Navigate
1) Introduction and Facts
2) Factors Driving Social Media
3) Current News
4) Case Studies
5) Interviews
6) Business Perspective


Introduction
Israel has been known for it's numerous contributions to the world in terms of inventions and intelligence. From finance to science, Israelis seem to hold true to their calling as the "Chosen People". This comes as no surprise that internet-based entreprenuers are fast on the increase in Israel. "The Web 2.0 scene in Israel is very strong. If you compare the number of people that actually live in the country and the number of internet start ups that have evolved from here, it's a tremendous number." says Ayelet Noff, blogger and independent social media marketing consultant.

Israel Blogosphere
Community for English Israel blogger - israelrelated.com

Start-up Israel - A Website on Web 2.0
Start-up Israel is a rather unique Israeli website that contains tips and guides on using web 2.0 tools to help start-up companies. Their aim is to provide relevant information to different groups of people like entrepreneurs to empower them in using the potential power of the internet.

This website contains;
articles like "What an Executive Summary Is" - to help start-ups understand writing for Venture Capitalists,
a news aggregator on those blogs that are focused on web 2.0 technologies,
a forum for discussion amongst the site creators and users,
important information on the web 2.0 start-up scene etc.

Through creating a one-stop destination for potential start-up companies to learn more, they hope to increase the web 2.0 usage by businesses in Israel.

Social Networking in Israel


Currently the most popular social network in Israel is US-based Facebook. The Israeli Facebook network saw high growth figures towards the end of 2007. Ha'aretz stated that the growth in Israel's Facbook jumped 100% in Oct 2007 to Nov 2007 reaching 100,000 users. However in 2008, the growth rate has slowed to about 5% in Febuary and latest figures in Febuary 2008 show a total of 427,740 users (11.56% penetration per internet user).

Even the foreign government of Israel recognized this trend towards social networking and they created their own official Embassy of Israel Facebook Group.





Security Issues
The Israeli defence army is moving to tighten policies of the data posted on social networks after the incident of an Israeli soldier being prosecuted and jailed for posting an army-sensitive photo on his facebook profile. A review of the Israeli facebook profiles show that some Israeli soldiers had posted up pictures of army bases, operation rooms and submarines onto their pages.
Source: BBC News, The Inquirer


Promoting of Social Media
In April 2008, the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest invited 10 Israel bloggers living in America to return to Israel to mingle and meet with other web 2.0 entrepreneurs, bloggers and business people from Israel. These 10 bloggers recorded their journey on their own blogs as well as a shared blog called Travelling Geeks which gave their readers an insight into the social media scene in Israel. The blogggers include; Robert Scoble, Craig Newmark, Susan Mernit, Cathy Brooks, Deb Schultz, Jeff Saperstein, Brad Reddersen, Renee Blodgett, Sarah Lacy and the consulate’s Ishmael Khald. Through the connections established by the Consulate as well as their own contacts, the bloggers were given the chance to meet different groups of Israelis living and working using web 2.0.

Some interesting posts on the journey include:

- Adam Sher's Perspective on Art & Life
Blogger Renee Blodgett had the opportunity to meet Israeli artist, Adam Sher, who was borned in Russia. Adam Sher describes his art as "traditional realism". In this interview with Blodgett, Sher talks about the development of realism art in Israel as well as his motivations.

- A Slow Walk Through Old Jerusalem
This blog post show a fasinating collection of photographs taken by the blogger as she journeys through Old Jerusalem and tries to capture the essence and spirit of the people living in that area. This post shows the old architecture of Israel in contrast to the cosmopolitan developments that is slowly taking over.

- Q&A with a top social marketing expert
Ayelet Noff is well-known in Israel's social media scene as one of the pioneers in social marketing. She does consultation for companies looking to tap onto web 2.o with advice on branding marketing, product development etc. Noff is well connected in Israel as well as New York (where she grew up) and banks on her connections to help her clients understand and use social media.