Translation of social media posts. A step-by-step plan for an international social media strategy

The importance of social media

Social media has become an integral part of contemporary life. For example, even prominent political figures use it to propagate their opinions. Social media is one of the most important means of communication in our modern society. If used properly, it can create huge opportunities for businesses when it comes to increasing reach.

Expanding your social media marketing strategy on an international level can be a major asset to your business. If you want to do this successfully, the multilingual corporate communication on social media must be of a high standard. Below, you can read why this is so important, what the pitfalls are and how you can achieve this with maximum effectiveness.

Why translate social media posts

Platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram offer endless possibilities when it comes to reaching out to international target groups. However, automatic translation functions are machine translations, not human translations.

If you want to be successful with your company in the international field, multilingual online communication can help you extend your marketing strategy to a foreign language target group. Translating and localising your social media posts is very important to achieve this.

If you are an agricultural company and you want to translate your social media profile, there are certain things to consider. You can shape your social media strategy on the basis of a strong step-by-step plan.

Step-by-step plan for your international social media strategy

Assuming that English is the default language of the Internet seems the logical option. While it is still the most widely used language today, obviously, not everyone speaks and understands English; multilingual social media posts are therefore extremely important. After all, being able to have a dialogue with your followers in their native language is the key to developing meaningful and lasting relationships.

Want to connect with your current customers or expand into a new market? Use the steps below to come up with a strong step-by-step plan for your international social media strategy.

Step 1. Know your target groups

Knowing who to aim your international social media marketing at is very important. This means you need to know which language your target group speaks; therefore, knowing the demographics of your target group is very important. If you know who your target group is, you can possibly adjust your marketing expressions in line with this.

All social media platforms offer analytical dashboards with statistics about the language of your audience. Keep an eye on your page and posts statistics and adjust your marketing accordingly.

Step 2. Organise your channels

Use a content calendar to make the most of your international social media channels. This calendar schedules when certain content will be posted and when your channels need to be updated. You can also automate messages or schedule them in advance. This gives you a better overview of the content to be posted, deadlines are easier to meet and it saves time when it comes to posting social media messages.

Step 3. Have your texts translated by professionals

Major players such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon are already making great progress in machine translation. However, this will never match a text translated by a human. The essence or underlying message in captions or slogans is often lost when using machine translations.

The solution to this problem is to invest in a partnership with a professional translation agency. Language bloopers can cause your company serious harm. Besides, readers may perceive this as a lack of respect.

Step 4. Customised social media

When it comes to international social media, all kinds of factors play a role, such as different time zones, languages and cultural differences. To reach the largest possible audience, it is important to take the following into account:

The main thing is that you keep an eye on your audience, that you use your common sense and possibly other resources, such as native translators or an influencer.

Step 5. Pay attention to the different platforms and their specific points of attention

You must realise that translating marketing texts for social media has its own specific points requiring attention. Since different platforms use their own terminology, it’s wise to adapt your marketing texts accordingly. Below, we highlight some specific points that can help you when using various social media platforms in your international social media plan.

One of the best ways to promote your page is the use of hashtags. Hashtags link your posts to certain topics and people who aren’t following you yet. That way, they too can see your posts on social media.

The problem with hashtags lies in their translation. This is because hashtags are very language and context specific. A translated hashtag will not lead the reader to the same thread. This will take the reader to a completely different thread, one that may be used much less often than the original thread. So be sure to research which hashtags are relevant in your target language domain. As a result, the translation will still be tagged and users will be able to find the messages you post via a search.

Twitter is a well-known platform limited to 280 characters. This makes the work of translators a lot more difficult. Being creative with a limited number of characters is hard enough, let alone trying to convey the meaning in another language; languages such as English, French and Spanish require more words to convey the same message from Dutch.

Yet even on social media platforms with longer character limits, such as Facebook, the length of posts is still important. People are more likely to read shorter texts when scrolling through their feed, because it takes less time. Being consistent and concise in your posts is therefore key if you don’t want to lose followers and customers on your social media channels.

Translating the terminology of a platform isn’t always easy either. Think of words such as a follow, a tweet, tagging someone, a PM; the list can be quite extensive and unique to each platform. Most social media sites are in English, for an English-speaking audience. This can be a stumbling block for translators. Transferring the specific message to another language is difficult enough, but finding the right tone of voice that fits a social media expression is often even more challenging.

Marketing translations by AgroLingua

Marketing translations are carried out with the utmost care at AgroLingua This is because our translations are made on the basis of a step-by-step plan:

Discover the advantages of AgroLingua for yourself

Would you like more information about AgroLingua’s services? We’ll be happy assist you. Please don’t hesitate to contact us! Not working in the agricultural sector, but still looking for a translation agency? We service all other sectors through our sister organisation TempoTranslator.