Business social networking in China set to grow five fold by 2013

Business social networking is set to grow five fold in China with the number of users tipped to reach 100 million by 2013, according to data from Tianji.

The company, which is China’s most popular business social network, estimates that the market for social business networking in China — which currently stands at 20 million professional users — will grow to account for 60 million users next year alone.

Of that market, Tianji currently enjoys 9 million ahead of close rival Ushi while LinkedIn trails with just one million members.

LinkedIn remained tight lipped on its plans for China when contacted it about its Japanese launch, saying only that is is “looking for opportunities all over the APAC region and will continue studying various regions and markets moving forward”.

The statistics come from the infographic which also contains details of business social network users in China and projections for Tianji’s own market share.

Business social network has been slow develop in Asia where many users adopt acronyms online and social networks are used for more personal content and activities, as the infographic below highlights. As we’ve seen with the launch of LinkedIn Japan, the industry is beginning to gather momentum in Asia however.

via Business social networking in China set to grow five fold by 2013.

 

 

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Important social media fundamentals for businesses – Midland Daily News: News

Through Twitter @DespokeMedia

By Rachel Esterline Social Media Club Great Lakes Bay President | 0 comments

Posted: Sunday, September 11, 2011 9:30 am | Updated: 9:51 am, Sun Sep 11, 2011.

TicketKick.com, a site that helps people fight traffic tickets, utilizes Facebook, Twitter, Digg, blog posts and blog comments on other related blogs, backlinks, press releases and articles as part of its branding.

As part of its social media outreach, Sara N. Schoonover, Ticketkick.com’s vice president, follows these key fundamentals when it comes to taking the company’s marketing online:

“Branding your business in any particular industry is key to getting noticed,” Schoonover said. “We’ve committed ourselves to staying on top of the hot topics in the social media world related to our industry.”

Schoonover recommends having a clear vision of your company’s image before posting online.

“Imagine how the public would view your business through your posting,” she said. “Are you deviating from your brand image or personality that you’ve created for your company through a specific comment or blog?”

Professionalism is key when posting. Schoonover offers several simple tips.

“Never bad-mouth people, other companies or the government,” she said. “Always triple-check for grammar and spelling errors, even when posting on Facebook or Twitter. You want people to see what you’re talking about, not get distracted by your grammatical mistakes. Don’t use all caps and capitalize correctly.”

Additionally, she recommends avoiding speaking negatively about specific topics.

“Even for seemingly negative topics, such as red-light camera tickets in our industry, we always try to word our comments in a way that turns it into a positive, like what people can do when they get a red light camera ticket,” Schoonover said.

To help control what goes out on the Web and to minimize potential errors and problems, Schoonover said small businesses should assign specific people to be in charge of social media.

When dealing with negative remarks about a business online, Schoonover said the company representative shouldn’t be defensive.

“Always try to respond with a comment like, ‘Thank you for your honesty,’ which is exactly what the public wants to hear. Then contact that person directly in private and be very helpful, concerned and friendly,” she said. “You’d be surprised at how that person may very well delete their comment or respond. Your other happy customers will be quick to defend you as well.”

via Important social media fundamentals for businesses – Midland Daily News: News.

Back to business: RIM will lose consumer market, analyst says

“We no longer anticipate Research in Motion recovering to participate in the mainstream of smartphone industry growth.” Those are the words of Matthew Robison, an analyst with Wunderlich Securities, which recently downgraded RIM’s stock. Robison argues that RIM is going to lose the consumer interest that it has built over the last few years. “Our long-term forecast anticipates a role supplying business-oriented devices, both mid-range and high end, as well as cloud-based services via the BlackBerry Network.,” Robison said. “We expect the consumer mix gained over the past two years to churn off, and that earnings will decline after 2013 and eventually grow again on demand that is largely associated with business users.” Robison said the PlayBook is selling well relative to other tablets, “other than the iPad,” but that “there’s little indication that the PlayBook has registered with consumers outside the loyal BlackBerry installed base.” We’ve leaked and had hands-on time with most of RIM’s 2011 lineup, and while there’s a definite spec boost across the board, the phones lack the appealing features of more robust iOS and Android devices. Worse yet, the company only revealed one new device during its annual BlackBerry World 2011 conference, and even that offered very little in the way of innovation that might attract the consumer market.

via Back to business: RIM will lose consumer market, analyst says.

3 Reasons Marketing Agencies Need to Collaborate with their Clients

A former boss of mine had a great turn of phrase for the almost fatal independence he thought some internal project teams were given – he called it the “bat and bow syndrome.” It referred to how management, either sensing an opportunity or panicking, would give an in-house innovation team the assignment of coming up with the company’s next big idea. This team would accept its mission, and head off to brainstorm. They would take the best idea they came up with, put a big “bow” on it, and present it back to management. But because management knew nothing of the process, the research conducted or the insights used to come up with the idea, they would react like people sometimes do to new ideas – deem them unfeasible and risky, and bash them into smithereens with a “bat.” Hence the Bat and Bow.

Online marketing companies pitching and selling inbound strategies need to be wary of the bat and bow themselves. They’re being brought on board to implement new tactics, likely aimed at transformational goals and measured by unfamiliar metrics. The smartest thing these companies can do is collaborate with their clients from day one. Inbound marketing is an organic process, and leaving your client on the sidelines for the ramp-up stage makes little sense for either side.

1. Collaboration Helps You Achieve Results Faster

2. Collaboration Gets You Buy-In

3. Always Be Testing

Read the full monty via 3 Reasons Marketing Agencies Need to Collaborate with their Clients.

Feed Social Media Insight Back Into Your Business: Online Collaboration «

So, you have a social media presence. Perhaps you even have some tools in place to measure your team’s activity and interactions through social channels.  That’s great! But how can you feed what you learn from social media interactions back into your team’s work effort?

Social media needn’t be an end in itself. It’s one thing to “engage” and “lead thinking” in your social network. But social media really starts having a direct benefit when you can tap into the information it’s providing you and feed it back into your business, and your team.

One way to look at the social media picture is to ask the team members who use and manage your social media presence two basic questions.

via Feed Social Media Insight Back Into Your Business: Online Collaboration «.