I just Graduated!

It was FANTASTIC to finally get my Master's. The graduation became particularly special to me because I gave a speech to 2000+ people representing all the graduating students. I mainly talked about what it means to me to be a 'communication expert'. Below is my speech. Enjoy!

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished faculty, proud parents and friends, and most importantly, the class of 2010!

I am humbled and deeply honored to have been given this opportunity to share this momentous occasion with you, and to thank everyone from the Department of Communication for the incredible help and support they have provided me, for playing such an important role in cultivating great minds, and for challenging and inspiring all of us to take a life journey as communication experts. My education in this program will make a difference in all aspects of my life, and in all corners of the world to which I travel.

We are – all of us graduating today - communication experts. We value the importance of understanding how human communication shapes and guides society; we understand the significance of symbols, meanings, and messages; we know how to inquire into the nature of human communication and to think critically about the ways in which we attempt to influence one another.

But are we really communication experts? Or as Karl Weick asks, “how can I know what I think until I see what I say?” I started to try to answer this question some two years ago, when I first arrived in this country from China, and became a graduate student in the department of communication. The question became particularly relevant when I began to see how easily misunderstandings occur in intercultural communication situations.

During my first semester in Raleigh, for example, I volunteered in a local elementary school where many students and their parents were new immigrants from China and could speak little English. So I became the unofficial interpreter during teacher-parent meetings. One conversation between a teacher and a parent remained in my mind: “Mrs. Li, Johnny refused to answer questions in English today,” the teacher told Mrs. Li, Johnny’s mom. “I am so sorry Miss Gillian,” replied Mrs. Li. “We tried our best, but it is very difficult for us to help our child improve English. I really appreciate everything you have done to help him.” As I translated, I tried to reassure Miss Gillian, the teacher, that this is all Johnny’s mom had said - or ‘had to say’.

I regret not telling Miss Gillian then that the Chinese mom was not shying away from her responsibility to have her son be better prepared. Instead, as is the custom in much of Asia, she was trying to pay the highest respect to the teacher. From the perspective of Johnny’s mother, the authority of an educator is to be esteemed, not interfered with. The mother did not want to interfere with the teacher’s relationship with Johnny.

I also regret not telling Mrs. Li that a better way to show respect to a teacher in American culture is to proactively work with that teacher - to create a collaborative relationship in order to help the child improve.

What I learned from that intercultural interaction is how important it is to know something about how communication works – how important it is not only to facilitate the flow of information, but also to facilitate understanding and trust.

This kind of knowledge about human communication also applies to communication in workplace. In my experience as a marketing communication intern in a Raleigh-based public relations agency – and, more specifically, in my efforts to assist local technology companies develop business contacts in Asia and Europe -- the most critical question I have always needed to answer is: “How can we ensure that other markets and cultures trust our clients enough to cooperate with them?”

I am pretty sure we all have similar stories and face similar challenges. I want the graduating students today to know that, as communication experts, we are all helping people learn and trust each other; we are shaping the way the world see things; we have the knowledge and the ability to connect the globe as a whole.

In China, we have an idiom called 抛砖引玉- you throw out a few bricks, hoping that some fine jewelry or jade will follow, or you offer some commonplace remarks, in hope to inspire valuable opinions from others. So what I’ve said are my bricks, and I do hope you have the jade in your mind as a communication expert. Let’s start our great adventure, and good luck!

Relationship Maintenance Strategies on Chinese Fortune 500 Company Web Sites

This is a PowerPoint summary of a semester-long research project I completed with two fellow graduate students Chaofan Wu, and Jing Zhao. Enjoy! Let me know if you'd want to read the 34-page paper! I'll make sure that I email a copy.

Relationship Maintenance Strategies On Chinese Fortune 500 Company Websites May 7 2010

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iRlease: the Social Media Press Release

The social media community (bloggers, podcasters, online forum participants, Facebook users, etc.) is not a big fan of old school news/press releases in which companies issue news about themselves, usually only from the marketing and/or sales point of view, in a manner of one-way communication.

The social media community demands news/press releases to prioritize values to viewers without trying to directly promote or sell. Thus, the releases should be communicative, interactive, educational, inspiring and sharing.

That's where social media press release (SMR) comes into play. It takes into consideration their particular demands for information. In nature, it's a two-way dialogue that the readers can engage in. Some of the characteristics of SMR are --

1. Headline is optimized for search.
2. Formatting is attractive.
3. Has a precise to-the-point writing style.
4. Includes how-to information to guide and help readers.

In fact, Tod Defren from Shift Communications has introduced the first-ever template of the social media press release in 2006 and the social media press release template version 1.5 in 2008. Some other very helpful FREE resources regarding this topic include-

1. PitchEngine offers a full suite of Web 2.0 tools for PR professionals and journalists (i.e. links to your social network profiles, video and audio capabilities, etc…). Readers may opt to receive a release on any social networks they belong to.

2. Pressitt is a free service that allows you to create, publish and share your news to an online, socially connected audience.

Like any other communication approaches in the era of Web 2.0, SMR is about telling good stories, and having good conversations with the key publics to establish meaningful connections. I'd like to hear your thoughts concerning SMR. Thanks!

Do's and Don'ts in Blogger Relations

Nowadays, much news is generated and disseminated from the blogosphere. According to comScore, there are more than 77 million blog visitors in the U.S., a number greater than the total audience of Facebook or MySpace. While some of these visits are casual or entertainment-oriented, 50% of all readers report that blogs influence their purchase decisions, and the majority report that online reviews are often more helpful than speaking with a sales associate.

With such a captive blog audience, organizations need to be ready to cultivate positive relationship with the relevant bloggers to interact on content, image and influence. I've come up with a very short list of do's and don'ts when organizations approach and communicate with bloggers.

Don'ts --
1. Don't spam bloggers with irrelevant information to influence stories.
It’s easy for bloggers to spot who reads them and who doesn’t, and guess who gets the welcome?

2. Don't try to pay to get your products/service favorably blogged.
90% of bloggers claim that they talk about brands in an unpaid manner. Exchanging content for cash is not widely accepted. Tapping into this existing behavior is really important.

Do's --
1. Know your bloggers, and know them really well.
Dedicating time to read and interact with the target blogs. Think in their shoes; help make their work easier; be the kind of blog participants you wish to have with your own blog.

2. Respect bloggers' decisions.
If your target bloggers decide not to review your products, you'll need to be able to respect the decision and continue cultivating relationship with them. After all, the power of the blogosphere lies in its truth and authenticity - bloggers' decisions are part of it, so embrace it.

What do you think organizations should/can (not) do in terms of blogger relations?

Questions, Variables & Meseaurement of Social Media

Be aware! This post will show how much the comprehensive exam I had weeks ago is still haunting me. :)

So this week, I started to think about how to measure the value of social media, and I couldn't help thinking about operationalization, that is, to specify the measurement on variables in relation to a concept.

The concept is obviously social media. Variables are multiple depending on what questions you've asked. You may ask what is the increase in traffic to the organization's web site with the implementation of social media; or you may ask how is the interaction going between the social media users and you; or you may directly ask what is the sales driven by the social media. Other variables may include and are not limited to attention, retention, perception, engagement, etc.

With different questions, your inquiry will look much different. Some more qualitative, and others more quantitative. Various measurement tools are attached to both approaches.

Qualitative
Perhaps you want to know something about the reputation of your business/product/service, the ongoing conversations, and customer relationship. You may ask-

"Do we have a voice in the conversation about our product/service/overall industry?"
"How is our voice different from our competitors?"
"Are we making monologue or having a dialogue with our key publics?"

In-depth exploration and human analysis are involved to catch interaction and competition, and get answers to this kind of questions. Also, tools such as Sentiment analysis and opinion tracking may be used to get a picture about the conversation.

Quantitative
If your questions mainly address numbers, ROI, sales, profits, traffic, SEO ranking, you may take a more quantitative approach. Tools such as Google Analytics and Feedburner can help analyze blog traffic, subscriber count, keyword optimization, etc. I recommend this article if you want to learn how to use some of the most advanced tools and metrics. Also, for reference, this article introduces more than 50 tools designed to track traffic.

The key takeaway is that organizations need to ask clear questions, specify variables before they get down to choosing tools and metrics to measure social media successes.

Inform CEOs: Social Media ROI is Measurable!

This Wednesday I attended the Triangle Game Conference which featured a panel discussion on the use of social media for gaming companies. While expressing the passion for social media, the panel of investors and CEOs expressed concerns over the use of social media to market and promote products, a reason being lack of measurement on success, with success majorly perceived as return on investment, or ROI.

This tells me several things. First, in order to successfully including social media in the communication strategy, businesses need to be able to determine whether or not a social media program is moving products or making impacts. Second, the management tends to think that social media ROI is not measurable at the monetary level. Third, the burden of education and operationalization is on us communication professionals. We need to help the dominant coalition understand the value of social media by clarifying the fact that social media success, even when it is defined as ROI, is measurable, and below are a few initial thoughts on how to do that-

1. Well communicate goals and objectives.
It is important to touch base with the management what should be realized with the implementation of a social media program. Is the investment expected to be returned by higher sales, more profits, more leads or otherwise better retention? Knowing what needs to be quantified is the first step to proving a social media strategy is beneficial to businesses. Choosing the appropriate tools to quantify successes though, is another topic I'd like to discuss with my next blog.

2. Measure baseline.
To demonstrate ROI, it is essential to let the number speak. That's how statistic-based metrics comes into play. To ensure the dominant coalition see how much difference the social media makes for the business, a before/after picture needs to be depicted. Thus, we need to not only measure the gain after social media is introduced, but also where the business currently stands at- what is the sales now, how much customer attention we are getting now, etc.

3. Well translate the data.
It is better to provide to decision makers data-driven insights than to provide raw data. Explain with your data how social media help accomplish goals and objectives. For instance, if your ultimate goal is to increase sales, it is important to explicate the correlation between social media use and increased sales with your data- how much more traffic is driven to the e-commerce site after a new Facebook message or new Tweet, and how much increase in sales do you see with that extra traffic?

I believe in the value of having open discussion about how to best measure social media impacts. Ultimately, it is important to let key decision makers see such impacts can be measured beyond ROI. But I tend to believe ROI will always be on their mind, so we can figure out ways to start from there.

Facebook vs. Twitter: Which is Better for What?

Facebook and Twitter, both are too important to miss when it comes to social media marketing communication. However, when we need to closely strategize when to use which, an essential question would be: Facebook or Twitter? Which is better for what? That is to say, which social media platform offers the best strategies for the specialized needs of business, market and the key publics?

A recent analysis by Irbtrax may help answer the question. The highly triangulated study compares social media marketing strategy benefits of Facebook verse Twitter. Results are summarized as below.

Facebook wins in these areas-
1. More effective in driving traffic;
2. Better social media intimacy, or interactivity;
3. Direct Internet communication from a client contact and human resources management perspective;
4. A better platform for Business to Consumer marketing.

Twitter wins in these areas-
1. Better for viral marketing;
2. More effective in market research and trend identification;
3. A better platform for Business to Business marketing.

I think the comparison analysis is very interesting and useful, especially when social media choices are made for a marketing communication project with specific objectives, timetables, budgets and evaluation criteria. After all, the desired mutually beneficial relationship needs to be cultivated using the most appropriate tool. It's important that we understand each tool we have.

Job Seeking 2.0: Interactive Self-Branding

Social media is penetrating to all corners of life, including job seeking. Today, a plain CV may not be your only choice when you get down to introducing yourselves to prospective employers. With web sites such as VirtualCV and Ning, job seekers are able to provide richer information such as self-introduction videos, hyperlinks to references, images, charts, and other portfolio documents. (Please go here to take a look at a sample VirtualCV resume.) These web sites also provide networking resources to interact with employers, and users can control who has access to view their online resumes.

One important idea underlying these web sites is self-branding- instead of telling what they can do (in plain text), job seekers now showcase what's been done in order to demonstrate what they can do. The technologies enable job seekers to tell stories, make presentations, and draw pictures of themselves for potential employers, giving them a clearer feel of the "persona". Another big plus about these web sites is that it will help improve your Google ranking, adding more weight to your personal brand.

With almost all technologies being double-edged swords, it can be argued that VirtualCV and Ning have potential down sides for job seekers and their self-branding. In my opinion, disadvantages may include- information overload, challenges of branding with multimedia (for example, people need to know how to speak properly in front of a camera in order to make a good self-introduction video), keeping a balance between being completely open with one's online resume and being highly selectively open (after all, you don't want to be transparent to everyone with your professional information, and at the same time, you do need to direct useful traffic to view it). I'm curious to know your opinions about online job seeking, self-branding and pros and cons of these web sites.

SNS China: What Can You Do When Everyone is Playing?

The major function of SNS, or social networking sites, is pretty self-explanatory: networking, and building and reflecting social relations. In China, where internet is considered as an entertainment highway for some 340 million web users, SNS has two main focuses- networking and entertainment.

According to a 2009 research by iResearch, China's top market research firm specializing in customer behavior in internet media, e-commerce and online games, 48.6% of SNS users in China use SNS to keep in touch with old friends, and 32.2% of them use SNS for entertainment, more specifically, playing casual/webpage/interactive games provided as SNS applications.

To be more specific, many college students and young white collar employees (two most important demographic groups of SNS population in China) kill time by selling SNS friends for virtual money, stealing each others' vegetables in the SNS farms (extreme cases involve people setting up spreadsheet for effective farm stealing!), 0r competing for virtual parking spot. They don't care to add a company/brand as friends; they don't pay attention to organizations on SNS; they just want to have fun with mostly people they know, which brings a question for organizations aiming to build relationships on SNS- do we still have a shot?



The answer is yes. Entertainment elements highlighted on Chinese SNS give a lot of potential to interactive marketing communication. Organizations may think in way: if it is hard to be invited to play a game and get entertained with SNS users who happen to be their key audience, it is easier to be part of the virtual game and help your audience realize the real value of the brands. Citroën China successfully penetrated into the popular SNS game of competing for parking spots. The player who earned the msot virtual money can win a real car. Players interact with the brand in this most played SNS game in osmosis. Though Citroen is not "friended", it has successfully got into many SNS social circles. This case tells us that creative and entertaining measures need to be sought to communicate with key publics on SNS in China... perhaps also elsewhere- what do you think?

Location-Aware Text Messaging

Text-messaging is getting more and more location aware. Mobile phones influence how we interact with space when mobile interfaces “know” their location. By being able to connect to satellites, cell phone towers or wireless routers, mobile devices acquire geospatial coordinates which allow users to access location-based information about that space and to find other users in the surroundings, depending on their relative distance to one another. The trend, which Dr. Silva describes as "network locality" (being connected to a network with local information embedded) can be found in corners of lives. I'd like to bring to you an application in China.

Municipal governments in China often utilizes the database that contains all mobile phone numbers, sets up a public text messaging terminal and sends one-to-all SMS for various administrative purposes. During the Beijing Olympics, the Beijing municipal government frequently sent messages to all mobile users within the network of Beijing, notifying them of temporary transportation issues. Also, mobile phone users who take an intercity trip in China will receive automatic text messages as soon as they cross a city limit (departing one city and entering another). The text messages welcome them to the new city and provide local information such as famous places of interest, weather forecast, and accommodation hotlines. The government-initiated one-to-all text messaging can be seen as a unique appropriation of the Chinese society because on the one hand, it is enabled and complies with the centralized authority, and on the other, it reflects the cultural orientation of collectivism that bases decision-making on what is best for a group.

I believe location aware text messaging is a promising application not only for government initiated public administration. Welcome text message travelers receive as they reach new cities benefit local commerce, tourism and the general city branding. I'd like to hear your thoughts about the possible organizational use of location aware text messaging. Thanks!


P.S. Above is an example of the possibilities of being location smart for organizations. Mobile phone users who pass by the billboard can scan the QR code (something similar as bar code but more advanced) on the billboard with their mobile phone and access a website embedded. Instead of sending text messages to everyone, you can let others go to you.