During the MarketingProfs Digital Conference last week, Intel’s Michael Brito suggested that “social media is culture driven.” His point was that companies need to be careful because what works in the U.S. might not work elsewhere. (Remember the Chevy No-va campaign?)
But is this really about social media, or is it more broadly about context and communications? What do you think?
Photo by Makz (Flickr).
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Funny, but I was at a conference a few weeks ago and I made a point during Christine Kerley’s presentation where she said that in order to change a culture you have to become part of the culture and I said, don’t act like the ugly American when you become part of that culture. The point? That has nothing to do with social media and everything to do with understanding communications and context.
Marc–I completely agree. Tagging this as a “social media problem” won’t do anything to get to a solution. Because, without context, how are you ever going to really connect with anyone?
Communications as a whole is culturally driven. Time and again Americans have gotten into trouble when translating an ad into Spanish and not being aware of the cultural implications. This is why there has been such a rise in multicultural agencies, etc.