Cultural Communication & Education

Online networking for international business development using social media brings in results. International social media networking does work within cultures that are comfortable with direct communication.

There are times when there are culture clashes between direct and indirect communication.

As a person with a direct communication profile and cross-cultural communication skills I find these clashes a bit painful. I always seem to regret giving them too much of my time. And this is an awkward position for a solo entrepreneur to be in.

You see, I know there could be a valid opportunity for some sort of valuable international business connection. But social media networking does not work as well with people who are used to doing business with an indirect communication style.

• They need more time.

Besides email and online communication is just mined with cross-cultural communication barriers. You need real human contact to be sure you understand each other.

Here are some examples where I have been approached with an indirect communicator:

Facebook

A message on FaceBook: I am interested in cross cultural communication

Skype

I have also had several very similar messages come in through Skype where they contact me first:

• Them: Hello
• Me: Hello
• Them: How are you?
• Me: What can I do for you?
• Them: It is nice meeting you?
• Me: Yes, is there anything I can do for you?
• Them: Hello
• Me: Yes, hello
• Them: I like international business
• Me: Yes, an interesting subject

I also get a slew of similar Skype messages any time I inadvertently leave Skype open for any length of time. These are mainly from Northern African users who use Skype similar to Meetic.

These are messages with at least 5 lines of “hello” after which you understand these are men who want to chat about personal things with women.

They are always very polite when you tell them you only use Skype for business.

I have also had several Skype message conversations with translation companies in Asia. Similar to this:

• Them: Hello
• Me: Hello
• Them: You want translations?
• Me: No thanks.
• Them: I do best translations in world
• Me: Sorry I am not interested in translations
• Them: I good service
• Me: Try contacting translations agencies
• Them: I good all languages
• Me: Sorry I cannot help you
• Them: (a list of languages)

And usually the English is even more riddled with mistakes.

Emails

The most frustrating indirect communication contacts come in my email. Here the email basically says:

• I have a great product (without telling me what the product is and who else thinks it is great).
• I want to sell to international markets.

And occasionally there is also:

• I only pay commissions after sale.

And a few of these emails have also included:

• I am desperate. You are my last hope.

Cross-Cultural Business Communication

Now, as I said before, I am sure that most of these contacts were sincere.

But they cannot be aware of my reality as a solo business owner. These conversations take up too much of my time. And I simply cannot spend 30 minutes for every contact.

If these people contacted me with a more direct communication I would probably have been able to give them an idea of who they should contact.