Comments on: How to Connect Globally With Social Media

By: shaun gisbourne

shaun gisbourne — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:47:29 +0000

A company I've been working with in France seems to have no social media strategy at the moment and the question that goes around my head is: "Do their clients have one?" - These are big clients with multi-site presence nationally and internationally in some cases.

Two businesses that are definitely helping smaller and larger organisations respectively to great effect with their social media are http://www.nikkipilkington.com and http://www.marketsentinel.com

By: nialldevitt

nialldevitt — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:49:40 +0000

Hi Cindy, great post! I think the the points about the effect that cultural difference has in terms of engagement is very interesting indeed. I have definitely noticed differences here (Ireland) and internationally. It not something that you may think of in the first instance but it's extremely relevant. Regards, Niall

By: Cindy King

Cindy King — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:38:44 +0000

Andreas, we'll have more here on Social Media Examiner about how to go about setting up blogging and social media for business.

By: Cindy King

Cindy King — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:35:44 +0000

Finola, thanks for taking the time to provide us with so many interesting insights.

I expect there will be more opportunities for international business development for some professions or industries on the islands at some point in the future. But I do hear you, when you point out the cultural differences in how we behave online and how this can limit opportunities in some countries.

There might also be an element of being a little bit behind in adopting social media. It's going to be interesting to see how things unfold in the future.

By: Cindy King

Cindy King — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:18:23 +0000

Ching Ya, you've made some very interesting points here.

It's interesting to me to note which non-native English speaking countries adopt the bigger platforms. And which cultures prefer social media with their own cultural flavor almost right from the start.

By: Cindy King

Cindy King — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:10:21 +0000

Hi Ralston, Now you've got me imagining what Caribbean flavored social media networking would be like!

By: Cindy King

Cindy King — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:05:31 +0000

Hi Berni! It still seems strange to me to hear Brits being referred to as “anti-social”. I don't think so. They're just social in different ways…

If only we could look at the most popular social media platforms in the UK five years from now, they may be different from the US favorites… or at least used differently.

By: Cindy King

Cindy King — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:59:56 +0000

It's an interesting question. If you speak English, I personally would not worry about language too much if you are already in business, but I would probably say something different to college or university students.

English has traditionally been the international business language for a long time... but we may see this change in the future.

If you really want to develop your international business you will need to develop international skills. Even if basic language skills can be useful for certain cultures, strong cross-cultural skills are what you really need.

I've met many people who spoke a foreign language to a fairly decent basic level and yet had no cross-cultural communication skills and no skills in getting international business.

By: sunrainor

sunrainor — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:24:53 +0000

I forgot to say that a recent report put St. Lucia's broadband connectivity and use at about 66% of households, Barbados at 68% (as best as I can remember), so we're very connected, but really we don't use social media or even 'traditional' websites for business hardly at all.

Having the whole banking system unable (or unwilling?) to process online payments doesn't help, but perhaps in the context of this article, more interestingly, we are all so business-culturally different, island to island – so what's happening in Barbados for instance,where businesses do make use of the internet and are doing so increasingly well, is not happening in St. Lucia at all. Trinidad and Jamaica are hot on news and political and social blogging, people in St. Lucia will not comment on online newspaper sites using their real names…
Even for those of us in the region it can be difficult to figure out what approach to take!
Finola

By: Travelwriticus

Travelwriticus — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:06:05 +0000

Interesting to read. It makes me aware how complicated Global Social Media really is. It would be interesting for me to know how to budget all these efforts? Most people I know in Austria try to make its 'own' dedicated blog for their business. No budget but probably no results either.