Planning on doing business in China? Doing business in China is not the same as wherever you’re from. If you keep comparing China to your country, however wonderful it is, you won’t enjoy China very much. Take it on its own terms.

 

Here are some tips for doing business in Shanghai.

 

1. Be punctual – Shanghai people are known for their punctuality, so they’ll expect the same for you. While this is not true in most of Asia, here is to be observed. Try to arrive 10 minutes early.

 

2. Stay in Pudong – this is to east side of Shanghai and is where most of the high-tech business and government buildings are located. PuXi is the older, more traditional side of Shanghai. So, unless you have business on the west side of the river, stay over here.

 

Tip – you can take a fantastic underwater train from PuDong to PuXi for around 5 USD. It is an amazing trip with a wonderful light show. You will see ads for it along the Bund.

 

3. Take care on the Bund – avoid people who come up to you looking for assistance (you're the tourist right?) or who want to take their photo with you. I know this sounds flattering but it’s just a ruse. Be careful.

 

4. Business-men Smoke – unlike other countries, many people still smoke in business environments, though it is getting phased out. If you arrange a meeting with a Chinese businessman, don’t take him to a Western restaurant/hotel where he can’t smoke. Find somewhere that he is more comfortable in. otherwise the deal is off before you start.

 

Also:Global Awareness and Cultural Sensitivity Strategies for Western Technical Communicators

 

5.. Xrays in the Metro – most all metro stations have xray machines to check luggage. Just be careful that your laptop is not damaged going through or that your film etc gets ruined. It’s unlikely but be careful.

 

6. Wifi – you can get wifi in many coffee shops, especially near Pudong, but you often have to ask for the password to access the network.

 

7. Travel Card – if you're staying for more than a week, get a network card. You can use this on the metro, bus and in most taxis. This means you have to carry less cash with you and spend less time standing in queues.

 

8. Metro City – this is the IT shopping centre (PuXi) and has Best Buy and other western shops on the same street.

 

9. Learn to Haggle – in most of Asia, it’s expected to do some haggling so don’t take it personal. If they ask for 100, I offer 30. They look horrified, we haggle a bit, and finally settle on about 60.

 

10. Chop sticks – unless you're staying at the Hyatt etc, learn to use chop-sticks. Most places don’t have knives and forks. It takes 30 min to learn how to use chopsticks. Ask a local; practise with peanuts. It’s the only way.

 

11. Expo 2010 – road works are everywhere, so try to stay away from the Bund (PuXi side especially) as this is under heavy re-development.

 

Remember Shanghai is not Beijing and Beijing is not Hong Kong…

 

What have I missed?

 

If you're travelling to Shanghai soon and have a question, add it below.

 

f you have multiple Twitter accounts, want to schedule your tweets, want to see stats on your tweets, and want it all in a new user interface, then try Hootsuite. I used to use TweetDeck but have moved to Hootsuite as it offers better stats and integration with Facebook. Here are 10 tips to get the most out of this desktop twitter client.

1. How to add multiple Twitter accounts

To add multiple Twitter accounts (ie profiles), click Settings and then the Social Networks tab.

Enter your Twitter credentials and it will display in a new tab (usually to the right).

2. How to allow an Editor (e.g. friend) to access a Twitter profile?

Once you have added an editor to your account, click the Social Networks tab in Settings. Select the Twitter profiles an editor can have access to.

Click the box next to the editor(s) name in order to grant access to the Twitter profile.

3. How to monitor my brands?

Set up a search column or a keyword column.

Click Add Column and enter the keywords you want to track. This column is displayed to the right of the screen.

4. How to add tabs?

To add a tab, click the [+] Add Tab button next to your current tabs .

Name it and decide how often you’d like that tab to refresh.

Hootsuite gives you 20 tabs – should be enough!.

5.. How to add columns to tabs?

Click Add Column and choose which type of feed you’d like to add.

6. How to configure column options?

The Profile Feed lets you add your Home feed, Mentions feed, Pending tweets, Sent tweets, and Favorite tweets.

7. How to use Keyword Tracking

Enter the keyword and then hit Add.

Hootsuite lets you create customized Twitter searches and perform searches like “from:username” or @username

8. How to change refresh frequency?

Click Edit Tab and select the frequency.

The default is 30 min.

9. How to change the user interface layout

You can drag and drop the tabs to change thee layout.You can also drag/drop the columns in each profile.10 How to create a List?

Create a new column and click Lists.

Enter an existing list or create a new one.

Here I’ve added a LinkedIn list. This let’s me see all the people I have ‘tagged’ as having useful links/info regarding LinkedIn.

Do you know any other good Hootsuite tricks? If you do, please add them below.

Connect with Ivan:
Ivan: http://www.ivanwalsh.com

Twitter:http://www.twitter.com/ivanwalsh
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/ivanwalsh
Businessweek:http://bx.businessweek.com

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You've just being fired. The Technical Writing dept is closed. What do you do?  This is a fact of life for many people today. Indeed, there is now a real fear that US technical writers will continue to lose their jobs to offshore companies, e.g. India & Poland. And it’s true; it’s the shape of things to come, I'm afraid. But rather than moan about it, let’s look at what you can do to re-invent yourself and find new, lucrative opportunities.

I use LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanwalsh) to keep my finger on the pulse with other tech writers. One of the discussions that keeps coming up (in different threads) is the future role of technical writing, especially how they need to ‘re-invent themselves’ or risk getting left behind.

7 Steps to Reinventing Yourself

The first thing is that you have to change your perception of yourself. You're not a name tag – stop thinking of yourself as a technical writer.

You’re a person who makes a living by developing technical documentation. Stop looking at your job description. Honest, let it go. What services can you offer that others can’t? If you’ve worked in tech comms for 10 years, you must know something that a graduate doesn’t, right? What is it?

1. Define your core strengths – what the one skill you have about all others that you can really sell. It may not be writing. For me, it’s creating videos with Camtasia.

2. Develop a social network plan - Create base-camps on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other media channels. But work especially hard on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanwalsh). This is where the real action is, especially if you want to network. I can’t push this enough. You have to be on LinkedIn.

3. Identify three people you trust – create a small team and go hunting for work. It’s easier to combine your strengths than go alone. This is the single biggest mistakes that people make. Don’t go it alone. Find people that you trust (or can learn to trust) and start a dialogue with them. Baby steps.

4. Endorsements – use these to build credibility and attract new clients. Remember LinkedIn, well these go a long way here. Use these recommendations to build trust. There are 3 of you so it should be easier to swap/exchange contacts and make things happen.

5. Differentiate – if everyone is doing social media, you can be sure there is a gap elsewhere. Here are some ideas.

   • Adobe PageMaker templates development

   • PDF to Word conversion

   • Structured Authoring classes (valuable to business analysts)

   • Visio diagramming (very popular with consultancy firms as they do lots of business process engineering)

6. Find a project – don’t worry about the money. The key is to get a real live project that you can work together as a team. Use this to land future work.

7. Start now – even if you are fully employed now, you can start today. Get networking. See who you can work with and how you can work together.

Opportunities I see in Asia today

I was asked recently if technical writers today are ‘no more than a commodity’? I know what the person meant; they felt they were being treated like one.

My response was that (said in a very gentle way...) they need to redefine their position as a technical writer or they will fall further and further down the food chain. Not nice, but true.

I did some consultancy with for a large US home appliance-maker here (fridges etc) in Beijing to help them knock their docs into shape. Most were written by Chinese university graduates, smart kids, but who’d never lived in an English-speaking country. The docs, reports, & (some marketing) material all reflected this. There was a lot of rework involved.

Despite the poor quality of these docs, the company has committed to this strategy and will continue to invest here. In the end, the documentation will improve.

Why?

Because western tech writers are coming here, learning some Chinese and working in the trenches. What they’ve learnt will be passed to the Chinese writers in time.

But, for US writers (and those in wealthy western countries) , they need to find ways to move out of the services/commodity area fast — otherwise their salary will continue to fall/stagnate and the opportunities will continue to dry up.

Takeaways

Don’t follow the crowds. Find an area where you can specialize and then dominate it. If possible, extend this into your social media network but keep some things to yourself as others may try to come in and steal your thunder.

3 often works quite well, e.g. a designer, coder and writer. Of course, you can always scale up later.

For me it’s all down to where and how you can ‘add value’.

If you don’t make daily efforts to push forward, you’ll fall behind.

 

Ivan: http://www.ihearttechnicalwriting.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ihearttechdocs
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ivanwalsh
Businessweek: http://bx.businessweek.com/profile/ivan-walsh/iwalsh905/

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Many are worried that their jobs will be off-shored to India and China. You're right. They will. But I see this as an opportunity rather than a setback. Here’s how you can take advantage of this right now.

Before I start, I’m in China so I see things from the other side of the fence, so to speak. I’ve worked in the US, UK and most of Europe.

One of my friends based in Nashville, Tennessee, is worried about his career prospects. He’s turned 40, had a decent job as an IT developer but this has been sent to India. He was furious but now he’s just depressed. Where to start?

I see where he’s coming from and the future is indeed bleak if you're in the US IT industry, at least in the QA, technical writing & coding.
It’s not if it will happen, it’s when.

5 High-Paying Careers in China, India & Vietnam

For those who are looking at China, especially Shanghai and Shenzen, the skills most in demand are:

Project Management – Asians are terrific workers but lack leadership skills. PM is a (relatively) new discipline here and as companies develop they need people who can put shape on the deliverables.

HR – likewise, there is a shortage of skilled HR execs who can develop a strategy and show Management the career paths they need to develop to attract, nurture and retain talent.

Legal – as China goes global, it needs people in the legal field to help with contracts, litigation, procurements and other such issues. Mandarin skills are a plus, but not always mandatory.

Finance – Shanghai plans to be the Asian hub for finance. They’ve recently opened a new Nasdaq-type stock exchange. So much money is getting plowed into its Finance Centre. You have to see it! The financial world involves interacting with bankers all over the world – and the default language of all business communications is English, which brings us to…

Communications – Chinese CEOs want to improve their English. Can you help?  Chinese Marketers want to refine their campaigns. Can you help? Chinese HR Depts want to hire the right people. Can you help with the interviews? Chinese exporters want to arrange meetings in London, New York & Amsterdam. Can you be there to help?

Remember, there are more BMWs per head in Beijing than any other city on the planet! Lot’s on business to be done here.

Opportunities for self-starters

Saying that, I see many opportunities here. Let’s take a step back for a second. Many Indians, Chinese, Europeans etc made the move to the US to better their careers. I’m sure you know some.

• They’re hard-working, right?
• They studied English (a foreign language), right?
• They made the move to a new country and survived, right?
  

Well, so can you.

Unless you're held back by domestic commitments, which are understandable, then moving to Asia is worth considering. Maybe now it’s (possibly) the turn for US folks to move to these countries to find work. I know this is hard to swallow for many people, but well… why not?

There are so many opportunities for people in India, Singapore, China, and now Vietnam (the new low cost dev centre). And no, you don’t always need to speak the language but if you do, just learn it.

One of the most successful web marketers in the US is John Chow, a guy who moved from China as young man. Today, he’s minting it.

How to get started

• Read the China Daily http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/ to get an insight into China today
• Read China Tech News http://www.chinatechnews.com/
• Connect with me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ivanwalsh where I share links, photos and videos
• Signup to LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/ and connect with me http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanwalsh there.

LinkedIn is an excellent gateway with some really super groups where you can ask questions and get real feedback. It’s for business professionals and has been the most productive social network for me.. I really recommend it.

If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments section so we can share with others.

Likewise, if you think you're friends might like this article, please send it to them.

Thanks,

Ivan Walsh

Ivan: http://www.ihearttechnicalwriting.com/

Twitter:http://twitter.com/ihearttechdocs

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ivanwalsh
Businessweek: http://bx.businessweek.com/profile/ivan-walsh/iwalsh905/

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