How To Take Social Networking Global

Adweek put out an article yesterday that hits home for most social networking services – how do we go global? For social networking behemoths like Facebook, one of their biggest challenges is to expand beyond the English speaking market. In fact Facebook Founder / CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last week that “global expansion and being able to handle it” is his companies biggest challenge. As you can tell from my post from July 31st (world map of social networking) most major social networking services have a global presence, but there is not one true global dominate force. Outside of North America each country has its own favorite – whether well known like Orkut in Brazil or unknowns like Skyrock Network in France.

“Social networking sites are founded on their ability to allow Internet users to communicate quickly and informally with one another,” said Delphine Gatignol, comScore’s business development manager for France. “The dominance of Skyrock Networks in France is a strong indication that language is a key factor.”

So all a company has to do to gain traction in another country is translate the site? Not quite. Social networking means different things to different people all over the world. What might work for Facebook in the US might not work in countires in Asia. Every aspect of a Social Networking site, features, “widgets” and even design has to be targeted to the demographic and have a true understanding of what is going on in that country. Of course that is where things get difficult. Does a company open up shop in every country they want to enter? Probably not, but they do need to work with local developers / marketers in defining what should and shouldn’t be done.