We live in the social media era. An era where a large
demographic of diverse individuals are scattered across various platforms and
where hashtags and trends shape public opinion.

Today, the saying “the world is a  global village” has never been more correct.
Thanks to social media platforms, 
individuals worldwide connect as though they were right beside each
other.

Apart from connecting people, social media is also an
effective business tool, helping brands build awareness, ratify buyer decisions
using social proof, and leverage the advantage of influencers to boost sales.

GlobalWebIndex reports that 54% of social browsers use
social media to research products. Furthermore, a report by Deloitte revealed
that consumers influenced by social media are four times more likely to spend
more on purchases; that 29% of consumers would more likely make purchases on
the same day using social media. Indeed social media is a great way to build
visibility and engage consumers in new markets, But how do you do that? And
what does it entail? In this post, we would be looking at and lot more.

Going Global While
Thinking Local

Going global through social
media goes beyond translating your website and products to a target language. Brands looking to
leverage social media internationally must recall that while their messages
must stay consistent regardless of the region, they will need to localize their
content. And this will involve tailoring the cultural reference points,
platforms, and tactics to meet the specific market in question.

Catering to users via social
media can no longer be an afterthought as more than half of the world’s
population now have a presence on the various existing platforms. That said,
brands need to be strategic about their social media strategy. Although
adopting a multichannel approach is a welcome idea, it is best to meet social
media users of a particular region where they exhibit the most activity.

Brands must also understand that
social media platform usage differs with country and region. For example,
Facebook, which is very common in the west, is banned in China, where WeChat
reigns supreme. Also, XING, not LinkedIn, is Germany’s most popular site for
business.

When venturing into global
social media marketing, brands must first do their research. Questions like
what platform to use and how to put out content must be factored into the
global social media strategy.

Resist the temptation to simply
translate all your social content as generated in the HQ. Instead, create
brand-critical content on a global level and then localize it to
suit the target market. This should include any pre-planned ad campaigns,
product announcements, and press releases. You should hire locals or
professional language service providers who have an in-depth understanding of
the cultural preferences of the market you plan on entering. This way, your
content will come across as more authentic and personalized.

SHEIN: A Case Study of a Brand Using
Social Media to Drive Growth

Although founded in 2008, this
Chinese online clothing and accessories behemoth only recently became a
household name in the fast fashion industry by leveraging social media
platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

On TikTok, SHEIN drives sales by
a constant stream of coupons and discount codes to its followers. They have
also managed to create an army of fashion bloggers supporting their brand and
making posts with hashtag Shein. This #Shein has amassed over 6 billion views
and appears in over 70 other hashtags presently trending. Additionally, they
also maximize the power of influencers, rewarding them with free merchandise
and affiliate commissions. 

SHEIN takes its global strategy
a step further by creating separate social media accounts for individual
markets, thereby giving a local feel to an otherwise international brand.

Big Social Media Techs Adopting A
Local And Global Approach

If our word and SHEIN’s success
are not convincing enough to sway you on the need for a localized social media
strategy, then take inspiration from what Big-Tech is doing.

For starters, Facebook follows a
locale-based architecture organized by a combination of language and
country/region. Utilizing nomenclatures like es-ES, es-MX, jp-JP in their URLs
to represent the language and region. With es-ES denoting Spanish-Spain while
es-MX represents Spanish-Mexico. Brands can maximize this by publishing not
just translated but localized content.

Twitter also employs a
locale-based approach to its content and users. Brands can decide on having
localized accounts while still maintaining a global profile. And on some of
these platforms, you often find that the localized social profile, although
with fewer followers, may experience higher engagement than the global account.

With YouTube, brands have the
option of hosting a global channel for multiple languages and locales, hosting
multiple channels for specific languages and regions, or combining both
strategies — having a global channel and other region-based channels.

TikTok offers over 40 different
languages and has invested in influencers in each market. These factors have
contributed to their growth, and many well-known brands like BMW have started
testing the waters, having localized pages to fit their target market.

Conclusion

As the number of social media
users worldwide balloons, so will the influence these platforms have on our
everyday lives. Brands can no longer stay docile and must develop creative ways
to meet their target audience on the social media platforms relevant to their
locale. At the same time, for these stakeholders to fully utilize the
potentials of social media, they must employ best practices in localization and translation to develop content that connects with users and
addresses all their pain points.

Employing the services of a
professional language service provider like Translationsinlondon is the first step to ensuring a successful global
journey.