Those of you following me, my life, and this blog have seen me spending the last year, even year and a half now doing Shenzhen ecommerce seminars, hong kong twitter meetups, and an attempted manila meetup – as well as recruiting + training. Before that I was doing my own internal training….but realized to make things more open.

After cooperating with a Chinese Foreign Trade Federation I am finally realizing I cannot keep having free meetings…..especially in China. Chinese people always tell me, if an event if free in China, they see it as an advertisement, or low quality. Sadly, they say, the more expensive an event, or product is, the more valuable it must be.

So I’m going to have this Chinese event marketing team market + sell my training services…and we will test it out on Saturday, Jan 7, 2012. I have tons of powerpoints from the many years doing this, but I the most popular topic is SNS (social networking)

Today I am writing up the english outline of the class (which will be translated to Chinese in a bit), and figured I would blog it as well. Let me know if you have any feedback:

English Social Media

On Saturday, Jan 7th, 2012 in Shenzhen (location to be determined) Michael Michelini will give an intermediate level English Social Media Marketing training seminar.

What: Intermediate Level Social Media Marketing Training Seminar, Focus on Twitter, Blogging, Facebook

For Who: Companies that are currently utilizing facebook and twitter for their company’s social media marketing but need ideas and strategies to better improve their effect.

When: Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012 2pm – 5pm

Where: Nanshan, Shenzhen, China

Why: Social Media continues to be a critical part of online marketing and promotion, companies need to ensure their SNS strategy is fresh and actively marketed.

How Much: 800rmb per person

Agenda / Topics:

Measuring / Benchmarking Your Current Social Media Presence – How to analyze your current SNS positioning versus your competition, and how to better track progress in the future.

Understanding Success in Social Media – Is it a twitter account with 10,000 followers better than one with 1,000? Its more complex than that.

Tools to Manage Twitter – Twitter is best managed by 3rd party tools. Which tools are the best, and how to utilize them?

Facebook Strategies – How to utilize Facebook to better connect with your customers.

Case Study: Dell – Dell is a big believer in Social media, making investments early in implementing it across its organization.

Case Study: Audience – We will take time to review an attendee’s company social media positioning and give ideas and feedback.

About Michael Michelini, Michael Michelini is an American internet marketing consultant, skilled Social Media and SEO with hootsuite certification and Google adwords certification. Having spent over 4 years in Shenzhen, China, Michael understands the needs and opportunities for Chinese companies looking to build their English Social Media presence.

Just trying to standardize social media consulting…. as China continues to develop its need for marketing knowledge.

I’m a little nervous to be honest…but think this is the correct way to move forward. Right timing, right people, right topic.

Incoming search terms:

• shenzhen 2011 social media
• Social Media Marketing Seminars

So I have been getting to be known as a “social media guy” in South China. Blogging regularly, twitter, weibo, facebook etc. I had 2 questions mainly to be asked during this Shenzhen ecommerce panel:

1, Everyone is talking about social media marketing now, what do you think is the most powerful social media weapon. Can you name some and tell us the advantages and disadvantages?

This question got me thinking of how I realize Google is becoming more and more like Baidu….with the Google+ social media tool. So I said if your goal is traffic and rank in Google, then you need to use and understand Google+ before you work on twitter or Facebook.

Why? Because now Google+ has launched Brand pages, and it is putting its Google+ content into its Google search engine. So if you want more traffic to your website, and get better SEO rankings, then the quick way is to focus on Google+…

But I personally do not like Google+ and I do not know how long it will be paid much attention to…maybe it will drive traffic away from its search engine, as people start to realize Google is putting its own content in the search results…and Facebook continues to grow.

My personal favorite English social media platform is twitter, and that will also help your search engine rankings, but first would have to recommend Google+

2, Which social media platform is suitable for B2C ecommerce businesses?

Facebook looks most easily transferrable into a ecommerce store and / or platform. I would say that this is best to integrate into your ecommerce shopping carts, best for collecting feedback, best for showing all your product photos in their photo albums and fan pages.

I was the only “white guy” speaker, and my answers were in English. I hope the audience understood what I was talking about.

Still, it makes me laugh all this talk about selling to America and foreign markets when we are all talking in Chinese. I think in future events, they should have more Westerners there, telling these Chinese ecommerce companies what they like and don’t like about buying from Chinese websites.

Soon I hope to bridge more China and USA events….2012 will be an interesting year!

Here is a list of things I did in NJ / NY this week:

• Got into Hoboken Sunday afternoon, drinks with my boys (see photo) from the wedding
• Met with my “NY mom” Nornale who is a top blog reader….she is going to the Philippines for the first time this October! I sooo wish I could meet her there..
• Met with my good buddy Andrew Peranick, who I used to work with on Deutsche Bank wall street, and his wife Nicole to discuss her website With Love From the cupboard and new business selling high end pastries.
• Monday back in Hoboken, saw the first Hoboken’s coworking office and met some awesome new people for SEO, web design, and commerce.
• Tuesday back to the Coworking space, and then more meetings and SEO audits and China business. Then met one of my favorite professors, Dr Ann Murphy, to discuss what I’ve been unto and talking about twitter and social media.
• Rushed into NYC Tuesday evening, passing by Union Square park, Flat Iron district, Empire State building, making tons of phone calls along the way. Had dinner with a Stevens Tech buddy Ish in 34th street Penn Station, talking real estate sales in Hong Kong and Asia, as well as investment opportunities
• Comedy Central had a sponsored beer pong tournament in Upper West side on 109th street and Amsterdam, finally met Billy Gaines from bpong.com and caught up on all our business experiences, stayed over in Upper West side that night.
• Wednesday morning up bright and early, walk through Central Park West, tweeting and emailing, met Mark Kozhin who is opening his second health food cafe in NYC , Dvida
• Late Wednesday morning met fab.com on 38th street to discuss selling Chinese brands like *** geek cook. and long term cooperations ideas. Got some Chinese fast food on 34th street, showed off my limited Chinese to the staff
• down to China town to the New Work City coworking space (blog coming soon) to see Tony and catch up on emails. Talking about the Chinese brand huawei phone, discussed the Asia / USA coworking alliance. Also tons of phone calls wheeling and dealing, booking as many meetings as I can.
• Wednesday evening down to Wall street, see my Deutsche Bank buddies Justin Ramos and Brian Sharkey… My fraternity brother, James also meets up – and we discuss Wall Streets bad investments in shell Chinese companies like Sino forest that lost investment companies and hedge funds millions.
• after a few pints at the local irish pub, James and I head to the NYSE to grab beers and braughts…

  4th Annual Blocktoberfest

  NYSE is the world’s largest single venue for block trading with 265 million daily shares of block volumne on average.

  Please join us in celebrating block trading with festive food, drink and live music at the NYSE Block!
  Details

  When
  September 28, 2011
  5:30 PM – 8:30 PM
  Eastern Time

  Add to Calendar

  Where
  New York Stock Exchange
  2 Broad Street
  New York, New York 10005

  Planner
  NYSE Euronext

• Left my bags at James (aka Ohio!) apartment on 70 wall street (dude, he has a nice place!) we head up to midtown to go to meet my friend Jonny from the bronx. Jonny works at the UN and invited us to a bar fundraiser for a NYC marathon runner. I had invited a few other good friends like Gerry Chan who does equity research and I met in Hong Kong a few months ago (worked with him in Deutsche Bank too) and Josh Whiting, my twitter friend who helped me tons last year with the NY bar store NYC warehousing nightmare… we all had been to China before and are interested in China business. I met a guy in the bathroom of the bar and he emailed me about buying into China!
• Head up to the Bronx to crash at Jonny’s place, early Thursday morning I go to Bronx factory of bar products, and talk about the future of New York Bar Store, and combining old fashioned B2B with new age commerce.
• Rush out of the morning meeting in the Bronx, take the 5 subway all the way down to Wall Street, meet up James and get my bags from his apartment (that stayed there overnight while I was staying in the Bronx)….rushed to Hoboken via Ferry from Wall Street.
• This afternoon (thurday) I spoke at Stevens Tech (again like last year’s talk) about Selling in China (blog coming soon) and always seems to get some jaws dropping each year with the stories and experiences….mixed with my real straight shooting talk about how I see it.
• Currently typing this Thursday evening at a bar in Hoboken, waiting to meet up a few friends and business contacts….

Tomorrow is my last day in NYC before I head to Connecticut….trying to meet up Shipwire to discuss commerce online solutions, then my affiliate marketing buddy Ken Chen, and the electrapour patent holder Mike…..

Rush via Grand Central station to Connecticut, meet my hometown and high school buddies for the weekend…monday off to Florida.

Ok, Lets go!! Can’t give up, can’t get exhausted.

We had 3 speakers:

1. Larry Salibra, CEO Appartisan Mobile Apps, Guangzhou – speaking on apple mobile app development market
2. 郑伟彤 (Peter Zheng), Product Director in Kingdee, speaking on Business Model of Kuaidi100.com
3. Ryan McNamara , Marketing Director, I-Contain Wireless Technology Solutions, speaking on how GPS tracking affects online businesses.

Like I always say, I need feedback and hear what people want in order to have a successful anything, and we had a rocky road with the internet meetups, trying different formats, rooms, lengths, and schedules. But seems the best situation is to have a round table introduction of everyone in the room, speaker, 10 minute break, 2nd speaker, break, and then the 3rd speaker, to a case study, and then open floor networking and business card exchange.

Some people have even said they would prefer just networking, no need for the speakers…but I think it “puts meat on the bones” and gives some topic and education to the event. Even when there is just pure open networking at the end, most people filter out after 30 to 45 minutes.

And we don’t have drinks or food at the event…again, this is a free event, and the only sponsor right now really is Kingdee for giving us the venue, and the volunteers helping organize and speakers for spending their time to make the presentation and deliver it.

Overall, I am really happy passing our fifth meeting, and hopefully will plan out the next 6 or 7 meetings upfront with dates and get a long term agreement with Kingdee for the room.

Already outlining August (I know, there is July still to determine) where we have a speaker who wants to discuss intellectual property in China and trademark protection for ecommerce businesses…looking for a second speaker to complement it, already have some leads to fill it in.

Other topics coming up are payment processors, social learning / collaboration, and maybe advanced ecommerce listing tools.

I really enjoy planning these events, but seems a long term project with long term value, if kept up and consistent.

Incoming search terms:

• e commerce logo

I have been in touch with her on weibo (Chinese twitter) and its great she is explaining there are more developments in Chinese marketing and internet promotions.

As I have said over and over…as the global economy gets more “flat”, equal, and competitive — currencies evening out (US dollar declining) , inflation (China labor and raw materials are skyrocketing), and education / information flow (internet and telecommunications) — there is no longer “easy money” for Chinese factories…they will have to apply more “soft skills”, management skills, use a CRM (client relations management) system. All those things a factory manager would laugh and say “no need” years ago. The customers were banging down their doors in the past, giving them wire transfers quick and easy…

Times have changed.

And Chinese businesses, especially factories for the export business, need to adapt. Fion, at Timev asked me to let people know about their upcoming PM (project management) event in Beijing on June 17. I really wish I could go, but I’ll be having events and meetings down in South China. Anyway, here is her shared info on the event:

It would be more than great if you can say something about this Beijing PM meeting, which is scheduled on 17 June. The website is http://pm.timev.com. As you may know, Product Manager isn’t so “familiar” to Chinese Internet world yet. Some people just don’t know what PM means, or how important this role may play in a company. Maybe you would like to discuss this topic a bit in your blog?

And please do mention our PM meeting in Beijing. We have invited almost 20 senior Internet PMs to be our speakers this time, including Chairman and CEO of Qihoo 360, CEO of meitu.com, VP of 58.com, founder of 8684.cn, CEO of EICO Design, and more from Bing, Motorola Mobile Devices, Baidu.com, qunar.com. We believe this meeting will be China’s biggest PM meeting so far. And we expect all speakers and participants will enjoy a good time of learning, sharing and meeting.

Even I was not exactly clear what she meant by PM (product management), I normally think of PM as a PROJECT manager.
Here she calls PM as a product manager, a person who manages a specific product. Not necessarily a PHYSICAL product, but in the internet world, a web platform, a web service, as a platform. Fion goes on to clarify on a product manager:

Well, that’s a typical question, I’m actually not sure whether I understand product manager correctly A product manager is sometimes considered as a bit similar to Project Manager. There’s saying that the difference between the two. A Product Manager is required to “think”, about the design of his product, about what the users may need, about how better user experiences can be created and about whether this product may make profit for the company; while the project manager is focusing on the execution and the performance under certain conditions concerning time, cost, resources, etc.

A product manager is responsible for the overall and ongoing success of a product. In the internet world, a product could be a website, an APP, a software… But I believe product manager can be find in any industry. I read an article on http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/ff_bloodwork/2/ about how to redesign a blood test report and help people read it more easily. This, as I understood, could be a work by a product manager too. Read this item on wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_manager. And just write what you think about PM. Actually, you kind attention and interest to this meeting is itself an support to us.

And, here’s another interesting thing. I @ you at sina weibo earlier, telling you that I replied you email and asking if you’ve see what we do to promote the PM meeting. Then a friend of mine, who’s actually my previous colleague @ me and said it’s wired I’m talking to you like that, and suggested that I could have private messaged you. Ya, isn’t it an interesting thing? I actually did @ you openly on purpose to test/utilize the openness of weibo. But in some way I think this story shows that most people are still using and considering weibo as private, amusive and even a small circle of his friends…

Still, my main point here is that China continues to make progress in marketing and “white collar” skills. Moving away from making widgets in a factory, and more high tech products and services. Its natural in the development of any country, and for Americans, it means we (as Americans) have to keep on top of our marketing and sales skills to be competitive globally.

Incoming search terms:

• chinese seo 2011
• xiamen china seo

Life is the path you make it…and when people ask me how I get myself into certain situations….its such a long string of events….networking, knowing people, as well as being in the right place at the right time.

James Sung, my friend in Shenzhen for a few years, has a consumer electronics factory (the bluetooth factory I visited earlier this week) and he invited me to a TV series his CCTV reporter contact is doing, foreigners in China and their consumer electronics inventions. He asked me to present about the electrapour and the ecommerce services I am providing.

The video was recorded last Thursday in Shenzhen, and then aired today (Monday) at lunchtime. Actually a few friends in China sent me a QQ without my even telling them that they had seen me on TV! CCTV2 is a fairly well viewed television show.

Watch the CCTV full Video (video site2 here , I am in the 21:30 minute for about 45 seconds. Youtube (for those outside China) below:

The reporter really liked the LED pourer, Electrapour, maybe he will become a reseller too!  Haha, but I guess it is a simple, direct eye catching product….seems I got more facetime on the TV show because of it.

It was double translated, the reporter couldn’t speak English and I couldn’t speak Chinese, so we had to have a middleman translate his questions, and then translate my answers.

James Sung spoke about his Peel product, that converts an Apple Itouch into an Iphone. Askan was there too, talking about his mini projector product. Then they had us walk down the outside of the office to look especially professional to end the clip.

Some thought DON’T SHOW IT ON CHINESE TV! YOU WILL GET THE IDEA COPIED. Come on, if someone wants to copy it, it will get copied! That is one of the worst things an entrepreneur can do, is to keep quiet and not tell people their idea for fear of it being copied.

My friend in Hong Kong, Rayfil Wong, had been on an American Inventor reality TV show and said that 70 – 80% of a product’s success is based on the marketing efforts. Its also amazing I have been sitting next to him in boot hk coworking space for months and hadn’t had that conversation….Just amazes me again and again, even with the internet and social media, we still do not optimize the network surrounding ourselves each day.

So how does this happen? Maybe consistently trying, letting people know what you are upto. Not giving up. Not getting discouraged when people may tell you to give up.

It also comes from networking. I believe these Shenzhen ecommerce meetups have been helping, its all a long term investment….meeting people, learning, networking…..getting known. Its a test of will and determination.

Incoming search terms:

• rayfil wong campusfork
• tv interview foreigners in china

For those reading who don’t know Alibaba or Alipay, Alibaba is one of the biggest ecommerce companies in China, owning alibaba.com that helps chinese factories find foreign buyers (started as a BBS, turned search engine), TaoBao is the Chinese ebay, and alipay is the Chinese paypal. 2 years ago, I talked more about Chinese internet companies. I have read a few articles about this the past couple days, below article stating the facts pretty clearly:

Alibaba Transferred Alipay Ownership Without Board Approval

May 12 (Bloomberg), Tom Giles — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. spun off its Alipay online-payment business to a different company without the knowledge or consent of its board or shareholders, Yahoo! Inc. said in a statement today.

Yahoo and Softbank Corp., owners of stakes in Alibaba Group, didn’t learn until March 31 of the transfer, which happened in August, Yahoo said. Alibaba shifted ownership of Alipay to a company mostly owned by Jack Ma, chief executive officer of Alibaba Group, to comply with Chinese restrictions on foreign ownership of payment services, Yahoo said yesterday.

By owning about 40 percent of Alibaba Group, Yahoo benefits from rising Internet demand in China, where restrictions on Web content make it hard for U.S. companies to do business alone. The transfer raised concern that Alibaba Group will be worth less without the payment business, weighing on Yahoo shares. It also may worsen relations between Yahoo and Alibaba, already strained by disagreements over censorship rules in China.

I like this second article, that spinned the Alibaba board unapproved spinoff of Alipay as Chinese Nationalism and Protectionism:

Is Alibaba signaling a government shift that may see many of the Chinese Internet firms forced to reduce foreign ownership? And if the government really is unhappy with foreign ownership in the Internet sector, why is it allowing so much foreign venture capital investment and so many overseas IPOs?

I just again and again say how hard it is for foreigners to do business in China… never mind INTERNET business in China. I have talked a bit about Chinese internet and government relations…..it is highly regulated and watched over here inside the great internet firewall of China , where each day more and more things are blocked.

Its just sad, because as the economic conditions in China grow stronger….the government seems to forget the help and investment made by foreigners to get there. And reading how some Chinese company executives agree that they should kick out foreign investors and partners from companies to make China strong….that is just….makes me speechless.

I think in America there have been investments that made the American citizens worried, sometimes hearing about middle eastern companies making investments in ports and other strategic logistical positions, but for the most part the American government doesn’t interfere.

If we are to become a global economy, countries need to stop trying to block foreigners from being involved in businesses….whats wrong with a foreigner being an investor in a Chinese bank? That is what Alipay is, right? Its the paypal of China.

I talked about this with my good friend http://blog.michaelmichelini.com/?p=3923 In 2010 and even more in 2011 I’ve been organizing twitter meetups and getting more professional with ecommerce meetups. As I’m doing these, been doing a lot of hyper networking, and met the “Chinese side” of the Shenzhen ecommerce meetups and was invited to one, without too much notice of where it was, who it was by, when it started, ended, etc etc.

Turns out it was a Saturday afternoon, (really, up until yesterday afternoon I didn’t get a confirmation of time and place) way out on the other side of Shenzhen in Da Mei Sha (a beach area) in the OCT East resort hotel, called Interlaken (A really awesome hotel based on German / European style and feel).

It was organized by Google China, and invited 30 companies in Shenzhen, mostly on export B2C from China to the worldwide market. Google says this is the first of 7 or 8 meetups it will be hosting in Shenzhen in the upcoming months. Focusing on export driven companies that sell B2C (business to customer/consumer) via online.

There were 2 presentations,

1. Introduction to the enhanced Google adwords platform –
2. Tips and Skills for Your Online Marketing –

After the 2 speeches, they had an open forum / roundtable for the 30 to 40 people who were in attendance. With my very limited Chinese skills, I could gather most were B2C online companies, mixed with some advertising platforms and logistics companies. There was also a VC (Venture capitalist) who promoted her interest to finding new technologies and investment opportunities.

The round table was a bit long, the speaker wanted everyone to get a chance to put their idea in. But it was a very nice environment, the hotel was 5 star (heck, maybe even 6!). Free gift (a laptop bag with google adwords logo), coffee / tea break. And they hosted a great dinner on the sea afterwards, seafood (oysters, shrimp, crab, etc).

As for foreign companies – Paypal was there (they are also eBay, but they seem to focus on the Paypal brand more), Google, DHL.

And I keep getting amazed that Google would host such an event, in USA they never budget these kinds of seminars. It just goes to show you how much different the China market is from USA….Google has to go out and push people, build face to face relationships with its clients….not like USA where we can’t even reach Google or Paypal, etc on the phone. In China, these massive foreign internet / tech companies have live customer support by phone, client meetings, and sales offices throughout the major cities.

And, like usual, I was the only white guy, or any foreigner for that matter. Well, in fairness there were some overseas Chinese who had returned to China for business, and could communicate to me in English. It was all in Chinese….

Damnnit, I have to master the Chinese language, I do feel its improving, but do I take formal classes. I’m traveling too much? Its getting embarrassing now….

冰清心2011-06-20 11:11:07
Just now I read your article about the meeting in Interlaken Hotel on May 7. The meeting was held by us–Foreign Trade Federation, not google. Google is the sponsor. All B2C members were invited by us, and we will hold another meeting in July, in Chengdu or Chongqing, the Southwest of China. Welcome to join us again!
冰清心2011-06-20 11:11:16
We will have publication of Foreign Trade Federation, now providing half or one full page of free Ad for all previsous meeting attendees. Please privde us your recent photo, your comments on our meeting and B2C industry and introduction about your company.Thank!

Incoming search terms:

• Hyper-networking
• china e- commerce
• dhl e-commerce paypal china
• e-commerce and seminar and export and China
• foreign trade federation china e-commerce
• google seminar shenzhen paypal dhl
• oct east shenzhen speaker
• themes e-comerce sale tea

Sadly, this case is from some of my old staff in Shenzhen, I lost some all star staff and potential staff for them to instead enter into businesses of selling high margins selling fake products. It always upset me that people can make more money doing illegal things, and that I was always being told by Chinese that I can make so much money if I do it too. But I have held back, because I know I am an American citizen, with a US passport, and I can get in much more trouble then they can. I have blogged constantly, always told why do you work so hard for “niche market” with low margins, my favorite post struggles of an American stuck between USA and China…sometimes (often) it feels like neither side welcome you.

But now I believe China is adhereing more and more to USA trademark infringement matters – After Chinese President Hu Jin Tao promised American government and companies he will fight more against Chinese citizens breaking copyright laws. A couple months ago I spent time with my ecommerce friends in Dongguan, getting perspective from a Chinese local, and he was also noticing the Chinese government upholding copyright infringement more:

He was mentioning about the recent news of the Chinese government catching businessmen selling fake knockoff products, in the past I have blogged about how Chinese are tempted and almost forced into selling fake products as an answer to make money. And then there is the idea, in China, you can make money, but if you make too much, others will get jelous and turn you in. Seems this is becoming a big problem, as last night slan saw on the news 2 online ecommerce businessmen being put into jail for selling fake products online. They were sentenced to 6 years in jail, with reported sales of 5 million reminbi (approximately $750,000 usd) of sales of knock off replica products.

Its just part of the life struggle, and what you really think is important in life. Sadly, as I have said, while everywhere in the world money is important, China really looks at money as success and families put pressure on their children to earn money for the family and hometown. I wonder if the families realize what some of their children are willing to do to earn that money. Why create such pressure? Also, the young Chinese have seen their peers become millionaires selling online, or starting a factory, and think “why not me too”.

But become a billionaire, then what. I for one, hope there is more to life then money….or it would get pretty boring.

Well, here I go dealing with more legal actions from being in “scary China”. Again, maybe this American law firm can hire me for consulting services in China. Where there is fear and uncertainty, there is opportunity.

Incoming search terms:

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• counterfeit products issues for ecommerce
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You can read about the interview on english social media here, but its all chinese. Here is my best to translate to English (via cleaned up version of Google translate)

China’s micro-blogging service more advanced than Twitter

At 20:08 on March 27, 2011　
Source: information technology of: Han Tianyu

　　And information technology news March 26, winning times the official Annual Meeting held in Xiamen, a forum for discussion of the day focused on marketing in the new environment change in the mode, and micro-blog marketing is the focus of attention. For the micro-Bo, the foreign start early, but the profit model of exploration but also allow the company to pay a high price, the recent replacement of its own Twitter CEO, is because users resent the increase in advertising. In the future, microblogging marketing development in the country will face the same predicament.

　　Mai Li Ni focuses on social media marketing studies abroad, he said that China’s micro-blog is more advanced than Twitter has been integrated with the network together as 1. In foreign markets, Twitter is more like life in the role of water, electricity or communications networks. Currently, the domestic market there is no single standard can be more than the micro-blogging service Direct Connect. Mai Li Ni metaphor, as if you are using China Mobile, your friends are using the China Unicom not directly between the two calls, but in fact it is possible.

　　Mai Li Ni analysis is that China has so many micro-blogging service, and foreign only only Twitter, the main difference is, Twitter has a lot of open platform, developers can use its API, to link a variety of ways, so that other similar sites and products are not chance to grow up. The domestic market, although the number of micro-blogging service has been started trying to open platform, but can only say that just started, so it created a number of micro-blogging service, the situation of coexistence.

　　For the micro-blogging service to achieve its commercial value, step to, and information technology management, said Ni, Twitter does not currently forming a sound business model, just by selling some of the data to make money. When the user up Twitter, you must agree to share some information on their own, or not registered. And Twitter can sell them to Google and other companies to carry out a detailed analysis of the data. Meanwhile, Twitter is also trying to add ads on the page, but users dislike this very intense.

　　Twitter has recently changed their CEO, the deeper reason is that some of his earnings for the too hasty, so that users have objections to the Twitter service. Abroad, Twitter such a service has been recognized as a tool should be free, but also attached great importance to user experience.

Basically they really played up the idea when I told them that Weibo is better than Twitter. My friend Larry Salibra is using it much more than I am, as he’s a master at Chinese residing in Guangzhou – I have to agree that because it is all controlled by 1 company, the user experience is much more seemless…allowing the photos to be embedded, as well as all the comments to be in line with the original tweet.

The reporter also liked how I compared tweeting like water / utility…and that the future will have to allow the various tweeting systems to interconnect like phone companies have to share their phone number and area codes or country codes.

I still get a kick out of seeing myself in the Chinese news!

Incoming search terms:

• twitter vs weibo
• marie salibra on twitter
• weibo vs facebook
• amazing marketing weibo
• chineseweibo com/michelini
• difference twitter weibo
• facebook versus weibo
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• twitter versus weibo

In Hong Kong I have been having tons of meetings with foreigners rushing into the Chinese consumer market. With the fiveislands team in Dongguan and Hong Kong, we can offer the expertise and tools to compete.

98products I learned the hard way, Chinese shopping carts, payment gateways, baidu SEM campaigns and mistakes….jeez I learned the hardest way possible I think, but I learn by being on the ground. I will be adding the Chinese bar products to the cashncarry line of products, along with the photograph camera accessories, photo albums, video game supplies. Talking to a Shenzhen product designer, Karta, about selling his bike accessories in China too, as well as a whole line of products from friends and contacts in USA, Iceland, and other countries.

This is what I had been trying to do for years loadpipe dream and finally I have the support and tools to EXECUTE the plan. But it was also just taking time to learn the local Chinese market, build up a network and knowledge base here over the past few years….and also I see the Chinese ecommerce market more developed and accepting of online payment and shipping…so a few years ago the market maybe wasn’t as ready as it is now. I remember customers having to come to the office to buy, even if it was less than 50rmb (7 usd) value of an order.

Anyway, hoping to build up a portfolio of foreign products and assist them in online distribution in the China market. After years of research and networking, combined with my new deal with Five Islands, I think it’s a pretty sweet set of offerings we can offer people.

Will also keep building up community, networking events, coworking space, and generally an environment of supportive and knowledgeable ecommerce experts in Hong Kong and South China!

Bridging China and USA/foreign internet business….definitely not an easy feat….reading about Baidu trying to buy an English search engine, and google leaving china last year..bridging China to the foreign internet, is uncharted waters. Sure there is DHgate and Lightinthebox , alibaba’s aliexpress, but not really out there to help the gweilo in China.

If it was easy everyone would be doing it. If you or someone you know is interested, contact us at fiveislands.cn, I’ll soon be adding a banner ad on this blog too….creating win-win synergies and exploring the Chinese ecommerce business opportunities together. Also bridging Chinese companies who want to do more ecommerce in USA, have alliances, partners, and friends in America who can help there as well. CONNECTING is what I love to do, and bridging cultures….taming the chaos (that make you fee better Leon!?).

Incoming search terms:

• banner cash & carry shop

1) What do Internet marketers need to do differently in the China market as opposed to other areas of the world?

do not just copy and paste with a translator….domain should also not just be the .cn extension…… make a memorable brand for CHINESE! common domains are the pinyin (chinese characters converted into western characters) mixed with very basic, easy to remember/pronounce english words. also numbers are good as they are also in the chinese character sets too.

but really, china is nothing like the rest of the world, sure you can sell the products or servicrs you do in the west, but your website layout and brand i suggest is independent and you should have a web marketing team based inside china.

2) What has been the most successful Internet marketing program or technique you have seen?

in chinese market? there is a chinese company that helps chinese companies buy from usa, they had a twitter (as well as the chinese versions, weibo) that if their tweet was retweeted, they would get a coupon….very viral, very fast….

Just giving a small coupon or bonus anywhere in the world is effective….but seems more effective in China….saving a few yuan goes a long way in getting attention.

3) What misconceptions do Westerners have about Internet marketing in China?

sure, the market size and opportunity is huge in china, now more then ever. but its not always price. chinese now want to show the world they are “equal” and have “made it”, so dont compete on price, but instead on this fact….that chinese are rich and sucessful and now can pay the same price,or more for foreign brands.

But being in China a few years now, I am almost thinking like a Chinese mind….so annoying watching foreign companies RUSHING IN to the GOLD MINE to make money to the billion population market…..not having any clue and thinking they can just copy and paste translating it into Chinese.

I know its hard for impatient gweilos (like me) to realize, but you can’t come rushing into China thinking business is done the same as in America…..really its a completely different world.  Not just government regulations (guanxi) but also the consumer mindset.

Incoming search terms:

• internet marketing in china
• web marketing in china
• can you do internet marketing from china
• marketing differences in china
• marketing differences china
• online marketing in china
• china marketing differences
• the way to do web marketing in china
• marketing differences china u s
• marketing differences china vs usa
• web marketing china
• marketing differences in china and us

So when I was asked to speak on this subject…..I had to take a second look and question the girl, Fion who was emailing me, her reply below:

Hi Mike,

Ok, your newer photo and title received.

For the topic, we think it would be still interesting to talk about SNS promotion and even facebook, because many Chinese companies are also using it. Actually, my previous job was in a online gaming company whose games were all operated in North American and Europe. They did a lot on facebook and were very interested in it. So, it would be nice if you can talk about SNS promotion. Let us know what you think.

so…….it is true and something I have been saying forever….by blocking these social tools inside of China, it is holding back business, sales, marketing, and networking with the outside world. How can an export company, which needs to gain foreign customers in order to grow, and survive, continue to be competitive in the global ecinomy if the government forbids them to utilize social platforms where their target customers “reside”. As social media continues to be integrated into SEO it will be harder and harder for businesses inside countries that control and regulate information to be as effective, which is sad because I love the Chinese business spirit…and having them setback from international business because government policies is such a waste of mind and opportunity.

In my presentation obviously I do not go into this, but I spoke about

• benefits of social media promotion for your business,
• listening to customer
• social media monitoring
• engaging with an audience
• Acting, having a plan to react to customer feedback – An example of customer service in action is Dell. This end consumer, Savannah Spangler, is complaining about her PC not working well, even saying the CEO of Dell, Michael Dell, “sucks”. Notice that they dell cares department addresses it, by asking if they can help….and then she RETWEETS it on her stream to show that they are listening and replying.
• how to grow a following
• measuring social media, klout

– on this blog I have mentioned klout optimization and how it is measuring social media people, both on a score and in a certain industry. It is quite amazing, and we need to be on top of it as it develops.

• case study on Dell’s social media command center – Late last year, Dell opened a social media command center, taking proactive measures in the quickly exploding social media world, listening to its customers, and not sitting back and waiting for others, but being a leader in social media.
• employees having their own social media account – Again using Dell as an example, we see staff having their own “work” twitter account (maybe these staff have a personal twitter account for off hours? cannot confirm), but notice how they use twitter to talk to other team members, customers, and just showing the “behind the scenes” action of the Dell business.

I am pretty passionate about social media, see the exponential power of connecting people in similar industries and feelings….and how like wildfire we can grow our network and expand our horizons. How social media is PEOPLE, and SEO is/was websites connecting to each other….

It was my 3rd time to present at the timev event, and I am happy to meet so many motivated and exciting Chinese internet enthusiasts.

If you want, you can download the presentation – Winning in Social Media 2011 xiamen timev

Incoming search terms:

• china seo vs social media
• english media in china
• english social

Its such a stupid game of WHACK A MOLE.  I remember when twitter was getting blocked, and there were tons of new API versions popping up all over, and people were tweeting, you can break 1 twitter, but you can’t break a million.

It is such a waste of time, the people that are employed to monitor the internet, filter, block – and then the other side rehosting, rebuilding, learning to get around it in different ways….SO STOPID

Sure there can be the version that the Chinese government approves, the Chinese company version that cooperates and understands the governemnts reasoning and requests for filtering such information, reporting to Beijing about profiles it has banned and information is has controlled….
But in any system where there must be a central point controlling the flow of information, BY DEFINITION it will limit the creativity and growth.
Stepping back and looking at any LARGE corporation in America….they suffer the same issues….by being too big, and having too much “Red tape” for a worker’s new R&D project to be recognized creates so much buracracy that the idea is best off being funded in a new startup venture – where ideas can blossom and new ideas are supported rather then scrutinized.
This will be a rather shorter post, but just one that again and again keeps holding me back from seeing China as a technology leader in the near future. Sure it has amazing growth domestically, and there is a growing middle class with savings to spend and a hunger for foreign products and brands……but it is an almost isolated entity from the world…..
Maybe it fits the idea that the old “great wall” to keep people outside of China (or was it to keep people in?) The great INTERNET firewall is working to keep “ideas” outside of China….keep (or try) to keep its people inside, and at the same time, keeping innovation and creativity frozen and trapped inside some beautiful minds of the young Chinese I have met these past few years.
That is the saddest part….the younger generation in China…..such a conflict of their parents and grandparents conservative ways as well as the government……surrounded by their new curiousity and exposure to the Western world and technology…..
How long can the new, young generation in China stay restricted by this government filtering of information and ideas?

Incoming search terms:

• future of chinese internet filtering

So coming back to Shenzhen, I chatted to Attila a friend I have made as both of us are moving from Shenzhen to Manila and moving more from manufacturing / sourcing and into internet / SEO / domaining. He was invited to a domainer meetup in Hong Kong, and gave me a last minute invite since he saw I am just back from USA and it may be something up my alley.

I was tempted to pass on it, as I am just getting back from jet lag and that exhausting 2 months in USA running from state to state, meeting to meeting, and the whole NY warehouse screwup. But it really seemed interesting, a domainer networking event with events including a cruise in hong kong on Sunday night, day trip to Macau on Monday, and office tour of the PPX.com domain advisor company and meeting on Tuesday about the domain industry and new projects they are working on.

For those wondering, what exactly is domaining? As the name says, it is buying, selling, holding, developing domain names in the internet world. Many times it is buying them for the direct type in from users searching for something, and having the keyword domain having advertisements on the page that then pay the domainer a fee if someone clicks on them.

This is another industry where everyone says, DAMN, why wasn’t I buying up all those .com domains in the late 1990s? Just like baseball cards, or Magic cards (yes, I’m a dork and I played Magic back in the early/mid 1990s) If only I had been buying domains back then instead of cards. People in the event owning some pretty awesome domains like tourguides.com , species.com , blackjack.com – none of these sites are fully made, but simply holding pages with advertisements. There are full time people making decent livings doing this business, and it truly is the definition of passive streams of income.

But I really connected with a lot of people in the event….I guess I network openly with anyone in the world, and therefore my network isn’t exactly focused on internet and marketing….but this event completely was, and I could chit-chat about domaining, SEO, hosting problems, merchant account fraud issues, and more and they people I was conversing with could understand my stories, relate, and give me advice and feedback! WOW, no longer do I have to keep on teaching other people, learning on my own, and feel like I am draining my brain of information.

I was also able to meet some domainers in the bar and restaurant sector, doing local event marketing, and interested in working with me on newyorkbarstore.com as they are in Canada and have a telemarketing center and experienced staff in the industry! Wow, this would be amazing, very early stage discussion right now, but also a big positive from the event.

Also many of these domainers are not into SEO, and asking me many questions how to better monetize their domain portfolios…..this is my kinda stuff….and have a bunch of new people to follow up with. Keep on searching.