March 8, 2016
Are you a UK marketeer seeking the attention of a global audience?
What is the best approach to target audiences across multiple countries or languages? It may seem as simple as changing ‘humor’ to ‘humour’ or contacting a translation house to translate ‘friend’ to ‘ami’…however, you will quickly see that it is not as straightforward as you might think.
In order to create a cohesive and successful global social media content strategy, it is essential for your business to map out your global social media needs prior to implementing any new content.
Thorough careful planning of your localisation strategy from the outset, you can make a powerful impact on:
- How your international customers respond to your brand
- How they share your content
- Communicating your brand message across markets
- Establishing brand trust
- Conversion to sales
We’d like to share our Top 5 Essential Global Strategy Planning Tips to get your campaign started!
- Research your Market
It’s not just about language; cultural differences and nuances are essential to get the new content right to ensure your brand is promoted in a positive light. This should be reflected in your creative as well as your copy.
Example: Fans in Germany are driven by the quality of the product being promoted on Facebook, so we always ensure we capitalise on this in both our ad copy as well as our creative imagery, resulting in higher social engagement and cheaper cost per action.
- Create your Tone of Voice
How do you want to be seen? Figure out if the brand’s tone of voice matches the market. One country might be into humour while another may be more serious. Be consistent in what you have to say, and how you say it.
Example: Does your brand use first person or third person? Are the terms in one country translatable into other languages? Does your new market use hashtags and / or the same social channels? Get a copy of the content guidelines for your brand to remain consistent across markets.
- Draft your Calendar
Plan, plan, plan. The more planning you have conducted in advance, the better. This way you can make changes as things unfold, depending on how your content is received.
Example: Be strategic in your thinking and vary your posts based on insights in each market. Always be ready to adapt and be reactive!
- Centralise your efforts
Social media is a collaborative effort and all aspects need to be covered, from customer service to community management to local events. Make sure roles are defined and no message is left unanswered!
Example: We often collaborate with various other departments for our clients e.g. PR teams. This allows us to have an integrated and seamless global strategy.
- Now Create your Compelling Content
Once you have completed #1-4 above and had your content approved by the relevant team and made it applicable to each market, you have officially completed the localisation process – congratulations!
Example: Always ensure your content makes sense to a native within your target market. It shouldn’t sound translated, it should sound authentic.
As a Global Social Media agency, agency:2 has assembled a team of individuals with specialist skill-sets to deal with global social media accounts across 13 different markets.
Our central team of creative writers, designers, strategists, community managers and insight researchers ensure a streamlined, localised approach specific to each of these diverse markets.
This allow us to communicate the same brand message and integrate marketing and PR activities across platforms and countries, while lowering operating costs, increasing knowledge sharing and optimising processes.
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