International Networking On Social Media

A business blog is a great long term investment to establish online visibility. But it takes a combination of skills to make your business blog successful.  And it also takes a fair bit of social networking to make your blog successful.  This is why belonging to good social business communities can make a difference to your blog’s success.

Blogging Communities

There are a variety of different blogging communities, but only a few of them are really geared towards the business blogger. Most of the blogging communities are aimed for a mixed audience of people who want to make money online with a few professionals using their business blogs to promote their offline business.

Here are some of the blogging communities I’m a member of.

Authority Blogger. This is a small friendly group run by Chris Garrett. Members are mainly professional bloggers.

Problogger. This is a big community of probloggers run by Darren Rowse.

Third Tribe. This communities goes beyond blogging, but there are many great bloggers participating here. The only trouble is that it’s a big community and still very active since it’s launch a short while ago.

Group Blogging Platforms

For some reason I prefer to participate in group blog projects rather than guest posting.  So I’m active in a few different ones:

ClickDocuments.  This is for content marketers and it’s a very well run group project that’s fun to participate in.

Sales Bloggers.  This is a sales blogging group of dedicated sales bloggers.  The professional level of the people in this group is refreshing and it’s a pleasure to participate here.

Bloggertone.  This is a fairly new group blog which started off with a large Irish community and is becoming more international.  I like the international community here and that fact that it is a dynamic community.

Social Bookmarking Sites

Sometimes it’s easier to connect with people in smaller business communities.  And this is where social bookmarking platform for business articles can be interesting.

BizSugar.  This is a social bookmarking site for business articles and it’s still small enough where it’s very easy to network with other members.

Social Business Networking

As you go about networking on different social media platforms it’s easy to find small business communities where it’s worth spending a little time.  You can find these on:

Facebook Business Pages.  More and more businesses are creating Business Pages on Facebook, and even though they are on Facebook as a marketing exercise, they are also great places for social business networking too.

Twitter Lists.  Although this may take some time, it’s worth spending a little time to network with your own Twitter lists or through the Twitter lists of others.

LinkedIn Groups.  Some LinkedIn groups are more interesting than others. If there are some good ones related to your areas of interest, this could be a great place to find other business bloggers.

When Business  Blogging Communities Come Together

As I mentioned earlier, two social business communities are teaming up this week to run the  Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest March 15^th- 19^th

It’s an opportunity to join in and widen your own social business communities.

Networking in social business communities can help you to improve your business blogging and open your social networking circles for faster online success.

What about you?

• What are your favorite social business communities?
• How do you use social communities in your business networking?
• What role do social business communities play in your online success?

More on International Networking On Social Media

• Social Media Networking With Twitter Lists
• Links And International Social Networking
• Is Social Media Changing Business Networking?

Copyright © Cindy King 2006-2010 - Cindy King

Social Business Communities

Events

Your online success is always centered on the content you publish on the web. Business blogging has the advantage of publishing relevant content on a consistent basis. This is why so many professionals start blogging. But it’s not always easy to continue blogging while running a business.

This is why it’s great to get involved in social business networks. These are the online communities where you pick up good tips and learn from each other. And these social networks also help you to become a better business blogger.

Sugartone: Sweet Business Blogging Contest

Two of these social business networks, BizSugar the social bookmarking site for business articles & Bloggertone the business bloggers community, are partnering up to put on Sugartone, the Sweet Business Blogging Contest, with prizes specifically targeting professionals who publish articles online.

I wrote about Sugartone last week. Well, it starts now, Monday March 15th at 9am EST, 4pm GMT and that 5pm my time here in Paris.

How To Participate In Sugartone

There are 2 ways to win the prizes. All you need to participate in the Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest is either:

• Write an original business article writer with a great title
• Vote and comment on the business articles submitted for the contest

Aiming for a Top 10 Titles prize? You can submit your articles between Monday March 15th at 9am EST which is 4pm GMT and Wednesday March 17th at 9am EST which is 4pm GMT to submit your articles.

Aiming for a Top 10 Commenters prize? You can vote and comment between Monday March 15th at 9am EST which is 4pm GMT and Friday March 19th at 9am EST which is 4pm GMT.

$6921 In  Sugartone Prizes

Prizes include:

• Lead Page Machine – a software to automatically generate squeeze pages so that you can use this to tailor your squeeze pages to specific audiences, to build your email subscribers and increase your sales conversions. Valued at: $5200
• Animoto – a year’s membership to this easy tool which creates videos from photos.  Valued at: $249
• Traction Call – a 45 minute call with the Traction Coach Gary Barnes to help you to quickly get some “sand under your wheels” so you can move forward toward the life you want to live. Valued at $175
• ClickMillionaires – 2 x 6-month membership to Scott Fox’s social network helping business owners upgrade their marketing to make more money online. Valued at $174
• · 5 Critical Tactics for Business Blog Success – this CD and report by Denise Wakeman reveals how you can easily make your blog a winner. Valued at $97
• Start.Grow.Run – 8 x a software package with 45 essential tools and services for the 3 different phases of your business. Valued at $49.95 each

Plus there are 2 books for both the winners of the Top 10 Titles and the Top 10 Commenters. And the books include:

• Wordtracker Masterclass: Blogging For Business – 50 Steps to Building Traffic and Sales by Chris Garrett. 5 books valued at $39 each
• Sociable by Shane Gibson & Stephan Jagger. 5 books valued at $25 each
• New Community Rules by Tamar Weinberg. 5 books valued at $16.49 each
• Guest Posting by Chris Garrett. 5 ebooks valued at $10 each

Find Out More

Do you want to find out how you can win these prizes?  Then read more about the Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest.

Copyright © Cindy King 2006-2010 - Cindy King

Business Blogging Contest With $6921 In Prizes

International Links

In the past, I’ve shared the links found during my industry monitoring activities in weekly posts here. These links came from the tweets I shared during the previous week. But over the last few months I’ve revised my social media marketing plan and I’m doing things a bit differently.

In the process I’ve created a few extra Facebook Business Pages and I’ve now finally integrated my Facebook marketing within my social media marketing plan. This has changed how I create these weekly posts. Here’s how you can now get the fun, interesting and useful cross-cultural and international links I find each week:

• Become a fan of the Facebook Business Pages that interest you most, to get them on a daily basis
• Come back here every Sunday, to get the weekly re-cap

Here are the international and cross-cultural links for this week.

Cross-Cultural Topics

• 65,000 Year Old Language Goes Extinct As Boa Sr Dies - A tribal language thought to have existed for 65,000 years has disappeared forever in India’s Andaman Islands, taken to the grave with its last speaker.
• Mint Map: World Currencies in the Recession – This map by Mint.com is a bit old, but it’s still interesting to look at. How has the recession impacted your International Marketing?
• Colour Changing Card Trick YouTube video - This is a fun demonstration about why we need to be aware of our perceptions and the role they play in understanding things.
• Music and Life YouTube video – This is a good demonstration of how the culture we grow up in impacts our lives… and how there are other ways to look at things.

Facebook Business Page on Cross-Cultural Communication:

International Business

• In Italian Google Case, American and European Ideas of Privacy Collide – European rights of privacy versus American freedom of expression. This is an interesting read to underrstand the complexities of international business
• German Skill in Exporting Puts Pressure on E.U. Neighbors - Here’s an interesting big picture look at one of Germany’s miniature multinational companies. Just out of curiosity, how many “miniature multinational companies” do you know of? Where are they located?
• Google Gets EU’s Attention Again for Street View Images - It’s always fun to take the time to really listen to the differences of opinions in International Business. Cultural differences are easy to see in this International Social Media example. What do you think? Is the EU over protective or not?
• China Says Google as Vital as Electricity…This Just In, Google Becomes Electric Utility - It’s funny how International Business can take unexpected turns. Andy Beal’s update is a good read.
• Reflections: Social Media and NGO/CSR Workshop in India - Beth Kanter shares some great tips about adapting your presentations for different cultures

Facebook Business Page on International Business:

International Marketing

• And the Winner for Most Important Social Media Channel is … - HubSpot’s 2010 State of Inbound Marketing clearly shows that more businesses are using blogs in their marketing strategy. Inbound marketing helps save money to cut down the cost of leads. For International Business this can also be true. Does anyone have any examples to share?
• The Webinar Blog: Dont Give Green Hats In China - I’ve heard of a story about a company giving green hats in China. Ken Molay also shares his experience giving webinars to a Japanese audience. What cultural differences do you think it’s important to note for successful webinars?
• Cents and Sensibility: Why Marketing to Multicultural Consumers Requires a Subtle Touch. – A great read on Wharton
• Junta42 Content Marketing blog: Content Marketing in Slovenia - There’s a video in this article explaining why content marketing is relevant in Slovenia.
• Marketing In India: Do Celebrities Really Matter? - The parallel Rohit Bhargava makes between celebrity marketing in the US and in India is interesting. Do you think this trend in celebrity marketing is on the rise in other countries too?

Facebook Business Page on International Marketing:

International Sales

• The Challenge: Traversing the Cloud of Sales 2.0 - What’s sales 2.0? Paul Simon raises some thought-provoking questions. And of course, I wonder how sales 2.0 will impact international sales practices.
• How To Navigate Different Perspectives To Close International Sales - Here’s my article on International Sales on SalesBloggers.com It’s fascinating to look at how different perspectives impact sales.
• How to sell wine to China - Great story on how to create viable brands for Chinese buyers by supplying “a product-range that is custom-designed to attract positive attention and increasing sales in China specifically.”
• International Salespeople Always Stay Connected - When your sales depend on many months of prior ground work you don’t ever want to stop nurturing your sales. How long do you need to cultivate your sales before they come through?
• International Sales Compensation For New Market Entry - Are international sales professionals always compensated for all of the different hats they wear? Have a read and tell me what do you think?

Facebook Business Page on International Sales:

International Social Media

• Africa’s Quiet Mobile Revolution - Another great read by Steve Finikiotis on the emerging markets in Africa. Are you also monitoring how mobile technology is shaping business?
• Web Entrepreneurship: Does the City You Live in Matter? - This is an interesting question raised on Mashable. I’d like to add that different cultures react very differently to the notion of privacy & truth in disclosing location. This could impact popularity of some tools and I’m sure it’s only a question of time before some people will figure out…
• Internet Marketing Advice for Beginners – Here’s a good read by Tamar Weinberg author of The New Community Rules: Marketing On The Social Web. Do you think there’s lots of snake oil out there for International Social Media too? This article inspired me to write about my International Web Marketing Specialties.
• The State of the Twittersphere 2010 - Another great article by Brian Solis on Twitter with some international stats. I’m looking forward to the next time he runs stats to see what’s happened since the sharp decline in growth rate. Is Twitter helping your business?
• Time Spent on Social Networks up 82% Around the World - The stats and charts in this article by Brian Solis are worth looking at. Countries which average over 6 hours per person on social media are: US, UK, Australia …& Italy. Surprised?

Facebook Business Page on International Social Media:

Now It’s Your Turn

• What about you? Did you find any interesting links recently?
• What do these international and cross-cultural links inspire for you?
• Which international link is your favorite?

Copyright © Cindy King 2006-2010 - Cindy King

International Links: Week 10 2010

Cross-Cultural Twitter Interviews

You need strong cross-cultural skills when you travel or live abroad and when you work or interact often with people from different cultures.

It’s not always easy to develop your cross-cultural skills because it requires a fair amount of personal work to get to know yourself better. But the rewards are often worth the effort.

Here are some tips from the Cross-Cultural Twitter Interview series.

21 Tips To Grow Your Cross-Cultural Skills

1. Understand that EVERYTHING in life is culturally coded from when we were very young. So we all think differently about things: our meanings for things are deeply buried in our unconscious mind, what is a business for? how we think about our boss; what is luxury; quality; love; etc.  Individualism in Far East seen as immaturity- @deborahswallow
2. Research and appreciate the cultural diversity of the market you are preparing to visit before you travel there – @ohh_la_la
3. 1st, understand your OWN culture -> try to be understanding of others’ backgrounds. Now meet half way for common ground.- @HoeferleConsult
4. Visit the countries, get to know the people, try and see the world through their eyes. Learn from the experts including @CindyKing- @dkiernan
5. Immerse yourself deeply into other cultures by living & working in their country for at least six months- @transdomo
6. One tip to improve your cross-cultural skills…Know thyself–>Listen & Observe–>Communicate… in that order! – @culturematters
7. Be less self-righteous than who you are dealing with. The more humble you are, the more you are going to gain.- @PicSeshu
8. Travel, as “bare” as possible. When you are in need of something, you see how people react to your misery. Discovering people when out of your comfort zone is the greatest lesson ever! – @tdebaillon
9. One tip to improve cross-cultural skills is understand your own values & attitudes 1st so you can compare & contrast – @DR4Ward
10. Develop ability 2 appreciate historical backgrounds Honor experiences that might contradict ur way of looking @ life – @XCulture
11. Put yourself in the other culture’s shoes and think about what stereotypes exist about your own culture. – @jackyan
12. Learn a foreign language. Language and culture are so intertwined that… to fully understand the psyche of another nationality, you must know the language… – @CotterHUE
13. Learn another language – @wisequeen
14. Practice patience & never underestimate power of observation & ability to listen; if u make an effort … prepare to be pleasantly surprised; people care about you when you care and are genuinely interested in them – @DoreenatDMS
15. Be flexible when facing different values – try to understand what reasons lie behind other ways of thinking – @pocketcultures
16. Get out there amongst it! As a global village most people have many ethnicities within their community~and then there is the Internet~Skye, chat rooms, online classrooms, forums, blogs, email, video etc – @psitutor
17. Travel & try to understand local cultures. That open minds, changes perspectives & creates cross-cultural skills. – @culturalrealms
18. Adapt to the occasion, learn different languages, respect other cultures AND don’t hesitate to ask. – @mintblogger
19. Take the jump and just “do it,” i.e., travel and move abroad. – @lyceum
20. “Common Sense”, and all our underlying assumptions about everything are learned, and vary between cultures. Interact with different cultures with the knowledge that things you take for granted as true, are not universal. – @SeanJamesOliver
21. Other ways of doing & thinking just might be better so enter with an open mind – @DavidComp
22. I’d say be curious. If you’re curious, you’re observing, listening, questioning, reflecting and learning – @CateBrubaker

What Is Your Tip To Grow Your Cross-Cultural Skills?

Which one of the tipdo you like most?

• Do you have a favorite?
• Does one stand out and resonate with you?
• Do you have another one to add?

Share your 1-word definitions below.

Copyright © Cindy King 2006-2010 - Cindy King

21 Tips To Grow Your Cross-Cultural Skills

Facebook

I just read a good article by Tom Pick on Facebook for B2B marketing.  Here are few things I came away with and a few more ways for professionals to use Facebook.

Facebook Prejudices Impact Your Marketing

As Tom pointed out, in the business world, you will often here something like this:

“LinkedIn is for business and Facebook is for friends and family”

Well, the trouble I have with this is that this smells of prejudgement. And prejudgement is not good because it leads to self-inflicted limitations.

These prejudgements linked to personal identity issues are very similar to what you see in cross-cultural communication.

The extra baggage you carry around will hurt your business.  Your marketing will suffer and so will your sales. A whole new world opens up when you simply put the baggage down on the ground long enough to take a look around.  You can still decide to pick up the baggage and hold on to it a bit longer, but the more often you set it down, the more you’ll realize prejudgements are just baggage.

Businesses often approach me to help them get more clients using social media communication.  But they have a big problem:

• They operate on this assumption or prejudgement that social media is not “professional” enough for them to use
• And then they expect to simply be able to order in some clients with someones who is comfortable using social media.

But this cannot work. It may be called “media” but it doesn’t work like the way “media” used to work in the last century. You are the master of your own social presence online and no one else can create the relationships you need to get results from social media.

Facebook Humanizes Your Business

There is a very important point Tom makes in his article:   People buy from other people.

• Facebook results show up high in Google searches and people use Google before making purchasing decisions.
• Facebook allows you to present your business in a way you might not be able to on your business website. And many of your potential buyers will appreciate this more approachable version of your business.

Sure, there are tons of things I hate about Facebook and I can easily see how Facebook doesn’t fit in a traditional business world. But there are a few essential reasons why businesses cannot afford to ignore Facebook.

• Sheer size, if it hasn’t hit you yet, do some research until it does. Facebook is huge.
• Google results. Google cannot afford to not pay attention to Facebook either.
• It gives you a good platform for content marketing. If your business can benefit from being online, your success is centered around content. That’s how you get noticed in the first place.

In addition to this, there are more and more examples of how businesses are using Facebook to create another form of communication with their “traditional” markets to strengthen their market presence.

Facebook Is Best For Nurturing Clients

Of course, once you humanize your business, as Tom points out, you can do a better job at nurturing your clients.  But there’s also another reason why nurturing clients is a great tactic to use on Facebook.

• Facebook is about real people

There’s only so much you can get away with on Facebook, because the relationships are much more social and people easily pick up on crap of any sort.

Compare this to your experience on LinkedIn.  I often get requests from people looking to hire cross-cultural professionals. And the companies explain they’d appreciate my help, because if they put out a question on LinkedIn, they’ll get a ton of people claiming to be the best in their field.  But how can you choose the best people?

This is where a strategic presence on Facebook would make all the difference in nurturing the right impression.

Now that I’ve bounced off a few of the points Tom made in his article, here are a few points of my own I’d like to add about marketing your business on Facebook.

Facebook Business Pages

I’m only online for business. I much prefer to hook up with my friends and family either on the phone or in person.  So Facebook is easy for me to navigate: I simply block and hide anything that is not relevant to my business.  It only takes a minute or two of regular upkeep on most days, but my Facebook feeds do look clean and professional.

But I understand that some people enjoy using Facebook to keep in touch with their friends and family. This is where the Facebook Business Pages come in very handy.

Did you notice I don’t like using the term “Fan Page”?  Facebook itself uses the term Business Page, but everyone likes to refer to the prominent fan button and call these Fan Pages.

It might not be much, but I do consider these as Business Pages.  This keeps my focus sharper and helps me to find a communication style on Facebook that fits both the social environment on Facebook and my own business objectives. We’re all learning what it means to humanize your business on Facebook.  The simple task of getting rid of the cute personal stuff makes it easier for me to find the right tone and not get annoyed with the distractions.

Facebook Vanity URLs To Get Good Keyword Results In Google Search

When I realized some of the keyword URL’s I create on for my Twitter lists were giving me top level results on Google searches, I quickly created 5 new Business Pages… simply because I wanted the SEO value they could provide.  Hey, I’m going after a couple of heavy keywords and I wanted to get them before anyone else did.

Unfortunately I sat on them for several weeks before daring to ask friends to fan all of these pages. So I lost one of the vanity URLs I was after: International Business, but I used International Business Ideas for the vanity URL instead.

Here are all of my Facebook Business Pages:

• CKbiz – my main Business Page. I had already used the URL CindyKing.biz for my profile page.
• GetInternationalClients – an old website I want to bring back from the ashes as soon as the Drip plugin for WishList Member is released
• InternationalBusinessIdeas
• InternationalSocialMedia
• InternationalMarketing
• InternationalSales

After creating these Facebook Business Pages, I found out that you can also create vanity URLs for any of the links on your Business Pages.  So for example, you can create a vanity URL with keywords for the tabs on your Facebook Business Page and use these to promote.  This may also be a good option for some businesses.

In the end, I’m happy with the extra Business Pages I created on Facebook because this gives me more options relevant to my own business.

Facebook As A New Bookmarking Tool

The reason why I sat on these new Business Pages for a few weeks was because I was figuring out the best way to use them.  And I decided to use 4 of them just like I use the Delicious bookmarking site.

• InternationalBusinessIdeas
• InternationalMarketing
• InternationalSales
• InternationalSocialMedia

Here’s why…

I “follow” a couple hundred blogs on my Google Reader.  This is the first thing I do every morning, as I have my morning coffee I check to see what’s in the news. I need to stay current of what’s going on in my industry, it helps me build a better business network.  And I also use the Google Reader to stay current on the skills I need to do my job.

So I have a number of folders in the Google Reader. There are days when I’m more interested in one subject than the others and it makes it easy for me to use the Google Reader this way. And of course I have folders for each of the keywords used for my new Business Pages.

So, as I read through these folders, I now share the links to the interesting articles on the corresponding Facebook Business Page.

Facebook As A Business Networking Tool

Of course, I try to interact with fans on all of the Facebook Business Pages. And to do this I consistently use 2 techniques:

• As I share the links, I write an update with a question I’m really interested in and hope others find it interesting too.
• Use the “@” function on Facebook to give a shout out to others and hope the question brings them back as well as appeal to the readers of their feed. Many people keep the settings so my update and link is published on their feed when I shout out to them with thie “@” function.

My hope is that over time this will help me to:

• Connect with others on Facebook interested in these topics
• Cultivate more feedback in the future
• Nurture my smaller business networks
• Better segmentation to understand my audience more

So, at the moment I’m essentially spending the same amount of time I used to spend bookmarking articles, except I’m now using these Facebook Business Pages as networking tools.

Facebook Content To Write A Book

Each of my Facebook Business Pages will slowly become a source of content on these different topics. I find this format more appealing than the collection of bookmarks on Delicious or any of the other social bookmarking platforms. And more networking can be done around these links than on a social bookmarking site. This in turn leads to even more content.

At the end of the year, or maybe sometime next year, there’ll be enough research and content to sit down and put a report or an ebook or even a book together.

How Are You Using Facebook For Your Business?

My own prejudices were not a comparison between Facebook and LinkedIn.  Mine were more about wasting times on silly games.  I would never have been able to come up with this business plan for Facebook if I had kept my prejudices about Facebook. The trigger event for me was seeing my Twitter list for “International Business” in the top results for this keyword and realizing that Facebook vanity URLs would soon be showing up there too.

• Have you had a trigger event to change your perception of how Facebook can help your business?
• How are you using Facebook for business?
• Are you like me and using Facebook to reach an audience based in a different country than yourself?

Copyright © Cindy King 2006-2010 - Cindy King

How To Use Facebook For Business

International Web Marketing

I just read Tamar Weinberg’s internet marketing advice and noticed the different internet marketing specialties she listed:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Link Building
• Affiliate Marketing
• Pay Per Click Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Content Marketing

I agree with Tamar when she says you can’t be an expert in every one of these. Most web marketers have one area they are really good at.

This got me thinking about the specialties I use to reach international audiences for my own business.  The first thing I noticed is that I don’t use Link Building, Affiliate Marketing and Pay Per Click Marketing.  And this is probably because I tend to jump right into new markets to learn everything I can about them first.

• I don’t see myself getting into link building as it’s done by most people today.  I tend to approach link building through social networking, more about that in a minute. But I do see link building changing in the future and I’ll probably be right there when it does because it will involve more meaningful networking.
• And I don’t see myself ever getting big into pay per click marketing. But having said that, I’m closely following the results others get with Facebook advertising and may use something similar in small doses in the future.
• Although I’m not really interested in the traditional affiliate marketing practices, I do a lot of networking and do use similar practices to build business networks. I can see myself joining in when this morphs into the business networking world a bit more.

After looking at the web marketing I do not specialize in, here is how I see my own international web marketing specialties.

International Social Networking

It all starts here for me.  This is how I learn what to do next, the other tactics I need to use and whether my web marketing is on target or not.  I rely on the feedback and constantly analyze results to learn more about my new international markets.

Social networking is a mindset and a way of being. It’s what you need for successful international web marketing.

Although Tamar doesn’t have social networking on her list, it is a part of good link building, affiliate marketing and social media marketing.  And I think it is essential in international web marketing and needs to be in a category all by itself.

I would definitely say this is my strongest international web marketing specialty.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing goes hand in hand with international social networking because much of the social networking starts on social media.

Social media marketing is not always a big component of international web marketing. It really depends on where you’re based and which markets you want to reach.  And you need to keep your finger on the social media pulse of the countries you’re interested in reaching, because things change rapidly.

I’m based in France and target an English speaking audience.  So I use social media extensively to develop my international business network and everyone in a similar situation should do so too.

Social media marketing works very well for me.  I’ve written before about how surprised I was when I realized my social media marketing was always 100% on target.  And I’ve come to realize this is because of the similarities between my international business skills and the cross-cultural people skills.

• My strong international business development skills make it easy for me to adapt business objectives into new environments.
• And my strong cross-cultural skills come in very handy in this social environment. I know myself well enough to navigate between the social and the business focus, skills you pick up when doing business with people from different cultures.

I would say this is my second strongest web marketing specialty.

Content Marketing

I love the results you get from content marketing.  There are organic search results of course.  But you also get lots of feedback through content marketing, and this feedback is important when you are trying to develop new markets in different countries.

And once you get feedback there’s so much more you can do to try to develop the relationships you create.  First there’s listening and paying attention to the whole conversation.  And then even if the content is static once it’s published online, you can still bounce back with more content and use different formats to see what the reactions this brings about.  It’s a game about finding out more about your audience.

I really find this fun and I’m good at it on subjects where I have enough knowledge to see the whole game.

Search Engine Optimization

Many businesses that want to develop international markets worry about the cultural differences in SEO and there are a few other search engines besides Google out there.  But the reality is that the Google algorithm does makes the vast majority of the world’s search engines tick.

So it makes sense to get great at SEO in the Google world first. And then once you’ve mastered this you can work on improving SEO results in other countries. And the truth is that if you understand your international clients, if you know the words they use when they need help online, and you have a good understanding of SEO, then you’ll know how to get good search engine results throughout most of the world.

SEO is important for everyone online and I spend a fair bit of time improving my skills and learning enough to follow the well-known SEO geeks and understand what they are talking about.

Email Marketing

This is my weakest skill because I don’t do enough of it myself and also because I barely read a handful of email marketing messages sent my way on a regular basis.

Instead of building an email list for all of my blog readers when I first started, I jumped in at the deep end and focused on building segmented marketing lists:

• Professionals interested in developing their cultural skills
• Businesses needing how to advice on getting international clients
• French people interested in copywriting
• French people interested in article marketing

This is not something I necessarily recommend you do, after all the funnel does start off with a wide end and then goes narrow.  But I like testing and playing around with marketing to learn more about my markets, that’s why I did things this way.

But I do follow a few people who use culturally targeted email marketing to develop international markets. I’m not sure how much this works in other cultures, but it’s definitely something I’ll probably spend some time looking into in the future.

International Web Marketing

Of course, after doing this exercise reviewing my own personal specialties, this has me thinking about international web marketing in general:

• What are the different specialties in international web marketing?
• How are the specialties in web marketing different for international marketing?
• How is international web marketing evolving and how does this impact what we do?

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please start the conversation below.

More on International Web Marketing:

• What Is Your Definition Of International Web Marketing
• How Too Many Contributions Spoil International Communications
• My Own Case Study – Small Business Flexibility In An Online World
• International Article Marketing
• International Email Marketing
• International SEO For Quick Results
• Mindset Differences Between Offline Marketers And Online Marketers
• The Difference Between An eMarketer And A Geek Marketer

Copyright © Cindy King 2006-2010 - Cindy King

International Web Marketing Specialties

Events

You’ll probably notice quite a few tweets and Facebook chatter about an event called Sugartone, the Sweet Business Blogging contest.

The Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest is organized by BizSugar, the social bookmarking site for business articles, and Bloggertone the business bloggers community and it starts Monday March 15th.

Before telling you more about Sugartone, let me share with you why I’m involved.

BizSugar

My blog readers know that I’m always business focused.

Even when I talk about the soft people skills involved in developing strong cross-cultural skills, it’s always with a business focus in mind.

And even though I do a lot of social networking, all of my online presence is business related. I don’t have anything embarrassing online to hide.

This is why I appreciate BizSugar which is a social bookmarking site for business articles.  It’s a refreshing change compared to the rudeness or “snarky” comments encountered on other social bookmarking platforms.

The community on BizSugar is filled with like-minded professionals.  I even use it to develop my business network. And I enjoy the community there so much that I use it as a news reader and write a weekly review of the articles I find inspiring there for international business.

Bloggertone

I enjoy networking with the Irish social media community because so many of the Irish businesses are passionate about developing internationally.  Unfortunately most Irish companies need to generate international business to survive.  And as I’m also passionate about international business, and I enjoy their energy.  So I network with a number of Irish business folk online.

This is how I came to know Bloggertone which only launched a few months ago. And their growth has been fantastic. I really appreciate the strong community feeling in this blogging community. It’s a pleasure to network with them because they understand how to be social.

Bringing Both Business Communities Together

On the one hand you have a great community of professionals sharing their expertise by publishing articles on Bloggertone, and on the other hand you have another great community of professionals providing social recognition for business articles.

It was only a question of time before these two communities decided to do something together to help business professionals marketing their expertise online.

Sugartone

So, what is Sugartone?

Sugartone is the Sweet Business Blogging Contest for busy professionals to win $6921 in prizes to help them improve their marketing and generate more business.

It’s free to enter, easy for everyone to participate and there are lots of chances to win prizes.

Here are the 2 different ways you can participate in the Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest:

• Write an original business article writer with a great title
• Vote and comment on the business articles submitted for the contest

There are 10 winners for the Top 10 Titles and 10 winners for the Top 10 Commenters

It’s that easy to enter the Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest, so go check it out here

Copyright © Cindy King 2006-2010 - Cindy King

Sugartone: The Sweet Business Blogging Contest

Twitter

Here is my article which was first published on Social Media Examiner:

Twitter is a networking haven for businesses. But is there an easy way to draw the right people to you with Twitter?

The answer is yes and there’s a great Twitter feature that can help you: Twitter lists. Twitter lists can grab the interest of people you most want to meet, help you make a great first impression and can help you with marketing segmentation.

Below I’ll show you some unique ways to use Twitter lists. But first…

How Do Twitter Lists Work?

Twitter lists creates separate lists of people. If you haven’t already used Twitter lists, watch this video to see how you can get started.

There are two interesting points to remember about Twitter lists:

• You don’t need to “follow” people on Twitter to include them in your lists.
• You can have both public and private lists.

Now here’s a look at what you can do with Twitter lists.

#1: Listen with Private Lists

Twitter lists are great to monitor and listen to different groups of people. No-one else can see your private lists, so this is a good place to start using the Twitter list feature. You can create private lists to:

• Monitor your competitors
• Carry out specific market research
• Keep track of different networks of friends and colleagues

Private Twitter lists can help you segment the fire hose of information streaming in through your Twitter feed, according to Rohit Bhargava. Segmenting people into lists also helps you more effectively listen to and monitor your market.

John Jantsch says Twitter lists make it easier to listen to what others have to say.

And monitoring people without following them makes it easy to carry out specific market research or intelligence gathering. Once you’ve finished doing your market research, you can simply delete your list without making any changes to the people you usually follow.

#2: Craft Your Brand With Public Lists

There’s not much space to brand yourself on your Twitter profile page. You do have space for a few words in the bio box and you can add in background graphics. But you can also add another dimension to your branding by carefully crafting your public Twitter lists. Here’s how.

Choose appropriate names for your lists
Spend some time finding the best name for your list. There are a few things to keep in mind when naming your Twitter lists:

• Engage the right people. You’ll get more people interested in looking at your list if the name sparks their interest.
• Remember to communicate with everyone. Don’t limit your audience. The right name could help you reach more of the people you want to connect with.
• The SEO bonus. Another reason to think about how you label your lists is for search engine optimization (SEO). Look at the screenshot below. This Twitter list is in a good position in Google search results for a competitive keyword.

The bad news is that if you change the name of your list, the URL of your Twitter list changes too and you’ll lose the people following that list. So take some time to get this right.

Choose appropriate Twitter lists for your public profile
When creating your Twitter lists, you want to think of how lists help you:

• Connect with your Twitter followers
• Achieve your main goal for using Twitter
• Continue the story you began in your Twitter bio

As you build up a following on Twitter, your followers will be interested in your Twitter lists. The choice of Twitter lists found on your Twitter home page is important for engaging with people.

Choose the number of public lists
Remember, there’s a limited amount of space available for your Twitter lists on your home page. Although you can create a larger number of lists, only about 4 to 6 will appear on your home page depending on the character length of the names of your lists. Your audience will have to click on the “View all” link to see all of your lists if you have more than this.

So you may want to think carefully about the number of lists you want to create and the order in which you create them. Put your most relevant lists at the top.

Advertise your Twitter lists
Create Twitter widgets for specific Twitter lists and put them up on your blog or website to engage people and establish your areas of interest and expertise.

Better Marketing With Twitter Lists

Twitter’s list feature can add some extra marketing power to your Twitter strategy if you take some time to get it right. You also need to find the right way to make your lists work for you. This will depend on your goals for Twitter, your audience and how they like to connect with you.

A good Twitter list improves your visibility in your market. Here are a few more benefits:

• The people you follow in your public lists will appreciate the recognition.
• By providing a useful resource, you’ll increase your credibility in your market and attract more followers.
• As you become more popular, you’ll be listed on other people’s lists. This is another way to measure your social media influence.

What are your thoughts about Twitter lists? How are you using them? Do you regularly follow other lists? Please share your thoughts and comments below.

Copyright © Cindy King 2006-2010 - Cindy King

How to Market Your Business With Twitter Lists