Cultural Differences in Social Media Communications of Tech Companies

With the penetration of Internet and social media, the world is not only gradually turning into a flat market for international commerce, but also opening up to become a level playing field for communications. Understanding how the cultural element and the rise of social media influence global communications is especially important for B2C technology companies, because they are committed to constantly delivering innovative products and communicating these new concepts to people all over the world from different cultures. To help these companies improve communications effectiveness, the author reviews current academic papers and conducts a thorough content analysis to analyze the effectiveness of social media activities of two international B2C technology companies, Microsoft and Lenovo, on Chinese and US social media platforms from a motivation perspective, and then summerizes several important principles for social media communications in different cultures.