The blogosphere is by its very nature a truly global phenomenon. Anyone with an Internet connection can, in theory, access your blog, no matter where they are in the world. But that doesn’t mean they will. To blog for an international audience, you need to make sure your content is appealing and accessible across cultural and linguistic divides.

Target your blog

Christian Arno

On the day The Huffington Post launched its French edition, founder Arianna Huffington said, “While we will be importing the platform, technology, and tools from across the pond, Le Huffington Post will be rooted in French culture and will reflect France’s own unique personality, rich culture, and diversity of voices.”

As with the preceding Canadian and UK versions, the news giant has tailored its French content to appeal to a specific international audience. We can’t all have the resources of Technorati’s current top-rated blog, but we can focus our efforts on markets that are likely to pay dividends.

The exact nature of your blog will help determine where you should start. A blog about soccer will have a wide potential appeal throughout much of the world but may have a more select, niche appeal within the USA. Concentrating on the Major Soccer League (MSL) could help reach that niche audience while in-depth coverage of leagues based in South America or Europe could give you inroads into those markets.

Beppe Grille has proved that a relatively narrow topic does not necessarily rule out an international audience. The Italian activist blogs largely about politics in his homeland but his blog – available in Italian, English and Japanese – has gained a huge international following.

Use simple words

Unless you’re writing a blog on the joys of circumlocution (that’s general wordiness for the non-enthusiasts) it’s a good rule of thumb to keep the language relatively simple and accessible. This is even more important if you’re aiming for an international audience. English is still the single most widely used language online according to Internet World Stats. An English-only blog may attract a limited number of foreign visitors. But if they speak English as a second language, simple words and structures will make things easier to follow.

While English is the most widely used language on the ‘net, it still represents only around a quarter of total usage. To successfully cross over to international audiences you will also need to translate your blog. Using simple language in your original posts will help make this easier.

Consider your translation options

Once you’ve decided which markets to target, you need to decide how to translate your blog There are many automatic translation programs available that offer a quick, free solution. The drawback is that even the best machine translation is prone to contextual errors. They don’t deal well with slang, abbreviations, acronyms and other cultural and linguistic variations. All this can leave parts of your blog looking stilted and amateurish or may even change the meaning entirely.

Enlisting the help of native speaking translators is a better option by far. This will help ensure an accurate translation, retain meaning and nuance and avoid any embarrassing cultural faux pas. Of course, it is more expensive, so you’ll want to choose your languages carefully. You could test the water by translating some of your best posts into a few selected languages. If you find you’re attracting interest, you can go ahead and translate more.

When to post a blog

The best time to update your content is in the morning. This can give your blog an up-to-date feel but can also present a problem when crossing international boundaries and time zones. It makes sense to stagger the times when you publish your international content. Make a schedule based on the relevant time zones and publish your content as the sun comes up all around the globe.

Make use of social media

Social media is an ideal platform for promoting your blog. All the big hitters like Facebook and Twitter have international audiences and settings but it’s worth remembering that local competitors can be every bit as important within their own spheres of influence.

The home-grown Mixi is a massively popular social network in Japan for example, while Russian-based Vkontakte (commonly known as VK) claims to be the largest European social network with more than 100 million active users. In addition, there may be local specialist sites, forums and social networks that are worth checking out depending on the theme of your blog.

Create separate (but linked) profiles on all the relevant social networks. Keep them up to date and be proactive. Don’t just put links to your blog and hope for the best; write guest posts, leave comments and join in the online conversation.

Taking your blog to an international audience can be a lot of time and forward planning. Given the huge potential audiences you can reach, it can be worth every bit of effort you put in in building new relationships and driving potential business.

Christian Arno is the founder of US translation agency Lingo24. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 170 employees spanning three continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over forty million words for businesses in every industry sector, including the likes of MTV and World Bank. Follow Lingo24 on Twitter: @Lingo24.

I didn’t even realize it until I went to post a discussion and I received the startling message that I had been “banned” from Linked: HR, the largest HR group on LinkedIn.

Yikes. What did I do wrong?  I wrote to one of the Group’s administrator to ask why and beg forgiveness. He was very nice and wrote back that it had happened a couple of months ago and no one knew why, so he was readmitting me.

Be Careful What You Post

I don’t know why either, but I lately I have received several detailed emails from administrators sent to all Group members. They are clamping down on spam, inappropriate discussions or Promotions that are mistakenly placed in Discussions and vice versa.

LinkedIn has expanded tremendously in the past couple of years and there are growing complaints about the amount of spam that people are posting. I’ve seen discussions where people have posted comments that had nothing to do with the topic – like how to make a quick buck with their get-rich-scheme. These are deleted  immediately but it angers members and creates more work for the group administrators.

Building Relationships

While many of us are using social networks to build our brands and business, it’s important to remember that first we need to build relationships. We do that by posting content that adds value to our  groups: how to do something, a list of resources, or solutions to problems. Sure, we can brag about an award we won — in our own updates.

I am very active in the Blog Zone’s subgroup, Bloggers Helping Bloggers. A small core of us regularly comment on each other’s posts and offer advice to each other on blogging. I’ve never met any of them, but they’ve become friends and I know there has been business referred by and to members.

One member, Dennis Salvatier, is a terrific designer and also a blogger. He and are collaborating on a post that will appear next week in this space.

What Not to Do

I’ve become very cautious about the content I post to LinkedIn Groups. I’ve also cut down on the number of groups I belong to so I can become more actively engaged with members. I’ve learned a lesson. If you don’t want to get the boot from a LinkedIn Group follow these simple rules:

• Post content that is appropriate to the Group. If it’s a technology group, don’t post your content about how to use a consumer product.
• Start discussions about real issues in an industry or a problem that you know others are facing. I was the Top Influencer of the Week for four straight weeks when I started a discussion in a human resources group about why companies treated laid off employee like criminals, escorting them from the premises. That got a ton of comments with people sharing ideas about how to do it better.
• Post your content in the right place. Most groups are very strict about not allowing promotional content in Discussions. It will be deleted. As the rules for Small Biz Nation state: “Discussions must be relevant to the thread. If it is obvious that the post is spam or self-promotion, the post will be removed.” Most groups use the Promotions tab for posts about events, webinars, and services.

It’s a simple formula, really. Follow the rules, make friends, and don’t annoy LinkedIn group administrators.

Adding to my argument in last week’s post 6 Steps to Empower Your Employees as Brand Ambassadors, David Pogue, technology columnist for The New York Times, explains the importance of allowing your employees access to social media while at work.

He is interviewed in this Ragan.com video entitled “Half of U.S. businesses block social media. What’s the point?”

Employees are actively engaging on social networks such as twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, tumblr, Pinterest and others that seem to pop up every day. With the encouragement and trust of senior management, employees can become your company’s most important and loyal brand ambassadors.

Engage Your Employees

Below is a presentation (slightly revised) that I presented at a recent HR.com webinar on Social Media and Employee Communications. My presentation entitled “Empowering Employees as Brand Ambassadors” included:

• The steps your company can take to develop a corps of brand advocates – from identifying ambassadors, training them, developing a pilot program, and then launching your advocates on social media.
• How companies like IBM, Zappos, and Comcast are engaging their employees to burnish their brands and sell more products and services.
• How to develop a social media policy that works for your company.

If you would like a larger view, you can see the presentation on SlideShare.

If you’re a blogger then you probably know about Brian Clark, founder of the popular copyblogger blog.

Brian Clark

He’s also a successful entrepreneuer, creator of two WordPress themes, and Scribe, the SEO plugin. He also gives courses on internet marketing. He’s no doubt raking in megabucks. Good for him.

He just posted his first infographic and kindly gave his readers the code to embed. It’s called “22 ways to create compelling content.” You can see it when you scroll down this post.

Rising Star Danny Iny

He based the infographic on a post that Danny Iny wrote for copyblogger. I’ve watched Danny over the past year and his meteoric rise in the social media space — have you noticed his blog posts are everywhere?

He’s written a book, which I reviewed, and he wrote a post for Write Speak Sell. He kindly reciprocated and I wrote a post for his blog Firepole Marketing: Are you engaging brand advocates to market your business.” Danny never seems to be at a loss for something to write about.

You can read through the infographic for his tips on how to get the inspiration for your next post. But it may be easier to read in narrative form. It first appeared as a post on copyblogger: 21 ways to create compelling content when you don’t have a clue (Brian Clark added #22 which is recyle your old posts into something new).

How do you become inspired to write new posts? Let me know in the comments box and happy blogging!

Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

Related articles

• 8 Simple Ways To Skyrocket Your Blog Traffic (probloggingsuccess.com)

Corporate HR departments can’t ignore social media and its impact on employees. Employees are on social media so how do you manage their participation?

HR.com, the largest social network and online community of HR executives, with 194,000 members, is holding a free webinar entitled Social Media and Employee Communications with two days of speakers on March 1st and 2nd.

As the webinar copy states, “powerful enough to fuel revolutions, the tools of social media can connect and enable employees to new levels of communication that enable productivity and alignment with business results.”

Empowering Employees As Brand Ambassadors

As my regular readers know, I’m a big supporter of organizations that engage their employees to serve as brand ambassadors for their companies. So, I will be one of the speakers. Here is a link to my talk at 12:30 on Friday, March 2nd.

My session is about how to Empower Employees as Brand Ambassadors on Social Media to Promote Your Products, Services and Brand.  I’ll be discussing:

• The steps your company can take to develop a corps of brand advocates – from identifying advocates, training them, developing a pilot program, and then launching your advocates on social media.
• How companies like IBM, Zappos, Comcast, and Pfizer are enlisting their employees to enhance their brands.
• How to develop a social media policy that works for your company.

Other speakers will be discussing how to manage a Facebook page, social media analytics, a social media approach to employee engagement research, and much, much more. So consider registering for the entire event. It’s free, as is membership in HR.com.

Hope you’ll join the discussion!

Hurray, my hometown New York Giants won the Super Bowl. Yet another fourth quarter comeback for the Big Blue. They also won big with a record-breaking number of mentions on Twitter and Facebook.

The team’s owners scored big time with the leadership and enduring commitment to a philosophy that produces winners. It’s a lesson that other CEOs could emulate that I’ll discuss later in this post.

Super Bowl Site Traffic

Twitter tweeted that in the final three minutes of the Super Bowl there were an average of 10,000 tweets per second.  That is mind-boggling, really – 10,000 x 60 x 3 = 1.8 million tweets.

The Washington Post reported that sports fans sent about 11.5 million comments during last night’s game over social media networks (quoting All Things Digital), about six times higher than last year’s game. The Giants were interacting with fans on Twitter and Facebook before, during and after the game.

Giants Leadership

Eli Manning was the game’s MVP for leading his record-breaking fourth quarter comeback. But I want to talk about the team management’s leadership that has made the Giants one of the most respected franchises in sports history. It is a lesson for every company that wants to build the core competencies that will lead to success over the long haul.

It began in 1925 when Wellington Mara bought the NFL franchise Giants for $500. Over the years the Giants went through some very bad patches. But in the last 20 years the current ownership has honed a philosophy that you pick the right people, stick by them when things are tough and love your fans and players.

A Winning Philosophy

This philosophy has led to four Super Bowl victories, including this year when fans and media were calling for coach Tom Coughlin’s removal when the team lost four straight games. But the owners publicly continued to support their coach. They committed to him and their team and they were rewarded with the ultimate prize – the Lombardi trophy.

The Mara family still owns a half interest in the Giants, along with the other owner, Steve Tisch, from another respected New York family, (you can read about their leadership philosophies in a New York Times interview of the owners and Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots who lost to the Giants 21-17).

Loyal Fans

The Giants fans are among the most rabid and loyal fans in football. The Giants have never had a “blacked-out” game. If a team doesn’t sell-out the game, it is not televised locally. The waiting list for season tickets is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 years. Seven hundred fans paid $5,000 each to travel to Indianapolis for the Super Bowl.

In post-game interviews, the players, the owners and Tom Coughlin repeatedly mentioned how much the fans contributed to their victory.

Employees, like Giants fans, want to see their team succeed. Do you have a winning philosophy of hiring the right people, providing them with training and showing your love and respect for them? If you do, they will work their hearts out for you.

What more could you want?

Social Media Examiner (SME) hosted an online webinar yesterday and described how 9 small businesses are attracting thousands of visitors and, in some cases, millions of dollars in revenue. Most of them have only been at it for two or three years. I have to say I was more than impressed.

Social Marketing Makes Dollars and Sense

In the opening slide, we learned why social media is essential for any business.

My key takeaways from the presentation were:

• Give away free content. I’m not talking about the content of your blogs. But useful stuff like Ana White, Carpenter, does — diagrams and detailed instructions, for example, about how to build a cabinet.
• Use very personalized images. In most cases, the business owners had several informal shots of themselves sprinkled throughout the site — with their spouses, holding their dogs, etc.. Photos give you an emotional connection with your visitors.
• Create and empower your community. For example, run a contest to engage your readers. If you have a photography business, you could invite your audience to submit their best photos, select winners and post them on your site.
• Enable readers to share your content. Be sure to prominently display social media buttons for social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ so that your followers can share your content with their followers, potentially drawing many more visitors to your site.
• Leverage social proof. If you have impressive followings on Twitter and Facebook put those numbers up on your site. Include testimonials.
• Choose the channels that work best for you. If you’re a small business, it takes time to be active on every social network. Experiment and see where you should place your focus. You don’t have to be everywhere.

I liked that he showcased offbeat companies such as Easy Lunch Boxes and Orabush tongue cleaner (don’t laugh, he’s raking in the money). I concluded from the presentation you never know when an simple idea will turn into a profitable business.

Lessons Learned

At the conclusion of the seminar, Michael Steltzner, founder and CEO of SME, summed up the key lessons in this slide:

Please share in the comments box how your small business is using social media to build your business. I’m all ears.

I was in a new business meeting the other day and suggested that starting a company blog had the potential to increase visitors to the company’s website. We all know (don’t we?) that Google rewards dynamic content so posting regularly will eventually boost your rankings.

Why Blogs are Abandoned

The designer I was with said “Oh, no” that won’t work. I couldn’t blame him. He had designed websites and blogs for a number of clients and within a short time the blogs had been abandoned.

It’s a commitment to write a weekly or twice-weekly blog. Who will write the blog – someone inside the company or will we outsource it? What will we write about? Where will our ideas come from?

These are legitimate questions, but I believe it is a lack of will and commitment from top management that is behind the failures.There isn’t a plan in place to keep the blog going and building momentum.

Tips for Bloggers

So, if you, or your company, have abandoned your blog here are some steps to take:

• Make a commitment. Decide that you want to increase traffic to your website by x% within six months, or whatever benchmark you want to establish. A blog will help you do that. Static websites don’t cut it.
• Choose categories, or “buckets” of stories. Suppose you’re an accounting firm. You could decide to write about how to finance your retirement, tips for cutting taxes, and estate planning. Over time you could add more buckets.
• Assign responsibilities. Like any other marketing activity, you’ve got to allocate the necessary human and financial resources. Identify content experts in the company as sources for information the writer will need. Think carefully about assigning revenue-producing employees to write. They will usually find an excuse not to do it – I have a client calling, or I need to go to a new business pitch, etc. Better that they supply the writer with the facts she needs. Let accountants be accountants. Let writers be writers.
• Build an inventory of posts. Set a launch date for your blog and then prepare a schedule of posts for the first three months. Write your launch post and at least four other posts from different categories before you begin publishing. The first day, have a launch post that introduces your blog and why you are writing it. At the same time, publish the first four (or more) posts. Why? Because a single post will look like an orphan all by itself. The posts will contain great content and encourage readers to subscribe.
• Offer an incentive. Give readers a reason to subscribe, such as a special report, or something free that would otherwise cost them.
• Solicit guest posts. Ask clients and other experts to write guest posts. You will get backlinks to their sites (another SEO boost) and provide your readers with differing points of view.
• Post to social networks. Now that you have a blog you can automatically distribute new posts to social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. You will be reaching new audiences who may visit your website and decide you’re a company they would like to do business with.
• Repurpose the content. Turn your blog posts into articles, slide shows and electronic brochures. You will be leveraging your investment and distributing your content through other communications channels.

Beat the Competition

It’s true that many companies have abandoned their blogs. Shame on them. They are missing out on a great opportunity to establish the company’s authority on topics of interest to clients and prospects.

Most people still get their information about a company from its website. Your blog will serve as a sort of Pied Piper, luring in readers searching for valuable information to improve themselves and their businesses.

Why not have them come to you and not a competitor?

Related articles

• The benefits of business blogging: Part 1 (marketing.yell.com)
• 12 Business Blogging Shortcuts for Time-Crunched Marketers (hubspot.com)

Kyle-Beth Hilfer, Esq.

Employers struggle in social media to protect their confidential information, their reputations, and their intellectual property. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), on the other hand, is concerned with protecting the statutory rights of employees.

In August, 2011, the NLRB released a report on its social media investigations that ushered in a new age of corporate social media policies. Its findings do not just apply to unionized employers. The NLRB governs certain employee activities even in the absence of a union.

NLRB Reports on Social Media Investigations

In its report, the NLRB criticized social media policies that prohibit disrespectful language or negative comments, that forbid use of the employer’s intellectual property, or that protect employer’s confidentiality. Yet, these are mainstays of any employee handbook, so what can an employer do?

First, stay in touch with NLRB developments. Case law is emerging rapidly. Second, here are some current tips for employers who are drafting their social media policies for the first time or reviewing their existing policies:

- State the Policy’s Intent

The NLRB upheld a grocery chain’s policy that prohibited various employee activity in social media, but that clearly stated its purpose was to ensure clear and consistent communications with the media. Because the policy had narrow goals, the NLRB said this media policy could not be reasonably interpreted to restrict protected employee activity.

The lesson here is to include a preamble stating what the policy hopes to accomplish for the employer. This introduction should also clarify that certain employee activities remain unrestricted and that the employer does not seek to chill the speech of employees discussing and seeking to improve their workplace pursuant to Section 7 of the NLRA.

- Include Examples

I have consistently advised that social media policies include examples of the kinds of behavior that are disallowed. Using examples to flesh out guidelines becomes even more important in light of recent NLRB activity. Specific case studies can help strengthen the employer’s defenses against a negative finding by the NLRB.

- Be Careful with Oral Policies

When I speak at conferences, many employers tell me that they are concerned about putting their social media policies in writing. They feel this communication form is evolving too quickly, and by putting guidelines or policies in writing, they run the risk of falling behind. Others feel challenged to create a set of guidelines that works, so they instead rely on oral discussions with employees.

I urge employers not to put their heads in the sand in this manner. Just as it became clear that a written sexual harassment policy was an important step in protecting an employer’s assets, so too, a written social media policy is crucial. This is particularly true given the fact patterns that show up in the NLRB’s summer report. The absence of a clearly written policy or set of guidelines makes it harder to defend against charges of an NLRA violation.

- Train Your Supervisors

Your trainings should teach supervisors to spot “protected, concerted activity” that relates to the terms and conditions of employment. In short, the supervisors should see online discussions among employees or with supervisors as red flags requiring legal vetting before firing any employee. Note that discussions can be nonverbal; “liking” a comment constitutes a discussion.

In addition, if an employee acts alone on Facebook or some other social media, but his goal is to organize or garner support for the benefit of all employees, his activity may be protected. This is particularly true if he has previously raised the issue with management. It is crucial to delve into the facts of every situation before making a firing decision.

- Clarify Employee Rights

Corporate social media policies should emphasize to employees, both orally and in writing, that employees are still free to exercise their Section 7 NLRA protected rights. Indeed, starting January 31, 2012, the NLRB will require employers to use a poster that clarifies certain rights. (You can read more about the poster requirement here).

Employers should be making plans now to post the requisite notice and to educate employees about what it means.

This post is adapted from a post that first appeared on Kyle-Beth Hilfer’s website. © Kyle-Beth Hilfer, P.C. 2011. Kyle-Beth Hilfer, Esq. specializes in advertising, marketing, promotions, intellectual property and new media law. She is also Of Counsel to Collen IP, a full service intellectual property law firm. For more information about her law practice and more blog posts, please visit Kyle-Beth Hilfer, P.C. Twitter: @kbhilferlaw.