ten million women here, that’s a huge market to tap into.

Kudos to Glowork’s founders for being both the first into this space and for how they’re looking to reach out to women through social media. I hope others learn from your efforts. And if you haven’t checked out the Glowork site then go there, now!