Vol.44 – Are Requirements for Reaching and Engaging International Audience Special?

The previous articles through Vol.40-42 were about methodologies of effectively reaching and engaging global and local audience, based on the live experience of the author, who was mentioned in a guest blog article by Kathy Meyer (@2cre8 on Twitter) Top 10 Twitter Revelations http://www.thetop10blog.com/top-10-twitter-revelations/ as someone on Twitter who tweets in English and in her native language.




The topic of this article is requirements for effectively reaching and engaging glocal audience, i.e. local and global (international) audience.



1. Are requirements for reaching and engaging international audience different from those of local audience?



There might be additional requirements for effectively reaching and engaging international audience such as English, inter-cultural communication skill and global perspective; however, the essence of requirements are the same for reaching and engaging international and local audience.



The author would like to explain this by first presenting requirements of local audience and then additional requirements specific of international audiences, explaining how the essence of the latter is the same as that of the former.



2. Why the requirements are the same in essence?



1) Requirements for reaching and engaging local audience



Requirements for reaching and engaging audience in general, normally local unless specified, can be concluded as the following.



- Customer focused

- Active participation to the community, providing value



This is because as mentioned in many blog articles on this topic, concrete tips and methodologies of reach and engagement in social media world can be summarized as below, which are all about the above two points.



(1) Completed bio



Complete a bio with appropriate information so that people would know who, what kind of contents/updates are to be tweeted and posted etc. This is about opening the account from customer-focused way. Also, if people would not now such things, that person would not be able to actively participate in the community.



(2) Regular and appropriate frequency tweets and updates



It is often mentioned based on statistics result that majority of people open up twitter account but do not tweet at all or much, which is inactive participation to the community and providing no value. Not many people are posting sufficient updates in other social media such as Facebook meaning only a proportion of the community members are active.



Regarding the frequency of the tweets on Twitter, it should not be too frequent so that Tine Line of your followers will be filled only with your tweet. It is the same for Facebook and all other social media. This is about consideration to the followers/friends of social media and contributing to the community in an appropriate way.



(3) Content of value



This is whether tweet/post updates are something that gives value to the followers/friends. Sadly it is a reality that there are tweets and updates that are not understandable to others and/or have no meaning to others except the person who tweeted/posted the update.



Also, there are public tweets and updates targeting to only a specific follower that that all others would not understand at all or would not be interested in, and therefore have no value to others. This is not of customer-focus and does not provide value to the community. Such tweets and updates are ideally sent as DM and/or private message to the target.



(4) Mentioning and promoting someone



It goes without saying that promoting and mentioning your followers/friends is active contribution, giving value to the community, in a customer-focus manner. Everyone would be thankful if he/she is mentioned and being promoted.



(5) Thanking and responding



And everyone would agree that saying thank you and/or replying to someone when he/she helps someone, retweets someone’s tweet, promotes someone and mentions someone is of customer-focus and is active participation in the community.



(6) Being sincere and ethical



Unfortunately there seems to be some insincere and unethical behaviours in online communities. Such include pitching, unfollowing someone as soon as that person starts to follow, abusing etc.



These are not of customer-focus and not contributing to the community, or rather, insincerely and unethical.  This means that the reverse is necessary requirements although it may not be sufficient for customer-focused and contribution to the community.

Authenticity is also usually included in requirements for engagement.  This is also related to sincerity and ethics.

2) Additional requirements for reaching and engaging international audience



The following are the primary additional requirements for reaching and engaging international audience. These are in essence about customer-focus and active contribution to the community providing value.



(1) English communication skill



English is a kind of standard language in international world including online community so English communication skill is a requirement for reaching and engaging audience around the globe. Online translation services are available but it is a reality that not being able to communicate in English is a big hurdle in reaching and engaging international audience through interactive communication.



People are unlikely to follow unless the bio and/or tweets are in the language they understand because it is inconvenient to translate every tweets and updates. What is more, quality of the translation is not yet so high. At least that is the frank evaluation when the author reads some English and Japanese translations; many of them are not smooth grammatically. In such a situation, the nuance and style of the tweet and updates would be not delivered sufficiently if it is the translation.



If this requirement is interpreted as providing information in the language that people understand, this is all about customer-focus. Also, if it is interpreted as a way of providing information with meaning because information in the language not understandable is meaningless, this is about providing information of value.



(2) Inter-cultural communication skills / global perspective



People would also agree that this is another requirement for reaching and engaging international audience. This can be paraphrased as philosophy and mindset of Diversity and Inclusion, focusing on accepting and respecting differences attributing too difference in nationality, ethnicity, society and culture.



This is also about customer-focus and providing value to the community. Such philosophy and mindset, it is impossible to select content that has value to the international community in a customer-focus manner, nor to tweet and update in a way that has value to global and/or local audience. Also without such philosophy and mindset, it is impossible to reply appropriately to people of different background attributing especially to different nationality, ethnicity, location, or even gender, generation etc. which can be difference of local audience.

Vol.34 – How to Deliver Consistent Message to Global and Local Audience

The previous article Vol.33: How to Develop Corporate Contents with Consistent Corporate Branding was about developing online and offline contents to deliver consistent message with consistent corporate branding.

This article discusses effectively delivering consistent message with consistent branding to global and local audience online and offline, meeting needs of both global and local audience. The discussion is based on the author’s experience of marketing and communication to global and Japan local audience at work and also on how she has been managing social media (English and Japanese blogs, two separate twitter accounts, and one Facebook account targeting global and local friends).

1. What are the KFS for delivering consistent message to global and local audience?

What to keep consistent worldwide and what to tailor to meet local needs must be clarified after careful selection and defining to effectively deliver consistent message with consistent branding to global and local audience, online and offline, meeting all their needs. This is the KFS (Key Factors for Success) to effectively deliver consistent message to global and local audience with consistent branding, meeting needs of both global and local audience.

2. What needs to be consistent for both global and local audience and what needs to be tailored to meet local needs?

The following are main examples of things that need to be consistent for both global and local audience (and for all customer segments, i.e. buying persona).

1) Core message and branding

Needless to say, core message and branding should be consistent regardless of customer/audience segment. All the contents are to support core message, developed under consistent branding principle.

In the case of many companies, core message and branding is made into a slogan or something similar, which is translated to local languages, and symbolized by CI (Corporate Identity) logos. Slogan (or something similar) may well be combined with CI logos, such as “imagination at work” of GE, “Connecting People” of Nokia and “ideas for life” of Panasonic.

Corporate (and/or product) branding guidelines are usually developed and applied worldwide to keep consistency. In such guidelines, items such as colour/format/proportion/spacing of the logo and layout and style of visual/copy are defined. These needs to be applied regardless of customer/audience segmentation, media and communication channel etc.

2) Facts and data

There are many kinds of facts and data that need to be consistent to both global and local audience.

(1) Overview of the organization / individual

In the case of a company, this would be Company Information that was mentioned in the previous article Vol 33: How to Develop Corporate Contents with Consisten Corporate Branding. Many global companies deliver consistent information of the overview of the global company by making local websites link to the global page (in English) and/or by making local branches precisely translate the global page information into their language then post the translation on their local website. The translation is used in offline media/tools such as brochure.

In the case of the individual, this would be profile (page) and bio on website and all online communities such as blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. If he/she is to be introduced in online and/or offline media and is edited by the media, the primary source needs to be his/her profile and bio to keep the information consistent.

(2) Financial information (IR information)

This is as mentioned in Vol.33: How to Develop Corporate Contents with Consistent Corporate Branding.

Most global companies deliver consistent information of this kind by the very same method mentioned above in delivering consistent global company overview information.

Global company information and IR information including financial announcement press releases can be said as the main global content of global companies.

(3) Other facts about the company/individual

In the case of a company, this would be basic information of career information and information of other topics mentioned in Vol.33: How to Develop Corporate Contents with Consistent Corporate Branding. Such information includes press releases and all other content.

The reason why the author says “basic information” is that the basic facts and philosophy of the information is universal worldwide and therefore needs to be consistent; however, details and concrete case information needs to be tailored locally depending on local law, society, culture and other issues. Also, what aspects to be focused to explain some topics and its approach needs to be carefully selected and defined to meet local needs.

The same concept applies in the case of an individual.

(4) Basic product/service information

The reason why the author says “basic” product information is the same as the reason for other facts about the company/individual mentioned above. Such information includes press releases and all other content.

Product and service specification remains consistent worldwide, so are bullet copies describing products and services. The exception is when the details of the products and services have been tailed according to the market segment. This is quite usual for consumer products and services at least.

Explanation of benefits and concrete case studies may well be tailored locally depending on local needs including society, culture, law and other issues. What aspects to be focused to effectively explain benefits and how needs to be carefully selected and defined to meet local needs.

An example of such exception is of global strategic flagship consumer products and services, consistent message and branding is delivered with the same visual, headline and copy. Panasonic adopted this approach in marketing first flat panel TVs. This approach also seems to be widely adopted in the case of IT software (e.g. security), especially when their global business is at early stage.

3. How is content developed tailoring to meet local audience while delivering consistent message?

Outline of this has already been touched on in (3) and (4) above.

The author would like to further discuss this in the upcoming article.