Feature
The Influencers
Nina Mufleh
text by Kyle thornburg
photograph by Shaz Khan
Nina Mufleh, 32, is an experienced marketer and social media
professional. A California native, Mufleh spent the last decade
in the Middle East where she worked for Queen Rania of Jordan
to spearhead her presence in the digital space. Mufleh went on
to co-found The Online Project, which is the Middle East’s leading social media agency and one of the top 40 worldwide. In
May 2015, she launched www.nina4airbnb.com, a social media
experiment and an unusual appeal for job at Airbnb that garnered worldwide attention.
Like a breadcrumb trail, you’ve made international impact
from Amman, Jordan to San Francisco, California. How
has your global background aided you as a professional?
I’ve been very lucky to have the opportunity to work on global
campaigns from the beginning of my career. My first job out of
college was in the communications department at the Office of
Queen Rania of Jordan. She is a high profile international figure,
and working as part of her team taught me to think strategically.
What aspects of your time in the Office of Her Majesty
were most formative for you?
It’s rare to work in a government office that fosters a culture of
entrepreneurship and autonomy. I was extremely fortunate to be
exposed to that, and to top it off I had an amazing manager who
encouraged me to test out all of my unorthodox communication
ideas. The one that had the biggest impact on me was when I lead
the Queen’s first social media experiment. Celebrities and government personalities didn’t use social media platforms then the
way they do today, so not only were we working on something
unconventional, but it was focused on using social media tools
to bridge communication gaps and cultural misunderstanding.
How did the idea of The Online Project come to fruition?
After working at Queen Rania’s office for three years and developing a deep understanding of the potential impact of social
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media technology, I wanted to experiment further. A friend of
mine saw the opportunity to capitalize on this by working with
brands in the Middle East. So, the two of us, along with a third
co-founder, began offering campaign ideas to Fortune 500
companies. Within a few months we had signed on the region’s
largest telecom conglomerate and several globally-recognized
brands. That’s when we realized that our experiment was turning into a full-fledged agency and a successful business.
Airbnb has been the recent subject of your professional
ambitions. Describe how your modern approach to capturing the company’s attention has unfolded for you.
My strategy was to utilize my skills as a marketing professional
to sell myself as a product. I had to create a campaign that people
would want to talk about and that meant doing something bold
and valuable.
What idea of yours have you been you most fulfilled by?
After a year of continuous professional rejection, I began to
doubt some of my own abilities. Seeing this experiment capture
the attention of millions of people felt like a great accomplishment. The real fulfillment of it though came in the form of the
thousands of messages I’ve received from strangers telling me
this has inspired them to go after their own dreams.
Do you have a mantra to keep you balanced as a high-performing young woman on and off the clock?
Celebrate the successes, learn from the failures, and push yourself to new limits.
Who are the women who inspire you most?
I’ve worked with many inspirational women in my career. At
The Online Project, our team of 52 people was predominantly
women, and I learned so much from each one of them.