In the year 2021, not many things can claim to be part of a person’s daily lifestyle other than social media. Regardless of the discrepancies between the global north and the global south, social media platforms have enabled an equal distribution of opportunities. It’s not like, the region or countries are using a different version of Instagram. It’s the same for everyone. However, technological evolution may not be constant for everyone. But with the rise of the internet and the ability to utilize social media platforms for business purposes, some of the many underdeveloped nations have completely altered the state of their economies vis-a-vis social media.

So, it doesn’t really matter where you live, the only thing you need is an internet connection & social media account, and you can start off with your business venture online. If you are keen on attaining some statistics, you would be surprised to know that almost half of the worlds’ population uses social media platforms in some way. Furthermore, there are around 4.3 billion users around the world that spend more than 5-6 hours on various social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.

These statistics provide a golden opportunity for any business organization that wants to expand its operations to the global marketplace. And the ones who are still prone to utilizing the traditional platforms for advertisements such as newspapers and televisions are missing out on a very good opportunity. Some experts might even call them naive or half-witted for not availing of the opportunities that these social media platforms provide to them.

This article is for such individuals. We will discuss why it is necessary to use social media platforms for business purposes. And how imperative it is to make your social media platforms multilingual. So let’s start;

Why Even Bother to Build a Multilingual Social Media Presence?

If you ask any startup business or small organization the reason why they do not use a social media platform for their business, they might proclaim that it is for the big companies, not the small ones. This statement could not be more wrong. If you look from one angle, social media is the greatest tool for small businesses, not the big ones.

The Greatest Marketing Tool For Social Media Start Ups

It doesn’t really matter how mediocre or small your business venture is, there are plenty of reasons to create a social media platform. If you look at some of the statistics presented by Sprout Social Index, 90% of customers who are following a company’s social media presence on Instagram or Facebook, are likely to make a purchase from these sites, over a TV commercial or billboard ad.

Automatic Segmentation

One of the biggest challenges for any business is to define its target market and then create a product that caters to that segment of the society. The benefit of a social media page is that only those people will like your page, who are interested or willing to purchase that particular product or service. So, automatically you will be able to create your target audience, without having to look for them or spending any extra money.

Moreover, it will enable you to customize your messages specifically for the niche segment, and the customers will feel a personal attachment to your brand. The amount of data collected by these social media platforms is in such depth that they can estimate a person’s interests in a short period of time.

There’s a reason why these social media platforms share advertisements on your feeds for the brands or products that you would be interested in. Hence, a lot of consumers prefer to purchase via these online platforms than by looking at a flyer or TV commercial.

Enabling Inter-personal Communication With Customers

Many people assume that posting an ad on social media platforms does not guarantee any serious customer attraction. On the contrary, you have to understand that people utilize social media to interact with their close ones. So, almost everything you see has a personal aspect attached to it. Thereby, people tend to go for a more personal approach, in order to enter that circle of social interactivity.

There are many ways to interact with someone. However, the best way to communicate is when you make a conversation more personal. People react to things that interest them or they can relate to. Hence, they feel more comfortable. And that is the barrier that every brand and organization endeavors to enter. Because once they can establish a relationship of comfort with their customers, the chances that they purchase from them increase exponentially.

But the important thing over here to ponder upon is that people are comfortable in their native language. Thereby, if you wish to interact with your audience via social media platforms, then make sure to make it multilingual. This is the only way to bridge the gaps created by language barriers.

It’s not a suggestion or recommendation, rather it’s science proven by facts. There are dozens of researches and surveys conducted by marketing researchers who say people who see advertisements in their native language are prone to purchase that product or service as compared to the ones they see in a foreign language. Thus, language is directly proportional to positive consumer behavior.

An organization that wants to offer a product or service to its customers needs to give them something that brings value into their lives. The problem is that there are so many upcoming businesses attempting to sell their product to the customer that the customer gets confused.

The reason behind that aspect is that these various firms focus upon the selling concept, in which the aim is to bombard consumers with ads and offers without ever considering what the customer wants. This is not the right way to approach the consumer market. And certainly not the right way to conduct business.

The only way you can grasp the customer’s attention is if you focus on what the customer wants. Creating a personable relationship with your target consumer must be your goal. This strategy will enable you to stand out from the crowd.

Constructing A Multilingual Social Media Presence

If you want to create a multilingual social media presence, people will say just to add various languages, so that the consumer will have the option to choose the language. Well, the truth of the matter is that it’s not the whole picture, but just one aspect of the entire story.

It is not just about offering customers the choice to select any language. But the real issue over here is to start a personable conversation with your potential consumer. It’s not really about having direct contact, but the approach should be to create such content in the native language of your consumers so they feel that it was specifically written for them.

If you take the approach of opting for simple word-to-word translations, the chances are that the customer might not understand the intention behind the message. And the real offering of the brand gets lost in translations. So, the best approach is to localize your content on your social media pages. Try to avoid simple word-to-word translations.

Localization is the process of molding and adapting your content in a way that would be accepted by the target audience. In this case, your aim is to adjust the content so it does not offend the target culture. Thereby, proper research of the target audience needs to take place.

In your research, you need to study the cultural nuances, intricacies, and preferences of the people, it would allow you to get inside the mind of the consumers. Moreover, your internal and external marketing research will provide you answers to the questions such as;

  • What are the economic realities of the target region?
  • How does a consumer think?
  • What are the demographics, meaning the lifestyle, age groups, interests, ideologies, religious preferences, traditional boundaries, etc.?

These answers will help you understand the holistic view of the target market. And enable you to translate the content on social media platforms. What things to add and what content to avoid?

Another important aspect that is crucial in the construction of a multilingual website is the notion of having a fluent conversation. If you focus upon the fluency and the articulation of the conversation, you will automatically be able to grasp the consumer’s attention. Moreover, if you combine the fluence aspect and inculcate it in the filters of various social media platforms like Instagram, you will be able to create an effective way of reaching your existing and new customers.

Conclusion

Two aspects that are crucial for any kind of success are time and consistent effort. It doesn’t really matter what your starting position is, if you can apply these things in your business journey, one way or another, you will attain success.

Similarly, the process of constructing a multilingual website takes a lot of time and effort. If you do not observe a methodology while offering multiple websites on your social media pages, the chances are you will not be able to enter the competitive marketplace in the era of globalization.

In this article, we have discussed the importance of multilingual social media platforms, and also touched upon the key steps for their construction. This article will help businesses to take a more structured approach before attempting to penetrate a foreign market.

Resources

How Multilingualism Helps to Get Global Success
ATOMS Multilingual Website Localization
Understanding the Significance of Multilingual Email Marketing
Multilingual SEO: How to Improve Your Page Ranking
Q & A – Multilingual Website Translation
Multilingual Translation Using Okapi + OmegaT