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.
