Blogging and Online Marketing in China with Lonnie B. Hodge
Posted by Des Walsh in Blogging, China, tags: Blogging, Business, China, Lonnie B. Hodge, marketing, new media, searchLonnie B. Hodge is mystified.
And frankly, so am I.
Why would people blogging for business from the US and other Western countries ignore the potential for online business in China?
How can people in the West go on assembling for conferences and seminars about new media and online marketing and decline to look at China?
That’s the picture as seen by Lonnie B. Hodge, The American Professor (see Google screenshot below). A blogger and search engine optimization (SEO) specialist living and working in China, Lonnie can’t understand the lack of interest. Why, he asks, are people so uninterested in “the biggest Internet market in the world”?
In this conversation, Lonnie talks about blogging and online marketing in China and shares tips on
- how even people who do not speak or read Chinese can tap into the China blogosphere
- how bloggers whose blogs are in English or other non-Chinese languages can establish their presence on the dominant China search engine (yes, bigger than the Big G).
Lonnie also mentions his trip to the US for a lecture tour later this month and offers a face to face briefing on China for folks who might like to spring for a cup of coffee in one of the places he is planning to visit, including Colorado, California and Chicago, Illinois.
If you have the slightest interest in or curiosity about accessing marketing online in China, you will find in this recording invaluable clues to start you on your journey of discovery.
Disclaimer: Lonnie and I are business associates and we do provide a couple of plugs for our business in the course of the conversation – but you could think of them as “organic” plugs. 
Entries (RSS)
Comes as a surprise to me that folks are not interested in China when it comes to online marketing and new media events. That’s not what I’m reading and hearing.
James Fallows, who’s currently based in Beijing, is writing some great stuff for The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/chinese-firewall
The 17th World Wide Web Conference was in Beijing in April 2008: http://www2008.org/
(I attended the 4th WWW Conference in Boston in 1995! http://www.w3.org/Conferences/WWW4/)
Thanks Debbie
That’s good that you are seeing more evidence of interest. I think the conversation makes it clear that there is no shortage of information and commentary coming *out of* China, as per your James Fallow reference. The podcast includes several blogs in English, by people in China such as Jeremy Goldkorn, Thomas Crampton and Rebecca McKinnon. There are also excellent examples of great, informed writing about China, from afar, such as Dan Harris’ China Law Blog.
I can feel a resource list coming on!
Ah, 1995. A very good year – probably about when my life changed and I became an unreconstructable netizen.
You are right: there is a lot of talk lately about engaging China and a lot of rumblings about more mash-ups. I hope they come off. And this year’s China Bloggercon is looking to integrate some western luminaries–which I hope is a great success.
In the podcast I think we talk about the interest and conversation not being in proportion to what is actually happening.
Your visit, and Des Walsh’s continued involvement are but a few harbingers of great things to come! And as your vidcasts and our conversation point out, there are a lot of people who can help facilitate much more cooperation.
Best from GZ