Benefits to localize your content on Social Media

Content Localization is new paradigm which is gaining importance in this era of globalization and digitalization. It is very important if you want to become a part of global business. It helps in reaching a wider audiences across borders. Content localization is a part of social media marketing. Social media helps in engaging billions of people across the globe. As per research only Facebook alone has two billion users. Beside Facebook there are some other social media tools which help marketers to reach wider audience. Localizing your content in social media has enormous benefits in regard of reaching global audience so before knowing the benefits to localize your content on social media let’s see what content localization is.

What is content Localization?

Content localization is more than cultural translation. It is different from simple source text to target text translation. It deals with catering the preferences and need of the target audience. The objective of the content localization is to present text in such a way so that target audience start assuming that content is written in their native language. There are some qualities in qualified professional who deals with content localization which are

Distinguished writing skills that convey the core message and send it to the target language.
Better knowledge and understanding of source and text language.
Good know-how of technical terminologies of content localization.

Competencies and skills required for localization of social media content is not limited to only these three skills. Content localization is cumbersome process that requires more competencies and extensive experience.

Why Content Localization is needed?

The answer to this question is simple: you don’t want your brand to collapse in global market.

When Coca-Cola initially entered the Chinese market the brand name was misinterpreted as Bite the wax tadpole. Same is the case with Pepsi. Pepsi’s logo “Pepsi brings you back to life” was misinterpreted in Chinese as “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave”. It not only sounds absurd but it is very humiliating for Chinese culture. Content localization is here for you to minimize these blunders. Giants like Pepsi and Coca-Cola can only have capacity to bear these blunders, a small business and bootstraps cant.

According to Lyfe Marketing research

71% of clients who have pleasant shopping experience on social media will refer the brand to their acquaintances. In this scenario localization of social media content can help in making your brand accessible globally.
91% of social media browsers use their accounts from smartphones and tablets. When you localize your social media content you become accessible for wider audience from their smartphones and laptops.
49% of millennials are of the view that they are ready to purchase the product after they have seen its promo on social media. Localization of your social media content will help you target exact audience and help you reaching more potential clients on international level.

Social media is the backbone of marketing world. Furthermore it is necessary in this era of digitalization. Posting your comments in English on social media is a biggest mistake. By localizing your social media content you show your concern and respect towards global audience. Social media localization can benefit your global business in following ways.

1. Your Brands Customer Centric Approach

By localizing content on social media account, you improve communication with your customers in a specific country. For example your client from Sweden don’t want to buy a sweater from you and is looking for pair of pants. The difference in language lead to embarrassing situations and if localization is done you won’t face any such embarrassing situation. Let’s see how IKEA solved the complication of localizing the social media content for various countries. They set up the separate instagram account for every country in which they operate so that people get familiar with their products. This results in Business to customer connection and communication.

2. Follow Cultural Practices

Localization not only deal with text but it also deals with visual content like videos graphics and images. Here localization plays a evident role as the pictures graphics and images which you post for your audience are appropriate in your country and it may be inappropriate in other countries. You need to pay close attention to what you upload for your audience and for other countries. In this way you will be able to secure your authority and create a trustworthy image of your brand. You will also get an opportunity to show your respect for the target culture by inviting marketers to introduce your brand.

3. Getting Comments and Shares

Liking, sharing re-tweeting are useful for every brand. In this way your brand becomes globally recognized. By getting your social media content localized, you will be able to reach larger audience and will get a chance to get more likes and shares. By geotargeting you will be able to recognize specific location on your post. In this way you will get more likes reviews and shares. Localization works on larger scale. For example if you localize your content from English to Spanish, you will be able to reach English and Spanish customers both from around the globe.

4. Increase your Website Traffic

Localizing and adapting your website in every language is the first step towards social media localization. Indeed you want internet browsers to become your customers. Internet browsers will visit your website at any time and order your products and services. You should add more links in your post for example if you share an update of your new blog and invite users to visit your e-store. It will encourage internet browsers to open your site. This will result in more traffic to your site and enhance profitability of your e-commerce business.

Wrapping up

Localized website is very time consuming task but if you want to reach your potential customers, It is worth it. If you want local and global presence of your brand than social media localization should be part of your business strategy.