International social media marketing is one of the most important topics for global marketers. The impact of social media is currently changing how businesses conduct marketing, sales, retail and customer support.
International Social Media
With companies going global the need for international social media is increasing rapidly. Yet most of the digital marketing strategists still considering English as the main language for their social media marketing channels. The fact that social media is highly active in almost every local market and local social media users have their own behaviors, trends, culture, language and even social media networks sometimes. In China, QQ is the most popular social network and not Facebook. In Russia, top two most used social platforms are Odnoklassniki and VKontakete.
In order to reach your potential users, you always need to follow several key steps for your international social media campaigns.
Identify the local market
Identifying the local markets is the key to building a successful strategy for your social media strategy. There are several initial questions you need to answer in order to identify the local market properly.
- What social media platforms do locals use? And which one of this platforms is the most effective for your business/services?
I know it is a tricky question, but in order to explain that properly let me give you an example: If Twitter and Facebook are the most active networks in your target market but you are manufacturing engineering company then those social networks will not be really effective for your products. You will need to focus on video marketing or LinkedIn groups instead. - What are the cultural traditions of local users?
The target culture is extremely important and you will always need to understand your target market in order to customize your communication and the content you are posting or sharing. You will also need to know their holidays’ calendar, seasonal celebrations, and religious traditions.
- What are the languages used on the local social networks?
It is important to define what is the most effective language to use for communication on local social media. Some of the marketers would like to have fully localized content for social media while some marketers will choose to have bilingual content. For markets like UAE full of expats, the bilingual content strategy is the best tactic to follow. - What are social media behaviors for local users? What is the trending topics in the local market?
You must figure out where your offer will meet the great demand. You have to constantly research the behavior of social media users in the local market, their trending topics and what are the local market segments talking about.
Build an international content strategy
All the major brands now believe in content marketing. It is not a luxury anymore. If a company already has a presence in foreign social networks, multilingual content is essential.
Some marketers tend to focus only on their native content and forget to develop a multilingual content strategy for the local markets. There are several important tips for building a successful international social media marketing:
- Create original content in the local language and don’t only consider English
- Deliver the right message to the right audience by considering the culture, religions, and traditions of the market
- Provide a personalized information for the targeted segmentation
- Focus on the local trends and updates in the target market
- Implement local holidays into your strategy and customize the content calendar
- Optimize your social media profiles content and contact information for the local audience
Define your social media channels
Your website is always one of the most powerful online channels available to your organization to communicate effectively with your audience and provide your services. However, your customers are increasingly using their mobile phones and tablets to communicate through the social media platforms. You ultimately need to establish a solid presence on the social media channels where your global customers can find you, receive your updates and offers and communicate with your brand. A key element of your international social media strategy should be to define your channels and reach out to your customers and wherever they are.