Social Media Today's latest webcast was our first exploration into the vast topic of social media in Asia, focusing particularly on China, India, Japan, Indonesia, and Korea. Users there comprise a massive online population, and no surprise, they're adopting and interacting in online social environments at incredible rates. The social media landscape in Asia shares some characteristics with that of the online world defined by U.S. and Western users, but in many ways Asian networks and their users form and behave differently.

Like others in the social media world, we're very curious about the business opportunities in social media in Asia, which new ones may be on the way, and how business can learn about and engage with these large audiences through social media. We asked Thomas Crampton, Asia-Pacific Director of Digital Influence, Ogilvy, and Peter Auditore, Head of Business Influencer Group, SAP, to bring us up to speed on the state of social media in Asia from a business perspective.

Listen to the audio: (length 00:57:32)

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Featuring:

 

Thomas Crampton is Asia-Pacific director of 360 Digital Influence for Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. Previously, he spent 18 years traveling the globe as a newspaper correspondent, mainly for the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In those roles, Mr. Crampton launched the Herald Tribune's first blog, wrote a weekly column about Asia, was a Paris-based feature writer on media and technology, covered the 2004 US presidential election for The New York Times, and much more. He has been recognized with publisher's awards from The New York Times and citations from Amnesty International for his articles and photography. Thoroughly involved in digital for the last six years, Mr. Crampton writes a widely read blog, thomascrampton.com, and is a sought-after speaker and moderator in the space.

Peter J. Auditore is currently Head of SAP's Business Influencer Program and a Senior Fellow at the Society for New Communications Research. As a veteran of four technology startups including: Zona Research (Cofounder), Hummingbird (VP Marketing Americas), Survey.com (President) and Exigen Group, (VP Corporate Communications), Mr. Auditore has over twenty years of experience in selling and marketing software to LE and SME organizations worldwide. A frequent speaker at industry conferences and tradeshows, Mr. Auditore has authored many technology press articles and industry white papers. He holds BS and secondary teaching degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.