An interesting article by Alexander McNabb, a group account director at Spot On Public Relations, this guy is amazing I enjoy reading his articles and his speeches are really amazing, I enjoyed it twice at The Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference in Jordan.

“This is a public service column. All you have to do is clip it, or send the link from the Campaign website ‘Opinion’ section, and send it to your client/boss/partner in Europe or the US. You won’t get blamed for it, I will. But it will, I guarantee, buy you a better quality of life.

One. Friday is the weekend in the vast majority of the Middle East, apart from Lebanon which does Saturday/Sunday. Some places, mostly in the Gulf, have Thursday afternoon and Friday, most in the Levant and an increasing number in the Gulf have Friday and Saturday. The guaranteed day off across 98% of the region is Friday. Therefore this is not a great day to call us in the office, send us urgent e-mails demanding a release get sent out or ask us to send clippings over to Alan in Wyoming without fail by 5pm.

Few people spend their days off on mail. Try sending a text, for instance. Thursday at 6pm our time is not a great time for that conference call. Try moving it to Friday at 6pm your time and see how you like it. Or better, Sunday at 8am your time suits us.

Two. We live in, and many of us manage operations across, a multi-country region. Connectivity standards across the region vary massively and many of us travel extensively. People who use a mixture of broadband, dial-up and GPRS connectivity to stay in touch tend not to appreciate eight megabyte e-mails with an FYI picture of a product not being released in this region. Get an extranet.

Three. An Arabian is a type of horse, not a person or language. The language is called Arabic and the people that speak it are Arabs. The Arab media is produced in Arabic. Saudi Arabia is preferably not referred to as Saudi and, please, never as ‘Sordi’. It’s the Arabian Gulf and not the Persian Gulf, unless you’re Iranian. There’s no such thing as a Dubaian in the Middle East. These are aliens from the planet Duba.

Four. We write executive briefings, perversely, not just to bill fees but for executives to read. That helps them to avoid making daft mistakes, causing offence and making your company look like it doesn’t give a damn about the region, its peoples or their sensibilities. The Palestine thing is a real issue, for one reason or another. So do, please, take it seriously as an area that requires deft and delicate handling.

Five. Ask us first. We might be able to help.”