Crossing Cultures

After studying abroad in Ireland, and traveling around Europe I gained such a better understanding of myself through relating with other cultures. There were things you did (or more often didn't do) in order to respect cultural beliefs and boundaries. In Ireland, you don't bring up the Northern Ireland conflict, you don't order black & tans, and as a general rule I avoided political talk.

After working abroad in Ireland, I started to understand business culture and began to pick up differences between American & Irish business culture. One of the first things I noticed, was that it was okay to be up to 30 minutes late to work and even a meeting. It isn't until 30 minutes have passed that people start to become annoyed that you're tardy. The book mentions that Switzerland ranked first in the desire to comply with schedules & Mexico ranked last. I wonder where Ireland would fall on that list.

Since my current internship at ECHO is managing their social media channels, I cannot help but look at each of the topics in our textbook through the social media lens. Cultural communication is more than being aware of color meanings and fashion faux pas. It can be about spreading awareness of other cultures and international issues. Twitter has proven to be a useful tool in connecting cultures. Jessica Faye Carter wrote a Mashable article on October 14, 2012 titled, "Why Twitter Influences Cross Cultural Engagement". Since Twitter has become an international communication platform, it is easy to learn about other cultures with just a few clicks and browsing through what's trending. It is no doubt spreading globalization, as the textbook referred to when they identified four trends that are increasing globalization

• "Trade-import and export transactions among nations
• Movement of Capital - the flow of investment money between countries., including foreign aid and private stock purchases
• Movement of people - the mobility of workers who cross national borders in search of better jobs or in fulfillment of employment obligations
• Spread of knowledge and technology - the exchange of information and equipment among nations

B2B

Business-to-Business Relations is yet another area falling under the public relations umbrella. According to the textbook, B2B is "the management of relationships with businesses that have resources that your business needs to achieve its goals." An example of this could be the supplier of office necessities for a firm, or a car rental company that a major resort deals with regularly. The definition above is slightly one-sided, and I think it is important to look at both sides of these business relationships to determine what is beneficial for all parties involved.

Partner Relationship Management and Customer Relationship Management both fall under B2B relations and employ digital marketing tactics. As the media world shifts more and more towards a digital platform, online marketing makes sense and can be the most effective and efficient way to develop business to business relationships. As a general theme of this blog (a direct result of this textbook), I looked for ways to bring some currency to business-to-business relations. Below is a link to a Mashable article by Maria Ogneva, written July 11, 2011, titled "10 Tips to Better B2B Community Management."

Not that I want to beat a dead horse, but social media has once again, become a major channel of communications for Business to Business marketing. Maria Ogneva's article provides a few easy tips to maximize the utility of these virtual communities relative to B2B communications.

1. Know when to create your own community - If there is already an existing community where interactions are taking place, converse there. If your objective is a bit more narrow, outline it and use it to start your own community.
2. Think through the purpose - Choose the online community you join based on your objectives. Certain communities have different benefits for interacting with customers, brands and other entities. Decide how members will interact based on that objective.
3. Establish membership guidelines - Depending on who you want to interact with, a community can cater to different groups; employees, VIP customers, specific clients, or completely public.
4. Understand your members - Speak to your members wants & needs, If your community is for employees, you want to help make them look good in front of their superiors and peers & help them get their jobs done.
5. Outline roles - Who is participating and how? Is the community 'self-policed' or are their moderators in place to encourage conversation and minimize clashing issues.
6. Establish a vision & charter - Look at your objective and establish goals, plot a path to reach those goals. Transparency is key, share this information with members.
7. Success metrics - Track things like growth, engagement, active users. Give surveys and listen to the feedback.
8. Have a community manager - the goal is for the community to be self sustaining, but community managers bring accountability.
9. Establish internal processes - Encourage cross functional interactions
10. Enable sharing - Community members should be sharing success so that other members can visualize success and strive.

A few thoughts after reading the article...

I was reminded of a peer telling me that they use client based blogs at their PR internship. These blogs are essentially a platform for communication and updates between this firm & their clients. I imagine they encourage transparency & help both parties measure ROI.

As we have mentioned in class, social media is like a tool inside a toolbox of tactics. It is not the toolbox, or the only tactic available to accomplish communication goals, it is merely the current sexy trend. While studying abroad in Ireland, I interned at The World Trade Centre Dublin. A good portion of the internship was spent trying to conquer digital marketing for a B2B conference in America. The conference is called Futurallia, and it is designed to bring together international businesses across a wide variety of sectors. This is a link to a blog I wrote about the event for the Web Port Global blog Futurallia: International B2B Matchmaking Opportunity.