Tips on Approaching Social Media Internationally

It’s almost impossible to believe that in the era of an all-embracing social media hype, the businesses with social media procedures in place are much fewer than the companies who’ve not as yet ventured on to the social media marketing arena.

As Econsultancy’s ‘2010 Social Media and Online PR’ report found, only 40% of the respondent companies admitted to have had “some, though not much” social media experience, with a mere 26% of them saying that their management was willing to adopt company-wide social media procedures. And the ones who said they were eager to run multilingual campaigns in more than one country? A mere quarter of all respondents.

It’s baffling that – despite social network’s quintessentially global nature, few marketers are taking care to internationalize their social media marketing efforts. And it’s no secret that the likes of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have a host of benefits for the digital marketer – a massive return on investment, enhancing brand awareness, increasing link conversions, boosting e-sales, to mention but a few.

When we add the free, ‘one-click-away’ access to these media platforms and the fact that over 80% of online users prefer to browse in their native language, it is clear that the road to global business expansion runs through approaching social media with an international mind.

This may appear quite easy and many might be tempted to ‘Google translate’ their content before posting it on Facebook and Twitter. But before you go ahead and do just that, remember the old adage, “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.” When it comes to your brand’s reputation, this saying carries more weight than ever.

Here are a few tips and tricks to help you kick-start your international social media efforts:

Find the regions to target

Whether or not you’ve had experience in foreign markets, it always pays off to do your homework. Online tools such as Google Global and Google’s Global Market Finder will help you evaluate even the most far-flung market for a particular product.

Even though the emerging and lucrative BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), and CIVETS (Columbia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa) countries are now at the centre of foreign business expansion, one may find that there are markets more suitable for their products or services.

Research spending habits

Now you’ve identified the markets to target, it’s crucial to do some in-country research – and to take as much time as you need to gain a full understanding of the market.

Painstakingly research online spending habits, including information about the social media channels and search engines locals use, how much they are likely to spend online, whether there are any cultural intricacies that you need to address, etc. The results of your research would serve as the basis of your digital marketing strategy for the respective country.

Engage on all fronts

If you wish to reap the full benefits of social networks, you should establish a brand presence on all social media platforms available. Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+ are not the be-all and end-all of social networking.

Although the latter are popular across the English-speaking world, there are other – more regional and/or hyper local platforms, such as Renren in China, Yandex in Russia and Orkut in Brazil, which hog the market share in those countries. So your best bet would be to find out the most popular social networks in the region you’re targeting, and create a profile for your brand in the respective language.

Localize your social media efforts

Whereas ads and PPC campaigns are good instruments for pumping out your message, social media is all about interaction. You may, therefore, find it difficult to engage in conversation in all languages, especially if you don’t speak the tongue. That’s why your best bet would be to enlist the help of in-country social media executives – they will know what goes in the world of the respective social media and be aware of the most linguistically nuanced, culturally appropriate way to address the local audience.

Create separate Twitter feeds

It’s no secret that Twitter is becoming the definitive vehicle to brand awareness but while tweeting from the same account may look like the easiest thing to do, it’s never a good idea. What will your followers in Spain think when they get messages in Chinese and Arabic in their Twitter streams? It surely won’t make a good impression if you appear to treat all your audiences as a monolithic block of mass consumers, irrespective of cultural and linguistic differences. Better create separate accounts and have them managed locally instead.

We may be living in a globalized world but showing that you understand the local culture and having an individual approach to your social media campaigns will get your brand reputation in foreign markets off to a flying start.