Social media is a useful tool to help your brand get noticed around the world. This makes it an exciting tool for anyone trying to do business in another country. In this post, we list a few tips to help you take full advantage of your social media campaign.
Carmen Urbano, is a known expert on international online strategies. She warned us about the biggest mistakes that are frequently repeated during a global launching process and the use of the 2.0 platforms.
Mistakes:
- Treating a new foreign market the same way you would treat your local one.
- Using social media as an end without a base strategy. Looking for the “most popular social network” in a general manner without taking into account your brand or consumer patterns.
- Not having the appropriate digital databases that are well categorized (segmented).
- Using English as a universal language, or translating your platforms in a “literal” manner (word for word, instead of in context, example: by using Google Translate).
- Not taking advantage of the international networking that is being developed in some networks. They are not just for selling. You must take advantage of the multiple tools that these virtual networks have available.
“The social media platforms have an immense database that helps you segment your target audience. Social CRM (Customer Relationship Management), social competitive intelligence, social branding, and international networking, among others, are disciplines we must consider in order to define our strategies when investing abroad. Companies and brands need the commitment of online communities, the well-known engagement. And by all accounts, there are no self-respecting SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies without an SMO (Social Media Optimization), or a good complement with the social web.
So, where do you start?
The first thing you must do is answer the following question: Who am I speaking to?
A vital part of getting to know your target audience is to understand their motivations and concerns, which is an excellent guide to help you position your brand in the new market.
Once you have identified the market, you will know what the most appropriate media is to get closer to your meta-audience, and to speak to them in their language with the accurate communication codes that will achieve the long-awaited engagement you’ve been seeking.
Secondly, get to know your competition well: their strengths and weaknesses, and the reasons why people prefer or reject them. In digital terms, evaluate their presence in the different platforms. Analyze their digital strategy, in which platforms are they present, how they do it, what they talk about; analyze their metrics. Evaluating the category, particularly in a new market, can help you understand the behavior, and trace a clear map of what works and what doesn’t.
Lastly, build your digital strategy on the premise that observing your performance is vital, where you are open to letting the results give you a clear guide as to whether you’re on the right track, or not.
Considerations when creating a social media profile:
- Online competition is not the same as competition in the offline world. Key points: competitive intelligence and market intelligence, behavior patterns, brand positioning and above all, adaptation. One must complement the online and offline to define a communication strategy.
- Every market is a world of its own. Every country plays by their own rules regarding the networks that are used most, the types of user profiles, and trends. Frequently, with international strategies, companies rely on area-based, corporate and specific networks to globalize, that provide a professional point of view, and an opportunity to gather knowledge and contacts in each target market.
- It’s not enough to have your website translated into the most spoken languages: you must create specific messages for each audience. Pay attention to the large brands: they have a different profile for each country their brand reaches.
You have the keys: now being able to implement them will be easier with allies. That’s where we come in. We help you adapt your strategies in different languages for your target audience with the appropriate messages. Don’t waste the multiple tools that the 2.0 world has to offer. Don’t limit your brand’s reach. To adapt is to succeed. Here’s the link to your first ally in this process: https://welanguages.com/what-we-do/