When was the last time you analyzed your followers’ demographics in-depth? While you may be doing an excellent job of connecting with followers in your targeted regions, there is always room for improvement. For example, upon doing a follower analysis, you might discover that you’ve been attracting followers whose first language is not English. You weren’t even trying to attract people who aren’t native English speakers – can you imagine the exponential impact that you could see if you began posting in their first language?! It’d be off the charts!
English still holds the title for most popular communication language globally, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t consider adopting a second (or third!) language into your social presence. If you’re looking to expand your brand’s exposure, creating content in more than your native language is an effective way to connect with new followers in demographics you think have potential for your brand to flourish in. I know what you’re thinking: this all sounds great, but where do I start? Never fear, we’ve got some awesome tips to help you launch and implement a multilingual social media strategy.
Let’s get down to business!
Know Your Audience Demographics
While you may have a certain idea of where your followers hail from, it’s always best to leave the guesswork out of figuring out your demographics. As was mentioned previously, conducting a thorough follower demographic analysis is a great way to get an accurate read on which languages could potentially help expand your reach. While some brands’ second language may be rather obvious (ie. Quebec brands should post in both English and French), other languages like Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic are the top contenders in most-spoken languages worldwide. Figure out your demographics, and go from there!
Get A Native Speaker To Create Your Content
So, you’ve figured out which other language you’re going to start posting in. Great! Now, if only you had a native speaker to post for you…
The issue that many companies (especially those that are just starting out) experience is that they don’t have someone on their immediate team who can compose content in more than one language fluently. Oftentimes, this leads brands to use translation tools to translate their English content into their desired second language: DO NOT DO THIS. Automatic translation tools are unreliable as they translate words directly, and don’t take into account sayings, metaphors, etc. Instead, look to a work with an actual human translator. There are plenty of amazing translation services online (like Globalme!) that will translate your English copy into a secondary language in a way that reads well without awkward misconstruals.
Localize Translations
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: make sure that your translations make sense. To avoid potential miscommunication, make sure that your English slang terms, sayings, and metaphors make sense when translated into another language. For example, the French saying “dans la lune” refers to someone being a little out of it, as if they’ve been daydreaming and haven’t been paying attention. In English? It translates directly to “in the moon”. Doesn’t have quite the same effect, now does it? Make sure that your translations are localized so that they make sense in every language you post in.
Use Emojis and Visuals
Ah, emojis. A universal language that anyone familiar with the emojipedia understands. Emojis are an amazing resource for crafting effective social media captions and posts in any language, because most people read visuals the same way. As Cady Heron in Mean Girls once replied when asked why she loves math: “Because it’s the same in every country.” Well, girl, we feel you. Emoji’s are something that people the world over inherently understand, so be wise and use them to your advantage!
Create Separate Accounts
Time for some basic logistics. While some social media platforms offer multilingual features (like Facebook’s translation tools), the reality is that many do not. When it comes time to post on Instagram, for example, you’re most likely better off creating separate accounts for each language that you post in.
Posting content with a caption that has the same information repeated twice (or more) in different languages is not only aesthetically problematic, it’s just ineffective. Instead, create a separate account dedicated to your second language. If need be, provide a (trustworthy!) translator with the account login so that they can post the content you want to get noticed.
Once you’ve built up your multilingual social media presence, it’s time to boost your follower count further in your new target demographics! Check out our blog post for more info.
Until next time!
Michelle ✨
@serotinamedia
#KEEPSOCIAL
