This is the first international link review since the beginning of summer, so there are quite a few really good links here. Be sure to watch the Validation video below.

As usual, please let me know which links you like the most in the comments below.

Cross-Cultural Topics

• Does Language Influence Culture? – In case you missed this: here’s a very good read on how our language impacts how we perceive the world.
• A British Response to an American Disaster – To what extent do you think this is cultural miscommunication?
• Non-verbal skills: essential but ignored aspects of foreign language communication – Great advice on Fluent in 3 months: Focus more on how locals are acting, rather than only on what they are saying.
• China’s Plagiarism Problem – Only time will tell how this outlook on plagiarism will impact China’s evolution, but this article by provides some great insights into how cultural differences can impact outcomes and how things can be more complicated than they seem.

International Business

• Yahoo Turns To IBM For Middle East Customer Support – After Yahoo acquired the Arabic web-based portal Maktoob they decided not to tackle customer service alone. This partnership is interesting to note. The learning curve to pick up the cross-cultural skills needed in-house can be a challenge in International Business.
• Why businesses benefit from employing third culture kids – A good reminder of the value of hiring Third Culture Kids for International Business via Cross Cultural Kids Everywhere
• 3 Reasons Why I Can’t Help Your International Business – This is in response to a few requests for export/import services. Please drop by and share your thoughts.
• Global Sophistication: Selling in China is All the Rage – Another great article on International Business by Laurel Delaney. By watching what the big businesses are doing in China, the small businesses can pick up a few good pointers. Are you interested in expanding into the Chinese market?
• How Companies Break Into Emerging Markets – Tarun Khanna, Harvard Business School professor, explains how multinationals can thrive in emerging markets. He is the coauthor of Winning in Emerging Markets: A Road Map for Strategy and Execution.
• 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?
• Management in Chinese cultures – Podcast series by the Open University
• International And Cross-Cultural Career Advice
• 7 Steps To An Open Mindset For More International Business

International Marketing

• The New Asian Shoppers – An interesting look into how Asian shoppers have changed their habits and why marketers need to be aware of this.
• Dialects, Diversity and Keyword Research – A good look at how variations in languages can impact search marketing.
• Europeans Embrace Mobile Music More Than Americans – Cultural differences in how people use their mobile phones for music. What other differences are there?
• Disruptive Demographics: Global Aging, Technology & Innovation: China’s Gray Revolution – China always fascinates me. Here’s a look at the changing demographics there and what this will mean for them.
• 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.
• 5 Tips For Great International Search Marketing – Have you got any others to share?

International Social Media

• Why China’s Web Copycats Succeed – After watching a French music show on TV last night, this reminds me of the number of French artists that “copied” popular tunes from the other side of the Atlantic. What examples does this remind you of?
• Race Is On To Be The Groupon And Foursquare Of China – A start of another localized copycat. Does anyone have a list of all of the regional social media platforms that are copycats?
• Global Social Media Cultures call for Global Guidelines – Very interesting insights into the challenge of creating social media guidelines for global business.
• The ups and downs of social networks – Here’s an infographic by the BBC which shows how several social media platforms have changed over the last year.
• Mapping The Social Internet – Here’s another infographic which highlights differences in social media in other countries. It also gives insights into how different countries use social media differently.
• Understanding Chinese Social Media – Some good insights into using social media to reach Chinese markets by Don Crowther. Has anyone tried this?
• Social Media Tendencies Around The World: South Africa and World Cup Fever – This is the first World Cup to occur during the age of social media. Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook brought together soccer fans across the globe to celebrate and
  debate referee decisions online. What role do you think this event has played on social media?
• Report: India, Mexico, Spain Have the Most Businesses Profiting Through Social Media – Here’s an interesting study with some unexpected results. I’m actually surprised to see France so high on this list.
• Consumers in Brazil, Mexico Use Internet Differently – “Online Brazilians and Mexicans are just starting to familiarize themselves with the web. While online consumers fully embrace certain activities like email and search, a large majority of other online activities that are common in other markets have yet to reach mass consumption.”
• 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.”
• Coke boasts “phenomenal” engagement from Twitter ads – Here’s a look at Coke’s “phenomenal” results from Twitter ads. 86Million impressions in 24/hours – CTR: 6%!!
• Twittering in Tongues: How companies are going global with Twitter – Great insights on how businesses are using Twitter in international markets by John Yunker
• Growing Around the World – Twitter looks at it’s international growth.
• Twitter’s Surprising Impact on the South Korean Election – “There are still only about 400,000 users of Twitter in South Korea, and most of them tend to be young, but many Twitter users urged their friends and family to “Go and Vote!”  Given that the younger voters leaned toward the more liberal party, it gave the opposition camp a decided advantage.”

Validation

If you haven’t seen this movie, it’s worth taking the 16 minutes to watch all of it. It provides such great insights to help businesses get their social media right today.

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 over the summer?

What do you think? Please share your thoughts and comments below.

Photos from Shutterstock.

  Filed under: International Business

Cindy King

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