Going Global

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It‘s not always easy to think ...
yet many of our site‘s visitors ... In fact, most ofthem do.
This has forced us to pack a lot of learning into a short time.We edit and publish a monthl It‘s not always easy to think globally, yet many of our site‘s visitors liveabroad. In fact, most ofthem do.
This has forced us to pack a lot of learning into a short time.We edit and publish a monthly e-zine from the tiny Greek island ofKarpathos. Kafenio, whichpremiered in March 2000, focuses on European life and culture.
The firststep in thinking globallywas to accept our classified ads in any language using Latin letters, soFrench, Spanish, German -no problem for our software.Not so hard, is it?That was an important decision for us. Living on a remote Aegean island aswe do, surrounded bygoats and cats, it would be easy to get tunnel vision and forget about therest of the planet.English is English, right?The first major conflict that punched us right in the nose was British vs.American English.
Wethen had a contributing writer from Australia, another journalist fromCanada.What to do? We made it our policy that each writer would stick to his/hernative usage of English.No way did I want to ruin an article by Americanizing it. That‘s not globalthinking.
Savvyreaders in Britain or elsewhere would spot that style slip-up a mile away.(I mean a kilometeraway, no better make that kilometre. See what I mean?)There is a vast difference between editing something for accuracy and actinglike the languagepolice.
No, we cannot please everybody and we cannot spend every wakingmoment trying to. Butto reach out to a global audience, we have to willing to widen our thinking.Global excitementRecently we decided to run banner ads in languages other than English andthis kicks off in theJuly issue with one German and one Russian banner.
It‘s a start of somethingexciting and wethink we can expand on our idea as time goes on. Not every improvement to asite or e-zine has tooccur overnight.Oops!Do most sites truly think and act globally? No.
I can‘t count the times Ihave tried to sign up forfree subscriptions to newsletters or zines, only to be rejected because Ididn‘t fill in my state andzip code correctly. Or that my phone number did not fit the (American)format.
This oversight isgoing to turn off not just me--with a Greek address and phone number--butother potentialcustomers around the world as well.Another thing that urks me at many sites is when you see a button where youcan click on yourweather. Most of these programs turn out to offer weather for North Americaand North Americaonly.
What if your reader in Tokyo or Paris wants to know the weather, too?Ditto the news. For sites offering the top news reports, I‘ll bet half offeronly American news.What about visitors living in Asia or Europe, don‘t we also want news? In anews story, I find itbothersome that every reference to “government“ has to refer to Washington.Or that every stockquote must be from the U.S.Folks, there‘s a whole world out here ready to visit your Website and maybebuy your products.Why shut us out?Do you suppose I‘ll be going back to a Website that offers only weather forNorth America orclaims my address is incorrect because I did not select a state from theirlisting? No, I‘ve had thedoor slammed in my face and once is enough.
They won‘t get my businessbecause they‘ve more orless made it clear to me at first visit that I am unimportant to them.I‘m not suggesting we go out and hire sociologists instead of Webmasters,but let‘s not go out ofour way to turn off a potential customer base from all over the planeteither. Examine your ownsite and see what positive changes you might make in this regard.Once we all start thinking globally, we‘ll act it.
As we attract newcustomers, our success rates arebound to go up. After all, I can‘t think of a better place to go global thancyberspace.
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