Late last year someone asked about Social Media Usage in Japan in a LinkedIn group I’m in. The request was from a girl in the US researching for a University paper she was working on. She asked a bunch of questions about Social Media use in Japan, some quite subjective and many the questions Marketing & Market Entry folks would, and do, pay good money for.
Wanting to be ‘ever helpful’ I gave her some ideas on where to start. While I’m no expert in Social Media or Japan, I am active in some Social Media channels & do have a large network here, as well as some solid ideas I think, for leveraging Search/Research, the Web & Social channels.
So as well as advising her that she might benefit from finding someone who is a native or near native level Japanese speaker to help her Google & research in Japanese, here are some People, Links and Information I shared with her to kick start her own research: *I’ve added & edited a little from the original post
WHERE TO START WITH RESEARCHING SOCIAL MEDIA IN JAPAN
Follow Dr. Serkan Toto, better still, give him a reason to connect/meet & talk to you:
- Web http://www.serkantoto.com/
- TC http://techcrunch.com/author/serkan/
- Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/serkantoto
Follow Neal Schaffer, better still, give him a reason to connect/meet & talk to you:
- Web (Japan Search) http://windmillnetworking.com/category/japan/
- Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/NealSchaffer/
- Maximize Social Business in Japan http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Windmill-Networking-in-Japan-Izakaya-155801
- Neal’s Japanese Language Blog specific to Japan Social Media http://windmillnetworking.com/japanese-social-media-marketing/
Follow some other people & groups active in Social Media here: (and See LinkedIn search below to find more)
- Mobile Monday Tokyo, @Wireless_Watch & Mobikyo KK’s Lars Cosh-Ishii
- OsakaBentures founder @OsakaSaul – Saul Fleischman
- Megumi Oyanagi – on LinkedIn, @MegOyanagi & her Blog
- Ed Thompson & Gil Chavez – both independent of each other teach Social Media (one of many subjects) at Universities here in Japan (with their own companies & solid credentials in real-world Marketing, Advertising & Communications/PR)
- LinkedIn groups: Business In Japan, Expats In Japan, Japan Networking Group, Bilingual Workforce in Japan, Friends of Japan/Nippon no Yuujin & Japan Intercultural Consulting
- Twitter (Japan & Social Media Search)
- Article from Adam Acar / @Adamacar about Facebook in Japan
- Japanese Social Media sites Mixi, Ameblo, 2channel & Hatena
Mashable rules
Mashable (Japan Search) http://mashable.com/?s=japan&commit=Search
LinkedIn search is also your friend – so do what 90% of people don’t do on Social Media; proactively reach out and talk to people:
LinkedIn Advanced Search for “Social Media” (in Japan)
[Note: Read my ideas on how to do this effectively here – “do the hard yards”]
The guys dealing with Japan, Tech, Social media at Business Insider write good stuff. Here’s just one guy & you can ask him questions from his profile page:
- Jay Yarow http://www.businessinsider.com/author/jay-yarow
SlideShare – Second to none the best place for a quick & dirty run down on the stats and key points on ANY subject:
- SlideShare (Japan Social Media Search) http://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?searchfrom=header&q=japan+social+media
G is for Google …through to lots of stuff (just a start):
- JapanBuzz Blog http://www.japanbuzz.info/blog
- Digital Buzz Blog (Apac article) http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-asia-pacific-social-media-statistics-stats-facts/
- Stats on Mixi http://socialmediastatistics.wikidot.com/mixi
- Asiajin rocks for great articles, often on Social Media http://asiajin.com/blog/
- UltraSocial (Japan Search) http://www.ultrasocial.co.uk/topic/japan
- And a great Search (Japan) http://is.gd/4RgI49 at Socialnetworkingwatch.com
[ BTW, to get good at Search, a great place to start is Boolean Black Belt (Don’t let the focus on Sourcing/Recruitment distract you – brilliant knowledge shared by Glen Cathey here) http://www.booleanblackbelt.com/ ]
Aggregators are great:
- Daily Social (Japan Search) http://techne.dailysocial.net/?s=japan
- Alltop (Japan & Social Media Search) http://alltop.com/?keywords=japan+social+media&x=25&y=11
Q&A sites are also great. Besides LinkedIn Answers, try asking the right questions & following the right people at:
- Quora (Japan & Social Media Search) http://www.quora.com/Social-Media-in-Japan?q=japan+social+media
- Focus http://www.focus.com/ *Edit: Hmm. Seems they shut down. See the Archive: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.focus.com/
- Answers at OnStartups/StackOverflow http://answers.onstartups.com/search?q=japan
[ Great Article on what Q&A Sites are, from the perspective of SEO and why Q&A sites good for it ]
