Twitter

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

Twitter is a great platform and it truly rocks for person-to-person networking. But what if you want to grow your network or find more people to connect with offline? This is where Twitter events can be very useful.

Twitter events allow you to network at specific times with larger groups of people through the use of hashtags.

Twitter events can help you find people to build your own Twitter network. And as you participate in these events, you will increase your Twitter authority on the topics you discuss. You can even create your own Twitter events to drive your networking and social media marketing.

6 Types of Twitter Events

First you need to identify the groups of people you want to network with. Then you should choose the types of events where it’s easy and comfortable for you to network with these people. This is how you can slowly build up meaningful one-on-one relationships with people who matter to you and to your business.

Fortunately there are several different types of groups gathering around specific topics on Twitter at specific times.

Here are events that take place offline where people use Twitter as a communication tool to share their experience of the in-person event.

#1: Live events. You’ve probably seen Twitter hashtags used by people tweeting from conferences. People can tweet about any kind of live event. If you want to get the most out of your Twitter networking at a live event, you should do as Adam Vincenzini says and plan ahead to ensure viral Twitter coverage of live events.

#2: Tweetups. Tweetups are when you meet your Twitter connections in real life. Tweetups can be impromptu events or with slightly more organization. And they’re a great way to do some traditional offline networking.

What is a Tweetup?

#3: Large-scale offline Twitter events. Some offline events such as the Twestival fundraising event are organized on a wider scale and bring a large Twitter community together. These are also interesting places to expand your Twitter network if the community is a good fit for your business.

Twestival gets people on Twitter to meet up all over the world.

Here are some events that only take place on Twitter:

#4: Current events. Many businesses can benefit from staying current on trending topics and participating in relevant Twitter conversations. Some current events or breaking news may give you reason to create your own Twitter discussion or chat event.

#5: Twitter Interviews. You can conduct Twitter Interviews with different communication goals. You can do the interview like a journalist or, as this is on Twitter, you can conduct it more like a game show, with a short set of questions aimed at having more fun. Choose the kind of Twitter interview to use to give you the networking environment you prefer.

You can also find the Small Business Buzz chats on their blog.

#6: TweetChats. There are a number of regularly scheduled TweetChats. Small Business Buzz, or @sbbuzz on Twitter, holds chats every Tuesday to discuss small business topics. Another interesting regular TweetChat takes place on Thursdays, @lrnchat to discuss learning and social media. It’s easy to see how you can expand your Twitter network by finding TweetChats with your preferred audience.

Variety in Communication

It’s important to note that people use multiple social media platforms for communication. Conversations are not limited to Twitter. There are also interesting events to look for outside Twitter and then come back and follow the contacts you meet there on Twitter.

Facebook. Many events are shared on Facebook. Be sure to follow the people you meet on Twitter, find them on Facebook and have a look at what they share and discuss there.

LinkedIn. Be sure to check out LinkedIn events too.

Although it requires a little bit of research, it’s often easy to create strong relationships when you connect with the same people on different social media platforms. It’s interesting to note that one-on-one networking is usually easier to initiate on Twitter.

Tools for Twitter Events

Hashtags. Hashtags are key. They enable people to gather into groups on Twitter. This is how you find others interested in similar topics. You can read more about how to follow hashtags in this previous article.

Twitter tools. Many Twitter applications come and go, but they often have some great features and make Twitter networking easier and more fun. Unfortunately, there isn’t a solution to fit all of your needs in following or creating Twitter events. So it’s always worthwhile doing a little research to look for what’s useful for you. Here are some Twitter applications you may find interesting: TweetChat, Tweetvite, and TweetMyEvents.

Event tools. Sometimes you simply need an event management tool. There are a variety of online tools to help you: Eventbrite, Amiando and meetup are popular event tools. But again, you’ll need to check them out to find the one best suited to your particular needs.

Social Media Networking

Twitter is only one social media communication tool. Other social media platforms work well when combined with Twitter networking. For example, many people share photos from events on Flickr and they often share the links to their photos on Twitter. The comments on these photos are also a great resource to help you find people to follow and grow your network. You can also do the same research with YouTube videos, Posterous pages and any other social media platform your audience frequents.

In addition, Foursquare and other geo-location applications are making it easier to create events and bring people together in person. This is why more and more businesses will be including event networking in their social media marketing plans. And Twitter plays a key role in developing your network, thanks to its ease of real-time one-on-one networking.

What other events on Twitter do you use to grow your Twitter network? Have you participated in a Tweetup? If so, what was your experience? Please share them in the comments below.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

How to Use Twitter Events to Grow Your Network

Twitter

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

Are you a newcomer to Twitter? Do you need a little help crafting tweets to engage people in meaningful conversations?

You can start a conversation on Twitter in many different ways, but they all come back this: be yourself and find the right tone to engage with people you want to get to know better.

In this post I’ll explore some easy ways to start Twitter conversations. You’ll see just how easy it is to take this first step in networking on Twitter in fewer than 140 characters at a time.

Social Media Examiner’s Facebook fans recently shared some great ways to engage people on Twitter. Based on their recommendations, here are 12 tips to better engage people on Twitter:

#1: Publish Useful Tips or Facts

One of the first ways you can contribute to the conversation is to share useful information. This is always welcome when it’s given from a fresh perspective. And it’s a great way to grab the attention of the people you want to reach.

Cyndy Hoenig offers about five PR tips a day… Notice how she used the word you in this tweet to grab readers’ interest.

#2: Retweet to Acknowledge Others

Retweeting other people’s tweets is a form of acknowledgment. Why not add a comment at the same time and add more to the conversation? Simply being social is a great way to get people to notice you and begin making connections.

Jonathan Saar is simply being social.

#3: Reach Out With Follow Friday

Although Follow Friday (#FF) has been around a while, it can still be a good way to initiate conversations when you put a little thought into it.

#4: Answer Other People’s Tweets

Another easy way to engage people is to respond to others’ tweets. Whether it’s a question or something that grabs your attention, try to respond in an authentic voice. People recognize sincerity and are more likely to respond to it.

Janice Campbell shows us how natural conversations can be on Twitter.

#5: Respond When Something Grabs Your Attention

When responding to something that interests you, show it. Show you care about what people have to say.

Cheryl Garrett adds a personal touch to her professional Twitter presence.

#6: Introduce Yourself to New Followers

Give your new followers a personal welcome that shows you care about getting to know them better. Some people do this in the public Twitter feed and some people prefer introductions in direct messages. Find out what’s best for your audience.

#7: Introduce Yourself at Twitter Events

You’ll notice people following live events on Twitter with a hashtag. When you attend your first event on Twitter, don’t get distracted by the tools and forget your social manners. Remember to introduce yourself to everyone. And why not follow up personally with a few of the other attendees after the event? This is a great way to meet new people with similar interests.

#8: Let People Know When You Add Them to Your Twitter List

As you add people to your Twitter lists, give them a shout-out to let them know. Everyone enjoys this small sign of recognition.

#9: Ask For Help

Many other people on Twitter are also looking to engage in meaningful conversations. Make it easy for others to respond to you and tell them what you are looking for.

Daniel Casciato uses Twitter to find sources to interview for his articles.

#10: Say Thank You

You’ll find many different reasons to thank people on Twitter.

Notice how Amy Porterfield is connecting with this person on both Facebook and Twitter.

#11: Say Thanks When Others Add You to Their Twitter Lists

The people who add you to their Twitter lists are often good connections because you share similar interests. Reach out to thank them and introduce yourself personally.

#12: Ask Questions

Questions work wonders on Twitter. With a little thought you can come up with great questions to find the people you want to engage with on Twitter.

Katie Fox asks a specific question to engage conversation of interest to her.

As you can see, it’s easy to start conversations on Twitter.

Now it’s your turn. What other Twitter conversation starters do you use? Please share your comments below.conversation starters do you use? Please share your comments below.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

12 Tips to Engage People on Twitter

International Business Networking

International business and cross-cultural communication university professors have been sharing my blog with their  students for some time now. I see this by monitoring the statistics on my blog.

A few of these university professors embrace social media and also connect with me on Twitter and Facebook. And it’s fun when they ask me to join in on their classes using Twitter.

Many of the students are awkward and don’t know how to create meaningful conversations with me.  They stick to stilted requests for the information they need.  But some students get it and engage with me on social media with conversations that truly interest both of us.  Some students even create cross-cultural communication blogs to review my blog as part of their homework assignments.

It’s great to see students move out of the student role into real social media networking because we are usually passionate about the same topics and they become fun connections on social media.  Unfortunately these students usually come and go very rapidly.

Homework Assignement Cop Out

I also regularly get requests from students to help them complete their homework.  Most of these requests would take me at least a good half hour to respond to.

You can read more about why I don’t respond to requests to do homework assignments but essentially I just don’t have the time to do this. Besides, this blog is not about doing university assignments, it’s where I share the experience I have after over 25 years in international business.

New Trend In Requests From Students

Most of the requests I get from students are on this blog’s subject: cross-cultural skills in today’s media for international business development.  But what’s interesting is that I’ve been getting a different type of request recently.  This time students are asking me to help them with university assignments on social media.

Now this might corresponds to my involvement with Social Media Examiner and it’s rapid rise to popularity, but I’ve also noticed the online chatter about well-known universities now starting social media programs.

Social Media Survey

I’d like to share with you a survey I received recently from a university student who said her professor had asked all students to contact bloggers with these questions.

1. How does social media change advertising for businesses? I don’t think of social media as advertising. It’s more like business networking to me. Yes, businesses can do some advertising on social media. But Facebook ads and paid tweets represent a small minority of the social media tactics.
2. Do companies benefit more by advertising through social media? Why, or why not? I wouldn’t know. I don’t use social media for advertising. Social media does improve your visibility online, but this is a vast topic and you’d need to fine tune your question to keep this answer reasonable.
3. How have social media changed in the past five years? It would be easier to answer this question, if you asked “how has social media changed in the last year“. There have been too many changes for me to want to answer this in a short survey.
4. Can you predict the way social media will change in the next ten years? We can barely predict how social media will be in a year’s time, 10 years is a bit too far into the future.
5. How have social media empowered consumers, and given them a voice? Well, I think people have always had the voice on social media.
6. How does social media change the way people now communicate? Again this seems a funny question to me. I’m not a scholar and  haven’t done any research… but I do think social media came about because communication changed fundamentally a while back. Even if some people haven’t yet connected the dots to understand this, it’s not the other way round.
7. Has social media become overly addicting? Why or why not? Again, this is a question someone who is new to social media would ask. Very rapidly when you use social media on a regular basis, other questions take the lead, such as personal productivity and focus.
8. Do social media change consumers’ purchasing decisions? Why or why not? Of course.  People are influenced by what their friends say and recommend.  Social media is social.
9. Twitter grew a lot faster than expected. Why is Twitter beneficial and effective? Again it’s about networking and Twitter is real-time networking.
10. Can you predict that social media will always be free like most of it is now? Why or why not? As I said, I don’t think anyone knows with reasonable certitude what’s in store for social media in the future.
11. What are some disadvantages of social media? You need to jump in and actually use it for a while to understand what’s really happening.  If the person who wrote these questions had actually used social media, theses questions would be very different.
12. What are the main advantages of social media? Being closer in tune with society today.
13. Is LinkedIn the best social network to communicate professionally? Why or why not? How does LinkedIn help consumers find jobs? LinkedIn is a place for job hunters to meet potential employers, and vice-versa. Plus it’s predominately North American in culture. So it’s good for people who fall into those categories.

Now although this student asked for detailed answers by Thursday, I’m sure you can see why this is impossible even if I was in the business of helping out university students.

Improving Questions To Get A Response With Meaning

First of all, it’s very easy to see by the questions that the neither the professor nor the student know anything about social media or why businesses should use it.  This survey will not give any good results about social media.

What’s interesting is that to correct this survey you need a few of the important skills you also use in international business networking.

• Prior research is essential to get the questions right.  These are not the right questions to send to a blogger.
• Don’t make assumptions.  This survey starts off by assuming bloggers use social media as advertising. The survey also associates consumers with LinkedIn which is not accurate. There are several wrong assumptions here that make these questions irrelevant.

When you know you don’t have enough information to ask the right questions, start off simple and spend time first to scope out the main areas of your topic.

This might mean taking action in two or three steps to learn enough before you know which questions are the right ones to ask. And it takes a bit more work than blasting off an email.

In fact, it also means you’ll need to create in-person connections if you want to actually get the valuable information you need.

So, if the student who sent me this survey reads this, what should she do?

• Start by reviewing the my blog and revising the list of questions
• Leave a short question or two in the comments here, but step back and ask basic questions on the topic
• Tell me about yourself, where you’re from, what you are studying, why and what you actually like about the questions you want answers to…  but only in a couple of short sentences
• Avoid wide open ended questions that need a book to answer them
• And avoid writing a mini saga about yourself
• Say hello on Twitter
• Give a shout out on Facebook
• Continue the conversation and let it ping pong back and forth a bit to create some sort of a connection

Above all, stop being the student in a constant stream of anonymous cookie-cutter requests more suited to the last century and start being a real person who is interesting to talk to.  It’s better networking.  You’ll end up getting much more information this way and you’ll also start understanding what social media is about.

What about you?

• As a blogger, have you noticed an increase in questions from social media students?
• What would you recommend social media students do to learn more about how social media impacts business?
• Do you think email is still a good tool to use for surveys?

Please leave your comments below.

More on International Business Networking:

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

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Networking With The Wrong Questions

Twitter

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

Twitter is a networking haven for businesses. But is there an easy way to draw the right people to you with Twitter?

The answer is yes and there’s a great Twitter feature that can help you: Twitter lists. Twitter lists can grab the interest of people you most want to meet, help you make a great first impression and can help you with marketing segmentation.

Below I’ll show you some unique ways to use Twitter lists. But first…

How Do Twitter Lists Work?

Twitter lists creates separate lists of people. If you haven’t already used Twitter lists, watch this video to see how you can get started.

There are two interesting points to remember about Twitter lists:

• You don’t need to “follow” people on Twitter to include them in your lists.
• You can have both public and private lists.

Now here’s a look at what you can do with Twitter lists.

#1: Listen with Private Lists

Twitter lists are great to monitor and listen to different groups of people. No-one else can see your private lists, so this is a good place to start using the Twitter list feature. You can create private lists to:

• Monitor your competitors
• Carry out specific market research
• Keep track of different networks of friends and colleagues

Private Twitter lists can help you segment the fire hose of information streaming in through your Twitter feed, according to Rohit Bhargava. Segmenting people into lists also helps you more effectively listen to and monitor your market.

John Jantsch says Twitter lists make it easier to listen to what others have to say.

And monitoring people without following them makes it easy to carry out specific market research or intelligence gathering. Once you’ve finished doing your market research, you can simply delete your list without making any changes to the people you usually follow.

#2: Craft Your Brand With Public Lists

There’s not much space to brand yourself on your Twitter profile page. You do have space for a few words in the bio box and you can add in background graphics. But you can also add another dimension to your branding by carefully crafting your public Twitter lists. Here’s how.

Choose appropriate names for your lists
Spend some time finding the best name for your list. There are a few things to keep in mind when naming your Twitter lists:

• Engage the right people. You’ll get more people interested in looking at your list if the name sparks their interest.
• Remember to communicate with everyone. Don’t limit your audience. The right name could help you reach more of the people you want to connect with.
• The SEO bonus. Another reason to think about how you label your lists is for search engine optimization (SEO). Look at the screenshot below. This Twitter list is in a good position in Google search results for a competitive keyword.

The bad news is that if you change the name of your list, the URL of your Twitter list changes too and you’ll lose the people following that list. So take some time to get this right.

Choose appropriate Twitter lists for your public profile
When creating your Twitter lists, you want to think of how lists help you:

• Connect with your Twitter followers
• Achieve your main goal for using Twitter
• Continue the story you began in your Twitter bio

As you build up a following on Twitter, your followers will be interested in your Twitter lists. The choice of Twitter lists found on your Twitter home page is important for engaging with people.

Choose the number of public lists
Remember, there’s a limited amount of space available for your Twitter lists on your home page. Although you can create a larger number of lists, only about 4 to 6 will appear on your home page depending on the character length of the names of your lists. Your audience will have to click on the “View all” link to see all of your lists if you have more than this.

So you may want to think carefully about the number of lists you want to create and the order in which you create them. Put your most relevant lists at the top.

Advertise your Twitter lists
Create Twitter widgets for specific Twitter lists and put them up on your blog or website to engage people and establish your areas of interest and expertise.

Better Marketing With Twitter Lists

Twitter’s list feature can add some extra marketing power to your Twitter strategy if you take some time to get it right. You also need to find the right way to make your lists work for you. This will depend on your goals for Twitter, your audience and how they like to connect with you.

A good Twitter list improves your visibility in your market. Here are a few more benefits:

• The people you follow in your public lists will appreciate the recognition.
• By providing a useful resource, you’ll increase your credibility in your market and attract more followers.
• As you become more popular, you’ll be listed on other people’s lists. This is another way to measure your social media influence.

What are your thoughts about Twitter lists? How are you using them? Do you regularly follow other lists? Please share your thoughts and comments below.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

How to Market Your Business With Twitter Lists

International Business Networking

Like most bloggers I often get link exchange requests. I usually just delete the ones that look like standard form emails. After all anyone who reads my blog knows how to easily get a link from me.  But yesterday I had a request come in through Twitter and the person said something that surprised me.  This person said “I always reciprocate”.  And this struck me as somehow being negative and I had to think about this for a while before I discovered why.

Free Links To Share Value

You see, I don’t do link exchanges. I give my links freely to people I find have something valuable to add to my blog. Now, although I give links freely,  I do have my quirks:

• I decide where the link goes and what it looks like. When people ask me to change their links once too often I usually simply delete the link. The drawback of giving lots of links freely is there is not much time for maintenance.
• I notice others who network “freely” too.  People who give simply because they like what you do. This is natural isn’t it? And it’s natural that I like networking more with these people too.

This lead me to dig deeper to find out what bothered me so much about this statement: “I always reciprocate”. Well, I noticed there was no giving freely, and no giving first. It is surprising the number of people who wait for you to give first before they give anything to you… and these are almost always the people who  give less than you do.  But this does not bother me. I’ll still put a link through to content I find of value for my own blog readers. So that wasn’t what bothered me with “I always reciprocate”. Then I realized something else.

Networking For International Business Development

I’m totally focused on networking for international business development. And this is where this “you give first before I give you anything” attitude just does not work. Now, I network heavily for my business. I have to. I’m based in France and I like working with English speaking clients. I network to develop my international business. Luckily the time difference works in my favor. The only time I can work with North Americans is from mid-afternoons my time onwards. So before my day comes to I end, I usually spend a good hour or two networking on the phone and by Skype. Of course, I also network through email too. That’s for the direct networking. But I also network extensively on social media, by providing useful information to my followers. This is how I identify the people I want to connect with.  I share non-stop because at the same time I actively work on developing my international business networks. Does this work? You bet it does. I’ve met some great professionals all over the world.

• Some of them are great sources of referrals for my business
• Some will become joint venture partners
• Some are just becoming good business peers right now

Give First And Give Freely

These are people I would never have been able to meet without giving first. These are also people I would never have thought of seeking out.  My sharing information first an giving links first created the beginning of some very useful dialogues for my business. And you know what, it all starts with the attitude of giving and sharing first. This is what bothered me with the remark “I always reciprocate”.  I was interested in connecting with this person much more than a link exchange, but she does not have the right attitude for international business development. You simply need to be someone who shares first, without any expectations of anything in return.

Nurturing Trust In International Networking

This is one of the secrets to successful international networking.  You have to be comfortable making the first step.  In fact, you have to be very comfortable going down half of the path separating you from your international contacts. Occasionally it feels like I go three quarters of the distance alone.  This does not happen often, but it is this willingness to turn and go as far as necessary to greet people in their own comfort zones that creates international business opportunities. The biggest mistake you can make is not giving first.  This is a sign you are not really open to doing business with people outside of your own comfort zone. You do not have what it takes to develop an international business. If you have issues about giving your time and effort first then you need to do some personal work and carefully examine the personal baggage you have with regards to this.  This is the only path to successful international networking. It is linked to several important factors in building strong international relationships, the most important one being trust. Trust across cultures is difficult to establish. Cross-cultural differences create a minefield of potential trust breakers. And when you do not give first, but sit back and wait, or expect others to give first, this does not create a good environment for reciprocal trust in cross-cultural relationships. Besides, you don’t build a business by sitting back and waiting for someone to give you something to which you can reciprocate. Do you?  Start sharing and building your international business networks now. What about you?

• How do you go about international business networking?
• What do you like most about international business networking?
• What are you biggest challenges in international business networking?

Please leave your comments below.

More on International Business Networking:

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

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

The Biggest Mistake In International Networking

Social Media For Business

This questions is beginning to haunt me. I have only been active in social media for a few months.  Yet I find myself reacting to old-school networking tactics.  They just seem so obsolete now. Am I the only one?

When you have been active in social media for a couple of months it becomes easy to identify the newbies and the gifted communicators.

Is this the reason why I now find myself questioning other communication methods?

Or is this the reality of this new customer-centric environment we are in?

In order to make social media work for your business, you need to move conversations to real connections.

In international marketing, this often means phone calls for me.  Face to face meetings do not happen often.   So since Christmas, I have drastically increased the number of networking phone calls I make every week.

This is simply to correspond with the amount of social media networking I am doing.

Old-School Communication Versus New

My questions started last week, after one of my routine networking calls.  I was struck by the “old-school” tactics my caller was using.

One of the obvious tell-tale signs was when this person asked if they could put my email address on their newsletter distribution list.

I remember hearing this as a suggested tactic to build newsletter lists several years ago.  This was before:

• The spam laws came out, wasn’t it?
• Information overload became an issue for everyone
• The popularity of RSS and Google Reader

It seems like everyone now uses Google Reader.  And just like I fought using Twitter for a very long time, I also fought adopting Google Reader up until very recently.  So the old school networking tactics should not stand out like a sore thumb to me.  But they do.

This caller was obviously highly skilled in these old marketing and networking tactics.

We have so many things in common that we really should have hit it off much more than we actually did.  The problem was that with these old school tactics, this communication lacked authenticity.

But is it my fault?  Has my own social media communication mind set overtaken all of my own communication expectations?  Or…

Has Communication Changed?

This got me wondering just how much social media has changed my networking tactics.  The old communication style just seemed to clash too much with the new one.

Last week I also had two great phone calls with people who are social media savvy.  And in reality the generation gaps and different backgrounds would normally have limited the power of our connection.

But our phone conversations were extensions of our Twitter conversations.  The connection was authentic right from the start and continued to be authentic through the transition to the live phone calls. These two phone connections proved to valuable resources for my business.

• Do social media communication skills also help you when networking over the phone?
• Or is it just the continuation of the initial authentic conversation?
• Is networking catching up with our customer-centric world?

International Connections On Social Media

Earlier today I caught a thread of a conversation on Twitter, where someone thought social media will improve cross-cultural communication.  Now, I am looking forward to taking this conversation live, but time differences have not yet made that possible.

It is an interesting thought.  In some cases, I do think social media tears down cross-cultural communication barriers. But there are still some cultural combinations that are mined with difficulty.

A common problem I have involves people from cultures with high context and low individualism scores on the Geert Hofstede cultural behavioral scales.

This usually involves a “hello” and no direct communication.  There is never enough information for me to work on.  I feel their sincerity in starting a conversation, but the conversation seems to be one-sided.  One-sided from my end, even though they were the ones that initiated the contact.

It is very difficult to create an authentic conversation online with these cultural differences.

There is one overriding factor.  Social media federates people.  So if two people from very different cultures have acquired social media communication skills you would think that this would topple quite a few barriers.

Different Ways Of Using Social Media

There is one question you have to answer first.

• How do other cultures use social media?

It is easy to assume that social media communication skills are the same in different countries.  But they cannot be.  People use social media differently in different countries.  They have different expectations.  People approach social media with different mind sets.

Every time I put my nose into the French social media scene I am amazed at how different the climate is.  And I must say that I rapidly close the door.

It is not a place I like to linger.

Social media is much, much nicer in English.

I guess the differences in atmospheres relate back to how North Americans smile much more than French people.  And how smiles are not accepted on the same level here in France as they are in North America.

Opportunities To Connect

Apparently there are huge populations of social media users in the East.  But would you find these social media scenes nice  or would you want to rapidly shut the door?  Or would two people be having conversations in parallel without connecting?

This brings us back to the question of whether social media improves cross-cultural communication and international networking.

If you have any thoughts or experience of social media in other cultures, please do take a moment to leave a comment and share them below.

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

New Marketing Taints Old Networking Tactics

International Business Networking

Online networking for international business development using social media brings in results.  International social media networking does work within cultures that are comfortable with direct communication. There are times when there are culture clashes between direct and indirect communication.

You can read more about the behavioral scales in different cultures on Get International Clients.

As a person with a direct communication profile and cross-cultural communication skills I find these clashes a bit painful.  I always seem to regret giving them too much of my time.  And this is an awkward position for a solo entrepreneur to be in. You see, I know there could be a valid opportunity for some sort of valuable international business connection.  But social media networking does not work as well with people who are used to doing business with an indirect communication style.

• They need more time.

Besides email and online communication is just mined with cross-cultural communication barriers.  You need real human contact to be sure you understand each other. Here are some examples where I have been approached with an indirect communicator:

Facebook

A message on FaceBook: I am interested in cross cultural communication

Skype

I have also had several very similar messages come in through Skype where they contact me first:

• Them: Hello
• Me: Hello
• Them: How are you?
• Me: What can I do for you?
• Them: It is nice meeting you?
• Me: Yes, is there anything I can do for you?
• Them: Hello
• Me: Yes, hello
• Them: I like international business
• Me: Yes, an interesting subject

I also get a slew of  similar Skype messages any time I inadvertently leave Skype open for any length of time.  These are mainly from Northern African users who use Skype similar to Meetic. These are messages with at least 5 lines of “hello” after which you understand these are  men who want to chat about personal things with women. They are always very polite when you tell them you only use Skype for business.

I have also had several Skype message conversations with translation companies in Asia. Similar to this:

• Them: Hello
• Me: Hello
• Them: You want translations?
• Me: No thanks.
• Them: I do best translations in the world
• Me: Sorry I am not interested in translations
• Them: I good service
• Me: Try contacting translations agencies
• Them: I good all languages
• Me: Sorry I cannot help you
• Them: (a list of languages)

And usually the English is even more riddled with mistakes.

Emails

The most frustrating indirect communication contacts come in my email. Here the email basically says:

• I have a great product (without telling me what the product is and who else thinks it is great).
• I want to sell to international markets.

And occasionally there is also:

• I only pay commissions after sale.

And a few of these emails have also included:

• I am desperate.  You are my last hope.

Cross-Cultural Business Communication

Now, as I said before, I am sure that most of these contacts were sincere. But they cannot be aware of my reality as a solo business owner.  These conversations take up too much of my time.  And I simply cannot spend 30 minutes for every contact. If these people contacted me with a more direct communication I would probably have been able to give them an idea of who they should contact. What about you?

• How do you go about international business networking?
• What do you like most about international business networking?
• What are you biggest challenges in international business networking?

Please leave your comments below.

More on International Business Networking:

• Networking With The Wrong Questions
• 2 Habits To Grow Your International Network
• The Biggest Mistake In International Networking
• Follow Up With Your First International Clients

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Online Business Networking When Cultural Communication Styles Clash