The social influence of tweeters and bloggers in Middle East is playing a vital role in shaping the society, whether it’s by initiating a social movement, influencing to buy a new product and people turning to them for latest news. When you’re embarking on a campaign, one of the most important goals is finding social media influencers. If you can get relevant and well known influencers behind, it gives your campaign an invaluable edge.

This week has been an eventful Facebook week, “coincidentally” following on from the release of new social network Google+ last week. The main highlights of the week; Arabic to overtake English as number 1 language in Middle East Following a recent study commissioned by Middle Eastern PR agency Spot On PR, results have indicated that within a year, users in the Middle East will be using Facebook in Arabic more than any other language.

It’s a short week for those of us in the UAE, but there’s still plenty to highlight in this special all-Google edition from the week that was. Google Launches Google+ The much-hyped Google social network, dubbed Google+, is now open for a public beta and invites to the Google+ network are already going fast. Once inside, users will notice some striking similarities to Facebook, or as some commentators have uncharitably put it, a “clone.

Along with his Morland cigarettes, Walther PPK and Savile Row suits, it seems that James Bond has another favourite brand: The National newspaper. In Carte Blanche, the latest instalment of his thrilling adventures, written by Jeffery Deaver, an American thriller writer, Chapter 26 begins: “James Bond had his coffee and water in front of him as he sat with The National newspaper, published out of Abu Dhabi. He considered it the best newspaper in the Middle East.

Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in digital and social media. As always, the news and latest developments in the digital world have been overwhelming and really exciting. Here are some of the news pieces that caught my attention: Mubarak fined for information shutdown Hosni Mubarak was ousted in an uprising in Egypt in January 2011. A Cairo court yesterday fined the ousted president and two ex-ministers $US90 million for a mobile and internet shutdown during the uprising.

Recently I had the opportunity to attend the Doha Debates; a well-known series that is produced in Doha, Qatar by the Qatar Foundation and aired monthly via BBC World news. The aim of the debates: to enable the outside world to catch a glimpse of the issues affecting the Arab world, and provide a free forum for discussion. Launched over seven years ago, the programme – which is filmed in front of a select audience of students and high-end university scholars – identifies tough local issues and pulls in senior level politicians and academics from across the world to discuss, debate and take questions from the audience.

Oh, such a dramatic week. First, Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs – now known to have had an affair with Welsh model Imogen Thomas – put his foot in it by attempting to sue Twitter after some of its users posted his name despite the fact he had taken out an injunction preventing UK media from naming him. The only problem is that it caused so much outrage that Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming used parliamentary priveleges to name him anyway.

I have just returned from a four day trip in Kuwait after having helped set up the digital channels for The Fahad Center Inaugural Forum and must say I had a very interesting time. The Forum titled “Renewing Dialogue for Peace and Advancing Freedom and Human Rights in Today’s World” was a two day event hosted by Kuwaiti Sheikh Fahad Al Salem Al Ali Al Sabah, and featured a number of prominent world leaders from all over the globe.

If we ignore the fact that some journalists are just impossible to please – I’m not naming any names, but you know who you are; at least you should do… And if you don’t give me a call, and I’ll put you straight – there are some interesting findings in the Insight/MediaSource Middle East Journalist Survey 2011. Its aim is to establish how happy journalists are with the way they receive information from both the public and private sectors, and to provide a “snapshot” of the mood in journalism across the Middle East.

As always a busy week, but top of your reading list should be coverage of the 2011 Arab Media Forum by our own Arabian Bytes team. Check out Day 1 coverage from Alanood Al-Feel and Day 2 coverage from Rachel McArthur. On to the news… Netflix Now The Largest Single Source of Internet Traffic In North America Netflix has had a busy week. First, a study from Sandvine shows the video streaming website now accounts for 29.