Social Media in der BRD A report from Amy Tennison, a trainer from Dell® about her findings at a training session on February 17, 2012

9 Things that Amy Learned 1.Twitter is not very popular. 2.There were mixed concerns about privacy laws. 3.Frustration with Facebook 4.Fees limit participation in Social Media 5.Language matters 6.BASF is the best company for cross-platform 7.Ownership of content is different that in the USA 8.German team members love plants 9.Germans still love David Hasselhoff

Twitter Most Germans had at least one Facebook, LinkedIn or Xing account. Twitter is not very popular in Germany.

Mixed Privacy Concerns Online and offline privacey is a key concern to German team members and customers. The team was torn about an example where a team member tells their supervisor that a colleague was posting negatively about the supervisor on Facebook. What do you already know about Germans and how they feel about privacy?

What is your opinion about privacy laws?

Facebook Frustration Many Germans are frustrated with the frequency of privacy changes on Facebook. Many have closed their account because of this. What do you think?

Xing costs money LinkedIn is preferred over Xing because there is a monthly fee to use the same functions on Xing.

Language Matters! German team members and customers strongly prefer to communicate in their local language. Social media pages should be in German.

BASF has it going on! BASF, a chemical company headquartered in Germany, does an excellent job reaching their audience with YouTube, Facebook, Flickr and Slideshare

Ownership of Content Germany has very specific rules around content ownership related to social media and contests that differs from the US

German Love Plants! During the Dell team’s tour, the American participants noticed several large potted plants outside most of the cubicles and break rooms. The Germans team members even had names for them.

…and David Hasselhoff German Team members confirmed that David Hasselhoff is still a country favorite and suggested that Dell use him to advertise for the company.

Facebook Stats By Age

Stats by Gender

Facebook Top 5 Brands in Germany

Texting in German DeutschEnglisch 3n = nie, niemals, nirgendwoNo way, no how 8ung = Achtung!Attention! (Important msg) AWS = Auf Wiedersehen!Good-bye BBB = Bis bald, BabyBye-bye, baby. BS = Bis späterCU, See you later div = Danke im VorausThanks in advance G = GrinsenGrin, smile GN8 = Gute NachtGood night G & K or GUK = Gruß und KussLove and kisses

and a few more… DeutschEnglisch MfG = mit freundlichen Grüssen Yours truly Pg = Pech gehabtBad Luck TABU = Tausend BussisA 1000 Kisses www = Wir werden wartenWe’ll wait zumiozudi? = zu mir oder zu dir? My place or yours?

Emoticons EmoticonDeutschEnglisch :-)lächeln, glücklich :-))sehr glücklich :-|Stirnrunzeln :-eenttäuscht :-(unglücklich, traurig :-((sehr unglücklich :->sarkastisch %~( or :’(weinen ;-)zwinkern

Emoticons continued… EmoticonDeutschEnglisch |-omüde :-\skeptisch :-Dlachen :-<>erstaunt :-prausgestreckte Zunge :-Oschreien O:-)Engel :-* or :-xKuss