Is it for real or not?
Every time I discuss the interactive web with fellow communicators, one of the first questions on people’s mind is “how are we going to convince senior management of the importance of introducing social media”.
 I had a great time last week talking to IABC Belgium about International Communications Strategy and the different case studies contained in the book.
My advice to Cheryl who asked me the famous question is to use the information and data available to make the business case for Web 2.0.
While in the West we are still desperately trying to measure the ROI of social media, China has been able to figure out a way to track online conversations and link them to purchase decisions.
According to CiC, the Chinese internet community supports the “most expansive and developed participation architecture in the world”.
The influence of user-generated content (blogs, discussions on bulletin boards, etc.) on the decisions of Chinese consumers has been estimated at 58% while it is less than 20% in the US.
There are lessons to be learned for communicators.
For example, the same method could be used in internal communications to track employees’ interactions on online forums and assess their attitude towards different corporate initiatives.
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