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.

I first heard Peter speak at the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum in Sydney in February. Last week I interviewed him.

We talked about a number of issues, including:

• Google Apps
• cultural change issues that come up with the introduction of Web 2.0 technology in the enterprise
• the emerging role of Enterprise 2.0 in the government sector
• how the technology helps companies get measurable business value from their knowledge work processes.

In the interview we make reference to a document available as a free download from the Capgemini website – Enterprise 2.0 For the Rest of Us – which I found well worth the read.

MP3 File

Interview with Peter Evans-Greenwood

What’s the business case for a company researching and even investing human/financial resources in Second Life or other virtual worlds?

Does the potential upside outweigh the risk?

What will peers – or shareholders – have to say about executives who argue for more engagement with the metaverse?

This interview with David Holloway, Editor-in-Chief of The Metaverse Journal, touches directly or indirectly on these and related questions. Of course, in the space of a 30 minute or so interview it does not provide all the answers. But it does provide some context and illustrations for a sensible discussion on the subject.

In Metaverse Journal Partners With Enterprise 2.0 Thinkfest on my deswalsh.com site, I’ve posted summary notes of the interview and some comments, and a couple of pictures, including one of David Holloway.

Click here to download…

This is the second interview to be posted here on the Social Media Show and the second in a series relating to the upcoming Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum – Sydney, February 19, 2008.