With the world becoming more global every day, sites like Facebook can’t even capture the full extent of all your international customers. That’s why it’s important to keep your options open by communicating through social networks outside the U.S. As Part 1 started you off with three sites such as Vkontakete, Qzone and Ibibo, Part 2 of this blog series will provide you with three more social networking sites to help you keep your options open.
Odnoklassniki (Russia)
Languages: Armenian, Azeri, English, Georgian, Romanian, Russian, Tajik, Ukrainian, and Uzbek
About: With 45 million registered users, Odnoklassniki is the seventh most popular website in Russia. Listed in 2012 as one of the “Top Ten Russian Brands Out to Conquer the World”, Odnoklassniki exists as a social network to allow Russians to connect with classmates in Russia (Odnoklassniki literally means “classmates” in Russian). After Vkontakete, Odnoklassniki is the second biggest social networking site in Russia. This site is a great way to get in touch with your Russian customers!
Cloob (Iran)
Language: Persian, English
About: With many companies expanding their businesses to the Middle East, Cloob will start to be seen more in that area of the world. After the main social network, Orkut, was blocked by the government, Cloob was created by the people to provide messaging service and even a database for resumes! With around 1 million users, Cloob is still pretty small, but proves useful for businesses in Iran.
Draugiem (Latvia)
Language: Latvian, Russian, English, Hungarian
About: Draugiem, listed as the largest social networking site in Latvia and the fifth most popular site in the country, is a great way to get into contact with your Latvian customers. There are 2.6 million users and the messaging service of Draugiem is used to communicate more often than email there.
Clearly, social media is no longer limited to Facebook and Twitter, and other countries have their own preferences for social media networks. What role does social media play in your domestic marketing campaign, and how would your social media marketing change if you expand overseas? How can you best take advantage of in-country social media websites?
