The previous article Vol.39: Should All Content be Translated For Global and Local Audiences Whatsoever? was about localizing global content focusing on language perspective, i.e. how much translation is required for target audience to understand when the content is originally made in the language not understood by the target audience.
This article and the next are about effectively reaching and engage global and local audience and manage online reputation for business success, especially for smaller companies and small business owners with limited resources that usually need to leverage website and social media differently from larger global companies.
1. How are websites and social media of global companies managed to meet multi-lingual worldwide audience?
Most global companies have website(s), blog(s) and other social media (if any) in global headquarter and respective countries, in local language. This is because each country (market) is different and they would need to segment target audience by country. Also, in some/many cases local offices/branch is a separate organization (company) within the global group.
For this reason, global companies usually develop their own website and blogs with their original design, layout, navigation and functions, and roll out worldwide, which are managed by country, aligning with how business operations are performed, under a group-wide policy. In most cases, IT infrastructure management is centralized.
Regarding social media such as twitter and facebook, it is logical and appropriate for each country to have their own social media account, and that is how it is mostly done. This is for the same reason of a company having different twitter accounts in one country in the same language for different brands, channels and/or objectives, to target different customer segment.
2. How can smaller companies and business owners and individuals reach and engage global and local audience and manage online reputation when they have limited resources and no local offices around the globe?
Different methodology needs to be adopted according to different online media/vehicles.
1) Websites
It is highly recommended to develop and maintain both global (English) and local (in local language) website, with consistent branding, designing, navigation and domain name. Website can be quite simple and small. When the author say “consisting domain name”, what she means is, for example, “MegOyanagi.com” for English website targeting global audience and “MegOyanagi.jp” or “MegOyanagi.com/jp” for Japanese website targeting Japanese audience. Domain name (com, jp etc) is usually closely linked with location of hosting. Go Daddy http://www.godaddy.com/ could be one of the solutions for this kind of problem.
If possible from all (network, browser etc) technical and other perspective, it is probably the easiest and the most simple to have a hosting server in the U.S. and use the global domain name “com” and its derivational domain name of “com/jp/” for Japanese website. Another alternative is to have a hosting server in the U.S. for the website with “com” domain name and another hosting server in Japan for the website with “jp” domain name. There are some Japanese websites that provide combined services of hosting server and web development.
2) Blogs
Similarly to websites, both global (English) and local (in local language) blogs are required. Similarly to website, it would be easier to manage when the same platform is used for English and local (e.g. Japanese) blogs; however, if free blog platforms such as. WordPress http://wordpress.org/ and Blogger http://www.blogger.com/ are to be used for global and English audience, using different local blog platform is probably better.
WordPress and Blogger are ideal for English blogs targeting English speaking countries and global audience; however, non-English speaking countries tend to have their local blog platforms that are already become very popular (e.g. Ameba http://www.ameba.jp/ in Japan). It would be more advantageous and strategic to be part of that local blog community (interaction in local language) for networking and attracting local audience. In the case of Ameba, there are many groups similarly to LinkedIn and Facebook.
In addition, free blog platform has page template and their original navigation system and functions, and local blog platform usually meet local needs better.
3) LinkedIn
The first thing to do when starting LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/ is creating a profile page. There are following options.
- Have English page only
- Have English page and local language page
- Have local language page only
It seems that the first option works best for most people because English is a kind of official language of LinkedIn and is used in all discussions. There seems to be no need (yet) to create a profile in Japanese targeting Japanese local audience.
For example, in the case of Japan, LinkedIn is not yet popular at all and whether it becomes popular among Japanese people is a question mainly because of the language issue. The author started LinkedIn one year ago and although does not know exactly how many Japanese people belong to LinkedIn she has never met even one Japanese people in group discussions and Q&A section.
Few of her friends has started and the Japanese people who have started seems to be basically limited to those who have studied abroad, working abroad, bilingual Japanese working (or have worked) in non-Japanese companies, and recruiters who are seeking bilingual Japanese. Such people seem to have started LinkedIn mostly for global networking and information sharing, and recruiting bilingual Japanese professionals.
4) Local SNS and similar “information websites”
In the case of Japan, there are Japan local SNS sites, and it is such SNS sites that are the key in monitoring and managing online reputation for successful business and recruiting in Japan.
The leading SNS sites in Japan are Mixi http://mixi.jp/ and 2 Channel http://2ch.net/ and it is a good idea for small business owners as well as larger companies in Japan to leverage them in managing online reputation. Both are not specifically for professional/business use like LinkedIn and usually do not have company profile pages. Also, comments are posted by individuals but such comments greatly influence company online reputation. In fact, the company reputation management department staff of the author’s former employer used to monitor these two sites as well as traditional media coverage of newspapers and magazines.
Small business owners and larger companies should leverage other “information sites” available in Japan that are in essence similar to SNS, such as http://careerconnection.jp/ that focuses on topics directly related to recruiting such as reputation, salary, human resource management system and culture of companies operating in Japan including foreign capitals. The information is based on the response of the members to survey questions, and the site is one of the primary information sources for job hunters.
The author would like to continue the discussion in the next article.
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