Author of Think Like Chinese on Des Walsh & Friends show  The other week on my Des Walsh & Friends show on BlogTalkRadio, I had the pleasure of speaking with a woman of great accomplishment and business sagacity, a specialist in cross-cultural communication, especially for business between China and the rest of the world.
 ZHANG Haihua (Helen), author of Think Like Chinese, was born in mainland China and holds an MBA and a Master of Business in Finance from the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia and a BA (English Language and Literature) from Peking University. She lived in Australia for 8 years, working in both management consulting and investment banking before relocating back to Beijing in 2002. She is the Managing Director of consulting group ChinaTime Inc.
One of the things I love about chatting with Hai Hua is that she has the ability to explain with great lucidity a range of theoretical frameworks and highly complex issues, as for instance how Chinese think and in what ways that differs from say, prevailing modes of thinking in the West. I believe part of her gift is to take those theoretical issues and complex frameworks and communicate her ... read more >>
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That’s the map of the US based on Pete Warden’s analysis of Facebook profiles. So I live in Socialistan – of well, I grew up in a Communist country, if this is Socialism, I can handle it  But what about the Rest of the World? I thought it was a good time to dust off the good old World Map – admittedly not based on scientcific research 
P.S. to potential flame-throwers: pls. look up the meaning of irony. Or sarcasm. read more >>
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Urbanspoon, the user review site and social network for foodies, has been running a contest to find the " most romantic restaurant" in cities across America. Great idea with Valentine's Day coming up, this could guide a lot of people to try new restaurants they may not be aware of. The problem is that many of the results across the nation are indeed not at all romantic.
I first noticed the problem in Salt Lake, where a bar was leading the vote for several weeks. Not a romantic one by any means. After discussing with many of Urbanspoon's prime members (users who make significant contributions in each city) it was discovered that the problem was very widespread, and frequently due to restaurants inflating the votes themselves by encouraging customers and employees to vote for them. Now I totally condone restaurants asking customers to make their vote, or write a review on these sites. But employees are definitely crossing an ethical line, and asking for a vote that is truly undeserved is not only unethical, but it will backfire on the restaurant, the site, and the credibility of the users.
Shill reviews are always a bad idea. A shill is a positive review for your own ... read more >>
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The social media purists will tell you that a corporate blog serves as a community hub for your brand. They say it gives your customers a connection point to your company and engenders a sense of community. In some cases that’s true, but you’re going to see me exploring corporate blogging a lot more this year to follow up on a theory that your “community” or “audience” for your blog isn’t what you think it is. That, and the ultimate judge of a corporate blogging effort must be more closely tied to success metrics than making everyone feel good. As you know, I’ve partnered with Compendium Blogware, Debbie Weil and Jay Baer for a research project and some other extensions of that project this year. Part of that partnership gives me access to case studies of Compendium clients in addition to the external research we’re doing. One such case study caught my attention recently.  Aprilaire’s corporate blog has seen a 1,000 percent traffic growth in the last year. Yes, that’s 1,000 PERCENT, not people. Pretty strong. (For reference, Compete.com says their corporate site in total had 50,000 unique visitors last month, so we’re not talking 4 visitors to 4,000 ... read more >>
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We manage databases of influencers for particular subject areas and clients that are 500 influencers strong. We know them all in one way or another. We respect their authority and their interests. And we only want to engage them for things that make sense to them (and our client). We want to respect their time and expertise. We segment our influencers in absolute categories and in categories that are specific to a particular client project. Ever try engaging Food bloggers over a frozen food? You quickly realize that there are many segments of food bloggers. Some will put convenience on the front burner and be receptive. Others would just as soon burn you at the stake for ignoring their "pure" interests in food and presuming that they would ever engage with an FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) product like frozen peas or prepared meals. I have spoken about our approach toSocial Influencer Relationship Management (Social IRM) which is really the grown-up management of our influencer relationships for their benefit and the brands we work with. Everyone goes in the database. We track the following types of data: 1. who they are - we love to get to know the ... read more >>
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Our colleagues over at Forrester recently undertook some interesting research regarding content management investment attitudes in 2010 (DM, RM and WCM). The overall finding was along the lines one might expect, "72% of respondents intend to expand their use of ECM technologies"... but there was an intriguing second key conclusion in the report: "49% could not estimate the ROI for any of their ECM systems." Let me state my take on ROI calculations as clearly as I can. ROI calculations for information technology are junk calculations, a fraud, a nonsense, and a complete waste of time. Clear enough for you? Oh and by the way, ROI calculations from software vendors are even worse... ROI assessments are based on the simplistic formula of benefits minus costs to calculate the return on your investment. But simple is not always smart, and most if not all the of the benefits in such calculations are by nature predictive. In other words they are guesses, and in my experience, almost always overly optimistic -- and fatuous guesses at that.
There is a cost to any new system, and there is also always a return (sometimes a good one, sometimes bad, often a bit of both) from the ... read more >>
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by Josh Bernoff I'm not a corporate spokesperson for Forrester. But as a prominent social media analyst here, I wanted to comment on the recent discussion regarding our policy on analysts and blogs. Forrester is and has always been a leader with analyst blogging. Charlene Li started this blog you’re reading in 2004. We love blogging. And many of our colleagues that came from Jupiter, the company we acquired in 2008 are also avid bloggers. The Forrester management team needed to make a decision about analysts and blogging -- on our site or off. I didn't make that decision, but I did advise the management, and I agree with the decision we made. What people need to understand is that Forrester is an intellectual property company, and the opinions of our analysts are our product. Blogging is an extension of the other work we do -- doing research, writing reports, working with clients, and giving speeches, for example. As Sting said, "Poets, priests and politicians/Have words to thank for their positions." Analysts, too. Think about other companies that employ writers and creators of opinion and analysis, like newspapers and magazines. Where do you find David ... read more >>
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 In a not so surprising announcement today SAP CEO Leo Apotheker has stepped down effectively immediately. For a few months now senior software analysts have somewhat quietly predicted just such a move, especially on the heels of a very poor performing year. The timing seems predictable too, as SAP just reported Q4 earnings. Announcing this now also gives the new management team time to get a coherent message together prior to Sapphire, SAP's user conference which will be held May 16-19 in Orlando, FL.
The new leadership team, headed by Co-CEO's Jim Hagemann Snabe, former head of product development, and Bill McDermott, former head of the field organization, both already executive board members. In addition Vishal Sikka, Chief Technology Officer joins the executive board and Hasso Plattner, Co-Founder of SAP and Chairman of the SAP Supervisory Board, will continue to play a role in advising the new leaders on technology and product development. There had been quite a bit of guessing / predicting as to what SAP might do to replace Leo; a company that has been criticized for some major points of its strategy over the last few years. One camp believed that SAP needed an infusion . ... read more >>
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 Everyone knows there are certain pieces of information that you just don't share online, right? What if you used Twitter or Foursquare to broadcast your location at a bar, and an axe murderer was reading your stream? You just signed your own death sentence. Or how about sharing details about where you live and or pictures of your family vacation, or even your innermost thoughts and emotions? All are things that are getting easier and easier to share online, both purposefully AND inadvertently. Combine this with a new generation used to a different standard of privacy and you have a recipe for a major cultural shift that may redefine what marketers can do to reach consumers. A short time ago, a major concern holding back technology advances was the fear of being perceived as "cyber-stalking" your customers. If Amazon sent you an email with a discount for that book you put in your shopping cart a month ago but never purchased, that was weird. Getting a text message from store you were walking past at just that moment would be crossing the line. So companies avoided doing it. They HAD the ability to better target, to deliver more customized messages and to measure it ...
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This one is from ExactTarget, which worked with Econsultancy to survey 1000 marketers (both in house and agency) worldwide. It mirrors other reports over the past few months, for example this one by the IAB, by showing that 28% of marketers will shift their budgets from traditional towards digital in 2010, with 66% increasing their digital marketing spend overall. At the moment, digital accounts for 24% of the total, though last year’s IAB survey said that in the UK at least, online spend had overtaken TV for the first time. Though 70% of marketers planned to increase social media spend, though they also cited the usual bugbear of evaluation as something that prevented them doing even more. However, on the other hand, marketers are increasingly waking up to the importance of social media in protecting brand value: According to Morgan Stewart of ExactTarget, “interestingly, brand reputation is becoming a more significant driver of the migration to digital marketing, particularly when it comes to social media.” On that note, it’s worth reading Joseph Jaffe’s post on how social media could be used to help Toyota “flip the ... read more >>
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