As a follow-up article of the previous article Vol.69 – Requirements for LinkedIn to Popularize and Take Root in Japan, the author would like to provide some updates on how LinkedIn is perceived in Japan after the announcement of the start of Japanese service on October 20.
This is mostly based on some of the feedback she had when she gave a seminar she was asked to give by a NPO about how to start LinkedIn to a small group of Japanese people in the evening of November 25 in Osaka, Japan where she lives.
1. Who participated in the seminar?
The participants of the seminar were mostly small and mid-sized business owners who have already been using Twitter and Facebook in Japanese. They also have been blogging in Japanese using one of the leading blogging platforms in Japan (i.e. not WordPress and Blogger).
They were mostly from Osaka but to the author’s surprise there were a pair of people from the same company from eastern Japan, saying that they had a business meeting in Osaka. The author was informed that there were a few others from places like Tottori (Japan Sea Coastal area) who wanted to join as well but could not because they would have to take a day off to travel to Osaka.
2. Why did they decide to participate in the seminar?
It was because they were very much interested in what LinkedIn is and they strongly feel it would be beneficial in their business but they do not quite know what it is and how to start.
Actually the person who asked the author to give the seminar had opened up his LinkedIn account and filled his title but he was at a loss how to proceed further, which was the reason for the request to the author.
The author assumes that such situation mostly attributes to the fact that there has not been promotion (only to selected tech journalists) nor featured articles in media about LinkedIn targeting the mass audience of the Japanese people.
3. What are the possible hurdles of Japanese people starting LinkedIn?
In addition to no promotion nor featured articles by the media, the possible hurdles are as below.
1) Few people know how to switch to Japanese from English
There is a link button in the bottom right of the display to change the language; however, few people know about it. Even the author did not know about it until she was told by one of her LinkedIn friend in one of the group discussion. The organizer of the seminar said “mekara urokoga deta (did not know about it and was impressed with the information)” when the author made the demonstration of the language selection in the seminar.
In the case of Facebook and Twitter, the language selection is done automatically so most of us assume it is the same for LinkedIn but that is not the case. This fact needs to be communicated otherwise people would likely to think that the Japanese service announce was made but the service has not yet started.
2) The benefits of LinkedIn and basic features are not understood
Global social media/SNS and leveraging them in business (e.g. marketing and recruiting) has only started to spread among innovative companies and organizations in the last year or two in Japan.
This means that benefits of leveraging business SNS to business and why with explanation of some basic features needs to be explained with demonstration. Such demonstration would help people to understand the user interface of LinkedIn also.
3) Group discussions remain in English
User interface is now available in Japanese but currently group discussions are in English. Limited Japanese people have been involved in discussion before the start of the Japanese service attributing to language barrier (high level English communication skill is required to proactively participate in LnkedIn group discussion in addition to knowledge of the topic).
In the case of Facebook, it was mainly used by bilingual people to communicate with their English speaking friends and it was when many Japanese people without English communication skill started to open their Facebook account AND started to interact in Japanese after Facebook was introduced in media etc. that Facebook became popular among Japanese people.
This means that more Japanese people (not necessarily bilingual) joining LinkedIn and systems/environment in which they can interact in Japanese are some of the main requirements for LinkedIn to become popular in Japan.
3. The author’s final thoughts
In addition to the above hurdles, there are also social factors as mentioned in the previous article Vol.69 – Requirements for LinkedIn to Popularize and Take Root in Japan and other factors, and some people doubt that LinkedIn would become popular in Japan.
However, the environment for LinkedIn to become popular in Japan is gradually being developed. With the outbreak of Twitter in 2010, Japanese general public have ready to accept global social media. With the outbreak of Facebook in January 2011, Japanese general public have come to be comfortable in using their real names, when anonymity used to dominate in blogging/SNS world in Japan.
And use of social media (especially SNS such as Facebook) in business such as marketing and recruiting new graduates now has become one of the hottest topics in Japan. This is when with depressive Japanese economy and high yen, Japanese companies are seeking new business opportunities abroad meaning a motivator of leveraging global SNS specialized in business.
Resources:-
After 1 month of the LinkedIn’s announcement of Japanese service, some hurdles for Japanese general public starting LinkedIn started to become clear. This includes few people know how to switch to Japanese from English, the benefits of LinkedIn and basic features are not understood, and group discussions remain in English, in addition to lack of promotion and introduction in featured articles in media. Some people doubt whether LinkedIn will become popular in Japan; however, the author believes more Japanese people will start using it because they now are happy to accept global social media using real names and many Japanese companies are now planning to use social media in business.
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