Happiness in Pursuit » social media

Great Success! Feedback + Results from Social Media Training Seminar

Michael Michelini — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:31:05 +0000

A few of my friends have been checking up with me on how my first social media marketing seminar went this past Saturday. I just got the photos and feedback from the marketing team this afternoon, so here we go:

We had 10 people come to the training seminar. To understand who came, there was LureNight.com (ecommerce site for lingerie, @lurenight) that had 3 representatives, and DinoDirect had 2 people, the others were representing their companies. Kevin, a friend of mine selling hair extensions online (hairextensionsbiz.com @hairexte) came and brought his translator as his english skills may not have been able to catch everying. Another old friend of mine Ronald who worked in a B2C company tradeMIC came, now on his own B2C ecommerce site everbuying.com @everbuying – as he wanted to catch up with me after such a long time (I’ll do a consulting visit to his company later this week).

Some of the others didn’t yet have twitter, were in e-commerce, trading company, or factory. One nice woman, Evelyn, didn’t know how to access facebook in China. That is such a shame, people in China aren’t even aware of what YouTube is!!!

I was fortunate enough to get 2 projectors setup, one for the powerpoint presentation, and the 2nd for a share of my screen to actually SHOW how I do it…not just talk and powerpoint discussions. I think showing how its done is much more effective than just arbitrary talking and reading bullet points off a slide!

I wore my suit!…I was considering being a bit more casual, but in China I think its more respectful to those paying to come see me that I should be at my best.

Here is a quick video I recorded on the spot to open up the seminar:

We then went through how to measure social media success, that its not all about numbers, then tools I use, processes, case study, and studying a case of a member who came – Lure Night.

We also gave certificates to attendees, I took a photo with each person, and I have been following up with those on twitter to see if they are implementing the new tactics we discussed.

Questions that we are getting answered:

How much to charge per course? Or per class?

For now, we will stick with the per course 800rmb price for a 3 – 4 hour session. Possible as this develops we will offer it in packages for a discount.

When to have the event – weekday, weekday evening, weekend?

Seems Saturday or Sunday afternoon from 1pm to 6pm range is the best

How many people should be in each course?

It really seemed nice and cozy for 10 – 15 people in a class…able to get to know all the businesses, look at different social media accounts around the room, give feedback.

How often will there be training?

Seems people want it every other weekend, we will start again after Chinese New Year (feb). So twice a month starting in Feb.

Is it OK if its all in English?

Of course this will be limiting the amount of Chinese businesses who will be able to benefit from the seminar. But unfortunately, I don’t think how much I study Chinese I could ever teach web marketing in Chinese. That will be an amazing day for sure. So for now, I have to limit it to English language presentations, we can

Web Marketing Training Outline

There are about 14 topics outlined above. It is best to test out different times, price, and locations.

This is a rough outline of the courses that can be used

• Each course can have multiple levels
o beginner
o average
o advanced / expert

• Time of each course can be
o 3-5 hours
o full day, 8 hours
• Courses can be interactive or PPT only

Introduction to SEO and Online Marketing

Getting site found in google, understanding what is a search engine + the world wide web (WWW), Customer + Market Research, Competitor Analysis, Trends, Customer Surveys, intro Analytics, intro Keyword research

On Site Analysis

Header, Meta, Site construction, multiple language optimization, Cache analysis, working with database driven websites

Keyword Research

wireframe structure, writing content that readers will like, keyword placement on website

B2B Internet marketing

calculate ROI, calculating lead cost (formula), Clear message, call to action, PPC marketing, improving CTR (click through rate), Landing Page Optimization

Ecommerce B2C SEO
multi channel marketing

how to monitor your progress

Tool – wordtracker SEO blogger
Tool – Google Adwords
Tool – Analytics
Tool – webmaster tools – site map submit

Personalization of search

universal search, Video SEO, merging of social SNS and SEO

Analytics

Tools, Measuring, Comments, E-commerce measuring, conversions.

PPC campaigns

+ keyword research, Excel experience, Tool – Google Adwords Editor, Understanding the metrics, What those 3 lines mean, URL landing page text, Conversion Optimization

Landing Page Optimization (LPO)

improving CTR (click through rate), A/B testing, Multi-variate testing

Link Marketing

internal linking, Forum Marketing, PR release, Link Bait, link buildng by corporate departments, Guides, Customer / Supplier mentioning

SNS Social Media

General, Blog Strategies, Content creation, listening to customers, Article Syndication

Twitter
TOOL – tweetdeck, socialoomph, followerhub,

Facebook marketing

LBS – foursquare

Google Plus

Understanding Black Hat
Grey Hat + Blue Hat SEO tactics
Link pyramids
Link wheels
Article Spinning
automated Link generating tools
icon link building

Local Marketing

Google maps, Foursquare, LBS, Yelp

Putting It all Together
Getting whole company involved

Case study – analyze websites, construction
Case study – analytics
Case study – social media
Case Study – website reviews

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Successful Network PRD meetup, more Shenzhen Networking

Michael Michelini — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 10:30:18 +0000

Last night Network PRD group in Shenzhen re-ignited the meetups after taking some time off (last event I see is November 27, 2010 – EUCCC 10th Anniversary Charity Event – The Kempinski. David Shomaker wanted to bring it back and asked me and 9 others to volunteer helping promote and organize a new series of monthly events.

This was the “new” first one, Thursday June 16th, and I would say overall a success. David organized it to be from 7pm to 8:30pm with a few company / personal introductions and then a feature speaker.

Mingling and cocktails – Get to spend time TALKING, trading name cards, this is what people love to do! I think this is the main reason people go, not to hear speakers or company presentations. But yet, the speakers are a good reason to get people out.
Company introductions – This time mostly was the 9 volunteers to help organize, and I was able to discuss the shenzhen ecommerce meetups and let people know they can attend those one Saturday afternoon each month.
Monthly case study – this time was a new corporate recruiter (headhunter) talking about ways to get new clients and keep clients happy finding good workers for their company.
10 minute keynote speech- This time Profeessory Edward Tian, 94 year old Hunan native, about his amazing life and history of Shenzhen. He learned English at 9 years old, invited to USA in 1981 to speak on family planning, and was invited to Shenzhen in 1988 by the Chinese government to teach English.
Question and Answer session – open forum to get help from experts in different fields.
help desk to tap our network – this was pretty cool, a table was setup, one chinese speaker and one english speaker, for people to come up and list questions or services they needed. Later it will be posted on networkprd and people can contact them to help out!

The event is 100% bilingual and DJ Nimbus was there rocking out some jams! Very classy event, I’m glad to be one of the volunteer organizers (helping with the social media promotions) and love to meet more people.

Its just when is networking too much networking…..
More photos coming soon, once people give them to me!

Will Future Generations Go To University? Go to Classrooms?

Michael Michelini — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 03:35:00 +0000

My friend Leon is applying for a work visa in Hong Kong, and one of the biggest criteria is a university degree. Unfortunately, as smart and capable of a programmer in today’s world, one of the best I have come across, but because of formal education, he is having problems. Is that the best way to measure someone’s capabilities?

I think, just like I am a fan of coworking, couchsurfing, and minimalism.

I think the same will happen not only in “adult world” but in children’s learning environment, aka “schools”. This is disruptive, and I recently read an article Peter Thiel takes his dream kids out of college to do business! He is definitely not making universities happy doing this. Taking top students out of college…..

My friend Marshall also sent me this program, called the Khan Academy as another popular new way for people to learn.

But I think more resistance will come because the university costs feed the system. Get a loan, pay the school, get into debt, pay back the debt for the rest of your life.

How much do we really learn in school?

Again, I see this as social media in action. But sure, even today I have met kids being home schooled. It is possible to learn outside of the classroom, but we also need to INTERACT eith kids our age. We also need to face kids we naturally wouldnt be friends with. Yes, I mean the bullies wjo beat up kids for their lunch money, the stuck up girlie girls who taunt the odd girl out. Why would I possibly say that is necesary…

Because when we get older, we are stuck dealing with those personalities in life. landlord, boss, police, lawyer. We cannot shelter ourselves from people we dont like in grown up life, we have to face them. so in the children phase of our life, we need to learn how to deal with all kinds of people too.

I have to say I was never a fan of structure. A fan of being forced to take a class in school i had no use for. I remember my struggle in high school cemistry, i saw no point in taking it. I had to though to get into university (or so the nuns in my catholic school told me). First day of class Sister Felimina rolls down the chart for the Periodic Table of Elements. She tells us that by the time this class would be over we would have memorized every single symbol, elements atomic number, and atomic weight on this chart. I raised my hand and asked “why”. Obviously this didnt go over well….as I was challenging her whole curriculum. She told me that it was imperative to memorize this to prepare for university, as she said in university it is expected you have this memorized already, or at least it would put you at an advantage over the other students. She mentioned some of her all star students who came back and said how much her class helped them for university. Each friday we would have tests on a new column or row of elements on the chart.

So she asked me to stay after class to discuss further. She asked me why I am being difficult. That this class will not only help me in my schooling but also in daily life. I still wasnt buying into it. She asked what i wanted to be when i grew up, i said a businesman. I cannot remember the exact rebuttal but she said i would need chemistry in business so that if in the office if someone was going to mix two deadly toxic fluids together it would set on fire or explode……i still said i don’t know why i need memorize the periodic table of elements….i said it was a waste of my time and i can always look back at the chart in the future if i needed to. she said it was necessary…..and this struggle continued for the length of the time I was taking the class.

Going into university, the first day of my chemistry class, the professor showed us a standard periodic table of elements and said this sheet can be brought to even quiz and exam for the whole semester, and not to waste time memorizing the chart, as its an easily accessible piece of information and as you used it more you would memorize what you needed.

Man, that was funny…..

Incoming search terms:

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Interviewed on Chinese Television, CCTV, Foreigners in China

Michael Michelini — Mon, 23 May 2011 10:09:05 +0000

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.

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I’m a Social Media Consultant! In China!

Michael Michelini — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:21:18 +0000

uh oh! Its official, I’ve changed my email signature from “internet marketing consultant” to “social media consultant”. Changed my “job” by changing my email signature….pretty hilarious when you think about it….but we are who we make ourselves to be…or else others tell us who to be. Its our choice, I have said it not making a decision is making a decision and I have to make hard choices and FOCUS!

But life is always re-inventing yourself, adapting to the environment around you. And people are constantly approaching more more as a social media guy, integrating social campaigns, connecting people, building community and environment. People, and businesses see the importance of social media.

But more and more, I am being asked about integrating to facebook, or twitter follower management, or building traffic on a blog. This is all social media. In a way, I already have announced I’m an online social salesman, but its screaming it outloud now…from inside myself as well as from friends and business associates all around me.

But then there are those “hesitations” I have to be a full time consultant. Is that a business? Like the image I posted on this blog, it says “Consultant – If you’re not part of the solution, there’s good money to be made in prolonging the problem.” In a way, I have in my history been under the impression consultants are short term, expensive, overrated people (maybe because I have always heard it from the position of a full time staff in a company?). But I am also afraid to be measured by time instead of value. There are ways to create proposals that are not just based soley on time, I’ll get creative.

Leon has been helping “coach” me the past few weeks here in Hong Kong, with the focusing of business and IT management. Just being able to lay it all out there has been helpful. And he, as well as others are screaming my maximum value is my knowledge and I have to focus on making money from it.

Here are some bullet points to solidify my position:

Connector – I truly love connecting people. I can do it all day long. I want to focus more on organizing my contacts. I have gotten restricted on facebook for friend requesting too many people (I had imported my business cards contact info). I love seeing the strengths in people and find ways to connect them with other people who can maximize each other’s strengths.
Event Organizer, Community Builder – I have been organizing twitter meetups, couchsurfing meetups, somewhat complaining its exhausting but that was when I was exploring and experimenting. Now I have a purpose. I just hope to keep it “original”, I want it to still be fun for everyone.
Story teller – I think I’ve always loved sharing stories. Heck that was a primary reason I started this blog, to share stories with everyone about my travels in business, entrepreneurship, and then to China. I do prefer to tell the stories in person, as I get to use my hands when I talk (yes, I have Italian heritage) and can jump around the room and explain how the story goes more real time.
Motivational writer / speaker – I love getting blog comments about people who have gotten some inspiration in their daily worklife, or career, or just direction in life. That makes it all worth it. I haven’t really spoken about motivational things, publically, but I think…when I am focused….I am good at inspiring others. And have been told that multiple times. Just recently its FOCUS that is bogging me down.
Positioning – White guy in China – Yes, its true, I am also able to play the card of a “white face” in China, and it helps me (and probably hurts me in other cases) but I have been able to speak in China about social media as well as many other internet marketing topics, building up my relationships here, and leveraging that with my friends / contacts back home in USA. So I gotta use it, right!
Industry Changes in Internet Marketing – I’ve been blogging about the changes in SEO and internet marketing ….I knew when I came to China, and saw the industry getting standardized into link building machines…Chinese are very systematic….they will keep on trying until they figure out how to maximize the opportunity. And Google had to find ways for these massive link systems to not affect their user (searcher) experience. Now, links are people, and social media and SEO / internet marketing have combined….people vote for what they want to rank and what their friends like….and this is the future for sometime to come

I have always been attracted to the power of the internet….but I am also a guy that likes to deal with people, get outside, travel, inspire. And the new internet is about people, people are websites now, not websites are hiding companies behind cloaks. We have to come out of our shell and realize, people do business with people!

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Shenzhen Chinese Ecommerce Meetup, Google China Here

Michael Michelini — Sat, 07 May 2011 15:42:07 +0000

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,

Introduction to the enhanced Google adwords platform –
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….

Notes from web visitors:

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!

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Spending More Time on my Chinese Blog, mailini

Michael Michelini — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:34:13 +0000

I should cross promote the two blogs more, not sure if people even realize i have this blog translated to chinese. When I first came to China at the end of 2007 my good friend, Gao Xing, gave me my chinese name, mai li ni , which is a best effort to convert my family name, michelini, to a chinese version. I first blogged about disco Mai Li Ni 迈理倪

I then bought the domain mailini.com 迈理倪 and had it translated to chinese by my staff and friends.

Its not google translate, i have Melissa currently doing it on her part time, I have to upgrade the blog style, currently on wordpress too – mailini.com/blog and I asked my friends which style of the wordpress blog it should be….I don’t just want it to be the same style as the English blog, I know in China that Chinese websites are much different then American sites.

I’m also listening to my friend Larry and going to try to use Weibo more (the Chinese twitter) and link my Chinese blog feed to it. I have already gotten some buzz on the Shenzhen coworking space.

China is where the future is, I have to be more active on the social media, soon these next few weeks:

More of my english blogs here will be translated to Chinese
I will upgrade the Chinese blog theme
More effort put into Weibo (Chinese Twitter) with feed of my Chinese blog posting

I just need to learn Chinese, as I have friends and staff helping now, but when I get blog comments on my chinese blog, I cannot reply to them, I also need those translated to me.

Maybe one day, heck it should happen, I will be more active to be able to read and write Chinese. That would be amazing to me. It just seems like such a complex language, so many characters.

Return of the Geeks, Have Their Fun Later in Life

Michael Michelini — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:11:38 +0000

I consider myself always as semi geek, semi cool…..I played on both sides when in high school, and learned to be flexible and deal with many personalities. I am not afraid to make fun of myself, maybe its a sign I’m getting old! I also blogged about how us “social media” online people are a bunch of nerds! There have been social media prom nights – and the idea was made to give those “nerds” in high school that maybe didn’t have such a great high school prom to be able to get another chance. And now, nerds are cool! Geeks are multi millionaires. I wonder if they are still getting picked on in high school?

Sad, but probably they still are.

Lately I am more with the techies….maybe they are the guys that felt awkward in school, or even in America, and moved out to China for new surroundings…..

But again and again i will be exhausted at a nightclub wanting to leave and get some much needed zzzzzzz’s, and these geeks turned rockstars (not going to name names) will push me to keep on rocking.

For those who know me, i dont have much patience and get annoyed easily….but it was interesting to get a hwart to heart from one techie friend here in hong kong

He mentioned how he ws outcasted when in his teens and feels he missed out on so long of the fun that now that he’s in his mid 20s he can finally catch up to the cool kids.

Isn’t that true! The cool kids in high school aren’t here in Asia building up businesses and web projects.

I’m not going to put names to people here, maybe some of the readers who know me can figure out who these people are, but another example is an American who is brilliant. He did an exchange program in China when he was younger, and studied HARD. He explained to me how all his fellow American exchange students would party at the bars and date each other, while he would sacrafice and do the homework, and actually work hard to learn Chinese language and other culture courses he was taking.

I didn’t know him at that time, but now in his mid to late 20s he is getting it off his chest to me. Talking over beers in a bar, he would mention how his classmates would make jokes towards him for not going out and partying or enjoying life. He laughs outloud to me now, saying he wonders where those party guys are now, as he is reaping the rewards of having a good education and strong grasp of the Chinese language and culture.

I’m not so bitter, I think we all make decisions in life, choose at what point in our life to “enjoy” and which parts of our life to “invest” or “sacrifice”.

Maybe laid out like this:

Invest Early / Reward Later – Geek? Business person?
Reward First / Invest Later – Worker?

I can already imagine the possible comments on this post coming, BALANCE Life and Work, do your homework, and still go out on a Friday night to have drinks with friends. I do understand this, but I think in order to be a master at a skill, we need to kinda be a crazy nerd / geek. Or a social networker, dedicate time to dealing with people.

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Feel More Equipped, More Professional Then Ever

Michael Michelini — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 09:31:03 +0000

maybe its my turning 30, the fact that i have made commitments to my career and basic geographical location…and getting used to being in the constant moving….I am constantly having an internal battle about why I am traveling so much….its exhausting, but I think its important to what I’m trying to do….bridge cultures and connect people. Its the life I have created, and I just have to learn to live with it.

Its just becoming more clear…I want to develop social media, communities, I get the most fulfillment from that. I think it is the most difficult, and its also the best way for me to utilize the years I have struggled in China business….its the connections and the trust I have built in the meantime. Sure I may have made some mistakes, some people didn’t agree with me, and I didn’t agree with them, but that is life.

So many people see me as a business consultant. My Hong Kong accountant invited me to be an advisor on their accountant association, I met with him and his partner last week. I’ll have to make some presentations about USA business, and they have a decent amount of members in the UK. More on that later as I confirm it and learn more myself. But it just feels so rewarding to be asked to be part of these clubs….and I have no problem connecting more people once I get familiar.

Just as an example of how I am getting more equipped for international business…I am typing this blog at 4:53pm on Sunday, awaiting the 5:50pm train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. I’m in the waiting queue, and holding my laptop against my thigh to type it as I’m standing up. (I try to blog from my tablet, but the touch screen just doesn’t work for long passages, at least not for me).

I have 2 3G wifi hotspots one for Hong Kong and China, a tablet for China (its also a phone), an android phone for Hong Kong, emergency power packs (these train stations NEVER have electricity power outlets!!!!!!) so many wires and adapters for different power outlets…I’m a walking office.

So I have 3 choices:

I can complain and cry about it – Some people may feel this is what this blog is about, my crying and complaining about my personal hardships in dealing with a small business overseas in China / Asia. Well, maybe it does help me to “talk outloud” and share my feelings…its soothing in its own sick way. Come on, what do people like to write about, and read about…its problems, struggles, passionate fighting for something, a cause.
I can change it – I could say “I don’t want to do this anymore”, go back to get a dayjob in America…I see this is giving up, and I have survived this far. Not something I can accept. We only have one life to live, if anything I hope to write a book about this, its definitely been an adventure.
I can deal with it – I think after returning to Asia late last year…taking the return ticket to Hong Kong I knew in the back of my head I wouldn’t be coming back to America so soon. Sure, I thought to myself I can always come back to America if I don’t feel right coming to Asia again…but the opportunities are in China. Things are growing, things are happening here….its just hard to partake in it as a foreigner….but I will not give up.

So as I wait in the Hung Hom Hong Kong train station to go to Guangzhou, I just realize that I have to accept the fact that….things will forever be changing, I cannot fully control, and I just have to accept it and make it work.

Another post coming soon comparing myself a few years ago to now.

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Foursquare Day Hong Kong #4sqhk – Social Media Continues Growth!

Michael Michelini — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 17:26:46 +0000

I think foursquare is my favorite social media brand….It just seems to have a nice, warm fuzzy feeling about it that makes you get addicted to getting points, badges, chatting it up with your friends about locations you are going to or have been, and reading tips from complete strangers in new venues when you arrive.

Today was “Foursquare Day” April 16 (4 squared, 4 x 4) and Foursquare has been very excited having a dedicated page about it, and having people from all over the world gather to check in. There was a special badge for today, description below.
4sqDay 2011 - And we thought last year was huge! Happy 4/4^2 day! Thanks to all of you amazing people, for organizing over 1000 parties around the world for our little startup! We would give a speech, but we’re just trying to hold back our tears. Unlocked by Michael M. on Sat Apr 16, 2011 at 1:12 PM at BootHK in Wan Chai, Hong Kong.

Gary Lam gave me a foursquare shirt, he bought a few from the foursquare official store, so I wore that around town for the afternoon. Later heading to the Hong Kong Foursquare meetup:

Foursquare Day Hong Kong

Saturday, April 16 · 6:30pm – 9:00pm

Location W52
52 Wyndham Street, Central
Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Created By Gene Soo, Tricia Ling, Sam Lau

More Info Join millions of SOCIAL MEDIA fans around the world on April 16th to celebrate 4sqDay! We are organizing a get together for everybody so you’ll have the chance to meet each other in person! Perhaps that dude that keeps on ousting your mayorship isn’t so bad after all…

You don’t have to be on foursquare to be able to attend this event. If you prefer to check in via Facebook, Gowalla or other apps, you are definitely welcome t…o. And please feel free to invite your friends so we can unlock more deals mentioned below.

The venue is going to be at W52 Bar opposite LKF Hotel in Central. W52 has kindly agreed to the following check-in offers:

1) a free welcome drink upon check-in

2) a free round of shot to all attendees when we hit the following total check-ins: 10,20,30,40,50. That’s 150 shots!! (we are counting foursquare check-ins for this unlock to make it easier to manage)

We are still negotiating with sponsors for more deals so do RSVP if you going to attend to show support! It definitely helps.

Foursquare Day is supported by the following organizations:
- W52 Restaurant and Bar (http://www.w52.com.hk/)
- StartupsHK (http://www.startupshk.com/) – A community of startups in Hong Kong

More info about 4sqdayhk:
Foursquare Day Hong Kong is an annual event and a gathering of Social Media and Foursquare fans to socialize, have fun and embrace the spirit of Foursquare. It is officially supported by Foursquare. There will be a special badge to be unlocked on the day. We’ll tell you how when you arrive. =)

My great friend, who I met on twitter, @Kitty_Leung got me a tshirt for a new project she is working on – Turtle Square, which is to connect faces to twitter names. If you look closely at the gallery photos (I’m testing the blog gallery photo view instead of sticking only a few pics, let me know if you like it), I am wearing a shirt that has my @michelini name on the top right, and on the bottom left it says “IRL”, which is In Real Life. They want to get people to connect their twitter or “online” name with their real life self….and starting with these shirts there may be a whole line of apparel and accessories.

TRENDS are where its at, and by having groups of people checking in at the same location, you can create trends that other see, and it creates a viral moment where people see others all gathering there and it (hopefully) sparks their curiousity to go there and check it out themselves.

We went for pizza afterwards too, creating trends everywhere we had went. This is the power of social media…..as we walked around Lan Kwai Fong, so many advertisements for twitter, facebook, foursquare to tweet or share your status with you friends to get into prizes and contests…..Social Media is exploding it is a way of life….

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Further Developments in Shenzhen China Coworking

Michael Michelini — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:53:12 +0000

After Dongguan meetings and training sessions with new hires, came to Shenzhen to check out potential coworking office spaces. Met up with Gareth, who is working in the Overseas Chinese Scholars Venture Building, which was setup to attract overseas Chinese to return to China to open a company. I met him online and he has extra space there and is well aware of the coworking scene and vision…so its an “easy sell” to explain to him what needs to be done. It is in a new section of the Nanshan Shenzhen Hi Tech park, photograph here in the post

The potential coworking office is near 科苑 (Ke Yuan) metro

南山区科技园南区留学生创业大厦1402室

Room 1402, Overseas Chinese Scholars Venture Building, High Tech Park South, Nanshan, Shenzhen, China

Other photos here show that it is on a subway line, and you can see from the 3rd photo there is a ton of construction going on around it. Ella put a video on the “placeholder” website for this coworking project – SZteam video. Its really exciting to research this, here are some facts

About 8 dedicated seats.
So many windows! lots of light
Conference room area
Has assistant who can put some time towards admin of the project
He is willing to put a table in the main room for “hot seats” so people do not need to pay for dedicated seats

Have been “power” networking in the coworking space the past couple months, signing up for online message boards, email lists, and becoming a member of Boot hk Hong Kong coworking, and have said a couple months ago Shenzhen should be the next coworking space, it just seems destined. In Shanghai they have one, Xin Da Wei , and there is bubbling interest in Beijing to set it up as well.

What is coworking? First – IT IS NOT a virtual office, or those partitioned offices where you can have your mail sent and register a company – its an open environment to collaborate, share ideas, and meet people. I actually have a virtual office in Shenzhen, and I never meet anyone, if they are there at all…its walled in, everyone has their doors closed…..its just not an open and friendly ENVIRONMENT. A coworking space is meant to be OPEN – to share….so there are tables more than desks, there may be a cool couch to chill in, some fun gadgets or toys laying around…and most people are there are available to openly network and talk. I have not seen this in Shenzhen (as I explain coworking to people in Shenzhen China, they always tell me “oh, that already exists”—- but it is NOT a virtual office!)

So now that we covered that….people keep wondering / worrying if it can work in China. Well, it may be hard for a foreigner to be an owner…as I talked to Liu Yan at Xin Dan Wei in Shanghai, and she said its registered company as a social event organization (or something along those lines) and….for those who don’t know. —-> A foreigner cannot own a net cafe (cyber cafe) inside China. I remember when I first came to China, and I didnt have internet in my first apartment, I had to go to these cyber cafes. When you go to register for a computer, you have to log in your government ID card, and they track all the websites you are visiting. And I am told you cannot, as a foreigner inside China, own/operate a cyber cafe. Actually its hard I hear for even local Chinese to register now.

Next steps….getting more “firm” signups and support from people who are interested, talk to those attendees from the Shenzhen ecommerce metups and just keep on working with the community….together we can succeed.

Some people keep asking me why I do this? Well, I guess its what I’m passionate about, connecting people, building community….social media. I just enjoy it, and if you do what you enjoy, good things have to come from it. I’m in it for the long term….really.

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Featured on Chinese Tech News – Twitter vs. Weibo

Michael Michelini — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:36:14 +0000

While some may not believe, I survived to successfully enter China and speak about Twitter and Facebook promotion (amazing because the government forbids and blocks it). But Chinese businesses that need foreign customers (ie export businesses) NEED TO USE TWITTER AND FACEBOOK. Flat out, no questions asked, more and more, you need social media in order to compete in today’s

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!

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Trying To Not Get Writer’s Block!!!

mike — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 17:30:06 +0000

I’m not updating this blog as much – SORRY. Seems people are actually reading it, as I’m getting reminders that I am not posting as much, and they enjoy reading it.

Put this photo from my roadtrip from Xiamen to Hong Kong last weekend….its going through one of the many road tunnels you drive through in China…and represents the endless feeling of being on the road I’m experiencing lately.

I have just really been more stressed then ever lately…so I may as well write down the reasons why I feel stressed and it can help me by getting it off my chest:

newyorkbarstore hacked, no buyer found – I listed the website for sale but didn’t find a buyer, that I could accept, but maybe its good….It was recently hacked (zen-cart is hard to maintain!) and now am re-designing the whole site…maybe it inspired me to work hard on it again.
birthday pressure – just had my 30th birthday and birthdays I always put too much pressure on myself to have a big party, blah blah…this year was in Hong Kong, and felt it was too complicated to try to organize anything. But still overworked due to point 1 above (newyorkbarstore redesign) over the weekend….draining on me.
too much travel – I love the Chaos, the intensity…its what brought me to China in the first place…but it is just not slowing down…spent the past few days in Hong Kong (arriving Thursday night, though I almost went to Shenzhen first, after Dongguan, and then to Hong Kong after), heading to Dongguan tomorrow afternoon…just feel like a ping pong ball between Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Dongguan, and sometimes in Philippines or Guangzhou….but at least I have mentally decided I will be in Asia the next 5 years at least, so at least my mind is somewhat at ease.
IT issues, need IT people – many projects I am working on need programmers and IT people…I am having trouble finding Hong Kong programmers…..and with all my travel above, its really difficult also to manage odesk and other platforms as I’m being more on the sales and marketing / social media side of the world.
studying Chinese – I am finally somewhat applying myself to learning Chinese, bought Chinesepod subscription and listening on my mobile phone as I’m traveling…but it makes it hard to write my blog, as Chinese language study time kind of competes with blog writing time – both are during my personal development time.

But on the positive side…..need to look at the good things:

Good traction for Fiveislands ecommerce warehouse – getting decent amount of inquiries for people who want to warehouse and sell into China, as well as control their supply chain further to the source. Also at the Xiamen SEO event last week, met some great contacts in Chinese ecommerce….developing nicely.
Got solid SEO consulting clients – feel somewhat stable, good relationships and value from the few SEO projects I have going on….and its what I enjoy doing.
Social Media is really developing, expanding, having fun – Its what I am passionate about, building a network, connecting people. This Saturday will be another Shenzhen ecommerce meetup, building up a good team of people to organize it. Boot hk coworking has been great to make relationships as well. I always remember smart businessmen telling me its not what you know, its WHO YOU KNOW….so I hope all this time and energy I’m making investing into social media pays off…but anyway, I am confident it will, and enjoy it anyway.

Anyway, its Sunday night…had a rather emotional birthday weekend, transition, server hacked….and maybe I’ll become a better, wiser person…because thats all we can do, live and learn…and try not to repeat those things which don’t make us happy, right?

Speaking About English Social Media, In China

Michael Michelini — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 06:48:42 +0000

At this years’s biggest Chinese SEO fair I just spoke about optimizing English social media channels (SNS) which I worried about, as we all know, Chinese government has been blocking these websites, so about 80% of my topic cannot be accessed by my audience, (legally)!

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:

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Social Media – People Buying The Same, Doing The Same, Talking the Same?

Michael Michelini — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:02:25 +0000

I am a fan of being social, connecting with people…learning about cultures and ideas and perspectives…but what is scaring me is as people now

Talk about the same news (weather, etc)
Buy the same things
Think the same way

What is going to happen to individuality and CREATIVITY?!?!!? While social media is about being a HUMAN being and allows all voices in the world to be heard equally….I also feel allowing everyone to be so easily exposed to others more quickly forces them to “electronically” surround themselves with only like minded people, and wall out people they do not like, or do not want to associate themselves with.

And as the newborn generations grow up with social media and mobile technology (its amazing, seeing my friend’s children playing with iphone as if they are experts and they are only 4 years old…) they will never know how it was to live WITHOUT these technology and social media platforms…..their childhood will be surrounded by their friends in real life being in parallel with their “online facebook friends” and continuously surrounding themselves only with people they want to be surrounded with….getting real time status updates from their classmates on what dinner they are having, what tv shows they are watching, what clothing they are buying…..

And…..as sad as it sounds, the majority of people feel comfortable doing the same things their friends are doing. PEOPLE FEAR TO BE DIFFERENT and the social web makes it sooooo easy to see exactly what your friends are doing everywhere. You will not be able to live as an individual anymore…when faced with a decision that needs to be made in life, your friends will be with you, physically or virtually.

I know it’s convenient to be able to constantly wired….I rarely have to ask for directions anymore, I can go into foreign countries and not even need to ask anything…I can get all my answers on the internet, online maps, online guide, social media friends….but isn’t that taking the fun away? Where is that forced interaction with the strangers, that force us to learn how to deal with people from all different backgrounds and personalities…..

I can only forecast, but I can definitely see as the younger generation grows up, they will not be able to deal with as many people in “real life” situations as the current grown up…..I know I am an old man (30 next week) and I am sounding like it now….but really, even I am able not to interact with strangers now, utilizing my mobile phone and social network to get answers and feedback…..and if I’m an “old fart” then I can only imagine how the children of today will be when they get older….with these facebook, twitter and mobile tools to access information quickly and easily….

Here is an example of the future I see….for a teenager in maybe 5 years (heck maybe its like this already!)
Go to first day of freshman class, meet people….already have a facebook account since you were born, so you add your classmates that you get to know (wonder do high school kids add everyone, like do cool kids accept friend requests from non-cool kids??).

So now you have the friends in your facebook, and you will get their status updates when they are eating, buying things. Then there are the status updates…..about what they buy, what they eat…..where they are going. I can only imagine that the cool kids will be showing off the cool new shoes they bought, and maybe even bullies will make fun of people who cannot afford / don’t buy the cool new Michael Jordan sneakers?

Movie night, what movie are you watching, who are you with? Jeez I can only IMAGINE THE added pressure of a high school kid more and more as I type out this role playing….

High school is already hard enough, I could only imagine it now combined with social media….I used to like to go home to get away from the peer pressure….the gossip, the sharing of what the cool people are buying….and how this will never really turn off.

Makes me almost glad I grew up without this social media noise when I was a kid…..being a teenager is soo hard, so much pressure…..when I’m a “grownup” I think social media is better, because I have learned more about who I really am and taken priorities in life.

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