Marketing Pilgrim Published: "Google and China in Internet Shoving Match With No Real Punches Thrown…..Yet" plus 1 more

Link to Marketing Pilgrim - Internet News & Opinion

Google and China in Internet Shoving Match With No Real Punches Thrown…..Yet

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 07:41 AM PDT

Google and China are like oil and water. They just don't mix and with each passing day it seems less likely that they ever will.

In the latest dust up between the massive Internet market and the chief Internet marketing enabler, China has not taken kindly to Google's accusations that hacks against its Gmail service last week emanated from from Jinan, the capital of China's eastern Shandong province and home to an intelligence unit of the People's Liberation Army.

According to Reuters

Last week, Google said it had broken up an effort to steal the passwords of hundreds of Google email account holders, including U.S. government officials, Chinese human rights advocates and journalists. It said the attacks appeared to come from China.

Of course, China's response is the stunned look on the face with their palms raised to the sky much like a whiny soccer player does after a dive (if you haven't guessed already, I hate that stuff in sports but that's another thing for another time).

After the look of shock, however, China has not decided to just be quiet. Instead they are acting like they want to go on the offensive.

Google has become a "political tool" vilifying the Chinese government, an official Beijing newspaper said on Monday, warning that the U.S. Internet giant's statements about hacking attacks traced to China could hurt its business.

The tough warning appeared in the overseas edition of the People's Daily, the leading newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, indicating that political tensions between the United States and China over Internet security could linger.

By lingering one gets the impression that Google is starting to look like a pawn in a much larger political game that could be more directed at the US. Considering how much of the US debt is held by Chinese concerns this can be a little disturbing from this side of the Pacific.

By saying that Chinese human rights activists were among the targets of the hacking, Google was "deliberately pandering to negative Western perceptions of China, and strongly hinting that the hacking attacks were the work of the Chinese government," the People's Daily overseas edition, a small offshoot of the main domestic paper, said in a front-page commentary.

"Google's accusations aimed at China are spurious, have ulterior motives, and bear malign intentions," said the commentary, written by an editor at the paper.

The less than amiable rhetoric continued

"Google should not become overly embroiled in international political struggle, playing the role of a tool for political contention," the paper added.

"For when the international winds shift direction, it may become sacrificed to politics and will be spurned by the marketplace," it said, without specifying how Google's business could be hurt.

We talk about Google's importance all the time as a company and an economic enabler. But with great rewards comes great responsibility. It's not likely that Google wants to be a political pawn between a teetering economic world power and the biggest emerging threat to that power. If they do then someone needs to tell them to just shut the hell up, in my ever so humble opinion ☺.

In the end, the new world order and the move toward a global economy in earnest is going to be rocky at best. The theory of world unity plays real nice in a political campaign speech but the reality is much less utopian and is wrought with hazards that could be bigger than any of us would like.

So we'll keep an eye on Google and see if they think it is worth their while to become a flash point for political tensions that can only be described as 'heightening' between the US and China.

Considering their level of power and hubris they are likely to push the envelope. That's when the real fireworks will start. Too bad it won't just be in celebration of the Chinese New Year.

Insights Into Why SMB's Are Using Social Media More

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 06:14 AM PDT

As you know, I write about the SMB space on occasion. Why do I do it? It's because while big brands and the Internet are important and interesting, life happens at the local level. As a result, the little guys should be important. Plenty is written about but the SMB space is an elusive one to catch regarding the Internet. Even Google is finding that it takes quite a bit of effort to get and maintain the SMB's attention which, in turn, leads to them spending money with you.

Some data for the SMB space comes from Pitney Bowes and is reported by eMarketer. It shows that social media is making its move on e-mail in importance to the SMB.

A couple of things come to mind here. Pitney Bowes is best known for making those dinosaurs called postal metering machines. You remember snail mail right? It's that thing that costs the USPS billions of dollars in losses annually and makes you wonder when they will close shop. So putting a dent in snail mail is one angle for this. The other is the recognition that they may need to be in another business to survive.

Another that jumps out is the exclusion of search marketing from this list. I can't believe that this is some simple oversight because most SMB's are involved in some kind of search whether it's at an accidental level or an advanced one.

Something I appreciate from the survey is that while "ease of use" is a bit of a misnomer (social media is not easy) at least there is no indication that the "It's free!" mantra is surviving. Instead the use of the term "cost effectiveness" makes much more sense and tells a story that can be much closer to reality.

Let's not overlook, however, that despite ease and cost, SMB's need to be sold on the effectiveness of social media. Good for them because too often business people swallow the hype hook, line and sinker which ends up hurting everyone.

The next chart indicates that the SMB space sees straight advertising and mobile marketing as 'new' marketing tactics. That says a lot about just how unsophisticated the SMB market can be with its marketing savvy. This is something that is often overlooked by the industry when the dangerous assumption is rolled out that the small business world just 'gets' the online space.