Culture In International Business

Culture impacts international business in a wide variety of ways. I’ve been taken by surprise many times by the extent of its impact. It’s difficult to identify all of the ways culture impacts business because culture evolves over time. This means different cultures are evolving at different speeds and in different directions.

The advice given in books written only a decade ago can be counterproductive today. And the cultural insights we picked up on our trips after university may not help us in international business today.

So what can you do in an environment where cross-cultural miscommunication and blunders pop up unexpectedly. Well one of the best tactics to work effectively in an international environment is to develop an open mindset.

Open Mindset

What is an open mindset?  It’s not always easy to grasp and it can have a slightly different meaning to different people.  But I’ll have a try at explaining what an open mindset means to me in international business and the steps you need to get there.

Self-Examination For An Open Mindset

There are several steps in the process of self-examination. I’ve put these steps first, but in reality I believe our path to opening our mindset is an on-going one.

• It’s not really something you can pick up once and then assume you’ll always have an open mindset.
• It’s a learning process and some steps take more time than others to absorb.
• Sometimes we need more time or experience to be ready to be able to learn more.

So you’ll also need to come back and revisit these steps as you grow your mindset.

#1: Recognize Your Own Focus

It’s important to understand where you are, what occupies your mindset and how different your viewpoint can be when compared to other cultures. How you set your own vision will determine what you see and how open your mindset is.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong about having a narrow focus for certain activities. We might even need this.  But when you are meeting with people from other cultures it’s important to realize just how limiting your own focus or vision is. It’s up to you then to open up or alter your reactions and come back when you are more able to meet people on their level.

#2: Identify Your Assumptions And Question Them

Many “mistakes” in international business begin with our own assumptions and culturally specific expectations being out of sync with another culture. Unfortunately it’s not always easy to identify the assumptions we make because we get so used to our own way of doing things and our own habits.

As you encounter a bit of cross-cultural friction, stop a second and question your assumptions.  Take the conversation slower and try to ask the other person the right questions to find out where the friction came from.

#3: Free Yourself Of A Negative Outlook

When we are confronted with different cultures human nature rears it’s head. We tend to view ourselves as being “good” and “right” while others who do things differently to us are quickly labeled as being “bad” or “wrong”.  Negative reactions are commonplace.

As soon as you recognize any elitist behavior recognize this and give others to the time you need for them to show you where they are coming from.

#4: Avoid Negative Judgment

People are usually good at understanding why it’s good to avoid quick judgment, but they have rather short definitions for “quick”.  In my international business experience I’ve learned to compartmentalize professional from personal expectations and to avoid all negative judgment of people from other cultures.  And this has come from making mistakes because there were too many times when I thought I was right passing a negative judgment only to discover my error much later on.

Most negative judgments stem from our incapacity of understanding another culture. Instead of focusing on the negative aspect I see in others, I focus on my own preferences and this usually leads to the right place.

Actions To Open Your Mindset

Once you have looked internally at all of the cultural baggage you bring with your own mindset, then you can work on opening and developing your mindset.

#5: Encourage Interaction

The next step is simply to cultivate interaction and open your mindset further. It’s also about cultivating an open attitude in your actions and making sure your actions are perceived as inviting interaction. So you’ll also hone your cross-cultural skills as you stimulate more interaction from others.

#6: Open Your Communication

When you interact more with people, you’ll probably see ways to open up your own communication a bit more to provide others with a deeper understanding of yourself and your ways of doing things.  This is fine-tuning your own communication to come across as more open to communication.

#7: Get Curious And Eager To Learn

An open mindset is a curious mindset.  It means you are eager to learn about others in order to understand people from different cultures fully and communicate on a truly one-to-one level. People from other cultures seem to do strange things, but often when we get to know the reasons behind their “strange” behavior, it all makes sense. Different ways of doing things appear normal when they are set in context.

How do you get curious?  Questions are important, but adapting your questions to find the right ones to ask people from different cultures is even more important.  You’ll need a broad international experience to fully develop your skills in curiosity.

Nurture Your International Talent

An open mindset is a sign of someone who can identify their own strengths and weakness and open their minds to feedback and question who they are.  And this open mindset can give you the upper edge in international business when dealing with different cultures. It’s not always easy, but it is always rewarding both on a professional level and on a personal level.

Now, over to you…

• What does an open mindset in international business mean to you?
• How do you develop an open mindset for international business?
• Why do you think an open mindset is important for international business?

More on Culture In International Business:

• How Culture Impacts An International Business
• What Is Culture? A Mind Map For More Sales
• Where Do You Want To Work?

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

7 Steps To An Open Mindset For More International Business

International Sales Professions

It’s easy to tell it’s the end of the school year because I’ve had several requests for international career guidance. As it happens, I recently attended my eldest daughters graduation from University and was lucky to be visiting her through the hiring process while she landed her first “real” job.

This reminds me of how starry-eyed life can be when you’re young and how this contrasts with the sometimes harsh world of international business.  But first let me answer the two latest requests for international career advice here.

Cross-Cultural Career

One reader asked me for advice on how to enter into a “cross-cultural career”. To me this seems like a bit of an odd question because cross-cultural skills are essentially strong people skills and can be used in many different careers. I don’t think there is really a “cross-cultural” industry which includes all “cross-cultural careers”.

As many of our country’s demographics change drastically in the next few decades it seems as if most of our working environments will become cross-cultural if they aren’t already so. And we’ll all need strong cross-cultural skills.

Cross-cultural professions therefore usually have dual competency: one traditional core business competency and a cross-cultural competency or what some people refer to as a “soft skill” or a “people skill”. So, cross-cultural coaches should have a core competency related to personal training. And cross-cultural marketers are marketers who apply cross-cultural competency to their trade for stronger marketing.

My advice is to focus on these two aspects in parallel. Learn a profession and build up your cross-cultural competency. This is how you’ll add on the cross-cultural dimension.

International Sales Career

Another reader asked for advice on how to start an international sales career. Well, it really does come down to… looking… and being a good fit to fill the job.

My advice is to jump in and work hard at it.

Start From The Bottom

And I think this leads to the biggest problem for those who want to immediately land a full blown cross-cultural or international career right out of school. There are no short cuts. You have to start wherever you can and this can mean:

• Taking any job you can get with cross-cultural or international exposure to develop your skills
• Picking up your bags and finding opportunities elsewhere

It may sound daunting when you are settled in a lifestyle you are familiar with, but you can only truly acquire cross-cultural and international skills by leaving your comfort zones. And for most people, it takes time. You can’t pick up these skills by reading a book or following someone else’s recipe for success.

Learn The Personal Skills

The work you need to do and the time it takes will depend on your own personal makeup and baggage. And it really takes work on a very personal level. You’ll be confronted with processing and digesting things about yourself you can’t begin to imagine because doing business with different cultures raises all sorts of personal questions.

It’s only after you’ve truly learned about yourself that you’ll begin to develop strong cross-cultural and international skills.

Give Yourself Time

Look for the opportunities around you to learn more about different people and get the most out of these opportunities as you can. You may need quite a bit of time to be able to see things from another culture’s perspective.  Everyone is different and we all have our personal baggage that gets in the way of understanding others.

It’s easy to recognize strong cross-cultural skills in others. And you’ll probably find other opportunities open up as you gain more and more cultural competency.

Manage your career in parallel to building your personal skills, and you’ll end up with your dream job before you know it.  Have faith that employers will recognize in you the personal qualities and skills they need to get a job done that requires cross-cultural and international skills.

Now it’s your turn…

• What actions are you taking to develop your international career?
• How do you think cross-cultural competency will help your profession?
• What do you like most about your international career?

More on International Sales Professions:

• 12 Reasons Why International Selling Is Harder
• What Is An International Business Development Executive?
• What Is An International Sales Specialist?
• What Makes A Good International Sales Specialist

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

International And Cross-Cultural Career Advice

International Web Marketing

In international business your clients will look for you online because they expect a certain form of communication online from an international business. But they’ll need to find you online first and this is why search marketing is critical for your international marketing success today.

I recently came back from a trip to Toronto where I attended the Search Engine Strategies Conference. At the summit much of the talk on international search was about language and how many people fail to get the “translation” right for search marketing and this causes businesses to lose money.

But international marketers know that language is just the visible part of the challenge. Mastering the navigation among different languages while keeping your business focus requires a deeper skill set. And beyond this, there are the fundamental cross-cultural challenges of doing business with people who are different to your home market. This is where businesses are challenged to deepen their knowledge of marketing and how to learn about their own markets.

With this is mind, here are five tips for successful international search marketing that go beyond language skills and translation.

#1: Get To Know Your International Audiences

This is where your international business begins. People from different cultures are different. There are often opposing differences in how people like to do business. You can’t expect to connect with people in any meaningful manner unless you understand them well.

First you need to research your market. You also need to stimulate as much feedback as you can from each of your international markets. And while doing both of these you need to adopt a sort of cross-cultural lens to ensure that you come to the right conclusions.

Understanding your international audience starts with language and communication, but you also need cross-cultural competency to connect on a level deep enough to develop an international business.

#2: Get Your Research Right

There are a few ways where you can get your research wrong right from the beginning.

• How you carry out your international search marketing campaign will depend on your business objectives. You’ll have different strategies for branding, selling products or qualifying leads. And you’ll need to adapt the research you carry out for each of these different business objectives.
• There are a variety of reasons why it’s not always easy to interpret statistics and research in an international context.  Most of these reasons relate back to cultural differences, different ways of doing things and differences in markets.  Although you may get more traffic from one country, your best business opportunities may be within another country.
• These cultural differences also impact language translations.  The translations you use may not be the ones you need to obtain the information you need. This is why you need a local marketer to help find the right keywords to use. There are jobs where you absolutely must use humans… and humans with the right professional background.
• And to complicate things, you also need to have a good understanding of how local markets use the web in your particular industry. The web continues to evolve for everyone and you need to have this local knowledge to get your international search marketing right.

It’s not easy to research international markets without actual international business experience and local expertise in both your particular market and in search marketing. You can save time and avoid potential blunders by working with people with these skills. If you don’t have this option, start small, take your time doing your international market research, and above all question all of your own assumptions. (Learning how to recognize your assumptions is a skill by itself.)

#3: Learn About Local Search Engines

The Google algorithm is used by most of the search engines out there. The only exceptions are for a few countries with non-Latin alphabets. It’s easy enough to find out the leading search engines in the countries you are targeting. But don’t assume that just because they use the same Google algorithm as you are used to in your own country that everything’s the same.

Spend a bit of time looking at how the local search engines work and monitor this regularly. Keep your search marketer’s hat on while doing this and you’ll probably notice some little differences.  Use these little differences can help you strengthen your own international search marketing campaigns.

It’s often easier to rank for keywords in countries outside of the US, simply because there is less content, which means less competition for those keywords.  So you need some fine skills in analyzing which keywords to target in different countries.

#4: Use Multiple Competencies

Language competency is essential to getting good international search results. But so is are good marketing skills, and marketing skills are needed both in understanding the local market and also in how this is applied online specifically for search marketing. This is why a successful international search marketing campaign is the fruit of good:

• Translation
• Search marketing
• Local marketing expertise in your industry

Keep this in mind. You don’t want to rely solely on a translator or a search marketer or a local marketing expert.  You’ll need to find the right balance within your international marketing team.

#5: Invest In Localization

This is just a reminder… For best results you’ll always need to have a localized web presence and this means:

• Local language content
• Local web host
• Local domain registered locally
• Local currency
• Local address and shipping practices
• Local physical address
• And anything else that’s specific to your industry that needs to be local

Although it’s usually not possible to begin with 100% localization, you should keep striving towards this goal. Think local until it becomes second nature and you’ll get better results from your international marketing.

Now it’s your turn…

• What tips can you share for successful international search marketing?
• How important is search marketing to your international business success?
• How does language impact your current international search marketing results?

More On International Web Marketing

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

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

5 Tips For Great International Search Marketing

International Business Development Strategy

Have you got a great idea for an international business? It’s not always easy to find specific how-to information for international business development and this is why I provide some international business resources here on this blog, simply to help others.

But this leads to my getting emails with all sorts of odd international business requests. You see, I only help businesses at the point of new market entry, which is a very specific moment of time in the process of creating an international business… more about that below.

This is why I thought I’d share with you here the 3 main reasons why I won’t be able to help you with your international business. Here they are.

#1: Export Business Model

• “My grandfather has a cement company in Japan and I want to import his products in the US”
• “We are in Turkey and sell industry-specific pipes to manufacturing plants all over the world”
• “We are based in Mexico and produce large scale artwork and want to sell directly to international buyers”

In short, these examples are all about exporting and importing products.  To put it bluntly, I’m sorry, but I can’t help you here.

To be perfectly honest, I find import and export a bit boring. I do find this easy enough to do, but it’s just not what I like doing.

Besides, it’s a waste of my particular skills which allow me to get a much deeper understanding of:

• What would make people from a different country buy your products or services
• How to get them to buy
• What you need to do to get more international sales.

This is how I help businesses to adapt their products, marketing and sales tactics to get more international sales.

Now, I do occasionally help export businesses with general tips to get unstuck. But I can only do this if there is a real business functioning in the background, and most of these requests are only based on an idea of exporting products into a new market. There’s no actual business up and running yet, so I can’t help them get unstuck if they haven’t even started.

I can’t help people with ideas simply because it’d take up too much of my time, cost too much money and my interests are at another level as you’ll see below.

Tip

Get on the phone and talk to the people listed on my international business resources. Find the international trade lists for your industry. Talk with the Trade Commissioner from your country’s embassy in the foreign country involved. Listen and follow up the advice you get.

That’s just a starting point.

You’ll probably need to travel and meet with the right people.  You’ll need to hustle and learn how to ask the right questions in the right places. You’ll also need to develop your business knowledge. Commit to doing this preliminary business research properly.

#2: Unclear Business Model

Some requests are so fuzzy I have no idea what industry is involved and cannot get a good picture of where the business is and even if there is a business involved at all.

Brainstorming international business ideas can be fun, and I do enjoy this from time to time, but you need to articulate your idea well to get any value out of a brainstorming session.

If you are having trouble conveying your idea to others, you need to work on it some more. You should ask yourself whether you have a business idea at all, and if there is a business model somewhere behind this idea and one you can take abroad.

I often hear from people who do not have a clear understanding of the business model for their international business.  This is usually a company which “does everything” and wants to develop their international business on the same scale. This fuzzy bunch of “everything” translated into a big nothing. This just isn’t going to work. You need to start with a very clear business model.

Tip

Strengthen your primary business first. Before thinking about developing your international business you need to get a clear understanding of what you do, why it works in your country, who you sell to and why.  It’s scary the number of business professionals who contact me who do not know this. How can you expect to take your business into a different culture if you don’t understand what it is in your own culture?

And how well does your business work? If your business isn’t working in your own country, what makes you think it’ll work in another country? If you haven’t been able to resolve the challenges in your own cultural environment, how will you be able to do so in a foreign cultural environment? Hone your business skills first.

#3: No Business Model

Here’s my favorite “international business” request which comes in frequently:

• “I have a book and want to get it published in many different foreign languages.”

A book is not a business model. I’m sorry I can’t help you.  

Tip

Your publisher can probably point you in the right direction.

Bonus Tip

If you don’t have the money to invest in a professional translation by a native speaker, living in his native country with specific industry knowledge on the topic of the book, then don’t bother.

Where I Help Businesses Get Faster International Sales

I help established businesses at their point of new market entry when they are connecting with their new international clients for the first time. I help them to adjust their international business development strategy based on the initial feedback from this first connection with a new market.  I get sales and marketing tactics fine-tuned to bring in results from a new culture enabling faster international market penetration.

I usually only intervene for the first 6-12 months of a new market entry with the aim to provide the best operational guide to get sales in the new international market. I get involved in the international sales and marketing as this is where my cross-cultural and international skills enable me to interpret the real market feedback and learn how to adapt business tactics for best results.

Risk when managing the unknown and risk in cultural blunders are critical factors when entering new markets. So I also coordinate with senior management and other key players to closely monitor the risk factor. It’s valuable for risk evaluation to have people with strong international and cross-cultural skills involved at both the operational level and at the decisional level.

I have extensive experience in new market entry in traditional international business environments and I also have a few years in new media for international business development.

New media is taking up most of my time now. And to further develop these skills I also take on a few clients to hone specific marketing tactics such as blog editing, social media promotion and online community building.

So, if you have a new international business idea:

You’ll need to:

• Get a clear understanding of your business model
• Do all of the preliminary research for your new international business.

Look at the links under the resource section to get you started. But you’ll still need to dig further and do the groundwork needed to start your international business.

When you’ve done all of this preliminary work, set up a company and are just beginning to make sales in your new international market you’ll probably find that you need to adjust your tactics. You’ll find that all of the research you’ve done is not quite right, things are taking longer than expected, you’re not getting the results you expected. You might even hit a barrier or two. What works on paper and looks good in research usually needs adaptation when you start your real business.

And this is where my particular set of skills and expertise can help you.

Now, over to you…

• Do you have a clear understanding of your international business markets?
• What are you doing to develop your business into new international markets?
• What are your favorite resources for international business research?

Please share your comments below.

More On International Business Development Strategy:

• 3 Reasons Why I Won’t Help Your International Business
• 5 Actions To Start Developing Your International Markets
• Action Strategy For International Business Development
• Aligning Your Questions To Build Your International Business
• Are People In Small Countries Better International Business Developers?
• Are You Outsourcing Too Much?
• Define International Business
• Global Or International Business?
• Is The Expense Of Foreign Travel Stopping You From Getting International Clients?
• Market Research For International Business Development
• New International Business Development Phase Today With The Right Marketing Mix
• Online Success? Study Traditional Paths To International Business Development For More
• Plans With Adaptability, Flexibility And Agility
• Small Businesses Need To Take Action To Uncover International Business Opportunities
• When Discrimination Is Useful In International Business

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

3 Reasons Why I Can’t Help Your International Business

International Social Media

How do you use Twitter? There are different ways businesses can use this social media platform:

• Branding
• Customer outreach
• Customer support
• Long term lead generation
• General business networking
• Strategic business networking for a specific goal
• Or as a social media tool to support other social media platforms

I mainly use Twitter as a strategic networking tool to build my international business network. Like most busy professionals it took me a long time to see the value in using Twitter. And even after I started rather reluctantly it took me a full two months to really understand what Twitter could do for my business.

But when I finally got over my own mind blocks something strange happened: within a week it brought in valuable contacts for my business. As soon as the light bulb turned on in my head, I spent an afternoon developing a tweet plan for strategic networking to build my business, and it worked immediately. My email inbox was literally flooding with businesses wanting to know more about my business. What surprised me was that these email were from the types of businesses I wanted to find through Twitter.

I thought I’d just been lucky, but later I realized there was probably more to why I got this Twitter marketing exercise right the first time. You see, I have a background of over 25 years field experience in traditional international business development. This enabled me to develop strong cross-cultural people skills and international business development skills.

• The cross-cultural skills are in-depth people skills and, when you use them in international business, you also learn to maintain a strong focus on the business results you want while connecting with people who are different to you. Twitter is about connecting with a wide variety of people and it can sometimes be challenging to find the right balance to use it successfully for your business.
• The international business development skills mean I know how to operate in a business capacity in “unknown” environments, where there’s a high level of risk, where you need flexibility and where you need to cultivate feedback, listen to it and then adapt your communication to get things right.

With hindsight I believe these skills helped me to “get it right” the first time round. I have since tweaked my orignal tweet plan and integrated different tactics make Twitter work even better for my particular needs.  Twitter is now a key tool in building my international business network.

Below are a variety of links to help you use Twitter successfully for your business. Remember to follow me on Twitter @CindyKing.

How To Get Started On Twitter Resources

Here’s a series of articles to help you get the most out of Twitter.

#1: Listen to what people are saying on Twitter
8 Easy Twitter Monitoring Ideas

#2: Set up your Twitter account
5 Simple Steps to Getting Your Business on Twitter
How to Create a Custom Twitter Background Design

#3: Find people you want to connect with on Twitter
How to Market Your Business With Twitter Lists

#4: Create a great tweet plan
8 Simple Steps To Grow A Quality Twitter Following

#5: Reach out to people on Twitter
12 Tips to Engage People on Twitter

#6: Start with networking great basics on Twitter
8 Easy Ways to Network on Twitter

#7: Find the best meeting places on Twitter
How to Use Twitter Events to Grow Your Network

#8: Take Twitter connections one step further
7 Steps to Successful Twitter Interviews

More Twitter Resources For You

Cross-Cultural & International People On Twitter
Are you interested in developing your cross-cultural skills for international business? Then here’s a list of people I recommend you follow because their Twitter feeds have interesting tweets.

Cross-Cultural Twitter Interviews
Here’s a series of Twitter interviews with some of the people on this list.  Have a look at what I did after reading the article in step 7 above.

Now, It’s Your Turn

• What challenges do you face when using Twitter for your business?
• What Twitter tactics are you using successfully for your business?
• What successes have you had using Twitter for international marketing?

Please leave your comments below.

Tweet Plan

Are you stuck in figuring out how to use Twitter for your business? Create a tweet plan as mentioned in step 3 above and run it for a couple of months to get the feedback you need to figure out what would work best for your business. Need help in setting up your tweet plan?

Find out more about how I can help you set up your tweet plan

More On Social Media

• What Is Social Media
• Cross-Cultural Social Media
• International Networking On Social Media
• International And Cross-Cultural People To Follow On Twitter
• Social Media Localization
• How To Create An International Business Blog

International Social Media On Facebook

In addition to strategic business networking on Twitter, I also like to participate in social networking on Faceback. Please click through and “Like” this Facebook page on international social media.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Twitter Guide

International Links

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.

Join the Cross-Cultural Communication Business Page on Facebook

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?

Join the International Business Page on Facebook

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

Join the International Marketing Business Page on Facebook

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?

Join the International Sales Business Page on Facebook

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?

Join the International Social Media Business Page on Facebook

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?

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

International Links: Week 20 2010

Cross-Cultural Social Media

This morning I woke up to some unexpected news. Facebook made a change in how you can set up your business page.  You used to be able to set up your Business Page so everyone who was not a fan or had not hit the “Like” button would land on a specific tab or “landing page” whenever they visited your page.  Businesses used this to:

• Get more people to like their page and build their Facebook audience
• Highlight offers
• Incite people to participate in a charity or a community
• And generally guide visitors to create a unique navigation experience on social media

Well this morning it appears Facebook took away this landing page capability. Now, this literally just happened and I still need to read something official from Facebook, so if you are concerned by this news, please read up about it on Mari Smith’s blog or the Social Media Examiner Facebook Page. I’m sure they’ll keep you informed.

At the time of writing this post, there is a question about just what this new change means and what will happen to the Facebook Business Pages currently using “welcome” tabs and other landing pages.  There is speculation this may be happening in phases and still no official news from Facebook.

But I want to share some cross-cultural insights on the impact of what happened in these first few hours because there are a few things worth noting and one of them is about how timing and communication is perceived by different cultures.

Latest Facebook Change

First, the short story…

Following the thread of how this news broke on the Social Media Examiner Facebook page, it appears a group of Facebook developers found they could no longer set up accounts to get new visitors to land on the customized tabs they had just created for their clients. And in this developers forum Facebook informed them that Facebook had changed their rules and Facebook users would not be able to do this unless:

• You are a Facebook authenticated business which means you have over 10,000 fans
• You asked your “Facebook representative” to do this for you, and this means you are an advertising client of Facebook where minimum monthly purchases are in the 5 figure range.

Businesses Losses

Again, I have to say it’s very early on and things may not be as they first appear. But if this is true, this change is particularly troublesome for businesses who are currently running a Facebook ad campaign. Their links are no longer going to their landing page as planned. Apparently at least some of them were not informed of the change the moment it happened.

This does not send a very good image of what it’s like to work with Facebook.  In fact, it could put a big dent in Facebook’s credibility from a business perspective. These new changes make it clear Facebook wants big business bucks, but this incident shows they don’t know how to play the big business game.

Cross-Cultural Losses

Unfortunately things get even worse when you consider this from a cross-cultural perspective.

Credibility. Different cultures use different frameworks to process credibility. It’ll be interesting to follow the different reactions from businesses in different countries.  It’s not going to be easy for Facebook to manage the loss of credibility across such a diverse set of followers.

Although businesses are adopting social media at a greater rate this year in North America, the climate is very different in other countries where businesses are still wondering what social media can do for them.  And I know many of the businesses around me here in France will have a good little chuckle and put the whole social media question aside to get on with “real” business.

Respect. The worst insight of this whole incident is the lack of respect Facebook shows towards their raving fans. They’ve put mud on the face of two of their own fan groups:

• The Facebook developers who sold Facebook services to their clients
• The businesses with ad campaigns linking to landing pages which are no longer working

Respect was lost because Facebook did not inform these two groups of fans in an appropriate manner at the appropriate time.

In some cultures this is very bad and should not be ignored by Facebook. People just don’t want to be associated with businesses who treat their own close “fans” with such disrespect. This is a “deal breaker” in many cultures.

Trust.  With the loss of credibility and the lack of respect there is a loss of trust. Trust is always very precarious in cross-cultural relationships. It’s very easy to lose trust between cultures, and much more difficult to build it up.

So businesses need to make an effort to lose as little trust as they possibly can. Clear upfront communication is one way to do this and it’s absence leads to mistrust.

The Impact Of Time On Cross-Cultural Damages

It’s interesting to look at how time and timing impact your communication from a cross-cultural communication perspective.  You see there are two things to look at:

• No matter what Facebook does from hereon in, the fact that this happened without informing people at the time it happened will mean a loss of credibility, respect and trust for many different cultures. And in cross-cultural relationships these take much more effort to build back up.
• No matter what the real situation is, Facebook needs to respond quickly because different cultures have different appreciations of time and of what has just happened.  There is only a narrow window to do this and get it right for a wide international audience at minimal cost.  Many cross-cultural mishaps become outright blunders simply because there is a lack of response within an appropriate time frame.

Immediate Reparation Of The Damage

Please remember, I’m responding to this news only a few hours after it broke and things may not be exactly as they seem.  But if all of this is indeed true, it’s not going to be easy for Facebook to find the best response for their wide international audience. Both the response itself and the timing of the response is critical.  Here’s what I suggest their response has to be:

• Elegant enough to repair some of the damage. Some cultures will respond well to a sincere apology which shows empathy towards them.
• Thorough enough to build up a bit of the trust  lost within the business community. This will take time and the next steps Facebook takes will be scrutinized.
• Very clear information to get this across well to a multicultural audience. And because many people believe their communication to be clear when it isn’t, this should proofed by someone with the right international communication skills.
• Within at least the first few hours of their head office opening today Facebook should at least give an acknowledgement that they will respond more fully within a maximum of a couple of days. It’s bad publicity when you put your clients in a situation where they lose business because of your actions. This is probably what happened to some of the people in the 2 “raving fan” categories above, and all businesses will be watching to see how Facebook responds.

Getting Beyond This Unfortunate Communication Incident

Because I’m writing this very early after the first incident, it’s important to note things may not be as they seem.  A close look at this situation, in this early phase, makes it’s easy to understand why you need to quickly respond with clear communication.

If Facebook is indeed changing the way how you can set up your landing page,  they will need to work on building trust.   Of course, businesses can still use URL redirects to drive people outside of Facebook towards specific Facebook tabs or landing pages because all tabs have a unique URL.

But Facebook should also try to show businesses a solution, or the path they see for businesses to use Facebook, and not just the big businesses who can afford Facebook advertising. Facebook needs to acquire a bit more of the social media mindset and come down to meet all of their business users. It’s important to have trust built at this level in an international environment.

Otherwise they will lose a part of the “raving” element of their “raving fans” because part of their international audience will not be able to connect with them in a strong way. This leaves a door open to competition. It’s hard to evaluate the cultural impact of “raving fans” from other countries because many cultures don’t really fit into this description. The image changes from one culture to another.

And this is probably where you can bring in parallels from traditional international marketing with the 5 different steps to becoming an international business. The idea being you need to learn how to create relationships with one country first, then a few different ones, and it’s only by acquiring these international skills that you can become a “global” business, like Nike for example.

With this is mind and if all of this is true, it looks like Facebook just showed it’s limitations. Despite the massive presence worldwide, it hasn’t yet learned the skills it needs to communicate with a global audience.

That’s looking at Facebook, but it doesn’t take into account the users. And Facebook’s future will depend on how their users will want to use their platform.

On a side note, I’d like to bring up one other thing.  Unfortunately working internationally you see a lot of people trying to cheat systems to make money. And my second thought to the Facebook change was this:

• The minimum amount of fans businesses need to be authenticated is 10,000 = too many for most businesses to realistically attain.
• The minimum amount businesses can spend to advertise on Facebook is 5 figures = big money most businesses cannot afford to spend on Facebook.

This probably means an onslaught of people figuring out ways to sell businesses large quantities of “fans”.  And this will probably mean people on Facebook will also have to deal with an increase in spam related issues. Will it all be worth it? Will this change the Facebook environment enough to make people leave?  Will this leave a big enough opportunity for another social media platform?

Now It’s Your Turn

• What other cross-cultural perspectives do you see in this incident?
• Do you think this incident will impact how businesses invest in Facebook?
• Does this incident make you want to invest more in your own blog or website?

Please leave your comments below.

Need Help?

If ever you need help in figuring out how to respond to a communication incident across a broad international audience, contact me and I’ll give you a quote.  With over 25 years in developing international markets, I’ve played a pivotal role in diffusing many a business crisis in cross-cultural environments.

More on Cross-Cultural Social Media

• How to Connect Globally With Social Media
• Choice Of Social Media For International Markets
• The Cultural Divide In The Social Media Evolution
• Cultural Differences In Social Media Marketing
• How Cultural Differences Impact International Social Media
• 7 Cross-Cultural Skills For Businesses To Master Social Media
• Social Media Marketing Across Cultures
• Guerrilla Marketing With Social Media To Enter New International Markets
• Understanding Social Media For Stronger International Web Marketing

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Cross-Cultural Blunder On Latest Facebook Change

International Links

Here is another list of the interesting links on cross-cultural topics, international business and international social media. Join the Facebook Business Pages to find more.

Cross-Cultural Topics

• Must-Try Foods Of The World – Do you like trying different cuisines when you travel?

Join the Cross-Cultural Communication Business Page on Facebook

International Business

• Why Hong Kong Is China’s New Tech Hub – There’s an interesting comparison here about the differences in business between China and Hong Kong.
• Take Your Business Global – Learn about Taking Your Business Global with SBA’s blog: ” Many small businesses think they aren’t large enough to compete in the world marketplace. In fact, 97 percent of all exporters are small businesses.” ExportGov says you could be an exporter too!

Join the International Business Page on Facebook

International Marketing

• Will Thursday Be The New Friday? – Here’s an interesting look at how Fanta can change their Friday celebration to a Thursday celebration to reach other countries where the weekend starts earlier.

Join the International Marketing Business Page on Facebook

International Social Media

• Using Social Media to Engage Multicultural Communities – Technicultr’s presentation on using social media in multicultural marketing is a good read. Have you any other examples to share?
• The Ultimate List: 300+ Social Media Statistics – HubSpot has created an excellent list of videos and infographics with lots of international social media stats. Do you think they missed any?

Join the International Social Media Business Page on Facebook

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?

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

International Links: Week 19 2010