Today I enjoyed a well-presented and thought-through study into the effectiveness of the corporate newsrooms of Bavarian companies. The authors of the study are two students of Ilmenau University, Carolin Aue and Karolin Halusa.
Another one for German readers only I’m afraid ..
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I’m feeling a little proud of myself as today I made my first presentation to a large audience in German. Now people present in second languages every day (or third, or fourth languages!), and I always have the hugest respect for those that not only manage it, but do it well. While mine was far from perfect, you have to start somewhere - many thanks to all those at the Nuremberg Press Club today who sat through it and gave me such positive feedback.
Thanks also to Bastian Scherbeck of Achtung! PR for sharing with me his recent presentation at a DPRG conference, which I drew some initial slides from.
Today’s event was hosted by Kaltwasser Kommunication, with which I work closely on German-based projects, and Convento.
If you read German, you can view the presentation here and on Sideshare.
I also used the two following videos (in English) during the presentation.
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I’m sitting at my desk in Nuremberg, Germany. I took my children to school before jumping on the train into town, and have a trip to the dentist in the diary for this evening. I’ve got documents to finalise and send to clients in the UK and Belgium, prep for a trip to Brussels at the back end of the week, and an important planning lunch with my business partners at a restaurant near the world-famous Kristkindlesmarkt (the world’s oldest Christmas market).
Simultaneously, I’m attending a 2-day conference in Paris.
Le Web 08, taking place in Paris on 9 and 10 December, is arguably the best web-related conference outside the United States. Tickets to attend in person, like a well known French beer brand, are ‘reassuringly expensive.’ But organisers, Loic and Geraldine Le Meur, see value in making the content available live online, while most conference organisers would see this as canabalising their revenues. I took part last year, from my then home in the UK. But if truth be told, I would really rather be there in person (if it were possible) as while I can learn a lot from the sessions televised online, the real value to me is the business opportunities generated outside of the sessions. So next year, I definately plan to be there.
During the 2 days of Le Web, speakers will be interviewed on stage by the following reporters, bloggers:
How Can you Participate in Conferences without Being There?
Good question. It takes time, effort, and importantly preparation. What makes Le Web quite special is that it is streaming the presentations live and free of charge and complication via Ustream. This is still quite rare, although more conferences are making some content available free afterwards. The critical difference to me with live coverage is, of course, the opportunity to participate in a timely context with resulting conversations via services like Twitter (where you can find me under the name of @ronna), Friendfeed, etc.
So in addition to watching and listening to the sessions via Ustream, I’m following what is being said about the sessions and contributing comments on Twitter. The sensible approach to this is to focus on the things that interest you most or are most relevant to you, don’t try to follow everything as you’ll go mad!
I’m also prepared in that I already follow (and am followed by) a significant number of people who have similar interests to me, many of whom are either in Paris or following from afar like me. I also use a tool called TweetDeck which helps me focus in on the inputs of interest to me, including columns respectively for those people I follow, those replying to me, and those sending private messages to me. I also have a column searching specifically on keywords or hashtags applying to Le Web.
If you are new to Twitter, the best place to see what is being discussed on any particular subject, such as Le Web, is to put the appropriate keywords (eg. leweb or leweb08) into Twitter Search, and to contribute from your Twitter account.
Often after a conference, speakers make their slides available on Slide Share, which can be useful as a personal reminder, to share with or brief others, or in your other work.
What is Live Blogging?
I was lucky enough to win attendence to Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin earlier this year. I got a lot out of it, one of the most interesting insights being how professional journalist and blogger Adam Tinworth approached Live Blogging. What he did was essentially take notes straight into his blog post for later editing and adding of URL links, categories, tags, or other standard blog paraphanalia. What was also informative though is Adam’s creative production and use of images (taken by him or his Flickr contacts at the event).
Here are the people I’ve found Live Blogging at Le Web so far (who do a far better job of telling you what is actually being talked about at Le Web than I do!)
There are lots of different types of blogging: online diary, corporate blogs, marketing blogs, personal blogs, as many different kinds as there are kinds of books (at least). I first discovered live blogging from Anna Farmery of The Engaging Brand Podcast, where she ‘braindumps’ an idea onto her blog ‘typos and all,’ going back later (but not always!) to tidy up. This can be a non-intuative approach for someone with a career in professional communications, but offers the advantages of speed, opportunity to gain earlier input and comment, and develop several post ideas (and no doubt other tasks to) at the same time.
So while I’ll probably still favour more thoughtful blogging on Internet Branding Strategy, Live Blogging is worth considering if only as an experiment to see how it works.
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AT&T announced today that the use of social networking tools as part of everyday working life has led to an increase in efficiency, according to an independent market report. The survey of 2,500 employees across five countries conducted by Dynamic Markets, shows that of those using social networking tools in the workplace, 65% say that it has made them and/or their colleagues more efficient. In addition, 46% say that it has sparked ideas and creativity for them personally.
The study shows that 65% of employees surveyed in Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands say that their company has adopted social networking as part of their working culture. The research also reveals that the rate of adoption is most popular in Germany, leading the way at 72% while Great Britain lags behind with 59%.
While the reasons behind this must remain the subject for some future research, this result will surprise many. Not the least me who has a foot in both camps as a British business communicator having lived and worked for several years in Germany. I say this not out of cynicism for the validity of the results, or a skepticism of this as potentially being one of Germany’s many strengths - I just haven’t experienced enough anecdotal examples of where I have seen this first hand to say, “yes, that makes sense,” despite lots of exposure to both markets.
According to the survey, the top 5 social networking tools being used by organisations across Europe are:
When asked, 74% of European employees think there are benefits to using social networks and online communities in the workplace. Increasing an individual’s knowledge and giving access to solutions to problems (both 38%) were the two main benefits highlighted. Harnessing the collective knowledge of employees, customers and suppliers (36%) and stimulating team building and better internal collaboration (32%) were also mentioned by those employees who have first-hand experience of using social networks at work on a daily basis.
In contrast, the research also highlights a number of challenges, with the two main negatives being that social networks are a distraction to employees (49%) and a source of company leaks of confidential information (45%). In addition, 24% of employees admit they are not sure how the return on investment (ROI) of internal sites could ever be measured.
“The change is sociological rather than technological, thus is will be difficult to justify with traditional ROI models”, says Martin Silman, executive director at AT&T. “Social networking is changing the way corporations communicate and if the corporate vision incorporates and builds upon the move to social networking and web 2.0, then the key performance indicators will easily follow.”
“The research shows that there is a clear trend across Europe for business users to embrace the benefits of ‘web 2.0′ technology to underpin collaboration, improve productivity and embrace business efficiency. It is clear that CIO’s and their colleagues need to think about the implications this has for their own internal networking strategy and ensure that they are equipped to make the most of the opportunities created by social networking.”
Neville Hobson gives a more robust review of the research in his post ‘Survey highlights employee expectations from social networking in the European workplace’ , plus has an exclusive 24 minute interview with Martin Silman on the For Immediate Release podcast.
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I just spotted this useful framework of 22 tools to consider with notable brand examples on Mashable from Peter Kim. Peter’s been curating a list of social media marketing examples and is looking for more - I’d certainly be happy to add to it. Here’s the list so far:
1. Blogs (Johnson & Johnson, Delta Air Lines)
2. Bookmarking/Tagging (Adobe, Kodak)
3. Brand monitoring (Dell, MINI)
4. Content aggregation (Alltop, EMC)
5. Crowdsourcing/Voting (Oracle, Starbucks)
6. Discussion boards and forums (IBM, Mountain Dew)
7. Events and meetups (Molson, Pampers)
8. Mashups (Fidelity Investments, Nike)
9. Microblogging (method, Whole Foods)
10. Online video (Eukanuba, Home Depot)
11. Organization and staffing (Ford, Pepsi)
12. Outreach programs (Nokia, Yum Brands)
13. Photosharing (Rubbermaid, UK Government)
14. Podcasting (Ericsson, McDonalds)
15. Presentation sharing (CapGemini, Daimler AG)
16. Public Relations - social media releases (Avon, Intel)
17. Ratings and reviews (Loblaws, TurboTax)
18. Social networks: applications, fan pages, groups, and personalities (British Airways, Saturn)
19. Sponsorships (Coca-Cola, Whirlpool)
20. Virtual worlds (National Geographic, Toyota)
21. Widgets (Southwest Airlines, Target)
22. Wikis (Second Life, T-Mobile Sidekick)
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I’m sometimes surprised that the people I’m doing business with don’t have even a basic profile on LinkedIn, which if nothing more gives them the chance to experiment with how such tools work. Of all the social networking platforms, its probably the most useful for business, and is in my opinion probably the best starting point for those who want to explore in a safe and professional setting.
Today, LinkedIn announced several new social applications which further helps its members to collaborate, network, and share information. For example, I’ve now linked this blog to my LinkedIn profile, enabling me to expand my audience into what I find to be a highly influential group of people. Reid Hofmann’s video (above) gives a quick flavour of what this and the other the new applications offer.
Some even think that, on the back of its 29 million user-base, strong investment potential, and evolving applications, LinkedIn will compete directly with company intranets that normally remain protected by corporate firewalls. Forrester’s Jeremaiah Owyang’s post on this theme is worth a read.
Certainly for anyone working in marketing and communications, now is a good time to experiment with how you can be using or developing LinkedIn to support your business and career. Perhaps you set up an account a year or so back but didn’t do anything with it, or you are based in Germany where Xing.com is the more popular option (I’m on both as I have different business contacts who prefer each network). Regardless, if you aren’t active in LinkedIn you should start now. And if you’d like a friend to link to as a starting point, you can always try me.
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One of my few regrets in attending Web 2.0 Expo Europe last week, was that I got distracted by another session and so didn’t make it along to hear this presentation on cross-national and multilingual web communities. Having been responsible for major international marketing programmes over the years, I know just how thorny some of these considerations can be - and the impact that getting the balance right (or wrong!) can have on the bottom line.
Of particular interest here are Andreas Ravn’s views on the different strategic approaches that organisations are likely to take: Web 1.0, Laissez-faire, Common Ground, S.O.D, (itself a little lost in translation as I didn’t see the presentation!), Babel Fish. I also liked the discussion around how much localisation is needed, using the example of Switzerland - where I worked for two years - and its four national languages and at least as many discrete cultures.
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Introduction
The relentless pace of business globalisation is, in turn, driving the advancement of multilingual websites as effective business tools, allowing organisations to reach a global audience through their internet activities. Companies are realising that, ultimately, it is the structure, empowerment and recognition gained by their global web strategies that enables them to achieve their long-term business goals.
The challenge is to design, build, localise, host and maintain content-rich multilingual websites cost-efficiently that enables centralised content management, which allows an organisation to manage and publish material relevant to specific international markets.
When you decide to go multilingual, some typical questions arise:
• How can we keep content consistent throughout the different language/country versions?
• How can we ensure that as much content as possible can be re-used or shared?
• How can we assure brand consistency throughout the different country sites?
• How can we empower local markets?
So, what is the best practice for establishing a global online brand? And what are the key considerations that need to be taken into account?
1. Establishing a global brand
Amazon, eBay, British Airways, Virgin, BP, Coca-Cola, Gap, Microsoft, Apple, Vodafone, etc…
Welcome to the world of global branding.
But what exactly is branding? There is a misconception that branding is about the creative side of business; the logo, the advertising, the copy, the look, the image. Well a brand certainly encompasses all of those things, but that isn’t the full extent of it. Branding is, in a nutshell, the entire customer experience; the relationship between the company and the customer.
The challenge facing organisations is to establish and maintain their brand on a global basis, and ensure consistency across geographical barriers, whilst at the same time ensuring recognition and relevance in different countries and markets. In order to develop globally, it is necessary to think locally.
The internet has emerged as a key global brand enabler (Amazon and eBay wouldn’t exist without it) and a company’s website is generally the first point of contact for customers, prospects, suppliers, partners or investors to get information and engage the brand experience. A website provides the opportunity to establish your brand globally with the flexibility to change and maintain localised content across different markets and in different languages.
Make the overall interaction attractive, relevant and convenient to your website visitors. Talk in their language and you have a better chance of attracting and retaining them. These are the key success factors for establishing a global online brand.
2. Having a global online strategy
The internet is the perfect vehicle for reaching a global audience, allowing an organisation to deliver the visual, the informative and the emotional aspects of their business; in short, the brand. Unlike any other communications or marketing media, a web site is the one place where the entire identity of a company is conveyed in a matter of seconds, and with only a few mouse clicks. Either the entire experience works, or it doesn’t. Although the internet may indeed be a global community it does not erase cultural and linguistic barriers, in many cases it can actually magnify them. Issues of design, presentation, and copy that appeal to one culture may not necessarily appeal to others. If we consider that there are dozens of languages spoken in the United Kingdom alone, and that many companies consider this as their domestic marketplace, then there are obviously some serious issues for marketers to address, even on our own doorstep.
When you use the internet as a communication medium then you have a powerful opportunity, and an immense challenge. Either way, not having a multilingual online strategy is simply no longer an option for those wishing to develop their business to its full potential.
3. Why build a multilingual website?
A multilingual website demonstrates that you think, work and deal internationally. It is probably one of the most cost effective ways of marketing a company, capturing new users, building relationships with clients and giving your brand a truly global outlook. The internet was originally dominated by English speaking users and sites. However, times are changing quickly with people from all over the world having internet access. English speakers now account for only 29% of the global online population and 99% of all users will search the net in their native language first wherever possible. Having an English-only web site severely restricts the amount of visitors you can attract; it’s the online equivalent of only opening your shop for two days a week.
Research carried out by Nielsen-Netratings described internet markets as ‘low hanging fruit’, i.e. if you have the will and foresight there are massive revenues to be found for relatively little effort. Results showed that internet use in the traditional strong holds of the USA, the United Kingdom and Germany are levelling out. On the other hand countries such as France, China, Italy, Russia and Japan are seeing substantial growth. Having the ability to communicate to a whole new global audience in their own language will undoubtedly yield results not only in financial terms, but also in terms of marketing and creating brand awareness.
With every language added to a website there is the potential for substantial increase in sales as you expand your market reach. Even if a multilingual website is translated into only a few of the major world languages (Spanish, French, German and Italian) there is a potential four fold increase in sales revenues.
A multilingual website shows that an organisation is thinking about its customers. As with all businesses, if customers think you care, they are far more likely to deal with you. For many cultures there is an issue of trust when it comes to buying online. Offering them a language alternative allows customers to feel secure about what they are buying, how they buy it and who they buy it from.
A multilingual website, if designed properly, overcomes potential cultural and linguistic barriers and automatically puts the user in a ‘cultural comfort zone’ as they are able to navigate, understand and interact with the website in their own language.
4. Stakeholders - who are they?
Embarking on a global online strategy means that you will have to identify, and give careful consideration to, the stakeholders. They can be defined as those who are involved in creating, managing, maintaining or using a multilingual website and, depending on individual circumstances, can include:
Customers and prospects - These are the key users who will interact with your websites globally on a day-to-day basis. They’re the reason you’re in business and are easily the most important stakeholders in your multilingual website strategy. It is therefore vital to understand and meet their requirements on a local level.
Investors - For any organisation seeking funding, the ability to communicate strategies, business plans and financial projections to international investors is vital. They need to be able to access information relevant to them easily and quickly, wherever they are and in a language they feel most comfortable with.
Media - It is vital for an organisation to be recognised and represented by global media who will generally expect to see press releases and other company news presented in local languages.
Business partners - Most global organisations forge strategic relationships with suppliers, resellers and other partners, often in different countries. The website must be able to present these relationships clearly within different territories and languages to maximise all business opportunities. The website can also evolve into extranet activity to enable partners to interact with an organisation directly in a secure manner.
Employees - A multilingual website needs to address the needs of employees, from regional sales people to distribution staff, who rely on it for localised information on products and services. In this case, the website can evolve into intranet activities for secure information exchange and interaction within the business itself.
5. Localisation
By its very nature, the internet is a truly international and multicultural engine that crosses global barriers. For global companies to build long-term trust with their customers worldwide, the most effective way is to address audiences in their local languages. Effective content localisation enables companies to leverage corporate assets in ways that reduce overall costs, accelerate revenues and build better relationships with customers and employees around the world.
Most companies have several quantifiable benefits that can form the basis for measuring the ROI of their web site localisation activities, including:
• Infrastructure cost savings
• Time-to-market revenue acceleration
• Impact of a stronger global brand
• Brand consistency
• Enhanced global customer relationships.
There are some qualitative reasons for localisation. According to research company Global Reach, around 75% of the online population was expected to accesses the Internet in a language other than English by 2005. To reach 70% of Europe’s audience, a company needs to translate its website into at least five languages, according to one of Anna Bowman Translations Ltd’s most valued clients, Merrill Lynch. To further underline the benefits, IDC have calculated that customers are four times more likely to buy if they are approached in their own language.
6. Information architecture
Designing a web structure in which information is presented is complex enough for a single language website. When creating a multilingual platform, the complexities increase significantly but our experience in dealing with such issues means that the whole process should be straightforward.
However, the one thing that we do recommend is that we are involved from the beginning in order to discuss all complex design and optimisation issues with a company before they build a site. Simply creating an English language site and then presenting it for translation is not the most effective way to develop a multilingual presence online. Focusing on the information architecture at the planning stage can help with the development of a consistent multilingual website in a smoother and more cost effective manner.
Having a global website strategy is not just about translating words; it is about determining not only the brand experience, but also the user experience. The way in which users interact with a web site is fundamental to its success. Design, navigation and the way content is presented are all vital components, as is the capability for visitors to easily and quickly find content that is in their language.
In the development of multilingual site, there may be wholesale or subtle changes that may be required to the user interface to satisfy the requirements and demands of local markets. All of this should be determined at the initial design and development phases through careful assessment of user requirements in different countries. By doing this at an early stage we can create a generic platform, which can then incorporate multiple language content without the need to adapt the site dynamics each time a new language is added. Whilst it is true that there are technical implications for using a single site with multiple languages, especially with foreign search engines, our experience has taught us how to avoid the pitfalls that so many multilingual web sites suffer. The ‘single site’ approach streamlines operational efficiency and reduced the costs associated with multiple website maintenance.
7. Translation
Translation and localisation can combine to allow businesses to expand their global reach. There are a myriad of firms that offer we site translation, but very few fully understand the technical implications of building, hosting and optimising a site in multiple languages. Correctly applied, presenting translated information about your organisation can yield a tremendous return on investment.
The key to successful translation is consistent authoring of the original work. English copy needs to be written ‘with translation in mind’ and should be free from unclear statements, cultural references or any other types of ambiguities that can cause problems during the translation stage. The approach needs to be:
Write once. Translate into many. Sell more.
CONCLUSIONS
Having worked with a very large and demanding global client base for a significant period of time, the lessons we have learned at Anna Bowman Translations Ltd are invaluable. We have seen that local trust is best addressed in the local language. People become more loyal when addressed in their own language and, as a result, a company can build long-term relationships with its customers worldwide.
Key factors to focus on when developing a multilingual website strategy are: revenue opportunities, customer service, brand awareness, trust and cost reduction. Everything else follows on logically from these areas.
For both consumers and business buyers, companies must tailor their website to meet local needs and conditions.
Building long-term trust is fundamental for any organisation and addressing the audience in its local language is an important step to achieving that.
© Jonathan Bowman (Reprinted with permission)
Partner - Anna Bowman Translations Ltd
Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing
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Still, by far, the most powerful audio brand to me. Make poverty history. In support of Blog Action Day 2008. Message shared in under 3 minutes - less time than it takes for someone else to die from extreme poverty.
Two hundred and sixty-eight penguins lived in the colony of beautiful emperor penguins in Antartica. Only Fred was curious and observant enough to discover a potentially devastating problem threatening their home - and pretty much no one listens to him. Its a problem shared by marketers and communicators today, whether we have realised it yet or not.
This 6-minute video - marking the first anniversary of Internet Branding Strategy - shows the three easy steps that I took, and showing in which direction you should start swimming (if you are not already doing so!)
I was thrilled to hear this morning that this, my first video, won a prize in a For Immediate Release contest designed to encourage business communicators like myself to experiment with video. My prize is tickets to attend Web 2.0 Expo Europe in Berlin, Germany, on October 21-23, 2009. Many thanks to FIR hosts Shel Holz and Neville Hobson for selecting my video to win the European prize. Its also quite a relief as, due to the short timeframe, I’ve already signed up for a few side-events and let clients know I’ll be in town - could have been embarassing!
If you are interested in seeing the business change concepts behind the Our Iceberg is Melting fable being put to good use, you might also find this slide presentation helpful.
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