Social Media In International Web Marketing

Readers saw me launch a Tweet Plan for strategic business development  mid-November 2008. And some of you may have noticed an article on Copyblogger on New Year’s Eve a short month and a half later, about the results Twitter had on my business.

Well, since then I have had quite a few people sign up to look at how I Tweet. And I have had a few followers tell me that they like my Tweets because they are always positive and have a nice tone.

Of course, this makes me happy.  Social media has been a journey for me.  I started out lacking in confidence in my social communication skills.  That is why I spent my first two months following community managers on Twitter, trying to pick up social media communication skills by osmosis.

The comments about my current social media communication skills got me thinking…

When I Tweet I now use a personal technique for communicating with different cultures in international business.  This technique is something I have been doing for years as a way to open myself for closer communication with international clients.  And it is another story…

But it is interesting how I use cross-cultural communication techniques in across the board in social media.

Let’s go back to why I started using this technique on Twitter.  This is what I want to talk to you about today.

It Starts With Politeness

Two months ago, my communication skills were already good… or so I thought.  You see, the communication skills I had were crafted in a business-to-business environment.  I know how to:

• Communicate well in an international business environment
• Negotiate contracts with both small and very large companies from all over the world
• Communicate well in crisis management in a multicultural environment
• Write emails that are socially, culturally and professionally correct
• Write speeches, white papers, case studies and direct response copywriting to bring in international business

But two months ago I was not happy with my social media communication skills.  To be frank, I was still wondering why I was spending time on social media.

When you have good communication skills, it is easy to notice new people on Twitter.  Their Tweets are stiff.  They do not realize when they are:

• Rude
• Clumsy
• Impolite
• Boring
• Egocentric
• Pompous

And when I started on Twitter I knew I did not what to be look like the newbie I was.  I wanted to improve my social media communication skills as fast as I could.

Comparison With International Communication

Luckily Chris Garrett commented on how people perceived something as being impolite in his Authority Blogger course.  And this sparked a light bulb moment for me.

• I was able to compare social media politeness to expert international communication skills.

Now in all my years in international business, I have only met a handful of these top level international communicators.  You know the people with the highest international skill levels.  It is very hard to describe what makes a great international communicator.  But when you meet one, you are become painfully aware of the huge gaps possible in international skill levels.

Good international communicators are excellent communicators in all cultures and in all circumstances.

It is much easier to describe what these expert international communicators are not.  They do not:

• Boast
• Brag
• Say that they know everything, or more than anyone else

They are always:

• Helpful
• Polite
• Interesting to talk to
• Listening

The Likability Factor

And something else is there.  They also have one common trait:

• Everyone likes them.

You never forget the skilled international communicators because their level of communication usually equals their level of likability.  It is not charisma.  These people are just genuinely likable… to everyone.

Good communication and likability together make an extremely powerful combination.

Good Communication Skills

It is interesting… these great international communicators do seem to use a code similar to good social media communicators.

Again, I cannot put this code into words.  The visual thinker in me is still processing this.  But I do think there is a common code or common tactics between the two groups.

I’ll write more about this later.

There is one thing I am very sure of though…

In today’s customer-centric business environment, the two skills of good communication and likability are key to success.

This is the fastest way to connect with people.

Yes, even for business.  This is obvious as more and more businesses are turning to social media.

And yes, even for international business.  Genuine likability crosses cultures.

This brings me back to developing the right mindset on Twitter. We all have different levels of communication skills and these take time and effort to improve.  But you can easily adopt the right mindset:

• Open yourself up to communication
• Seek to make a real connection
• Be positive
• Avoid anything even slightly negative
• Take the initiative to open the conversation

This is also how you begin to develop your international skills.  You will never develop international nor social media skills if you stay in your own house and only look at the world through a screen with filters. An open mindset can connect you with all sort of different people.  And the right mindset lets your likability factor soar.

• What is it that makes you like people on social media?
• What is it that makes you dislike people on social media?
• What similarities to do see between international communication skills and social media communication skills?

More on Social Media In International Web Marketing

• How Do You Use Social Media For Business?
• The Cultural Divide In The Social Media Evolution
• How Cultural Differences Impact International Social Media
• How To Sort Through The Social Media Hype
• It Is Business-To-People In Social Media Marketing
• How Do You Use Social Media For Small Business?
• 12 Social Media Tactics In My Marketing Plan
• 7 Cross-Cultural Skills For Businesses To Master Social Media
• Content Marketing To Reach International Markets
• Choice Of Social Media For International Markets
• Connecting With People On Twitter
• Cultural Differences In Social Media Marketing
• Guerrilla Marketing With Social Media To Enter New International Markets
• Likability For International And Social Media Communication
• New Marketing Taints Old Networking Tactics
• Social Media Marketing Across Cultures
• Understanding Social Media For Stronger International Web Marketing

More in the Get International Clients Business Guides

• Build Your International Marketing Strategy
• Connect With Your International Markets
• International Market Research
• International Web Marketing

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Likability For International And Social Media Communication

Culturally Customized Content

There was an interesting article published last Friday on the BBC News: New lingua franca upsets French

It is the end of this article that I find most interesting.

International business professionals are finding themselves confronted with a new breed of English language.

• Non-native English speakers have a distinct way of speaking English.
• And the native English speakers are having a hard time understanding this new form of their own language.

Some people call this new form of English “Globish”.  I have used “International English” to describe it here.  I have also heard the term “Global English”.

This Globish or International English is picked up by non-native English business professionals who need to communicate effectively in English.  They need to have results and they also need to limit cross-cultural communication blunders and barriers.

Here are some particularities of this new form of the English language:

Less Vocabulary

Vocabulary is drastically reduced.  In this article, it states that Globish only has 1,500 words.

Non-native English business professionals use their words wisely.  They get straight to the point.  They use the minimum amount of words to make their point clearly.

Less Fun

Certain things are avoided:

• Humor
• Metaphors
• All abbreviations

These are major pitfalls in cross-cultural communication.

Lack Of Personality

Native English speakers often feel that Globish leads to a lack of warmth or personality in the English language.

And in many ways this is true.

National metaphors add life to communication.  So does humor.  And abbreviations mean that you can get onto the more interesting part of your discussion faster.

But Globish speakers avoid them like the plague because they can easily create confusion, misunderstandings and this simply slows down communication.  You often only pick up the confusion or misunderstanding much further down the road.

Reasons To Use Globish

But this stark way of communicating also has a distinct advantage:

• You communicate more effectively to a broader audience

There is also another advantage:

• Globish or International English is very clear.

This is why such a wide audience can quickly understand what is being said.

• Clarity and consistency are key elements for good web content.

Globish speakers are also very good at identifying possible areas that can lead to cross-cultural confusion. They know when it is best to give more details or ask for confirmation of understanding.

• People with good Global English or International English skills are good communicators.

Yes, some of the non-native English speakers may still make grammar mistakes.  But do not underestimate their power of communication.

If you need to communicate across a wide international audience, which includes non-native English speakers, contact me to find out more about the International English copywriting services I offer.

More on Culturally Customized Content:

• Opposite Cultural Perceptions
• Customize Your Content For Different Cultures
• Customizing Content For Your Clients
• Do You Use English Or American Spelling?
• Multicultural Marketing And Colors
• The 2 Main Reasons Why Companies Do Not Have Good Foreign Language Content
• The Phases Of Cultural Communication You Go Through To Increase International Sales
• Translations, Foreign Language Content and Culturally Customized Content
• What Is Your Culture On The Social Web?
• Who Should You Get To Write Your Foreign Language Web Content
• Writing Info-Products For International Readers

More in the Get International Clients Business Guides

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

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

A Different English For Your International Audience

International Web Marketing

Yesterday I told you how I now have 20 odd domains live waiting for me to get to writing landing page text for them.

As I said, I simply put up an article or two from my business directory so that Google would have a few weeks head start in finding them before I would start promoting them.

I have not advertised any of these domain names in any way.  So I was surprised last week when I saw a very thoughtful comment on one of these websites.

In fact, I think the domain name must be good because it gets a steady trickle of traffic.

The comment was from a business professional who said that if his company were to adopt a culture customized content strategy he thought every single department head would want to contribute.

First Thought

My first reaction was to chuckle.  It was obviously from an American about an American company.  I just finished reviewing the tags on about 50 of my cultural web tool articles on Get International Clients.

These articles are based on how you can use Geert Hofstede’s cultural behaviors on your website when customizing it for different cultural markets.

Americans have a high score in the individualism scale.  Of course every department will want to have their say in implementing a new website communication strategy for their business.

The problem is that if one person was in charge and based in their home country’s office, he would have his work cut out to get the culture customized content right for a foreign market.

Add different agendas from different departments all located in the same home country office and you have stalemate.  You are sure never to get your culture customized content perfect.

Second Thought

All things being equal, what a wonderful opportunity for companies in cultures with high collectivism score.

Hmm… I have to follow Asian web marketing when it matures further.   And after a little more thought, I also think the Arab and South American worlds will also be very interesting to watch too.

Of course, the key here is “all things being equal” and there are several elements that make comparison difficult.  One of them being different rates of market maturity.  This would require longer analysis.

Final Thoughts

As a marketing executive for American companies, responsible for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, I was often confronted with the typical American hands on approach to culture customized marketing.

Translation: all marketing materials usually came from North America, or had to be approved by North America.  All other communication was often “controlled” or “shared” – depends how you want to look at it.   Priority was often given to North Americans for key field positions.

Also, from my own experience, native field executives had a harder time to get their culture customized suggestions acted upon.

There is something else that strikes me.  As an American marketing and selling in foreign countries the language is different than when marketing and selling in North America.

When you are in the field, marketing and selling to foreign customers, you cannot use the same marketing and sales language.

• You naturally limit your own vocabulary so the others can understand you.
• You also limit the use of different concepts.

With these constraints everything gets back to basics.  Your natural option is to find out precisely what your foreign clients needs and wants and how you can sell that to him.

This is a place where the people in company headquarters simply cannot come unless they are out there meeting these same people.

Now some companies set up weekly phone calls and yearly international road trips for their senior North American management.  This can bring insights and lead to trust in letting the right person do the job at hand.  The trouble is this is often a top marketing or sales executive with other agendas to deal with too.  I have rarely seen large North American companies use culture customized content effectively.

Besides, I wonder if these same companies are more interested in branding their own company image only in a way they can identify with and feel the that culture customized content is counter productive to this.

In the end, I think there are real market opportunities for companies that actively strive towards customizing their communication with the cultures of their foreign target markets.

Internet has taken away the advantage of bigger businesses targeting foreign markets if these same bigger businesses cannot learn from past mistakes.

Marketing sophistication is different in different countries.  And beware if your current sophisticated marketing structure has gone so far it has left out the basics.

Remember…

Business is business everywhere.

Business is selling.

Selling at its basic level is an agreement between 2 parties.

Marketing helps make the sale easier.

When marketing or sales communication becomes everyone’s business in one culture, this communication does not make sales easy in another culture.

Cross-cultural selling is about getting back to the basics of business, where both cultures can connect and come to an agreement.

The business basics common to both cultures.

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

How Too Many Contributions Spoil International Communications

International Web Marketing

As a very small business owner, I do have more flexibility in certain business strategies than many bigger businesses.

Content Creates An Online Communication Base

It has now been 7 months since I started my business directory.

• Writing and publishing an article each work day for 6 months
• Creating a business system
• Recently color-coding on the website to make this system obvious to the readers

Of course, with over 200 articles there is now an obvious editorial direction for the website.

But I have always wanted an online communication base for my own business.  Sure, I spent some time looking into the great Internet Marketing “Get Rich Quick” processes out there.  It is a good way to pick up a lot of knowledge on web marketing practices.

This is what lead me into copywriting 3 years ago.  But I chose to study copywriting because I already had good sales skills, and sales writing skills.  Of course, you need good copywriting to make money on the web, whether you are in a typical get rich quick internet business or a brick and mortar business using the web as a tool.  But recognizing good copywriting is already more than half the work done.

My situation was a little different.  I already have valuable skills.  I knew I wanted to use the internet primarily as a communication base for my own business services.  My websites are there to communicate my international business development system.

All well and good.  But how do you go about communicating your business system online to reach the right people, and to bring in the right clients?

Structure For Your Business

I found I needed matter to work with.  Content.  Lots of content. This took me 6 months of writing one article a day.

As a small business owner I had the flexibility to jump in and develop the structure on an on-going basis.

My primary focus was to write on and around my main business subject area.  My articles are not primarily determined by niche keywords and research.  Of course I tried to use appropriate keywords, and ran keyword searches from time to time.  These searches often proved to me that I knew my subject matter well.  My main focus was writing on my own clearly defined subject.

On a side note, my experience has shown this content strategy to give fantastic SEO results.  I have come up on the first page of many different search results from month 3 onwards.  Businesses from all over the world find me.

People pay money for SEO?  Why don’t they sharpen their business perspective and knuckle down to work on exploiting what is basically a communication platform?

Now that the content structure is there, the content is extremely easy to create.  This business directory has become very easy for me to feed.

Using the flexibility I had in the beginning probably gave me a better structure 6 months later than if I had planned everything offline first.

So, I now have time for the next business phase and it is now in progress.  This is the phase which links my business directory to my business.

What does that mean?

A Real Specific Business Offer And Not The Get Rich Quick Web Marketing

First of all I have a several new URL’s, or domain names, for very specific landing pages.  Now these landing pages are not the get rich quick type.  These are simply landing pages targeting each of the specific products and services I offer.

These products and services form a lead generation strategy.  This means:

• There are some landing pages for free products, some for paid products and services.
• There are also some landing pages for the same product, but written for different audiences.

This leads to a fair number of new websites, even if they are mainly mini-websites.

Ready Fire Aim

My immediate task is to set up 20 odd landing pages.  This takes time. I am doing just about everything single handed:

• Lead generation strategy
• Web marketing strategy
• Copywriting
• International SEO

Yes, it is a fair task, even just for mini-sites.

But as a small business owner I do have some flexibility.  Also as a small business owner I value batch processing.

So one of the first things I have done is to put all of the URL’s live.  I simply put all of the websites up with an article or two from my main business directory.

As a small business owner, I feel I can do this.

It is essentially a Ready Fire Aim approach.

Having all of the websites up early, means that Mr. Google will find them soon.  I will appreciate this when I actually get the website ready and want to promote it.  Tomorrow I start writing a new landing page website one after the other.

Online Flexibility Brings Success

One of the basics of international web marketing is testing and adjusting your communication. Your communication needs to be live before you get any real market feedback.

Market feedback often shows you how to improve your message.  The better your online communication is, the more sales you can expect.

Market feedback will also show you where your business potential lies.

So there will be lots of adjustments to the landing pages.  That is my second business phase.

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

My Own Case Study – Small Business Flexibility

Culturally Customized Content

There are three different phases of cultural communication involved in international internet sales.

Most internet businesses go through three different stages of cultural communication to get more international clients.

1. International Communication
2. Multicultural Communication
3. Cross Cultural Communication

International Communication here is all about keeping your current online communication open to all of your visitors. Both domestic and international.

Multicultural Communication is about getting your message to a wide audience across several different cultures. This step allow you to interact with a wide audience and can help you identify more specific cultural markets to target for maximum results.

Cross Cultural Communication is what businesses work towards to create real relationships with their foreign markets. You create good cross cultural communication through intimate knowledge of your target culture and country.

More on Culturally Customized Content:

• Opposite Cultural Perceptions
• A Different English For Your International Audience
• Customize Your Content For Different Cultures
• Customizing Content For Your Clients
• Do You Use English Or American Spelling?
• Multicultural Marketing And Colors
• The 2 Main Reasons Why Companies Do Not Have Good Foreign Language Content
• Translations, Foreign Language Content and Culturally Customized Content
• What Is Your Culture On The Social Web?
• Who Should You Get To Write Your Foreign Language Web Content
• Writing Info-Products For International Readers

More in the Get International Clients Business Guides

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

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

The Phases Of Cultural Communication You Go Through To Increase International Sales