Social media has become a global phenomenon: 72% of the global internet population is now active on social networks and 75% of Facebook users are outside of the USA. Research shows that Social Media users interact locally, in their real life. The global phenomenon is in fact a collection of local phenomena where culture, language and politics play a role. The Indonesians use Facebook in Indonesian interacting with other Indonesians, the Germans use Facebook in German interacting with other Germans, etc… there are variances that global brands should know/use/leverage when designing global marketing social media campaigns. Should you skew your campaign toward more content creation when targeting audience in China or South Korea? Should you avoid requesting Europeans to formally join a group? Should you expect Japanese to be more likely silent readers of your content?... The conversation will explore the need for multinational brands to recognize that not all social media users are like US, and that social media campaigns should be properly localized to maximize return.
http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_IAP8203