Today we’d like to introduce you to Yasser Masood.
Hi Yasser, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started my professional career working for a global airline’s newly-formed social media team. Joining them just months after they established the team itself, while I was unemployed after graduating from college for more than a year. Best part was they hunted me. I wore multiple hats when it came to social media marketing (compared to what I’ve seen and heard about people here): filming, post-production editing, advertising, partnership marketing, community management, creators/influencers partnerships, social listening/monitoring, measurement, and additional digital marketing responsibilities alongside the administrative work (all without any external creative agency to help, except for having a sports agency to help promote the various commercial partnerships).
Over the years, I’ve had the chance to work with numerous external partners like FIFA (yes, that also included the FIFA World Cup tournaments), F1, Formula E, Brooklyn Nets, Paris Saint-Germain, FC Barcelona, FC Bayern München, AS Roma, Inter Milan, CONBEMOL (Football/soccer federation for South America), CONCACAF (soccer federation for North America, Carribean, and Central America), and many more to list out.
It was after my first year of work they launched flights to Dallas-Fort Worth (1 July 2014) as they were expanding more across the USA in the years that followed. Also, I’d add that the pandemic was the best reset for the business to see social media’s impact (FYR, we had flights into Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago during that time and slowly restored flights to other places like NYC, LA, Washington DC, and more as things improved)
In parallel, I’ve also been running my own independent blog covering the Middle East region’s growing influence as many US-based businesses have been making significant investments and moves there (e.g. Snap recently opened their third office in the region in Qatar, OpenAI partnered with the UAE for Stargate UAE region to support ChatGPT, etc.).
Outside of work, I’ve also been credited on social media for making new feature discoveries as well (https://yassermasood.name/discoveries-social-media). In addition, some of my industry insights to trending news topics also had me featured by the LinkedIn News team multiple times (https://yassermasood.name/linkedin-news-editorial-feature).
After 11 years, I decided to take a career break moved to Dallas back in September 2024 to spend more time with family. Now, I revived one of my bucket list goals and will be pursuing my graduate studies at The University of Texas at Dallas.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s been a challenge when trying to teach the business about the benefits and impact of social media. Sometimes, it would take them a crisis to learn things the hard way (this happened multiple times during my tenure) and then they would finally embrace it. In addition, most times things weren’t even planned and even had to be on standby to travel to support the business.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I started off as a social media marketing professional in an individual contributor role at Qatar Airways, picking up and learning things as trends shifted and platforms changed policies. I became the team’s go-to guy for many things, while also juggling my responsibilities. It also had me travel a lot, with one time seeing my passport booklet filled out in one year while I rushed to get a new one in preparation for future travels.
In addition, I’ve been an avid tech lover since I always keep up with the latest in the tech news and chime in.
If there’s one thing people who know me personally can attest to, it’s been my obsessive insight into social media and the tech landscape.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I’m open to opportunities to work and collaborate, so that everyone benefits. If you’re someone keen to learn more about the Middle East or even want to talk more about the travel/airlines sector, then I’m your person. Even if you also want to talk more about the tech and social media landscape, I welcome those conversations. I believe in paying it forward in some form, as things tend to boomerang back positively with a multiplier effect.
When it comes to supporting me, I’m still learning the way of life here in the DFW Metroplex and wider Texas state alongside the whole country itself. Any insider tips and guidance would greatly help in acclimating to life here.
I can easily be contacted via LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/yassermasood – it helps if you add a note so that you stand out against other people) or via my portfolio website (https://yassermasood.name)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://yassermasood.name
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yassermasood
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YasserMasood86
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yassermasood
- Twitter: https://x.com/YasserM86
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@YasserMasood
- Other: https://www.thegeekynomads.com
