Imagine a scenario where you are working for Motorola and given the task of expanding the company’s existing business (given the recent launch of its new phone - Motorola Droid) into the Asia Pacific region. How would you fully utilize social media to overcome and communicate across various national, cultural and technological boundaries to achieve your objective?

The integration of individual and businesses into the society through social media

Social Media is fundamentally transformative and is rapidly evolving the architecture of business, communications, and the dissemination of information and influence. Today, there are businesses that engage in social media and those that do not. Those at least experimenting with the formidable, yet shifting landscape of intelligence and communication are learning how to adapt and connect in a new world of conversation, networking, and influence. Social Media is indeed pervasive. Social networking, podcasting, blogging, and Twitter adoption are nothing less than profound.

 Technology penetration and prevalence of social media in Asia Pacific

Asia Pacific has widely embraced the power of social media compared to its western counterparts be it for personal leisure or business purposes. Statistics has proven so with the increasing trend of Asians jumping into the social media bandwagon. 

In addition the Asia Pacific region has one of the most positive perceptions of technology, whereas Europe feels that technology has consumed too much time.Asia Pacific also has one of the most extensive usages of emerging technologies for work purposes globally.

Given the rate at which the Asia Pacific region is adopting social media into their everyday work regime as well as for leisure usage, Motorola would be able to further expand their business into the Asia Pacific region vie social media without much obstruction.

Asia’s highly fragmented and controlled markets

However, one of the few business problems faced by Asia Pacific market would be its highly fragmented and controlled markets. Some examples would be the strict internet filtering policy by governments in China and Australia. These governments place a strong focus on the type of content broadcasted to users in their country and would not hesitate to take on proactive measures to block sites which are deemed inappropriate for internet users. One recent example would be Google’s decision to withdraw its operations in China due to the country’s strict censorship issue policy. 

On Australia’s side, the government has established a mandatory internet filtering policy in 2010, albeit facing strong criticism from human rights activist groups. Nonetheless, these countries are still receptive towards the use of various social media tools. Companies (like Motorola) and individuals should elicit the help of these social networking tools to help gather and control the various fragmented markets in the region. Hence it is critical for companies to utilize the right social networking tools to effectively reach out to its target audience across various countries. For example, China are avid users of Renren social networking site and Baidu search engine, countries like Australia is active on Facebook and Google, whereas Japan are pro-users of Mixi and Yahoo Japan. It is crucial to harness the right social media tool for various countries in order for Motorola to effectively gain the responses it desires.

Leveraging on weak tie to build across cultures and languages

The power of weak ties have been apparent in building across cultures and languages especially for businesses who are intending to expand its operations and venturing into markets in which the company is less familiar of. Apart from businesses, individuals are also able to leverage on the power of weak ties to gain useful insights and information that is probably not accessible through strong ties. Companies and individuals are able to build across cultures and languages through engagement vie wikis, twitter, blogs and Facebook. These social media platforms provide valuable insights together with a wealth of information cross culturally. 

Weak ties are however only helpful if you gather a group of people who share a similar desire and passion towards a particular issue.  It also provides a channel for quick dissemination and gathering of information as new information are quickly transmitted across the channel by people who believe in the same things. It is also interesting how weak ties map people by complementarities and not just similarities. 

Businesses like Motorola are also able to gather their network of clients by grabbing links in which their weak ties are linked to, since these third parties would probably be engaged in similar interest or business. As mentioned above, companies and individuals have to go through the right channels in the different countries to establish their weak ties. For example, China blocks social media tools like twitter and Facebook, as such companies need to go through the right social media channels in order to effectively reach out to the China market. 

Business Communication across Asia Pacific

The Asia Pacific region is a rather complex region from a social media standpoint because like previously mentioned, various countries use different platforms. For instance, YouTube is the primary medium sharing in Australia, whereas Sohu would be the primary source in China. That said, the general approach remains constant, and that is a more transparent approach as to how brands and corporations like Motorola engage with the public. On top of that Motorola should be quick to respond as well as monitor and engage conversations that are happening online about the Motorola Droid. In addition, companies should also constantly churn out new contents that are exclusive for the various fragmented markets in Asia Pacific. Thus though the platforms are different, the basic strategy of business communication still remains.

Therefore, using social media to communicate across various cultural, national and technological boundaries is plausible only if the user leverages on the right social networking platform which is country specific to effectively reach out to its audiences.  With that, a company’s goals and objectives like Motorola’s could coherently be conveyed throughout the various geographical regions.

PSS. At the end of this course, I am probably on my way into becoming a social media expert! :D

The Chinese government is a pretty big opponent for Google to take on, notes Jonathan Fenby, China director at Trusted Sources. He shares his views on Google's decision to reroute its search to Hong Kong, with CNBC's Martin Soong & Karen Tso.

 vs 

My answer straight and direct, Chinese netizens are the biggest loser in this accident.

“If Google really pulls out of China, for millions of citizens, they lose an excellent search engine and its relevant Internet services, like the Android mobile phone,” said Fang Xingdong, chief executive of Chinalabs.com, and the so-called father of the Chinese blog.

If Google pulls out of China because of concerns over government controls, this country could be left with just one major Internet search engine: Baidu.com. As it’s duopoly in China, with only Baidu and Google dominating the Chinese search engines, the withdrawal of Google from China will only lead to Baidu being more complacent and a lesser willingness to innovate. Some question if one of the reason as to why Google has decided to leave China is because of its inability to catch on Baidu. Personally I disagree with that. I feel that Google placed its company’s policy and identity ahead of corporate profits and leaning to please the Chinese government. Google definitely deserves to be applauded for putting a firm foot on the ground that everyone deserves some form of democracy. Adhering to the censorship rules of the Chinese government just does not align Google’s actions with its identity and policy. When we think of the World Wide Web, we think Google. By leaning towards the Chinese government’s policy of censorship, this would further alienate the world’s perception of Google, thus resulting in an identity conflict for the American software giant.

If China is proud of Baidu, it’d be due to all the wrong reasons. Here’s why. Baidu dominates music downloads, often with links to Web sites that music companies say offer illegal downloads. Baidu has defended the practice, saying it simply provides the links. Baidu’s strong relationship with the government contributed to its rise. If the government wants something removed, it will do it immediately. On the other hand, everything with Google has to go through its headquarters.

Baidu faced criticism after the local media published reports saying Baidu gave high search rankings to companies selling illegal drugs. Soon after, Baidu signed a multimillion-dollar sponsorship deal with China Central Television, which had broadcast an investigative piece on Baidu. A spokesman for Baidu declined comment on the incident.

Seems like the Chinese government value dictatorship over the adverse consequences of piracy and unethical behavior. I think Google’s exit is a sign of indication that their corporate values are significantly different from China and it does impedes Google’s growth in China if the government continues to condone whatever Baidu has been doing.

Ultimately the citizens of China who were unknowingly being embroiled into the fiasco have to suffer the fate of it. Thousands of jobs would be lost and Chinese netizens who have been heavily dependent on Google’s user-friendly applications would soon get their hands out of it.

At the end of the day, I am still in support of Google’s pull out from China. China would have to live to see something great in which they have lost. 

What is seriously wrong with men these days? I don't mean to generalize all men to be "Jack Neo" or "Tiger Woods" material, but there seem to be a handful of such philanderous men around. Don't get me wrong, I believe that faithful and devoted husbands still exist and I count their wives to be lucky. So the questions is, "Does fame and fortune gives one the liberty to fool around?" I believe that the chances are definitely much higher if you possess both. If any of you could recollect the recent Jack Neo press conference. Did he show any sign of remorse? No. Did he use his wife's presence at the press conference as a shield to his bad reputation and have her plea on his behalf? Yes. How smart can this guy get.

With the conclusion of this year's Oscars just earlier this week, I think that the winners  have been nothing more than deserving. Didn't manage to catch Hurt Locker so couldn't comment much on the big winner this year. I guess I must have been one of the rare few who didn't catch Avatar, simply because of the overrated hype surrounding the whole movie. That said, I refused to join the Avatar clan.  HOWEVER, I am happy that Up managed to clinch "Best animated featured film" and "Best Music" (original score). Simply love the movie! 

My favorite character in the movie "Russell - the Wilderness Explorer!"

So how has the Oscars got to do with the social media scene?

Social Media played a major role in generating buzz for this year's Academy Awards broadcast, according to a new report from L.A.-based social marketing agency Fanscape.

The report determined that Oscar chatter was very strong on Twitter during this year's three-plus hour telecast. Fanscape cited statistics from analytics firm Radian6 noting there were more than 100,000 tweets per hour during the actual awards ceremony, nearly 40 percent more than the 2010 Super Bowl and 60 percent more than the Grammies.

As stars walked down the red carpet, Oscars fans used Twitter to voice their opinions and provide commentary on the proceedings, pushing the Oscars and hashtag “#Oscars” to the top of Twitter’s trending topics list. Comments ranged from complimentary to insulting, with the majority of conversation surrounding what the stars were wearing.

In order to leverage on the hype and conversation surrounding the Oscars, the Academy created its own official iPhone app that allowed fans to predict winners. Facebook users could also use the social networking site’s Facebook Connect feature to ask questions via the American Broadcasting Company’s Oscars website. On top of that the Academy also created a pre-telecast Facebook page, which drew more than 90,000 movie fans.

As we can see that the social media has been successful in driving hype for the Oscars and will continue to have a huge impact in engaging fans and viewers. It is thus vital that more has to be done to keep the fans engaged beyond the night by probably having social networking programs that last beyond the show.

Still nonetheless it was a great night for some major star gazing and some to-die-for outfits that the stars were gowned in!

 

After Prof Netzley got us started on the social networking bandwagon (Friendfeed, Posterous, Facebook, Twitter etc). I must say I was mostly addicted out of everything to TWITTER. I never had a twitter account prior to take "Digital Media Across Asia", but oh boy it sure is addictive. Now I know why one of my closest friend in SMU tweets almost everything and anything, basically anything random in life. In fact, I now prioritize my time more on twitter then on any other social networking sites, yes, including Facebook. 

I came across a pretty hilarious article of a young woman who paid with her job after seemingly forgetting that she has made online "friends" with her employer before launching into a tirade. Take a look at Lindsay's post (the woman who eventually got sacked!) and what her boss replied!

Although graduation isn't around the corner for me yet, but I guess being typical SMU students, its inevitable that we would be worried about not landing ourselves with a good career job. Many of us aspire "glamorous" well paid jobs in the bank or some in the public sector. Whichever industry it is, I believe the power of social media could help you secure your next job one way or another. Here's a look at it!

Ask your friends what business Google is in and the answer you’ll most likely get is “search.” And they would be wrong. Google is, first and foremost, an advertising company. A full 97 percent of its revenue comes from advertising on its various properties, including YouTube, plus partner sites through its AdSense product. Sure, Google has Android and Chrome OS and everything else, but it doesn't make money from them — they’re just there to get people to watch more ads. Below are just some statistics showing the breakdown of Google's revenue.