Frank Cutitta is founder and CEO of the Center for Global Branding and former CEO of the International Advertising Association. A lifelong student of social anthropology (anthropologist Edward T. Hall is on Frank’s most-influenced-by list ), university professor, and veteran of the global computer technology publisher IDG, Frank has some intriguing insights about the role social media and culture play in global branding. We talked last week about this and other related topics, including branding in the higher-ed market.

How is social media highlighting the role of culture in global branding?

As an example, the Chinese are three times more likely to chat and micro-blog than Americans. Given China’s legacy of communism and conformism, there’s a lot of pent up energy to communicate. But understanding how and what people communicate and purchase is what’s really important. Chinese consumers are more likely to go home to get their mobile phone if they forgot it than they are their wallet.

What does this behavior tell global marketers?

For one thing, geo-based and local search advertising are becoming essential. It may sound premature, but we’re operating in an American cocoon that in some cases is a full generation behind. We’re talking about hundreds of millions of consumers–the majority of them connected. In Japan, consumers are more likely to use social media on their mobile devices than on their computers, thanks to a mature 3G , and now 4G and 5G networks.

What’s really interesting is the role culture plays in how the Japanese and Chinese perceive and interact with social media. Both are collective cultures that operate as groups, versus the individualistic cultures of the U.S. and Western Europe.

How does collectivism affect social media user behavior?

First, I believe social media is very liberating in a collectivist culture. It gives consumers an opportunity stand out in the crowd. And yet, the collective remains very important, especially for the Chinese and Japanese.  For these users, social media reinforces the idea that one can be individualistic in a collective society.

Not surprisingly, collectivist societies are more in tune with trends such as crowdsourcing. There’s a comfort level working in disparate groups for the common good. In the U.S. the ability to collaborate is a common skills gap in high school students and throughout their professional careers.

How are your higher-education clients using social media?

Branding is extremely challenging for colleges and institutions recruiting globally. This is changing as more colleges are hiring chief marketing officers from consumer and technology business to run their international marketing groups. For example, there are tremendous subtleties in what Italian students are looking in an American education experience, compared to Japanese students. There’s also the question of whether the student wants a truly “American education” or an  international education” that happens to occur in the U.S.

To some extent, the big social media sites allow prospective students to experience the vibe of the university. But as higher education becomes more commoditized due to globalization, the one-size-fits-all social media strategy will need to become more culture-specific .

Go to the Center for Global Branding http://www.brandsintl.com. Follow Frank http://twitter.com/fcutitta.