Archive | Facebook
Friends help couple raise wedding money through Facebook
Couple had no money for wedding so friends opened Facebook group to raise funds leading hundreds of virtual strangers to volunteer, contribute to create major celebration
When D. and M. from Bat Yam decided to get married they didn’t have very high expectations for their wedding. Their unstable financial situation meant they couldn’t even dream about having a big event.
Their original plan was to head to the Rabbinate, get married there and call it at that. Then Facebook and their friends came into the picture.
The touching story began a month ago. M.’s three friends were chatting with her about her relationship with D. She told them they were getting married and in the same breath made it clear there would be no big white wedding as there was no money.
Her shocked friends decided they could not let M. go ahead with her dreary plan and decided to come to her aid. One of them, Noa Zaig, chose Facebook as her wedding-day aide. She opened a group called “organizing a wedding together” and asked Israel’s Facbook users to help in making M. and D.’s special day a happy one.
They wrote: “We are organizing a wedding, in Jewish tradition what is known as Hachnasat Kallah (Providing for a Bride) for a young couple that due to a complicated life history haven’t a dime to get married. With their agreement we’ve decided to organize a wedding worthy of the occasion and would be happy to receive assistance.”
Moments later offers began to trickle in: A makeup artist agreeing to do the bride’s makeup for free, a car service willing to take the couple to the event. Soon, the trickle became a flood as the group’s wall filled with offers. Bands, photographers, artists and more all vying to contribute.
In fact, the response was so enthusiastic that contributors became quite competitive over who would get to give something to the couple for the wedding.
At this stage the couple’s friends decided to kick it up a notch: asking Facebook users to contribute things for the couple’s new life together: Furniture and electrical appliances; they even opened a bank account for people wishing to give money.
In total some 280 people joined together to help the couple. “We were very surprised, this goes beyond anything we planned,” said Inbal, one of the event’s organizers. The couple themselves were initially not aware of the Facebook venture.
Source: Ynetnews.com
Facebook Expected to Open Advertising Department in Israel
Social networking giant Facebook is expected to open an Israel office by the end of the year in order to increase its pool of potential advertisers in Israel.
Facebook is currently the second-most used site in Israel, behind Google.
The company feels that opening a local advertising department will significantly increase the purchase of Facebook ads in Israel.
Representatives from Facebook headquarters have visited Israel in the past few weeks to meet with prominent advertisers as well as companies that develop leading applications for the online social network.
The Facebook representatives, who visited employees at Google’s Israel office, were also looking to hire marketing and sales people.
Until now, Facebook’s media sales in Israel were managed by Nana10 for premium clients, i.e. advertisers with extensive budgets.
Source: Algemeiner
VIDEO: President Shimon Peres – Be My Friend For Peace (Noy Alooshe Remix Video)
President Shimon Peres visited social network giant Facebook’s headquarters Tuesday in what he described as an effort to use social networking to mend divides governments have been unable to bridge.
Peres met with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who helped him launch the 88-year-old leader’s personal page aimed at creating a dialogue with young Arabs who live in countries that do not have diplomatic ties with Israel.
“The President will call on them to talk with him, to ask questions and to offer ideas to advance peace between peoples, not just between governments,” Peres’ staff said in a statement.
The visit comes as part of Peres’ four-day swing through Silicon Valley. Touring top tech companies has become a rite of passage for politicians and celebrities passing through the region.
President Shimon Peres at Facebook Live (TODAY – 12:00PM EST)
Watch Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s live interview with President Shimon Peres. the live interview will be broadcasted on the president’s official page at 9:00 AM PST
(CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO)
Zuckerberg to help Peres launch Facebook page
President joins world of social networking, launches Israeli, international Facebook pages with help of Mark Zuckerberg
The president of the State of Israel is joining Facebook and is set to receive a near-royal welcome. Shimon Peres is planning on taking advantage of the social network to call on citizens of the world to ask him questions through his official page on the site and even to suggest ideas that could promote peace in the Middle East.
Peres’ page in its Israeli version will be launched on Friday and the international version will be launched with more pomp and ceremony at the Facebook headquarters in San Francisco.
The initiative is part of a new project to promote peace. Its main goal is to create communication with citizens of countries that Israel does not necessarily have diplomatic relations with, with an emphasis on younger citizens from Arab countries. The plan aims to enable them to propose ideas on possible methods of bringing people, rather than just countries, closer.
The president is expected to set out for a visit to the US during which, on March 6, he will visit the Facebook headquarters in the Silicone Valley where he will meet with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Peres will also give an interview which will be transmitted live on Facebook Live. Facebook members from around the world will get the opportunity to ask the president personal questions.
As part of preparations for the launch, the President’s Residence asked musician Noy Alooshe – who was responsible for the Gaddafi ‘Zenga Zenga’ clip – to produce a video clip that would be broadcast on social networks in which Peres asks web surfers to be his friends on Facebook. The clip, Be my Friends for Peace will be premiered when Peres visits the Facebook offices.
Yet Peres’ cyber campaign doesn’t stop there. The President’s Residence noted that they are preparing to launch the project “Peres 360″ which will see him becoming “available” 24 hours a day on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and the President’s Residence.
The social networks will be synchronized to allow maximum accessibility to the president’s activity in real time.
“Launching a Facebook page for the president is an extremely important move to strengthening the ties between the president and the broad public throughout the globe,” added the Director General of the President’s Residence Efrat Duvdevani, “and it will form a platform to promote President Peres’ vision of peace while offering positive exposure for the State of Israel.”
Source: Ynetnews.com
Peres, Clinton to take part in Facebook peace conference
 on http://sizedoesntmatter.com){kind=link}
 on http://sizedoesntmatter.com){kind=link}
Thousands of participants from Israel, Arab world set to be part of first ever virtual peace conference hosted by Peres Peace Center Abbas, Pep Guardiola, Sharon Stone will also attend
At 10:00 am on the dot, the signal will be given and the first ever Facebook peace conference will take off. The conference will include representatives from the Arab world and from Israel and is being promoted by the Peres Center for Peace and the Yalla Palestine Initiative.
A former Israeli peace negotiator says thousands of young Jewish and Arab activists from across the Middle East plan to participate in the peace conference this week on Facebook.
President Shimon Peres, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, actress Sharon Stone, Barcelona football coach Pep Guardiola, National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern and others are set to address the virtual gathering. Some will do so via video link while others have sent in a written message.
Uri Savir, Director of the Peres Center for Peace, a sponsor of the Facebook group said that the purpose of the conference is “first and foremost to shape the agenda for the Middle East’s next generation with regards to the region’s future.
“The second goal is to adopt four joint projects or initiatives that will be industrial parks that will include the establishment of online academic programs, training young leaders in cooperation with major US universities, promoting music projects and more.”
When the Yalla initiative was launched it’s founders thought it would become a web-based venture that would attract maybe 2,500 members – a typical number for this kind of initiative. Yet Israel’s social protests last summer and the revolutions in the Arab world in which Facebook had a major role, acted as a springboard for the initiative.
Today, the initiative has 37,000 members on its page including 9,000 from Egypt, 3,500 Israelis, 2,500 Palestinians, 1,500 Algerians, 1,400 Moroccans, 1,050 Iraqis, 700 Saudi Arabians, 500 Libyans, 190 from Lebanon and representatives from other countries as well.
Nimrod Ben-Zeev, the site’s administrator, says the conference aims to send a message of peace to the region’s leaders and create concrete programs, such as online leadership academy.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Source: Ynetnews.com