This week I came across a number of interesting links on cross-cultural topics, international business and international social media. Please let me know what you found recently. And be sure to share your comments either here or on the Facebook… the links are below.
Cross-Cultural Topics
- China’s Gray Revolution – China always fascinates me. Here’s a look at the changing demographics there and what this will mean for them.
- Google, Bing and Babelfish – What’s the best translation engine?
- Country Codes of the World Cup – There are 32 countries participating in the 2010 FIFA World Cup — which means 32 ccTLDs! You can download the free poster.
- The difference between race and culture; what is a microculture? – From abroad, it’s fairly easy to see some of the consequences of the confusion Americans have with Race & Culture. This article gives some insights.
- The New Americans: Bilingual, Bicultural, Global – Joe Kutchera provides some great insights on into globalization and how the US demographics are changing.
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International Business
- The Best Countries To Do Business In – It was fun to see that I’ve live in 3 of these countries, visted 3 more and I’ve had regional business responsabilities at some point for all except New Zealand and Iceland. I don’t have a favorite though, although lots of great memories of Switzerland. What about you? Where do you like doing business?
- Leveraging Baidu to Reach the Chinese Audience – some great tips here for businesses who want to open ecommerce opportunities in China.
- The Most Important Leadership Quality for CEOs? Creativity – This study was done across a wide range of countries and talks about the differences in what people think is important to a successful business. Of course, creativity is important in international business too, sometimes it’s the only way of getting beyond difficult cultural barriers. But do you agree it’s the most important quality for success?
- Cross-cultural M&A Communications in China – A look at the cross-cultural challenges in mergers and acquisitions. It’s always interesting to see just how deep these differences can go.
- Case Study: Attempting a Global Merger – A great story of making an idea work through strategic collaboration.
- 6 Ways to Be Innovatively Global – In the words of Pulitzer prize-winning author Thomas Friedman, sometimes “Just doing it” works in the world of global business.
- Special Report BRIICS economies facing different challenges amid a global economic recovery – Here’s a look at the business opportunities and challenges faced by Brazil, Russian, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa. The overall share in world trade in these countries is expected to continue to rise. Are you monitoring your business opportunities here?
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International Marketing
- Targeting by Language or Country: What You Need to Know – This is a great read for anyone interested in web marketing to different countries.
- Can This Bicycle Save Lives In Africa? – A good story on how one company adapted it’s business to serve new international markets
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International Sales
- Global e-tailers pinch local fashion dollars – are you worried about losing local sales to e-commerce sites abroad? Do you think European e-commerce sites will sell more to the US as the Euro remains low?
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International Social Media
- Facebook Around the World – Brian Solis has a great review of how Facebook is doing around the world and says, “Facebook is far from reaching its potential and as its new “Like” architecture hits the WWW with over 50,000 publishers already in place, its 400 million strong army of social curators will only increase its relevance around the world.”
- Mapping global mobile telephone subscriptions: the world’s biggest markets – Developing markets still have room to expand their mobile markets. And world mobile phone subscriptions will reach near universal levels in 2015-2020. Some interesting stats here.
- Tweet In Local Language To Ensure Worldwide Twitter Success – Is this your experience too?
- Beware English Keywords That Aren’t Really English – Search Engine Land shares why you need to get your keywords right before investing in an international marketing campaign. What other examples of English words used differently in other countries?
- World Economic Forum – Global Information Technology Report – There’s a lot of data by country here for those interested in comparing the “networked readiness” of other countries. Thanks to Amadou M. Sall for sharing this report.
- Groupon Europe! – Great news for European businesses that want more options in their social media strategy. Groupon is now in Europe.
- Internet-inspired drinks parties spread panic among authorities – A look from Scotland at the dark side of the new trend in Twitter meetups in France. Are there other trends highlighting cultural differences in Twitter meetups?
- A Five Step Guide to Cross-cultural Web Design « Web-kreation – Of course these tips also apply to blogs and many of them should be applied to social media marketing. Do you try to integrate cross-cultural design in your social media profiles?
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Now It’s Your Turn
- What do these international and cross-cultural links inspire for you?
- Which of these reads did you most enjoy?
- What interesting links on cross-cultural topics did you find recently?
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"Cindy is a real authority on all things international marketing.
She is who I turn to when I have questions and you should too"
-- Chris Garrett, co-author of the "Problogger" book
She is who I turn to when I have questions and you should too"
-- Chris Garrett, co-author of the "Problogger" book
