Digital Mission Blog

This is a guest blog by Joyce Sullivan / Social Media Week.

I hear the weather was dreadful in London on Monday morning but the talks and conversations sparkled at Using Social To Go Global Supported by Open to Export.

The session kicked off with Sam Michel of Chinwag aka @toodlepip welcoming all with a ‘meet your neighbour’ greet.

Philip Montague @PhilSMEin of hibu kicked off the morning talks by first sharing a boyhood memory how he confidently jumped off the back of his grandfather’s sailboat to swim to secure the dinghy line that came undone. Though confident he could make the journey on his own, he realised he needed help to get back to the boat. Lesson learned: as confident as you may be, you may need some help with your journey. Philip’s intro framed the mission for Open to Export how they help UK businesses navigate their product export potential.

The Open to Export presentation was fascinating to see how when you aggregate export info and make it available via social media, there is so much opportunity for UK businesses. If you’re a UK business and are thinking of exporting your product to other countries, looks like it’s worth checking out especially as it’s completely free to register. You ask your questions and get the answers you’re looking for from industry and functional experts. http://opentoexport.com.

The power of social is everywhere especially in Brazil and India as we heard next from Nitin Dahad @ndahad Sector Specialist for UK Trade and Investment who specialises in the Brazil and India social media market. After the US, Brazil has the highest level of social media engagement followed by India. The Indian Premier League for cricket, drives a tremendous volume of social media conversations. Brazil has very high mobile phone penetration with almost 100% use of of social media.

Language, beyond translation, does matter, as we heard from Iris Cai @Iris_Cai Director of Positive Speaking. She took us through the opportunity to tap into the Chinese market and the UK export opportunities. There are 450 Chinese companies that have branches in the UK who need British people to help with their social media. It was fascinating to learn about the ‘art of translation’ in helping brands convey the proper message to its Chinese audience. Listen in to hear the fun, and eloquently accurate translations, of major brands from English to Chinese. Listen to Iris, at 29 mins, explain ‘best practice’ for English to Chinese translations of major brands.

Is doing export business with the US any different? We heard about United States regional business nuances from Beth Eisen, Commercial Officer (NYC) for UK Trade and Investment, @UKTITechNY. Dealing with the US coastal areas vary from the heartland in how business is conducted. Good to know before you get off the plane to get those business conversations going. Business in NY or LA may be conducted differently than in Chicago or Dallas.

And what about crowdsourcing your idea for exporting? We heard from Eamon Fitzgerald aka @grape_escape of Naked Wines @NakedWines. Such a great story how he used his passion to get out of his corporate job and went from wine blogger to COO of Naked Wines. Naked Wines brings crowdsourced funding via their Naked Wine Angels to independent wine makers around the world. You can hear more how like-minded individuals come together to disrupt and make a difference in a very established industry. Great to hear the stories of global small business winemakers as relayed by Eamon (starts at 7:30 mins in).

The morning talks were rounded out by Chris Schaumann @Chriss35, Nokia Director of Advocacy in Europe who talked digital, strategy and accelerating disruption. Robin Grant @robingrant of We Are Social took us through how his organisation began and continues to expand their global market footprint.

After watching these talks, social and global feels very local and approachable.

Tweets Coverage #SMWSOCIALGLOBAL

#SMWSOCIALGLOBAL Lovely back story from @grape_escape - from wine blogger to COO, used passion to get out of corp job. #followyourpassion

— Sam Michel (@toodlepip) September 24, 2012

RT @smwldn: Social media penetration is almost at 100% in Brazil #SMWSOCIALGLOBAL #smwldn ^LB

— Lowe and Partners (@LoweandPartners) September 24, 2012

“@toodlepip: Great tip. Understand China by helping Chinese companies to market in the UK. @iris_cai #SMWSOCIALGLOBAL”

— Anthony Kunihiro (@AnthonyKunihiro) September 24, 2012

PENETRATION & BRAZILIANS GO HAND IN HAND #FACT @smwldn: Social media penetration is almost at 100% in Brazil #SMWSOCIALGLOBAL #smwldn ^LB

— Mouthy Twat (@mouthytwat) September 24, 2012

What makes Naked Wines really social? Their customers make the big decisions says @grape_escape #SMWSOCIALGLOBAL ^LB

— SocialMediaWeek LDN (@smwldn) September 24, 2012

Livestream Videos

Using Social to Go Global - Part 1

Using Social to Go Global - Part 2

Joyce Sullivan is a recognized industry expert in social media networking through emerging social media networking tools. A financial services industry veteran, Joyce speaks frequently on the convergence of social media and the financial services industry. She’s been recognized for her social media networking expertise through seminars, and you can watch Joyce’s interview with CNBC anchor and journalist, Maria Bartiromo, on career reinvention and the use of social media networking on “Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo.” Keep up with her online and on Twitter personally at @JoyceMSullivan or her work @SocMediaFin.