This is Mai's Blog for Social Media Marketing & Communication class at Clark University in Mass. I have been studying as a Master degree candidate. This is my first post for my Social Media class in Spring semester. And this is my 2nd blog in English. I made another one for my New Media Technology class last semester. On this blog, I will talk about Social Media and some media marketing technologies.
I'm on major social media such as facebook, twitter, Google+, blogger.com (of course), Linkedin, Tumbrl. Also, since I'm from Japan, I am also on Japanese social media like mixi which is the most popular SNS in Japan, and ameblo which is Japanese mass blog site. So I'm pretty much into Social Media world.
I'm on major social media such as facebook, twitter, Google+, blogger.com (of course), Linkedin, Tumbrl. Also, since I'm from Japan, I am also on Japanese social media like mixi which is the most popular SNS in Japan, and ameblo which is Japanese mass blog site. So I'm pretty much into Social Media world.
In Japan, many people have started registering facebook these days since "Social Network" came out last March (oh yes, it always takes some time to import foreign movies into Japan). Before that, Japanese people even didn't know what ffacebook is. I had some friends from different countries, I already had facebook account in 2007. One of the reasons why they didn't start facebook was that people feel like they need to know English or they need to have communication in English on facebook, so they were kind of avoiding facebook. Nowadays, however, while mixi is still a huge SNS in Japan, more than 10 millions Japanese people are on facebook now.
On facebook, we can share our information like hometown, birthday, school and work. If you are in Japan, we can share some different and unique information with friends in Japan. I think IP address recognize where you are and facebook (Japanese version) let us put some more information which we cannot do if we are in the States. As far as I know, we can share our blood type and the nearest local station.
You might think why blood type is important and worthy information. In Japan, I think 90% people in Japan know what their blood type is. We require to know which one since elementary school due to the health care system. Also, many people believe that blood types are like horoscopes in Japan. We divide people into 4 different types of personality. And we can get to know which blood type people have through facebook without asking them so we can figure out what kind of personality they have. Nice.
What is creepy, we can also share our nearest local station. I would feel so scary if someone is actually waiting for me at the station or wicket. Maybe we can expect to have some conversation like "Oh you get off at Nagoya-station? So do I! We should go back from school together!"
In terms of marketing or advertising through facebook, the information about the nearest local station would be useful. But, I am not sure how many companies or local shops figure out how to exploit facebook for their business.
Nevertheless, facebook is definitely getting big in Japan. Some Japanese major companies started launching their own fan pages and providing their information every day. Also, those page are used for recruiting new people. To be a smart and effective Marketing practitioner, I am looking forward to studying and delving into Social Media in this class every week.
I hope you continue giving details on the differences in social media between Japan and the US. I was amused about learning the influence of blood type on people's personality. By the way, I am B+. I would liked to have seen in your blog links, photos and more explanations on how Social Media is being used in Japan that only a Japanese could provide.
返信削除Thank you for the comment! Japan has established our own network culture including social media because we even have social media for computer games! It sounds crazy to me haha My blood type is A and I heard that A is the majority in Japan and O is the majority in the States. The funny thing is that some Japanese can guess people's blood types in terms of their personalities! I will keep letting you know the difference between Japan and the States.
削除Japanese people are lucky to have Facebook in homeland. On the contrary, we could not use Facebook in China, as the government forbids it. I like the function of sharing nearest local station. It is funny to encounter someone and go to someplace together, isn't it?
返信削除I don't put my local station on facebook when I was in Japan because I am not comfortable to do it. I just wonder the information we can share on facebook is different in each country...for us, sharing our blood types is common and not a big deal. That would be interesting to know the culture differences in terms of sharing information on facebook!
削除Nice description by you about facebook. We can not use it in China, but we have the Chinese vision facebook, it is quite similar to facebook. I like the function that can show your location, but maybe I will only use it when I am in library, because everyone else will say” what a hardworking girl you are!” to me. lol
返信削除It's an interesting feature you brought up. I've always thought Facebook simply changed the language setting for different countries and maybe just sift through the ads. I guess it is starting to go beyond a social network, but more like a product or a brand. You need different packages for different audiences.
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