As companies seek to expand their global advertising reach online, it’s impossible to ignore China. Despite the number of restrictions associated with advertising in China, the size of the potential audience is enticing. Unfortunately, China places restrictions on the flow of information into and within its borders, a fact which may discourage many companies from investing the time and money to understand the habits and interests of this tremendous market.

When expanding your company’s advertising reach abroad, the first thing to understand is the online habits of a particular culture or region. While it may seem obvious to some, it is easy to overlook what may work in another country simply because it does not work in the U.S. (e.g. while banner ads are not as successful in the U.S., they do perform better abroad). These differences are further highlighted in China, where the culture, freedom, and even written language differ so greatly from our own. The following tips will help you plan your online venture in China:

Clicks Trump Type
Take the Chinese text, for example. The complication of typing Chinese characters has resulted in greater popularity of web pages that require less typing and integrate more clickable content. If your company’s site requires a larger amount of typing to navigate, you might consider clickable images.

Baidu Reigns Supreme
Familiar with Google and all that is necessary to promote your company through the all-powerful U.S. engine?  Become acquainted with Baidu, China’s top search engine. It commands over 75% of the market share to Google’s almost 20%. While Baidu does have many similarities to Google, it is a completely different search engine that warrants your attention if China is on your radar.

Learn to Sina Weibo…Not Tweet
With the great deal of control the government has over the citizens of China, one might expect that social media is non-existent. Common U.S. platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, are almost completely unused, yet social media is still very prevalent. One social site, Sina Weibo, is very similar to Twitter. Sina Weibo’s top 100 participants have a combined 198.2 million+ followers, a stale number, which may have exceeded Twitter’s top 100 participants at this time.

A company must ask itself if the lure of the large Chinese market is worth hurdling the obstacles of restrictions and an unknown culture. With some research, some flexibility, and a willingness to adapt to a very different set of cultural rules, one might find China a worthwhile investment. Remember, there are 513 million internet users in China. This equals the number of people living in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Italy combined, so it may just be worth it for you.

In just a few short weeks, we’ll all be huddled around our televisions, surrounded by mounds of food, family and friends watching football… unless you’re one of the growing number of people in the United States who doesn’t own a television. Instead, you might be watching the big game live online.

In the past, the Super Bowl has been aired exclusively on television. If you’ve ever been stuck in traffic or in line at the grocery store getting those game day munchies, you know the agony of missing even a moment of the game. This year, you don’t have to. Got a smart phone, tablet or laptop? Then you’ve got the Super Bowl, live, at your fingertips.

NBC will broadcast the Super Bowl on network television and, for the first time, it will also stream the game on its website. Though it remains unclear if all cell providers will have access to the mobile version, Verizon Wireless customers who have downloaded the Verizon NFL app will be able to watch on their mobile devices.

But did NBC skip a major market? The Super Bowl will not be available online outside the United States. I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent a Super Bowl weekend abroad. When I was in Dublin last year I noticed that bars held Super Bowl events that sold out days before the opening coin toss. In fact, the pre-Super Bowl commotion there was bigger than any I’d seen before. And yet, these key international fans won’t be able to take part in the online Super Bowl revolution. Yet.

Let’s consider the true winners of this new development – advertisers. Rumor has it that the online Super Bowl broadcast will include the pricey, sought after ad spots that appear on the network version. Imagine the millions who already view the traditional Super Bowl broadcast multiplied exponentially by the millions who will tune in online. It promises to be quite the year, for both advertising and football.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, bill H.R. 3261), which would increase penalties for trafficking copyright materials, streaming unauthorized videos and selling counterfeit drugs or goods online, will be voted on by the House Judiciary committee when congress resumes after winter break.

Chairman Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), who introduced the bill in October of 2011, said, “This much-needed legislation makes it harder for foreign thieves to steal and sell America’s intellectual property. The Stop Online Piracy Act protects the profits, products and jobs that rightly belong to American innovators.” But the bill has been controversial.

At 90octane, we’re all about community. That’s why, to celebrate the close of 2011 and welcome 2012, we donated on our clients’ behalf to three charities we love and are honored to support as both a donor and partner in marketing success: Feeding America, Heifer International and Mercy Housing. We recognize that our community doesn’t stop at the door to our office, but encompasses both local and global realms. As a conversion-driven agency, we whole-heartedly appreciate the opportunity to influence change. So, as we march into 2012, we’ve decided to do all we can to keep charitable giving at the top of our and everyone’s minds.

As Margaret Mead so wisely stated, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

What charities and causes are near and dear to your heart? What would you like your community, whether it be your hometown or the globe, to work towards achieving in 2012? We’d love for you to join the efforts of our small group of dedicated people.

Happy New Year from your friends at 90octane!

Yesterday Google announced “Search, Plus Your World,” a significant change to its search results that will put more emphasis on content within its social network, Google+. The new feature will allow Google robots to crawl data within Google+, and include this information along with public internet data when displaying search results.

The new Google “Personal Results” link delivers information relevant to searchers based on their search behavior, as well as their social connections. This means that two searchers will see different results for the same query. Regular, nonsocial search results will now be presented to users as “Other results.”

In a recent article by Search Engine Land, Googler Amit Singhal states, “The social search algorithm, and the personalized search algorithm are actually one algorithm now, and we are merging it in a way that is very pleasant and useful.” Only users logged in to Google will receive personal results, though each user has the capability to remove social content from their search results by disabling the option.

In October Google announced an increased privacy setting for Google account users that created nervous anticipation among many SEOers. In order to further protect the privacy of Google users signed into their accounts, Google added a default setting that makes browsing done while logged in occur from an encrypted SSL (https://google.com). This privacy update blocks Analytics from providing some search data. If the user is logged in, queries/keywords resulting in a click will be classified as “not provided” in reports. Data from logged in users who select pay-per-click (PPC) ads will still appear in Analytics.

This second part of our Facebook Success Summit Series addresses the challenge of creating a thriving Facebook community and consistently engaging fans. We gathered strategies   from sessions by social media consultants Andrea Vahl and Amy Porterfield, and Intel social media strategist Ekaterina Walter.

In the past year, businesses have become more active on Facebook than ever before. However, it is vital for businesses to realize that Facebook is most effective when the conversation is flowing both to and from fans. After setting the goals of your social strategy, several steps can be followed to optimize your Facebook page and foster conversation flow. The following categories outline a few of the recommended methods to increasing and engaging your fan base:

Earlier this month, 90octane team members chose to honor the holiday season and give back to our community by volunteering for The Denver Santa Claus Shop. The 81-year-old nonprofit organization, whose mission is “a toy for every girl and every boy,” has long been part of 90′s holiday tradition. 90octaners got into the holiday spirit by helping families find the perfect toys for every child on their holiday lists.

The Facebook Success Summit 2011 was one of the most informative and relevant events this year. 90octane chose to participate in over 15 sessions in which industry experts presented the “ins and outs” of Facebook marketing. Over the next few weeks, we plan to break down some of the highlights from the Summit and include examples and ideas for how to manage and execute Facebook marketing campaigns. Enjoy!

One of the most valuable sessions was a panel discussion led by social media experts Victoria Ransom of Wildfire, Ben Pickering of Strutta and industry author Mari Smith. During this session, entitled “How to Build a Loyal Fan Base Using Facebook Promotions,” the panel discussed everything from regulations and prize selection to messaging.

We’ve recently worked with our client Globus family of brands to successfully execute two Facebook contests that have resulted in learnings consistent with the content of the Summit. Since one contest launched in October, we have seen fan growth of over 90%!

Professional social network LinkedIn is rapidly increasing in importance within the social marketing realm, particularly for B2B firms. New features have been released in the last several months, including Company Status Updates similar to those available through Facebook and Twitter, allowing for greater brand growth within the educated and professional LinkedIn audience.

We recently attended a webinar presented by LinkedIn and HubSpot about implementing Company Pages on the networking site.