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
• Ethnic Origins On Social Media

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Cross-Cultural Blunder On Latest Facebook Change

Cross-Cultural Social Media

Jay Baer recently shared the social media quotes he uses most. Be sure to check out the SlideShare presentation he’s put together. These are some great quotes and I use many of them myself. But I’m based in France and network constantly with a broad international audience for my business.  So these quotes don’t always resonate the same with my international audience.

Here are Jay’s favorite social media quotes with some of my own thoughts on how these work within international social media.

Social Media Tips From An International Perspective

#1: “Focus on how to be social, not on how to do social.”

This is not always easy for people from different countries to understand because their ideas of “being social” are different. And this means people in different countries observing social media in North America can have a hard time picking up what “being social” means in social media.

For example in many countries “social” has to be in person. Here’s an example of how French people have integrated the French notion of being social in social media.

#2: “Social media doesn’t create negativity, it uncovers it.”

I personally have a hard time with this. One of the culture shocks I had, even after living in France for decades, was the negativity in the French blogosphere. Of course there are many great French bloggers, but every time I dive into this French environment I’m shocked by how negative it is and invariably close all my web browsers.

This makes me a bit wary of what negativity means to different cultures and how this can impact social media in different countries.

#3: “Social media is an ingredient, not an entree.”

Right now in European businesses social media often seems more like the unicorn mentioned below. It’s something you’ve heard about, but don’t really believe the business benefits exist.  So it’s hard to create any sort of “social media meal” at all.

But progress is being made and it’ll be interesting to see the differences in how social media is used within different countries.  Just like there are different cuisines throughout the world, there’s sure to be “culinary differences” in successful social media in other countries.

#4: “Everyone says social media is a unicorn, but maybe it’s just a horse?”

Or the Lochness Monster?  That’s the response most appropriate to what I hear here in Europe.

As North American businesses use social media more in 2010 it’ll be easier for businesses in other countries to come up with a metaphor they can relate to and then learn how to adapt it to their own cultural specifications.

#5: “Social media is the ultimate canary in the coal mine.”

Speaking of metaphors, this is one that doesn’t translate well. Hopefully in years to come we’ll see the cultural differences in social media as a flock of different exotic birds.

#6: “The goal of social media is to turn customers into a volunteer marketing army.”

Of course, this is fascinating to observe through a cross-cultural lens to compare cultural differences.

For example, creating a “volunteer marketing army” is different in “highly independent” versus “highly collective” societies.  And there will also be differences when comparing results in cultures with “high context communication” versus “low context communication”.

#7: “It’s not viral unless it is.”

I love this one.  It’s not always easy for non-native English speakers to understand buzz words. They can often take on new meanings when adopted in different cultures. And this quote reminds everyone to not get carried away in selling social media.

#8: “Linkedin is for people you know. Facebook is for people you used to know. Twitter is for people you want to know.”

Outside of North America this appears to be different. There are cultural differences in how people like to connect with others and there are cultural differences in how different generations use social media.

The younger generations around me here in France definitely use Facebook for the people they know. In international circles LinkedIn is not necessarily for people you know. In fact, I often hear people in the UK say they didn’t feel the need to be on LinkedIn. And there are still too many questions about Twitter outside of North America and it may not be the best place to make specific international connections.

#9: “Facebook Fan Pages are email newsletters with smaller pictures.”

This is a great social media quote, but it doesn’t work in cultures where most businesses don’t use email newsletters.

But it can give forward thinking marketers in those countries a great idea to try out in their market. Many business successes originated from adapting and being an early adopter of what works well in one country to another country.

#10: “Social media isn’t inexpensive, it’s different expensive.”

For businesses in countries where social media is still an enigma, it can appear to be very expensive.  This is because it takes so much time simply to understand the value and figure out how they can use this to their advantage.

#11: “Social media creates kinship between companies and customers, and kinship equals purchase intent.”

The cultural differences in how people connect with each other and do business impacts how social media can be used for business.

On the one hand social media should prove to be a great tool for some businesses in connecting with potential customers. And on the other hand, there are cultures where social media’s role in getting sales will not be obvious.

#12: “Social media changes the relationship between companies and customers from master and servant, to peer to peer.”

Although I agree 100% with this social media quote, in some cultures it’s very difficult to create “peer to peer” relationships without meeting people in person.

In some international markets, it may be possible to a certain extent and prove to be helpful, but it won’t be easy. And in these cultures social media localization is a necessity.

#13: “Activate your fans, don’t just collect them like baseball cards.”

As an international marketer this is one of my favorite social media quotes.  Social media makes it easy to connect with an international audience, but are you doing anything with these connections?

I meet many business owners who say they want to develop their international business, but don’t know where to start.  Social media can be a great starting point to learn more about your international markets. But it involves putting in the effort to take those social media connections further.

#14: “Social media is about people, not logos.”

This social media quote can help all businesses. In countries where social media is not used extensively for businesses it’s easy to miss this. And it’s also why social media can be valuable within an international communication campaign.

#15: “Every company is its own TV station, magazine, and newspaper.”

This is another of my favorite social media quotes because it represents opportunities for businesses interested in reaching international audiences.  It’s not easy and there are limitations, but social media gives you platforms to connect with international markets and get feedback. It’s a great international market research tool when used strategically.

All businesses with North American clients or wanting to develop there must use social media… and it’s surprising to see how many of them still not using the fantastic communication tools social media gives them.

#16: “Social media allows big companies to act small again.”

I love international business development tools and this is what social media can be for many companies.

#17: “Passion is the gasoline of social media.”

This quote reminds me of how Clotaire Rapaille refers to the American culture as being adolescent in his book The Culture Code.  The capacity of this nation to use passion as a driver is wonderful to watch in action.  But it also makes me wonder if something else will fuel social media in other cultures.

#18: “You must fight social media fire with social media water.”

This is a great quote and leads to another one: “You must adapt social media to work well in different cultures.”

Now, It’s Your Turn

• How do you adjust your social media for international audiences?
• What cross-cultural challenges have you encountered using social media?
• What’s your favorite social media quote for international markets?

Please leave your comments below.

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
• Cross-Cultural Blunder On Latest Facebook Change
• 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

18 Great Social Media Quotes With An International Perspective

Events

Well, you might be wondering what’s the buzz about Social Media Success Summit 2010 — the web’s largest online social media conference.

Note: The links in this article are affiliate links.

This online webinar is almost like a live event

Before I tell you how this virtual summit will help you speed your path to social media marketing success, let me share a story with you.

Proof Social Media Marketing Works…

A few months ago, Michael Stelzner (the guy who wrote the book on white papers) founded a site called Social Media Examiner.  And I was lucky he asked me to be the Managing Editor of Social Media Examiner, so I’ve been part of the adventure and seen this success story unfold up close.

How did it happen? Social Media Examiner relied 100% on social media tactics to drive traffic to his site.  There were no advertising and almost none of the traffic is coming from search engines.  Nearly overnight, Social Media Examiner has become a top destination for businesses.

In less than 5 months, Social Media Examiner was declared the #1 small business blog in the world by Technorati, added more than 13,000 email subscribers, brought nearly 100,000 people a month to the site and is ranked as one of the top 4700 websites in all of America by Alexa.

This all took place via social media.  Social Media Examiner simply leveraged the power of sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to deliver the kind of results that would’ve cost a fortune in the past.  Social Media Examiner didn’t spend a dime on marketing, it was just an investment of our time.

Now the connection…

Social media is the new marketing frontier because it bypasses all the costly middlemen and allows you to rapidly connect with your customers and prospects!  AND this presents an enormous opportunity for you.

So What’s This About?

The Social Media Examiner team has been working for months to bring the best minds in social media marketing together in an event called Social Media Success Summit 2010.

Last year, nearly 1000 marketers and small business owners from around the world attended the summit.  It was a smash hit.  Businesses were transformed.  In fact, 97% of attendees said they’d attend again.

This year’s focus is to empower you to build social media marketing plans, track your social media results and learn from other successful businesses.  You’ll also discover how to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Foursquare and Groupon to attract high-caliber customers and grow your business during this economic slump.

Not only can you gain amazing exposure for your business with social media marketing, you’ll also generate traffic, increase sales, gain qualified leads and build new partnerships.

Twenty-four of the world’s leading social media superstars will be summit instructors.

Join Guy Kawasaki (author, Art of the Start), Chris Brogan (author, Social Media 101), Darren Rowse (co-author, ProBlogger), Mari Smith (author, Facebook Marketing), experts from Best Buy, Home Depot, Whole Foods, Foursquare, Groupon; Steve Rubel (Edelman), Ann Handley (MarketingProfs), Brian Clark (Copyblogger), Greg Jarboe (author, YouTube and Video Marketing), Kim Dushinski (author, Mobile Marketing Handbook), Jason Falls (Social Media Explorer), Jay Baer (Convince & Convert), Chris Garrett (co-author, ProBlogger) and Ramon De Leon (Chicago Domino’s Pizza)—just to mention a few.  Together this team of “who’s who” in social media will help you succeed using practical tactics.

This is the world’s biggest online event designed to empower marketers and small business owners to master social media marketing.  And the great news is it’s a live online conference you can attend from your home or office.

Visit the site now

What’s In It For You

First, you don’t need to be a techno-geek or twenty-something to use and benefit from social media.  You might be surprised to learn that most social media marketers are aged 30 to 60 and have only been using social media for a few months.

In fact, even traditional businesses like Ford Motor Company, Clorox and State Farm Insurance are heavily focused on social media.  This is not some “young kids” phenomenon.

Social Media Success Summit 2010 will help you discover the best ways to market your business using social media.  You’ll also learn how successful social media campaigns were executed and how you can achieve similar results.

This summit is fully dedicated to empowering you.  You’ll discover how to grow your business using no-cost social media tactics.

Yes, attending this online event (and applying the techniques) will grow your business.  But there’s much more.  You’ll also join a community of like-minded women and men who’ll share their experiences and wisdom.

And There’s More

You can get 50% off if you act now.  Go here to see how this works

Plus… As a way of saying “thanks” for checking out the summit, there’s a gift just for marketers called “How to Grow and Engage an Audience on Twitter” (valued at $42) waiting for you here.  Go get it!

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Social Media Success Summit 2010

International Web Marketing

I just read Tamar Weinberg’s internet marketing advice and noticed the different internet marketing specialties she listed:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Link Building
• Affiliate Marketing
• Pay Per Click Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Content Marketing

I agree with Tamar when she says you can’t be an expert in every one of these. Most web marketers have one area they are really good at.

This got me thinking about the specialties I use to reach international audiences for my own business.  The first thing I noticed is that I don’t use Link Building, Affiliate Marketing and Pay Per Click Marketing.  And this is probably because I tend to jump right into new markets to learn everything I can about them first.

• I don’t see myself getting into link building as it’s done by most people today.  I tend to approach link building through social networking, more about that in a minute. But I do see link building changing in the future and I’ll probably be right there when it does because it will involve more meaningful networking.
• And I don’t see myself ever getting big into pay per click marketing. But having said that, I’m closely following the results others get with Facebook advertising and may use something similar in small doses in the future.
• Although I’m not really interested in the traditional affiliate marketing practices, I do a lot of networking and do use similar practices to build business networks. I can see myself joining in when this morphs into the business networking world a bit more.

After looking at the web marketing I do not specialize in, here is how I see my own international web marketing specialties.

International Social Networking

It all starts here for me.  This is how I learn what to do next, the other tactics I need to use and whether my web marketing is on target or not.  I rely on the feedback and constantly analyze results to learn more about my new international markets.

Social networking is a mindset and a way of being. It’s what you need for successful international web marketing.

Although Tamar doesn’t have social networking on her list, it is a part of good link building, affiliate marketing and social media marketing.  And I think it is essential in international web marketing and needs to be in a category all by itself.

I would definitely say this is my strongest international web marketing specialty.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing goes hand in hand with international social networking because much of the social networking starts on social media.

Social media marketing is not always a big component of international web marketing. It really depends on where you’re based and which markets you want to reach.  And you need to keep your finger on the social media pulse of the countries you’re interested in reaching, because things change rapidly.

I’m based in France and target an English speaking audience.  So I use social media extensively to develop my international business network and everyone in a similar situation should do so too.

Social media marketing works very well for me.  I’ve written before about how surprised I was when I realized my social media marketing was always 100% on target.  And I’ve come to realize this is because of the similarities between my international business skills and the cross-cultural people skills.

• My strong international business development skills make it easy for me to adapt business objectives into new environments.
• And my strong cross-cultural skills come in very handy in this social environment. I know myself well enough to navigate between the social and the business focus, skills you pick up when doing business with people from different cultures.

I would say this is my second strongest web marketing specialty.

Content Marketing

I love the results you get from content marketing.  There are organic search results of course.  But you also get lots of feedback through content marketing, and this feedback is important when you are trying to develop new markets in different countries.

And once you get feedback there’s so much more you can do to try to develop the relationships you create.  First there’s listening and paying attention to the whole conversation.  And then even if the content is static once it’s published online, you can still bounce back with more content and use different formats to see what the reactions this brings about.  It’s a game about finding out more about your audience.

I really find this fun and I’m good at it on subjects where I have enough knowledge to see the whole game.

Search Engine Optimization

Many businesses that want to develop international markets worry about the cultural differences in SEO and there are a few other search engines besides Google out there.  But the reality is that the Google algorithm does makes the vast majority of the world’s search engines tick.

So it makes sense to get great at SEO in the Google world first. And then once you’ve mastered this you can work on improving SEO results in other countries. And the truth is that if you understand your international clients, if you know the words they use when they need help online, and you have a good understanding of SEO, then you’ll know how to get good search engine results throughout most of the world.

SEO is important for everyone online and I spend a fair bit of time improving my skills and learning enough to follow the well-known SEO geeks and understand what they are talking about.

Email Marketing

This is my weakest skill because I don’t do enough of it myself and also because I barely read a handful of email marketing messages sent my way on a regular basis.

Instead of building an email list for all of my blog readers when I first started, I jumped in at the deep end and focused on building segmented marketing lists:

• Professionals interested in developing their cultural skills
• Businesses needing how to advice on getting international clients
• French people interested in copywriting
• French people interested in article marketing

This is not something I necessarily recommend you do, after all the funnel does start off with a wide end and then goes narrow.  But I like testing and playing around with marketing to learn more about my markets, that’s why I did things this way.

But I do follow a few people who use culturally targeted email marketing to develop international markets. I’m not sure how much this works in other cultures, but it’s definitely something I’ll probably spend some time looking into in the future.

International Web Marketing

Of course, after doing this exercise reviewing my own personal specialties, this has me thinking about international web marketing in general:

• What are the different specialties in international web marketing?
• How are the specialties in web marketing different for international marketing?
• How is international web marketing evolving and how does this impact what we do?

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please start the conversation below.

More on International Web Marketing:

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

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

International Web Marketing Specialties

Events

You’ll probably notice quite a few tweets and Facebook chatter about an event called Sugartone, the Sweet Business Blogging contest.

The Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest is organized by BizSugar, the social bookmarking site for business articles, and Bloggertone the business bloggers community and it starts Monday March 15th.

Before telling you more about Sugartone, let me share with you why I’m involved.

BizSugar

My blog readers know that I’m always business focused.

Even when I talk about the soft people skills involved in developing strong cross-cultural skills, it’s always with a business focus in mind.

And even though I do a lot of social networking, all of my online presence is business related. I don’t have anything embarrassing online to hide.

This is why I appreciate BizSugar which is a social bookmarking site for business articles.  It’s a refreshing change compared to the rudeness or “snarky” comments encountered on other social bookmarking platforms.

The community on BizSugar is filled with like-minded professionals.  I even use it to develop my business network. And I enjoy the community there so much that I use it as a news reader and write a weekly review of the articles I find inspiring there for international business.

Bloggertone

I enjoy networking with the Irish social media community because so many of the Irish businesses are passionate about developing internationally.  Unfortunately most Irish companies need to generate international business to survive.  And as I’m also passionate about international business, and I enjoy their energy.  So I network with a number of Irish business folk online.

This is how I came to know Bloggertone which only launched a few months ago. And their growth has been fantastic. I really appreciate the strong community feeling in this blogging community. It’s a pleasure to network with them because they understand how to be social.

Bringing Both Business Communities Together

On the one hand you have a great community of professionals sharing their expertise by publishing articles on Bloggertone, and on the other hand you have another great community of professionals providing social recognition for business articles.

It was only a question of time before these two communities decided to do something together to help business professionals marketing their expertise online.

Sugartone

So, what is Sugartone?

Sugartone is the Sweet Business Blogging Contest for busy professionals to win $6921 in prizes to help them improve their marketing and generate more business.

It’s free to enter, easy for everyone to participate and there are lots of chances to win prizes.

Here are the 2 different ways you can participate in the Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest:

• Write an original business article writer with a great title
• Vote and comment on the business articles submitted for the contest

There are 10 winners for the Top 10 Titles and 10 winners for the Top 10 Commenters

It’s that easy to enter the Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest, so go check it out here

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Sugartone: The Sweet Business Blogging Contest

Membership Sites

I’m tired of hearing the word “risk”. This is one of the top excuses most of the business owners I speak with use for not developing their international markets.

Of course, I fully understand and appreciate the “risk” involved in developing international markets. Honestly I do. I’ve been in international businesses of various sizes for over 25 years.

But risk should not keep you paralyzed. Not taking action means losing business opportunities in today’s world.

Read more to find out how I believe the WishList Member Training can help you get a handle on the risk elements involved in international business development.

Learn More About Your Markets

Instead of complaining about risks, you need good market evaluation tools. You need to find out more about your international markets and within a good international web marketing strategy.

Today’s social media and web marketing environment enables us to get more relevant feedback from international markets than ever before.

I know this first hand from how I am developing my own international business.

WishList Membership Plugin

There is one tool I want to talk to you specifically.

• WishList Membership Plugin

Full disclosure: I own WishList Membership Plugin and all the links on this blog are my affiliate links.

It’s a solution built for “everyday people” – that means you don’t need to be a technical genius to figure it out.

Marketing Possibilities Using Membership Site Software

I have a particularly interest in using WishList Membership Plugin within an international web marketing campaign as a tool to learn more about my own international niche markets, but you could easily use it to market to your own audience.

I’m writing this blog post because I’m excited about the marketing possibilities it offers. Of course it is a tool to create membership sites. Using the popular blogging platform: WordPress. And this has three great advantages:

• It’s super easy.
• You can create different membership environments using different mixes of other WordPress plugins.
• It’s just started, there’s going to be many more marketing possibilities this time next year.

WordPress Can Do This?

There are some fabulous plugins out there but you had to “tweak this” and “tweak that” and if you aren’t technical, it becomes very frustrating. That’s why I was very excited when I saw WishList Member. It’s a membership solution that was specifically built for WordPress.

The best part is, it has all the features you would want in a membership solution AND it is compatible with all of your other favorite plugins! So you get the best of both worlds

Plus, they’ve added some very cool features to make running and managing a membership site a whole lot easier.

Free Membership Sites For More Effective Market Research

I’m much more interested in the free membership sites right now. I’m starting to change all of my niche websites into free membership sites. I’ll use the membership site capabilities to learn more about my audience and market to them in a much more effective way, than simply with a blog or website.

And after I learn more about what my audience wants?

Then there is always the possibility of easily adding in paid membership levels.

Building Your Community

With the WishList plugin you create a membership site. This membership site is about creating community. And if one thing can be said about the web today, it is that it is quickly moving towards a greater sense of “community”.

That’s why membership sites have quickly begun to experience a tremendous resurgence. It gives people with a shared interest a place to connect, discuss and share their thoughts and ideas on a topic of interest.

Ideas On How Your Business Can Use WishList

They key as a business owner is to identify how you can create a community around your product or service.  Here are links to 3 different videos.

• 10 of the most popular kinds of membership sites (and some of them don’t even have content inside!).
• Micro-continuity membership sites
• Get a deeper idea of how you can incorporate WishList into your business.

After watching these videos you’re bound to have lots of “membership site” ideas – I know I did.

WishList Membership Training

To be honest with you, although I appreciated the benefits of having a membership site, the marketing lightbulbs did not really go off until after I listened to the recordings of the WishList Live Training Event.  This is when I realized WishList was opening great possibilities for me to use in international market research.  The kind of market research that would help get rid of the paralyzing effect of the fear of “risk” in international business development.

To set up a membership site, all you need is the WishList Membership Plugin.  It is very easy to set up and use, especially if you are used to WordPress already.

To really get the fully marketing potential quickly out of the plugin, I think it’s worth investing in some extra training. And I know you like a good deal so I wanted to quickly share this link with you in case you want to jump onboard full throttle this year and learn how to use this great membership tool.

The WishList Member Training & Certification is starting very soon and there is a $500 Early Bird discount which ends on Tuesday December 1st 2009.  From what I’ve been told, they won’t be doing the Training or the Certification for at least another 6-8 months so now is the best time to get in.

The WishList Membership Plugin is easy enough to use without this training.  But if you are a marketer you might be eager to get all of the little bits of inside information that can give your own marketing a leading edge.

You can see how excited I am about this. What about you?

• Are there any examples of WishList membership sites you would like to share?
• How do you use free membership websites for market research?
• What experience would you like to create with a membership site?

Please leave your comments below.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

WishList – A Great Marketing Tool To Get To Know Your Market Better

International Content Creation

I just read Denise Wakeman’s 7 Tips to Create Better Blog Posts and realized how my reading habits have changed dramatically over the last few years. I used to always take the time to read meaty articles, but not any more. I now skim through everything I read and within a few seconds decide whether I want to give it another minute or two and a second evaluation, or if I want to stop reading immediately. After the second review, I usually stop reading the article, unless it really grabs my interest. And only then will I take the time to read it properly. Yes, everything I read goes through 2 reviews before I decide to read it.

So I need white space and frequence subheads in blog posts – otherwise I cannot skim through it properly. When I skim through an article the first time I only read the title, subheads, the first couple of bullets, maybe a short callout or a quote and 2 sentence paragraphs that look interesting. That’s it… and this is not a lot of content to grab my interest, is it?

Another new habit I’ve acquired is listening to audios. Whenever I’m doing a task that does not occupy all of my brain space, I put on an audio version of something I want to read.

Multiple New Habits In Consuming Content

I’m not the only one who has changed their habits in consuming information. Many others have too. And this is not including the new habits we have of reading the different types of content now available on social media.

Social media platforms have specific atmospheres about them:

• Facebook is full of networking games
• LinkedIn has a business feel to most of the conversations
• Twitter folk do not like sales pitches

Have you noticed the variety in content styles between each of these social media platforms?

And looking at this from the other side, from the readers point of view, there are even subgroups of further differences in how people like to consume content. When you add cultural preferences into these different ways of consuming content, things can get complicated.

Below we are going to look at the different types of content from two different angles:

• Personal consumption preferences
• The broader audiences you want to reach

And finally we’ll see how complex content creation can become when international audiences also listen in to what you share with the people next door to you.

3 Different Personal Preferences For Content Consumption

Here are 3 different reasons why you need different types of content in your online marketing.

1 – Connecting With People With Different Time Constraints

Let’s face it, some of us always busy for certain information. Some of us will always take the time to read certain types of information.

Who do you want to reach? What are they like? How much time do they want to spend reading your stuff?

2 – Grabbing People’s Attention With The Right Information

Sometimes the same information delivered with a slightly different point of view is all it takes to grab people’s attention.

Do you know how your readers prefer to get the information you want to share with them?

3 – Engaging With People Who Consume Your Content In Different Environments

It is easy to understand how sound should be avoided in some environments. If many of your readers use phone applications to visit your site, they will not appreciate anything slow to load. The same people who connect with you during their business hours for a certain type of content, may also like to connect with you first thing in the morning with another type of content.

Do you know where your readers prefer reading your content?

3 Different Audiences For Your Content

But you cannot only look at the personal preferences in how people want to consume your content.  There are also the different ways you can target your audiences where you need different content.  The next 3 points look at different factors you can use when creating your content.

4 – Bringing People To Take The Next Step Most Appropriate For Them

We all write content for a reason.  What do you want your reader to do after reading your content?  Different readers will be willing to take steps of various sizes.

Do you have content with the most appropriate  obvous next step for your audience?

5 – Appealing To People From Different Cultures

You need different content to engage effectively with different cultures.  Even when these cultures speak the same language, you will get a better response from your audience, if you use the right vocabulary and hit the emotional buttons that appeal to the specific culture you want to connect with.

Does your content speak to your audience?  Can your audience easily identify themselves with what you say?

6 – Avoid Excluding International Audiences

The web is a global one and different cultures have different communication styles.  What is polite and friendly in one culture, can have the opposite effect in another.  What can seem insignificant in one culture can have a big impact on your communication with another cultures.  This is easy to understand.  But when you look closely at the content you publish online, who is it for?  It is great to write for a specific audience, that’s what we should do.  The question is whether there are any small things we can do to facilitate reading by international audiences.

Do you put international readers off without realizing it?  Does this bother you?

Complex Global Audiences

The last thing to remember is the complexity of today’s audiences.

7 – Managing Mixed Audiences

Situations can become complex:  you may have international readers who use phone applications to read your online content while your reader next door wants to take read the same content slowly with his morning coffee.

What do you do? Is there a way to publish content strategically on different social media platforms?

Getting Your Content Right

Consumption preferences for different market segments will differ for each social media platform. This is why you need to:

• Adopt one social media content plan at a time
• Engage with your readers to tweak it and find their preferences

You only know how to write web content when you know what, where, when and and how your reader wants to read it. But the list of different online content above shows us the two trends we also have to be aware of:

• The changes in how different people deal with the amount of information they have to process
• The variety of the different types of content businesses need to publish online

What about you?  What do you think about your online content needs?

• What are your business goals for the content you publish online?
• What does your audience want to read from you online?
• What different kinds of content do you need to publish online to reach international audiences?

More on International Content Creation:

• An International Development Template
• Foreign Language Communication Simplified
• International Content As An International Business Development Strategy
• The One Important Step Missing In Many Guidelines For Good Websites And Landing Pages
• Third Transition To A Global Market Internet Business
• What Are Your Words Saying To Your International Market?
• Web Content Conference In French
• Who Do You Need To Write Your Foreign Content

More in these 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

7 Reasons For Different Online Content

How To Create An International Business Blog

Is there an ideal international blog promotion formula? Well, I have been hunting for a good for a while and I’m now finally happy with what I have come up with for my own international business.  I’d like to share it with you.

With my background as a cross-cultural marketer I know how to reach international audiences. That was not my challenge. The missing ingredient for a strong international blog promotion strategy was elsewhere. You see, although it is easy to understand what you need to do to promote your blog online, it is not always easy to figure out how to put this into practice.

Today I’m only going to talk about businesses targeting international English speaking, or “English-reading”, audiences online – we’ll look into international blogs in other languages in another post.

Let’s have a look at the easy part before I share my secret with you.

Blog Promotion Tactics

Luckily, if your international blog is in English, you have many resources outlining blog promotion tactics. The trouble for foreign businesses is:

• These resources are in English
• The best blog practices in one country may feel a bit “foreign” to someone from another country
• It takes time to get used to blogs and blogging practices and even more time when you add in the cultural differences

There is some good news for foreign language blogs: ICANN is now moving forward with URLs for countries with alphabets in non-latin characters. This means there will be more culturally diverse web activity and resources available… and possibly more foreign blogging opportunities.

But at least you can find a multitude of blogging resources in English online. After spending a few weeks reading through the wealth of information on blog promotion it is easy to come up with a long list of things to do.  Here the the main ones:

Personal messages to the people who comment on your blog – to create community.

Regular search monitoring – to engage with people linking to your blog or talking about you and your blog online.

Regular social bookmarking & networking activities – to both promote your own blog posts and integrate the communities on a few strategic platforms.  For my business these are currently: Posterous, BizSugar, FriendFeed, Delicious, StumbleUpon and Reddit.

Comment on other blogs and forums - to be seen, engage in discussions and create relationships with peers and potential clients.

These tactics work well for blogs in English.

A word of caution: Don’t assume the exact same tactics are ideal for all blogs in other cultures. Cultural differences effect all forms of communication, including blogging. More about this in a future post.

This list looks easy enough.  But what happens when you actually sit down to do the work. The truth is, this is the most difficult part of creating your blog promotion.

How Do You Manage Your Blog Promotion

Managing your time investment in promoting your blog is the hard part.  You see, if you are not careful you can spend the whole day promoting your blog. Sure, this will get you results.  But at what price?  This is why I listened attentively and went hunting for formulas on how to include blog promotion into my social media strategy.

• How much blog promotion do I need to do for my business?

And finally these are the 3 bits of advice I used to come up with my own plan:

• Spend the same amount of time promoting your blog as writing your blog posts
• Spend 5 hours promoting your blog for every hour you spend writing your blog post
• Do a long list of social media actions every day

Blog Promotion For An International Audience

After looking closely at this advice, I decided to follow and adapt these three rules for my business:

Blog Promotion Rule #1 - When my schedule gets busy I still blog.  Blogging is now firmly part of my daily routine. And I always spend at least the same amount of time for blog promotion as for blog writing.  No exceptions.  This is usually about an hour for each task.

Blog Promotion Rule #2 - As I want to reach international audiences and rely heavily on social media, 5 hours of blog promotion a day is probably a very good thing for my business.  So I try to fit in 5 hours worth on as many days of the week as I can.  Did you notice how I said  ”5 hours worth”?  This means I am always looking for ways to increase the value and the reach of the time I spend promoting my blog.  So, in practice:

• I include a little blog promotion wherever and whenever I can.  It has become part of me.
• I’ve become a student of productivity and processes, and at the same time paying close attention to what works for me and what doesn’t.
• I nurture friendships with people who are both fun to be with and willing to help me out in promoting my blog, even if it’s a tiny bit.

Sure, sometimes I do spend 2 or 3 hours a day solely on blog promotion.  But not everyday and sometimes not for a couple of weeks.  In addition, it is only when my schedule is free.  These long blog promotion sessions are a pleasure because there is often a good deal of networking and connecting with my blog readers.  For an international business this is vital.

Blog Promotion Rule #3 -  I use a checklist to keep me focused.  This allows me to immediately jump into the tasks at hand… and jump out when I’ve finished.  My checklist is similar to the ones I found online, except I’ve adapted it a little to fit my business goals.  It does not matter if I do not manage to do everything on the list every day.  What I’ve found is that it is good to tweak it from time to time to be sure it fits into an hour and stays relevant to my business goals and the new things that pop up in social media.

How has this experience been?  Well, although I do spend an hour promoting my blog every day, I started doing this first thing in the morning.  This worked wonderfully for me.  Then I decided to try to get more “billable” hours into the mornings and moved this to late afternoons.

Big mistake.  Although I network on the phone almost every late afternoon and speak to people from all around the world, I was not good at keeping up with the blog promotion tasks in the evenings.  My brain was too tired to network across cultures in writing in late afternoons.  Speaking was fine.  Just not the writing.

So international blog promotion is now back to mornings for me.  This is fine.  The very first task I do every morning is review my keyword search results to read the latest news of interest to me.  And this flows well into the blog promotion tasks.

An International Hub

Blogs are not miracle international sales machines.  But with a little thought about your international promotion tactics, your blog can become the hub from which you connect with audiences in different areas of the world. What happens next depends on what you do from there.

As you can see from above, for my international business I allow a large amount of time for networking and almost always include blog promotion while networking.  Even if different businesses, with different goals, use different blog promotion tactics to reach their international audiences, networking will probably play a role too.  A blog as an international hub makes networking with international audiences a natural choice.

Have you guessed what my secret for effective international blog promotion is?  Yes, it is to include active networking as part of my blog promotion.  This creates a truly international business hub from a simple blog.

Now it’s your turn…

• What international blog promotion formula do you use?
• What are your goals when connecting with your international audience?
• How do you promote your blog to international audiences?

Please share your comments below.

More on International Social Media

• An International Business Blog To Discover New Markets

More on How To Create An International Business Blog:

• 3 Different Communication Challenges Of An International Blog
• Investment In An International Business Blog
• Business Blogs For Sales Conversion
• Business Blogs To Get International Clients
• Business Blogs To Open Foreign Markets

More in these Get International Clients Business Guides

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

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

My International Blog Promotion Secret