View of part of the Fujairah Corniche and the Hajar Mountains in the Background

Monday, July 6, 2009

HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Faces Up to His Friends

Nick Burcher has written an article on his blog that was inspired by the UAE Prime Minister. His article begins:

“Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is now on Facebook, doing q and a sessions with the public online - and with 773,280 Facebook users in the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum has a large potential audience.”

To read the entire article:

Link
Nick Burcher, Politicians and Twitter-Passing Fad of Long-Term Communication Vehicle? 6 July 2009.

Further
Some of Nick Burcher’s comments also appear in this article:
Sean O’Driscoll, Facing Up to a New World, 7 Days, 5 July 2009.

Face to Face with the Sheikh
I wrote an article on 27 June 2009 entitled ‘Connect with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid on Facebook, ETE. At that stage (only two days after Sheikh Mohammed had established his Facebook Page) he had 700 friends. Less than two weeks later (6 July 2009) his Facebook Friends number 1417.

Check this ETE article for the link to connect with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum on Facebook.

Stop Press
A few minutes after posting this article Sheikh Mohammed sent this message on Facebook:
أشكر كل من أعرب عن رغبته في الانضمام إلى قائمة أصدقائي عبر هذه الصفحة، ونظرا لتزايد أعداد من يرغب أن يسجل في صفحتي،قررت تحويل الصفحة الحالية إلى صفحة "شخصية عامة" حتى يتمكن الجميع من المشاركة والتواصل معي
I would like to thank all who have sent me friend requests on Facebook. In order to accept the vast volume of such requests, this profile will be moved to a new "public page" over the next few days.

GP writes: As I said in my earlier article, personal Facebook pages have a limit of 5,000 friends. Well known leaders such as Sheikh Mohammed will easily exceed this number, hence the need to move to a ‘public page’ where one ‘becomes a fan of’ rather than ‘a friend’.

Dr Geoff Pound
Geoff can be contacted at geoffpound(@)gmail.com or on Facebook.

Image: A glance at HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum’s Facebook page.