The evolution of blogs from posts comparable to short essays in length to much shortened variations called microblogs has been positively adapted by web users. Microblogging services like Twitter have achieved widespread popularity with their use transcending most major language groups online. Twitter is rapidly implementing multilingual support to harness user generated content in foreign languages to appeal to the linguistically diverse web audience. However, with the post restrictions that limit text to 140 characters, some languages present a challenge for users due to their verbose linguistic structure.

Twitter’s 140 character limit is based upon the 160 character limit that was in place for text messages on mobile phones. The number was chosen by a German named Friedhelm Hillebrand who worked for German Telecom. In 1985, Friedhelm decided to count the number of characters in a large sample of sentences and he found that almost all of them clocked in fewer than 160 characters. This set the standard for text messaging and Twitter’s character limit is derived from this, it reserves 20 characters for the user’s address and leaves the rest for the tweet. For text messages, user inventiveness resulted in the creation of SMS language, which is now used on microblogs too.

Twitter users in English have furthered the evolution of a shortened form by making shorthand more widespread. As a global, many-to-many communication platform, new shorthand expressions have had the chance to spread and be adopted as a standard more quickly than a one-to-one or one-to-many communication method like SMS. Shorthand such as b/c for because and b4 for before already existed in text language but are now more widely known because of Twitter. A unique to Twitter trend has been the use of memes with a hashtag to encapsulate a concept or idea that has spread online. For instance, #fail is used to indicate disapproval or contempt and #ff, which stands for follow Friday, is a recommendation to follow users referenced in the message.

While English has had to be morphed into a shortened variation for communication tools where character limits are enforced, other languages are ideally suited for microblogs. Chinese, for instance, is a very concise language in terms of character length because single characters can represent whole words. Users tweeting in Chinese are able to convey messages of a few sentences long without having to exceed the maximum limit. Languages like Arabic and Korean are also well suited for use on Twitter as vowels can be omitted in these languages.

Twitter users who communicate in languages that are very verbose have also started to use shortened and informal abbreviated English to communicate. Text in languages like Spanish and Portuguese typically expands in length when translated from English. Native language speakers of these languages therefore have to find ways to convey their message in as few characters as possible. One such way has been to mix languages such as English into their tweets opting for the more concise of the two for particular expressions.

The continued expansion of language support on Twitter has been positively embraced by communities worldwide. Due to its mass appeal, language speakers have been brought together by a shared language and adapted their use of language to meet the needs of the platform and the community. Microblogging showcases not just how languages evolve but also how they can be preserved in an interconnected global community.

Social media is still a learning curve for many brands as they transition to a new paradigm of engagement and interaction with their customer communities. What is evident is that social media is experiencing global growth on a phenomenal scale. The recently published Wave 5 of UM’s social media tracker study* shows that the proportion of internet users managing a social network profile has grown on average globally by 35% over 2 years with users in all countries surveyed using social media more.

But this fast-changing landscape means that many brands are confused about exactly what they should be doing on social sites beyond customer listening and building a community of ‘+1’s’, ‘likes’ and ‘followers’. Mistakes are often fertile breeding ground for new ideas and developments that then path the way for future success. In the UK recently, Snickers publicity campaign to showcase its product ended up being brandished a Twitter #fail after Katie Price, a celebrity known for glamour modelling, tweeted about quantitative easing and China’s GDP numbers. She later published a photo of herself holding the chocolate bar on her feed saying that she wasn’t feeling herself because she was hungry.

What’s clear from the research is that consumers do want to engage with brands even in a social context amongst friends. UM’s study shows a near tripling in the numbers of people who have become fans with brands on their social networking platform over the last year. People want to join brand communities to learn about products as well as find exclusive news and free content about them. There are local nuances to consider too. In Latin America brand followers are driven by the desire to be associated with something but in Asia they are more likely influenced by peers.

For brands this means that more than ever before content is king. The social need of customers is satisfied by high quality, locally adapted content that is relevant to the brand. Once people can identify with a brand’s messaging in their cultural context then engagement, endorsement and ultimately sales will follow.

*Wave 5 – The Socialization of Brands

If you’re a blogger or website owner and don’t realize by now that social media marketing makes a great impact on search engine optimization, then your site is doomed to failure. Social media marketing is indeed here to stay, which makes 2012 look so promising for all online marketers. This year is going to be very exciting for all web users, techies, and experts. That’s why it’s worth knowing what lies ahead for all of us.

This incredibly advanced digital age makes it possible for all people to acquire all kinds of information, whether they need them or not. With the advent of current and popular social media sites coupled with the availability of different smart phones, it’s not hard to catch up with the latest trends in news, business, fashion, lifestyle, and sports, anymore. The convergence of social media and mobile marketing makes it easy for everyone, especially marketers to do their thing and reap amazing benefits.

Here are some social media marketing trends worth knowing. Take note of these and start adapting to the seemingly prolific ways to do business online:

1. More social media sites will become greatly popular.
If you have been enjoying traffic from popular sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr, then it’s time to improve your game and take advantage of the perks that social-media-site-dwarfs-turned-giants offer. Sites like Google+, Digg, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon are just some of the social media sites to watch out for. You might want to take note of new but steadily rising sites like Pinterest as they are about to take the social media scene by storm too!

2. User preference for rich media like video and images will grow further.
This is one of the reasons for website owners to reinforce the video and image content in their sites. Users’ craving for visually entertaining and stimulating content prompts these social media giants to improve their site features that aim to accommodate this particular need. Why else would YouTube be this popular?

3. On-time, real-time is the way to go.
And because people want to get informed in the soonest possible time, they go for anything and everything that can give them immediate updates. Thus, it would be wise to tap social media sites that allow you to get such perks. It would also be a good idea to add features in your own site that enables your target audience to and current information which will keep them interested and thus a loyal patron of your site and services.

4. Be aware of the many upcoming apps.
Applications on social media giants like Facebook will keep on coming. It will be wise to be on the loop when it happens. Of course, you need to watch out for other websites’ apps too. The trick here is to find the social media sites that best match your needs and maximize the apps they offer.

I told you 2012 will be exciting! This is as good a time as any to start making changes in your site or blog if you haven’t taken advantage of social media marketing yet. Embrace the marketing package that these sites offer. Be ready to work hard towards making this the year of social media marketing victory!

In India, internet penetration rates are 9 times less than most Western countries. Over the next 5 years, more than a billion people will have internet access for the first time. Fast-growing internet penetration combined with rising incomes means that the e-retail market globally is still only its early stages.

For Language Connect, researching online shopping data is important in order to analyse characteristics of specific markets. As a language, localization and multilingual digital marketing services provider, we are best placed to advise clients on international market opportunities. We have compiled the data in a graphical map to put the e-retail market in a visual context.

Click on the image to launch a larger version of it in a separate window.

Embed Code:

<a href="http://www.languageconnect.net/blog/2012/01/infographic-top-e-retail-markets-of-the-world//" target="_blank"><img title="Language Connect | Top E-Retail Markets" src="http://www.languageconnect.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Top_E-retail_Infographic.png" alt="Infographic: Top E-Retail Markets - Infographic" /></a>

The images show the top six e-retail markets of the world using their B2C sales figures in 2010. The BRIC group of counties is also listed with their respective market data. Also included are the top products/services consumers intend to buy online.

With mobile web, location is key and search engine results are mostly geared towards local services. Google’s mobile search engine accounts for the majority of mobile web searches, a 97% market share according to official statistics. 40% of mobile queries are location related. Mobile advertisement has grown into a billion dollar market, and its value is increasing fast. read more at Quill Media

In recent years, a growing number of online companies and organisations have started to provide content in different languages to target foreign language speakers. Wikipedia was the first to start the trend of providing multilingual content through its contributors, and as a non-profit organisation with vast resources, it has achieved impressive results over time and now covers 283 language. Commercial companies, on the other hand, had to consider the business model of adding multilingual support especially considering the costs and resources required to provide content in foreign languages. However with the growth of foreign languages users online and the introduction of Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs), the opportunity has rapidly overtaken the investment costs. Websites of multinational companies now support an average of 23 languages, a substantial increase from the earlier days when the average language supported was less then 10.

Yahoo recently announced that it will have its content ready in eight regional languages of India by the end of 2012. Similarly, their local website will be redesigned for the target market to provide a relevant and engaging experience to Indian web users.  Around 80 per cent of web users in India use Yahoo to read content on a regular basis. The growth of local Indian languages online influenced the company’s decision to expand aggressively in the current year.

The demand for content in foreign languages is increasing with the growth of foreign language speakers online. While social networks like Facebook used a crowdsourcing platform to translate their site content rapidly, others with less content use professional translation services to achieve their objectives. Challenges exist though for some regional languages where there is a lack of computer literate individuals who are fluent in English as well as their own language. Efforts are being made to get regional languages ready for the web and continue their growth online. Languages like Telugu which has an estimated population of 100mil is currently being encoded for the internet under the Unicode system.

Continued web development and provisions for foreign language speakers are being utilised by large companies so far. With more companies readying themselves for multilingual content, the internet will become more diverse linguistically and specific to user requirements.

At Language Connect, we are committed to being a socially responsible business by engaging with our local community, promoting sustainability and operating in a fair and transparent manner. Our programme to showcase our ethical business values, Community Connect, has had its most active year.

Here’s a recap on Community Connect’s activities this year:

• In March we held a translation and interpreting workshop at the Convent of Jesus and Mary Language College to raise awareness of language learning and give students a hands-on experience of using their second language to pursue a career in the language services industry (our work with the college was highly commended for innovation at the Business Language Champion Awards)
• As part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, two of our Project Management staff sat on a panel at the Convent of Jesus and Mary Language College to talk to the students about using languages in business. I went back to my old university, Bristol, to sit on a panel of alumni in business to speak about my experience of setting up and growing a business
• Our Operations Manager in Germany took part in a student mentoring scheme in Munich
• For our London office design project we promoted two local artists who created a unique and inspiring design. Additionally, we donated the paint and the tools left over from the project to a local charity that promotes and teaches art in the area
• Through Kiva, we provided $1,000 in micro-loans to small businesses/entrepreneurial initiatives in developing countries
• We donated our old PCs to a charity, Computer Aid International, that sends them to the developing world
• We are making donations of over £600 to local charities in the UK, Germany and Australia in-lieu of e-cards that we sent out this week.

Special thanks go to all our staff that have participated in Community Connect this year.

For a number of years, consumer spending has been shifting from traditional bricks-and-mortar stores to online retailing sites. In the UK, Europe’s leading e-retailing economy, online spending was £58.8bn* compared to total retail sales of £293bn** last year. Online spending is set to grow its share by increasing 15% year-on-year compared to just 0.7% sales growth in the economy overall.

There are a number of factors attributed to the growth of online shopping. The ease of finding products and the vast choice available to consumers from the comfort of their own home is usually considered as the primary reason. The Internet has opened up new channels of engagement with customers, it’s also provided numerous benefits to both businesses and consumers. Companies have been able to reduce costs due to fewer overheads such as leases, business rates and utilities. This has allowed them to offer better deals to consumers, and become more competitive with their offers.

Leading the way online are e-commerce companies such as Amazon, ASOS and Play.com. High street retailers who have traditionally focused upon providing a holistic offline shopping experience have been investing more online, too. Arcadia, parent company of Miss Selfridge and Top Shop, recently announced online sales growth of 27% against a decline overall in sales of 1.7% online.

The growth in consumer spending online is now being matched by digital advertising. The relative ease of setting up online ads, and the low costs of online shopping are an attractive alternative to traditional methods. Online advertisements are effective and measureable allowing marketers to develop their campaigns continuously. The value of online advertisement is recognised by retailers who are now allocating substantial resources to develop the best campaigns for web users. In the UK, online advertising now accounts for a quarter of all advertising spending¹, and with swelling business focus on internet marketing, the numbers will continue to rise.

* – http://www.imrg.org

** – brc.org.uk

We recently decorated Language Connect’s head office in Bermondsey Street with a creative design that reflects the company’s focus on languages.

Our brief was to create a unique, inspiring and colourful design based on different writing scripts. We put community involvement at the heart of the design process by advertising within local art colleges to find artists studying surface and interior design. During the search, we were blown away by the portfolios of two artists, Suzie and Roz. We invited them to our offices and gave them some examples of Arabic, Thai and Hindi writing scripts for inspiration. Suzie and Roz then went away to develop a colour scheme and some initial design ideas.

Those initial ideas evolved into 3-4 designs for a large mural featuring characters from the scripts we had shown them, Indian paisleys and other cultural motifs.  We polled our staff on their favourite designs using Yammer, our internal social network. The winning design was then projected onto a main wall facing the majority of staff in our open-plan office. The design was painted on a Saturday with paints custom-made to match our company’s colour scheme. The rest of the office decoration was completed with a wave-like recurring pattern featuring several of the characters used in the mural painted around the entire office.

To see the results of our office design project please watch the video below:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

About the artists

Rosalind Mundie is a freelance Illustrator and Designer. Her work is inspired by the animal kingdom in all its shapes and sizes. It is intricate, thoughtful and lends itself well to prints and patterns. Every image is hand-drawn and sharpened on the computer; for Roz, there is something missing from purely digital work. In 2010, she graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone (Dundee University) and was short-listed the same year for Puffin’s student prize.

Rosalind’s Blog: thoughtsonamonday.blogspot.com

Website: www.rosalindmundie.com (to be launched soon)

Suzie Scott is a London based surface designer and illustrator, who recently graduated from the surface design course at the London College of communication. Her work explores the themes beauty and identity and can come in many different forms including print for fashion, editorial illustration and wall murals. Suzie’s work is bright fun and always colourful.

More examples of Suzie’s work can be found on her blog.

Suzie’s Blog: www.suziescott.blogspot.com.