Building a blog takes a lot of work, and when you’re blogging for business it requires even more effort. In addition to blogging, you also need to make sure your blogging is aligned with your business model and you have to come up with a solid content marketing plan.

The trouble is many things are in flux.  Your blogging and content marketing will change as you learn more about your audience.  And blogging requires a high level of investment that is not always easy for to sustain. Because quite simply: life happens.

This is why the blogging journey is often bumpy.

Break From Blogging

For the first time in two and a half years I was forced to take a break from blogging here on this blog.  It was not planned.  But more than one thing got in the way in different areas of my life.

• It all started with my trip to Toronto last June
• Then I unexpectedly decided to travel so much that I’ve barely been home the rest of the year
• And health became a priority as I adopted a diet with over 80% raw food. But this meant less energy while I learned about nutrition all over again
• During this time I’m happy to say that my work with Social Media Examiner increased.

As my day-to-day activities changed drastically I was forced to put aside blogging here on my personal blog.

Better Content Marketing Strategy

But there is some good news about being forced to stop blogging.  My content marketing strategy needed an overhaul in order to integrate the changes in social media over the past year, and to adjust to my business objectives which also changed this last year. This break gave me the opportunity to refine my own marketing strategy.

Now that I’m ready to get back into the blogging seat once again my new business blogging plan is better than before.

But a plan is not enough to ensure blogging success.  When you’ve never blogged before or haven’t been blogging for a while, the first few months are critical.  So I also needed an action plan to ensure blogging success.

Better Business Blogging

This is why I’ve got a few activities planned to make sure my transition back into regular business blogging goes smoothly.

I’ve already established a business blogging plan within a content marketing strategy that’s aligned with my business. That’s all on paper. What I need now is a few activities to make sure I blog consistently over the next few months. And why not improve my blogging skills at the same time?

Here are three blogging courses I’ve signed up for.

Blogging Success Summit: (Affiliate link) This is an online webinar that takes place in February with 23 excellent presenters.  Just like the previous Success Summits it takes place over a period of several weeks and they’re recorded so there’s no excuse: I’ll listen to all of them!

But the thing I like most about all of the Success Summits is the private LinkedIn group.  It’s great to meet up and chat with fellow business bloggers.  And the presenters usually participate there too.

Although it’s only just opened people are taking advantage of the early bird rate and signing up.  That’s great news because this means the Blogging Success Summit LinkedIn Group is already open. So discussions in the private LinkedIn Group have already started.  This is just the kind of interaction I need right now.

Join me on the Blogging Success Summit to learn about current business blogging best practices and hook up with a community of business bloggers.

Web Content Café: This is a lovely little hang out run by the web copywriter Nick Usborne. It’s a paid membership site where Nick gives you a short daily content ideas to keep the creative juices flowing and your web content fresh.

What can I say? I like it.  It’s just the right “everything” for me: right length, right writing style and lots of small actionable ideas. Just what I need to improve my blogging in small, easy steps.

Join me at the Web Content Café to find ideas and daily inspiration to improve your bloging.

Spectacular Post Bootcamp: This is a new program put on by Stanford Smith over at Pushing Social.  Although I only recently discovered Stan I was hooked immediately. He works with big clients during his day job and helps the small business bloggers on Pushing Social in his spare time. Somehow his expertise comes through with just the right tone for business bloggers.

The Spectacular Post Bootcamp is a video a month and it’ll get me to review blogging basics in a way that I find motivating.  I like Stan’s approach.

Join me at the Spectacular Post Bootcamp to review blogging basics.

UPDATE:

Blog Topics:  Chris Brogan has just come out with Blog Topics where he emails you 10 ideas to write blog posts each week.

Chris’ vocabulary and communication style resonate with me. He uses words that put the gears in my brain in motion. So I’m giving this a whirl too.

Join me with Chris Brogan’s Blog Topics to get more ideas to write blog posts.

Tools For Good Blogging

That’s what I’ve planned to help me get through the first few months of blogging.  If you’d like a more in-depth review on one of these please let me know.

I’ll also be attending SOBcon in the Spring and hope to find a good blogging partner to share the rest of the year’s journey as part of the next phase.

What do you do to improve your blogging? What has helped your blogging most? I’d love to hear your story, so please leave a comment below.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Better Business Blogging

Twitter

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

Posterous is a social media platform where it’s very easy to post just about anything—photos, videos and words. You can set up your account and publish content simply by sending an email. Yes it’s that simple!

Posterous is known as the most “social” networking place of social media. It’s also the ideal solution for sharing content that’s too long for a tweet and too short for a blog post.

There are many different reasons and motivations to create a free Posterous account. Let’s have a look at the 7 most common reasons for businesses to use Posterous.

#1: Can Replace Your Blog

When a regular blog is not for you, Posterous can give you similar advantages to a regular blog without the work of setting up a blog and maintaining it. All you have to do is send in your content by email. It’s that simple. This is why Posterous is great for lifestreaming.

This can be a good starting point for businesses hesitating to create their own blog. Posterous can provide a place to learn more about social media and develop the right content strategies.

#2: Fills a Gap Between Blogging and Microblogging

Posterous is an easy way to publish more content to reach different audiences. Steve Rubel says, “I still see a big space in between blogs and Twitter that allows you to have a hub and spoke strategy and post in multiple formats.”

And as Ted Villa says, “Posterous is clean and nimble, simple to use and a great tool in any organization’s social media toolkit. It’s a great way to extend a client’s footprint online and increase links to their site as well as their social media sites.”

This can fill a gap in your presence on social media.

#3: Can Improve Your Visibility

Posterous can help you improve your visibility in search results in two ways.

First, you have more updates for search engines to find. If you like to share photos and videos online, Posterous makes it very easy to do this (see reason #7 below for more details). And with photo and video publishing made this easy, you end up sharing more content to increase your online search results.

Second, you can publish your Posterous content on your own website. Unlike other social media platforms, you can set up your Posterous account on your own URL. This means you can set up your Posterous account on:

• Your own domain name separate from your company website
• Or even use a sub-domain of your current website or blog

This is something important to keep in mind as the social media landscape changes over time.

#4: Gives You Another Voice on Social Media

Many business professionals also use Posterous to post content that would be off topic on their main website or blog and engage with a different audience online.

Posterous provides an easy venue to share different “social” content. A separate platform makes it easy to create an additional point of connection with your audience, with a different style, to engage different mindsets. As Debbie Weil says, “There are distinct differences in how you talk or write for the different platforms. Simply put, you write in a different ‘voice’ and, generally, talk about different topics.”

This makes it easy to reach out to different audiences.

#5: Makes it Easy for Groups to Publish Content

Posterous allows you to set up group accounts too. This means you can set up:

• Posterous pages for individual team members
• Collaborative Posterous pages for different company employees to post on the same page
• Collaborative Posterous pages to bring people outside your company to collaborate on one Posterous page

Here’s one example of how Posterous brings social networking to a higher level: ClickIdeas

#6: Helps You to Segment Content for Different Audiences

You can use your Posterous account to create different points of contact with your audience. Pat Kitano says, “I originally intended this slideshow (How to create a blog without “writing” one) for local businesspeople who wanted a blog for marketing purposes, but didn’t have the inclination to start a blog due to writing and time commitments. After posting the slideshow, I received feedback that Posterous was a great method to create new ‘blogs’ on a variety of topics and interests that were parallel to the principal blog. One mentioned how fast Posterous blogs were indexed by Google.”

This makes it easy to test different market segments outside of your main blog or website.

#7: Is the Easiest Option to Share Photos

Posterous is simply the easiest social media platform to share photos and videos. All you have to do is email your photo or video to Posterous and it does everything else. This means you can publish your favorite photos and videos from any location where you have access to your email, even from your mobile phone.

This is why many users choose to post all of their photos and videos to Posterous and set it up to feed their Facebook, Twitter and other social media profiles.

Bonus: Makes You Easy To Connect With

Sometimes a personal touch helps you to create a stronger connection with your audience on social media. This is why some business professionals use Posterous as a place to provide a unique glimpse into their personal lives.

Jason Falls does a good job at providing both personal and business insights on his Posterous page: Falls, Off the Rocker. He links to these Posterous posts from his Twitter account and invites his Twitter followers to get to know him better.

A Step Toward Creating Social Connections

Creating a social presence and adapting to different social media platforms are not easy for many businesses. Posterous provides a way for businesses to make a social connection between their own website and other social media platforms as they learn more about incorporating social media into their current marketing tactics.

Ready to Give Posterous a Try? Here’s some good resources to check out:

• Read Mashable’s Posterous Guide.
• Have a look at Guy Kawasaki’s Twelve Tips and Tricks.
• And remember to subscribe to Social Media Examiner. There’s more to come on Posterous and other social media platforms.

Now It’s Your Turn

• What are you interested in getting out of Posterous?
• Do you already have a Posterous page?
• How is Posterous helping your social media marketing?

Share the link to your Posterous page below and tell us what your experience has been so far in the Comments section below.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

7 Ways Posterous Improves Your Social Media Presence

Events

Social media marketing has changed in the last few years.  This makes it difficult for businesses to know how to approach social media. I hear echos that businesses have now had a chance to play around with social media and are incorporating social media into the marketing strategies for real business results this year.  And we continue to hear about social media success stories every month. But it’s still difficult to find real business examples.

This is why I particularly liked this slideshare presentation by Louis Gray where he compares what blogging used to be like last year and what it’s like today.  The differences are enormous. It’s hard to believe the tactics you need today have changed in such a short period of time.

It feels like you are continually chasing the train and can never catch up. It’s hard to keep up to date.  When a social media expert writes a book it is often out of date as soon as it’s published.   So how can you learn about the new social media marketing tactics?  How do you find out what’s working and why?

The World’s Largest Online Social Media Event

This online webinar is almost like a live event

Here’s how. Join the growing band of successful companies and attend this upcoming conference.

Social Media Success Summit 2010 will teach you how to harness the awesome power of social media. And it’s amazing: Consider that the “population” of users on Facebook (400 million) is greater than the population of the United States! More than 71% of businesses plan on ratcheting up their use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs in 2010 (According to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report).

The summit, the world’s largest online social media conference, will give marketers and small-business owners cost-effective ways to directly contact prospects and customers without employing expensive (and often ineffective) tools such as list brokers, publications and advertising.

Superstar Instructors

Twenty-four social media gurus will reveal the secrets of their success at the Social Media Success Summit 2010. In addition to event organizer Michael Stelzner, the all-star lineup of presenters includes bestselling authors Guy Kawasaki (Art of the Start), Chris Brogan (Social Media 101), Darren Rowse (ProBlogger), Mari Smith (Facebook Marketing), Chris Garrett (Business Blogging), Denise Wakeman (The Blog Squad), Greg Jarboe (YouTube and Video Marketing), Kim Dushinski (Mobile Marketing Handbook) and Lewis Howes (LinkedWorking: Generating Success on LinkedIn).

You’ll also hear from social media pros at companies such as Home Depot, Best Buy, Whole Foods, Domino’s Pizza, Edelman PR, MarketingProfs, Foursquare, Groupon and SmartBrief. They’ll tell how they use social media tactics to help their organizations beat the competition.

In sessions such as How to Use Twitter as a Marketing Weapon, Optimizing Your Facebook Page for Profits, Five Ways to Measure Social Media Marketing Success and How to Bring Customers Repeatedly to Your Local Business, you’ll learn:

• The most effective ways to market your company with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, social bookmarking sites, mobile marketing and more
• How to track and measure the return on investment for social media programs
• A step-by-step method for creating a smart social media marketing plan
• How to build a loyal social media following
• How to reel more customers into your local business with social media techniques

The summit will also cover brand-new ground such as YouTube and video, social media bookmarking, mobile marketing and two hot new sites—Foursquare and Groupon—that can drive people to your local business.

By the way, the topics covered in the 2010 Summit are totally new content—there will be absolutely no repetition of last year’s event.

No Travel Hassles

You might be thinking, “Sounds good, but I don’t need the hassle of taking time off, arranging a plane flight and reserving hotel accommodations—not to mention the expense.” No worries. This is an “online conference”—you can sit back, relax and enjoy it in real time in your home or office. The event organizers have taken your hectic schedule into account by spreading the sessions over a month, so they’re convenient to attend.

If you miss a session, they’ve got you covered. You’ll get transcripts of every session and they’ll be recorded so you can replay them whenever you like. Also you won’t be learning on your own—you can ask the social media gurus questions during the live sessions and join private forums and LinkedIn groups to network with presenters and fellow attendees.

Discounted Tickets

The event kicks off on May 4 and runs until May 25. To take advantage of the 50% off special visit here. The discounted tickets are limited, so grab yours before they’re gone.

Get in tune with the marketers who are enjoying dazzling social media success. Social Media Success Summit 2010 will help you move from playing basic “notes” to orchestrating strategic social media programs that’ll bring more sales and greater profitability.

Why I Recommend This Event

Yes, the links to Social Media Success Summit 2010 here are affiliate links.  I attended the event last year and it was well worth both the investment.  Part of what makes this event so good is how it’s set up.

It’s a virtual event and you get the recordings shortly after the live event so you can listen to it when it suits you.  There are generally 2 3-hour sessions a week over several weeks.  This pace is easy to fit into a busy schedule and it gives you time to digest the training.

In between sessions you can interact with other participants in the private forum and the LinkedIn group.  In previous Success Summits put on my Mike Stelzner, this interaction has been just as useful as the webinars themselves because the instructors are there to answer your questions.  If you do join in, be sure to say hello and tell me that you read about the summit here.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Learn The Latest In Social Media Marketing

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 - International Business Blog

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 - International Business Blog

Business Blogging Contest With $6921 In Prizes

International Business Networking

Business networking habits play an important role in international business.  It’s how we discover international opportunities and avoid cultural blunders.  Our business networking habits help us to learn how to do business in other cultures.

One of the important things about international business networking is that it needs to be done consistently.  It needs to become a long term habit. You cannot jump in, network for a month or two, and then stop because you think you have all the answers you need to take action.  The risk of making a cultural blunder is too great.  Consistent networking ensures that we stay current and it’s how we verify our understanding of our international markets.

This explains why networking has become second nature. And why I’ve used this networking habit to build my international business network after first connecting online.

Daily Skype Calls To Connect With New People On Twitter

At the beginning of last year I decided to implement a new business networking habit by regularly speaking to interesting people I meet on Twitter. It was simple: I tried to Skype one person every day as often as I could.

This may seem a lot, especially when you consider calls almost always last more than 30 minutes and often a full hour. But I’m lucky, the time difference plays in my favor. You see, I try to schedule these calls late in the afternoon just before wrapping up and this happens to be mornings on the other side of the Atlantic.  And I although I’m fairly flexible on the time, I always keep the calls limited to an hour.  So I aimed to spend an hour every day whenever possible to connect to someone I had never spoken to before.

The first 6 months of last year I probably averaged about 3-4 calls to new people I met on Twitter each week. After a while this lead to regular Cross-Cultural Twitter Interviews. And again I called first and got to know each person before the Twitter interview.

In the second half of the year I paid less attention to how many new people I connected with. This was partly because I started speaking to several people on a regular basis and did not keep track of how many new people I spoke to during the week.  And after 6 months of consciously choosing to spend an hour to reach out and connecting with people on Skype it simply became a habit at the end of my day.

The results?  To put it simply: this works. While networking on Skype I meet valuable people to add to my international business network. I don’t add everyone I speak to.  But I now have a great list of valuable business contacts.

Weekly Guest Posts To Connect With A Broad Audience

As last year’s business networking tactic has now become a habit, I’d like to start using another business networking tactic on a regular basis. The habit I’d like to install this year is weekly guest posting. As you may know, I already write content on a regular basis for several different blogs:

• Social Media Examiner
• Top Sales Experts
• ClickInsights
• Bloggertone
• Sales Bloggers

But I’d like to add a bit more variety to this mix to fit some of my other online activities.  Two things happened recently to make me take this decision.

Guest Posting. I read Chris Garrett’s ebook which explains how to guest post and why you should do it. It costs about $10 and yes, this is an affiliate link.  After reading this ebook I was convinced of the value in adding more variety to my guest posting.

My Blog Guest.  I discovered Ann Smarty’s online community where you can both ask for guest posts and also find blogs open to publishing your guest posts.  It’s also a great place to share guest posting tips and experiences.  Ann has set up a grading system for the blogs open to accepting guest posts.  I have to say I’m impressed with how this is set up and the quality of members there.  My Blog Guest makes it easy to find guest posting opportunities.

My Guest Posting Plan

So this year my business networking plan is to write at least 1 guest post a week in addition to my current activities.  Why?

• To reach a wider audience
• To also write articles on 2 new web marketing activities: WishList membership sites on WordPress and product launch management

My core expertise is international marketing and sales strategy for international business development through social media.  This involves several different domains of competence and I need to stay current to apply these skills online.

This is why I’ve decided to use guest posting to expand my international network within the areas of my different skills.

What about you?

• What tactics do you use to grow your international business network?
• Do you think guest posting would help your online business networking?
• Would you like me to write a guest post for you on membership site marketing or business networking for product launches?

More on International Business Networking:

• Networking With The Wrong Questions
• 2 Habits To Grow Your International Network
• The Biggest Mistake In International Networking
• Follow Up With Your First International Clients
• Online Business Networking When Cultural Communication Styles Clash

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Two Great Business Networking Habits To Grow Your International Network

Cultural Perceptions

Women have to pay close attention to cultural differences in perceptions. Many times when you make a cultural blunder you don’t realize you’ve made one until much later after the damage is done. Sometimes you never learn of your mistake. And often you’ll realize your mistake when you see the damage it’s done. This is particularly true of non-verbal cross-cultural communication challenges.

I’ve had a couple of reasons recently to think about the cultural differences in how women are perceived and I’d like to share one of these stories with you. I’m fairly sure the woman in this example did not realize the different perceptions people had of her photo.

First Impressions Online Go Farther Abroad

We all know the importance of the  first impression we make.  And when you have a successful online presence it’s natural to want to reach international audiences too.

But what happens when you’ve jeopardized your international success just because you did something too close to the line of what is socially acceptable in your own country.  And it turns out to have a different impact in other cultures.

Wrong Assumptions

First here’s a little background information to keep in mind. As you can see, I’m a woman and I grew up with American television.

You might think that I react to American women the same as other Americans.  Well the trouble is that I’ve worked with many different nationalities and I’ve learned to understand how others perceive things differently.

At the time I started blogging I noticed another woman who also started at about the same time.  She was in the same networking sphere as I was.  So naturally I stumbled across her blog a few times and clicked on her about page.

Too Much Skin Sends Clear Signals

There was a rather seductive photo of a woman… it was a head shot taken from an angle above.  You could see lots of bare skin.  She was obviously wearing a strapless dress, except you just couldn’t tell there was a dress in the way the photo was taken.

The photo clearly stated that this blogger wanted to appeal to men.  And the men in my social networking group liked her.  But I was not who she wanted to connect with.

Sorry guys. I don’t have a link for you. The photo is no longer there. Besides I just don’t like giving press to people unless I really like them. This is yet another way where my culture differs from others.

When Different Cultures Pick Up Different Signals

This presentation of herself would have impacted both men and women from other cultures in different ways.  Of course in many cultures she would have had a certain popularity with the male readers.  But popularity based on what?

Some cultures may simply consider it an artistic photo that did not match the content of the blog.

In Muslim countries this particular photo would probably have been considered pornographic.

The rules of seduction vary in different cultures and these rules of seduction can impact all of our communication.  I personally do not take offense with a photo of a woman in a sleeveless dress.  But a woman in a sleeveless dress in a very suggestive pose does tell me that she is after someone else to read her blog and I lose interest.

Success And A Change In Direction

Almost 2 years later, this blogger is still there and her blog is growing very nicely.

I revisted her blog recently and noticed the bare skin photo was gone. There was extra text: text describing an “all American girl” type lifestyle.

She’s obviously trying to change her image. The trouble is that I still remember the bare skin photo just a short while ago.  There was a disconnect.

I wonder what challenges she’ll face in adjusting the first impressions her original readers had.  And I think she’ll have more troubles establishing credibility for this new image within the international community.

Show Respect For All Of Your Audiences Right From The Start

This raises the question of showing respect and following basic cross-cultural communication guidelines to all of your audiences right from the start.  Here are two things that could have made a difference in my eyes.

Clarity helps wrong assumptions on both sides. If this photo was a photography class assignment, a short mention of this together with some explanation on the connection to the rest of the blog content would have helped. It would have helped to keep a good impression with at least a portion of the international audience.

Maintain consistency for better credibility.  The stories I got from the two different about pages did not seem to come from the same person.  There’s probably a good explanation, but the transition was too brutal to maintain credibility.

This is just a little bit of effort to make to protect your reputation and credibility with a larger international audience.

What do you think?

• Do women have a harder time to manage their online credibility?
• As a woman, when would you wear sleeves online to avoid offending a wider international audience?
• Do you consider an online photo in a sleeveless dress a cultural blunder?

More on Cultural Perceptions:

• Cultural Perception Of The Use Of Information
• International Perceptions Of Obama’s Inauguration News Coverage
• One Eye Gives Vision, Two Eyes Give Perspective

More On These Get International Clients Business Guides:

• Connect With Your International Markets
• Culture Customized Content
• Cultural Web Tools

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Cultural Perceptions Of Women Online

Resources

Darren Rowse over at Problogger asked for readers to share a list of bloggers relevant to their industry. A few readers have already shared some good lists.  I particularly liked reading the list of Translation and Localization bloggers.  So I decided to share the list of bloggers I read to stay current.

UPDATE: Darren Rowse has now compiled a list of 47 Lists of Bloggers to Watch in 2010 – well worth looking at!

Cross-Cultural & International Bloggers

You need cross-cultural and international business skills in order to develop your business internationally. What’s interesting is that I find these same cross-cultural skills also help me in social media.  Strong people skills are always useful.

No matter how strong these people skills are you still need to nurture them.  And it’s also important to do this to stay competitive in today’s changing international business environment. This is why it’s a good idea to follow a variety of blogs to help maintain these skills.

Here is the list of bloggers with strong cross-cultural or international profiles that I like to follow.

• Some of these blogs are focused on personal relationships or travel. although this may seem to have little to do with international business, the truth is that you can often learn a lot by observing these different situations.
• Some of these blogs are very business focused, usually with a specific topic. And again, they often give insights into cultural barriers for international business.
• Some of the bloggers are new to international business and some are old pros.

This mixture works for me.  Let me know what you think.

1. Ad Sheik – this is a blog for advertisers who want to reach multicultural audiences
2. All About Race – a blog on race in America to share, discuss, argue, learn, teach, laugh and understand
3. All Things Workplace - Steve Roesler is an international management consultant and also blogs about topics with international insights
4. American German Business Blog – Klaus & Flavia Westerwelle are Germans based in the US helping businesses go international
5. Anastiasia Ashman – Furthering the Worldwide Cultural Conversation
6. Asia Biz Blog - Rich Kuslan blogs on China business and law
7. Bella’s Boliva Blog – a blog with trivia and news from the eastern region of Bolivia
8. Career By Choice - Megan Fitzgerald blogs to help expatriates improve their careers
9. Chanda Communications - Silvia Cambie blogs on cross-cultural connections
10. Chinese & Chosen – An interactive report on the intersection of Chinese & Jewish in NYC
11. Cross-Cultural Moments – Elizabeth Abbot’s blog on transforming international living into personal and professional progress
12. Cultural Realms – Rossitza Ohridska blogs about cultural discovery, the business of cultural tourism, emerging destinations, internet strategies and world travel
13. Culturally Teaching – Cate Brubaker share lots of cross-cultural insights here, not only for teaching or teachers
14. Deborah Swallow – Deborah Swallow blogs on intercultural communication
15. Dot Global – Joe Kutchera’s blog on marketing to Spanish-language consumers
16. Family On Bikes - Between North & South Poles, a family biking and blogging from Alaska to Argentina
17. Fluent In 3 Months – Benny Lewis’s blog of unconventional language learning tips as he travels the world
18. From Power To Poverty – interesting blog by Duncan Green, Head of Research for Oxfam GB
19. Fusion View - Yang-May Ooi’s blog on cross-cultural topics
20. Global Business Perspectives – Beverly Cornell interviews people with international profiles
21. Global Coach Center - Margarita Gokun Silver blogs about being a cross-cultural coach
22. Global Voices – A vibrant global community of more than 150 active volunteer authors and translators and more than 20 freelance part- time regional and language editors
23. globalEDGE International Business Blog - to keep current on international business and global trade
24. Gori Girl – A blog on interracial relationships and advice by a white girl with an Indian husband
25. Intercultural Eyes – Bettina Hansel’s blog with a geographic & interculturalist perspective
26. Intercultural Talk – The blog where Deanna Shoss teaches us to engage & delight in cultural differences
27. International Higher Education Consulting Blog – This is where David Comp blogs about studying abroad – great resource
28. International Trade Law News – Where Doug Jacobson blogs about news, analysis and information on export controls, sanctions, customs law, FCPA, antidumping and other international trade issues
29. Investing In Africa – Ryan Shen Hoover’s blog on Africa is an interesting read
30. Jack Yan – The Persuader – Jack has a strong cross-cultural background and shares a wide variety of interests on his blog
31. Maidsfield Blog – Donagh Kiernan blogs about partnering into international markets
32. Matthew Bennett – Matthew blogs on culture, law, business and politics in the UK and Spain, as well as the Spanish and English languages, English-Spanish translation and Spanglish Lex
33. Original Wavelength - Rana Sinha’s blog on cross-cultural issues, culture, psychology, inter-cultural management and communication, international business, team-working and human resource development and management (HRD and HRM).
34. Pocket Cultures – a great group of bloggers from all over the world
35. Racialicious – Carmen Van Kerckhove blogs at the intersection of race and pop culture
36. RW3 Culture Wizard – An interesting blog, stimulating cross-cultural skills for business
37. Southeast Schnitzel – Christian Höferle blogs about cultural topics and German business
38. Technicultr - Jessica Faye Carter’s blog on multicultural social media news
39. Textappeal – Elliot Polak shares insights on Culture Shocks in global media and marketing
40. The Art Of Nonconformity – Chris Guillebeau blogs about his travels and his cultural insights can help you open your own mindset
41. The Four Hour Work Week – Tim Ferris often shares unique insights about his travels on his blog
42. The Global Small Business Blog – Laurel Delaney’s blog helps small businesses go global
43. The International Entrepreneur - Becky DeStigter likes to blog about international business
44. Touch Points – Steve Finikiotis has extensive international business experience and often shares useful insights on his blog
45. Translator Power – Amadou M. Sall is an active cross-cultural online connector and this is his blog

And don’t forget this blog: CindyKing.biz

There’s More

You can also find some more links to interesting websites on the Resources page.  And if you want an easy way to connect with these bloggers, have a look at the Twitter Resources page for the links to the Twitter handles and Facebook & LinkedIn profiles for many of the bloggers listed above.

What about you? Do you have any favorite cross-cultural and international bloggers not on this list?  Please share them in the comments below.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

45 Cross-Cultural & International Bloggers To Watch In 2010