One of the greatest things about the web is that you can reach audiences in almost every country around the world.
So, if you want to reach more international audiences, upping your social media game is one of the best ways to go about it.
However, to be successful in your global approach, it is important that you first perform research and plan your strategies carefully.
Get started by checking out the nine following ways in which you can improve your international reach on social media.
1. Expand Your Social Media Presence in Other Countries
Image source: https://pixabay.com/photos/businessman-internet-continents-2682712/
In order to expand your reach on social media, it is important that you get onto as many platforms as possible, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, and so on.
Sure, you should be most active on platforms where your target audience mostly hangs out, but to improve your general social media presence, it is crucial that you up your game by increasing the number of channels you use.
When it comes to improving your international reach on social media, you need to think beyond the social media platforms that you are familiar with in your own country.
The channels that are popular in English-speaking countries are not the only social media platforms in the world, so it is vital that you get onto international platforms to expand your reach.
For instance:
- In China, Renren and Sina Weibo are popular platforms. And if you are mostly targeting business people, get onto Kaixin001, which is the third major network in China and is mainly used by office workers.
- For Japan, make sure you use Mixi, which is the largest social network in the country.
- When targeting people in Brazil and India, use Orkut, which is owned by Google. It is the main social media player in Brazil and is also very popular in India and some other countries.
- For a Russian audience, get onto the very popular Yandex social media platform. And definitely use VKontakte, which is similar to LinkedIn in that it caters to professionals.
- For a South East Asia audience, make sure you use Friendster, which is based in Malaysia.
2. Create Separate Accounts for Each Market
Once you have become familiar with the different global social media platforms, you should create separate accounts for each one and post separate content rather than sharing the same content that you post on your native social media sites.
The main reasons for doing that have to do with the language and localization; which you will learn more about in a moment.
If you post something on a German-based social media site, you will need to use the local language and consider cultural differences. After all, people from other countries will not necessarily speak German and they will have different localization needs.
By using an individual approach for each international social media channel, you can better target audiences and gain more followers and more shares of your content.
3. Research Which Content International Social Media Users Engage with the Most
If you are serious about improving your international reach, you should spend time researching each market you want to enter.
People in different countries use social media for different reasons and they will engage with some content more than other types of content.
So, make sure you understand what social media users’ preferences are in the countries you are targeting before you sign up for accounts and begin posting content. You can then create content accordingly.
For example:
- In Asia, social media users tend to engage with and share videos and music more than other content.
- In South America, most people access their social media sites via mobile devices, so you will want to ensure your content is optimized for mobile. Furthermore, South American countries have the highest percentage of Twitter users in the world.
- In India, social networks that are based around sharing music and online gaming are the most popular.
- In Western Europe, social media users enjoy content that is either entertaining or useful; the same as in North America.
4. Offer Your Content in Multiple Languages, e.g. German
One of the most important things you need to do to enhance your global reach on social media platforms is to offer your content in different languages.
For instance, if you are targeting Germans, you need to ensure your content is written in accurate German.
While you can use automated translation tools, none are completely reliable. Therefore, it can be more than worth learning a local language like German yourself to ensure there are no errors in your written or spoken content.
You can get started by taking interactive German lessons on Lingoda with native-level teachers.
Though, you will not be able to master every language for all of your target countries, so you may want to consider hiring translators to translate your content for specific markets.
Learn the languages for the international social media platforms and target audiences that you will be investing in the most and hire translators to help you with content for your other global markets.
And think beyond written content. For instance, if you will be posting videos on different social media platforms, such as testimonials, it is important that the content is translated for different target markets.
It can also be helpful to collect video testimonials for different international markets, in which case, it is a good idea to get native speakers to provide testimonials.
For other video content, make sure you create translated transcripts.
And you should utilize translation for all of your types of content, such as infographics, photographs with text, and audio pieces.
5. Localize Your Content
You not only need to ensure that your content is translated into appropriate languages. You also need to make sure that your content is localized for different international markets.
That means knowing about cultural differences.
For instance, if you are posting photographs of wedding dresses on Chinese social media platforms, you could easily make the mistake of posting images of women in white wedding dresses, when in fact, most brides in China wear red wedding dresses.
You should always double-check your messaging to ensure cultural differences are not overlooked. If you do not, you are sure to be less successful in markets where you get your messaging wrong.
Colors, words, phrases, and more, can all carry different meanings in different cultures, so you definitely need to spend time researching cultural differences for any international social media market before you begin posting content.
Even English-speaking countries have language differences. For instance, if you are based in the U.S. and targeting a United Kingdom audience, you will need to make sure you use local terms, such as “boot” instead of “trunk” when referencing the trunk of a car and “lift” instead of “elevator”.
You need to look at differences in grammar and spelling, too. For example, in the U.K., the word “color” is spelled “colour” and the word “center” is spelled “centre.”
If you do not pay attention to localization, you could quickly put off your target audience from engaging with your content. In a worst-case scenario, you could even offend your target audience.
At the end of the day, a one-size-fits-all approach simply will not do when expanding your social media reach to a global audience, so do not overlook the importance of getting localization right.
6. Consider the Timing of Your Social Media Content
One factor that many people overlook when expanding their international social media reach is the importance of timing.
Different countries operate in different time zones. So, for your social media posts to gain attention and traction, they need to be posted at the right time.
After all, if you post compelling content in the morning and you hope to target audiences in the southern hemisphere, most of your audience will not see your content because it will be nighttime.
You also need to think about seasons. You will be shooting yourself in the foot if you promote summer dresses to an audience in a country where it is currently winter, for instance.
Getting the timing of social media posts right for a global audience also means knowing when there are major events in your target countries. For example, if there is a big sporting event that most of the country will be watching, there is little point in posting social media content during the game.
7. Stay Up-to-date with Global Trends
Trends come and go, so you need to keep up with all the latest trends to tailor your social media content accordingly and gain more likes and shares.
But do not overlook the fact that trends can be country-centric.
You not only need to keep up with trends in your own country. You also need to stay up-to-date with trends in all of your target countries. You can then take your content creation to the next level.
Get started by using tools like Google Trends and Insights for each country of interest to help you know what is hot and which trends have fallen out of fashion.
8. Create Emotional Content
While languages and cultural interests will change from one country to another, emotional responses are the same the world over.
Therefore, if you create content that triggers an emotional response, you can reach people from all around the world and you will not have to create as much individual content for specific countries.
For example, if you create a video that is highly emotional, all you need to worry about is the translation side of things. The content itself will more than suffice for different global audiences, as long as it is executed in the right way.
9. Regularly Look at Analytics
You need to regularly keep an eye on how well each of your global social media channels is performing, in terms of things like the number of shares, likes, and new followers, and how many conversions you make.
So, make sure you look at your analytics on a regular basis to see how well you are performing globally within each social media account.
Summing Up International Reach on Social Media
To improve your social media reach, you need to carefully consider things like Search Engine Optimization, keywords, how to create eye-catching, entertaining, and informative content, and how to engage with people on each of your channels.
But to improve your international reach, you need to do a lot of additional things.
The first thing you need to do is decide on which territories around the world you want to target. By understanding your existing target audience and looking at the new audiences you want to reach, you can better determine which countries you should be targeting the most.
It is a good idea to begin by extending your reach to just a few international markets at first. You can always expand further later on.
But before you set up accounts and start to post content, it is crucial that you follow the above ways to improve your international social media reach if you want to be successful.
So, to recap, you should:
- Expand your social media presence in other countries by getting onto social media sites that are specific to certain regions, such as using Kaixin001 to reach a Chinese audience and Friendster to reach a South East Asia audience.
- Create separate accounts for each international market to ensure your content is tailored correctly for each target audience.
- Research which content international social media users engage with the most, as people in one country may engage more with one type of content than another.
- Offer your content in multiple languages to make certain your content is readable by different global audiences.
- Localize your content to ensure you do not make any cultural mistakes.
- Consider the timing of your social media content, as different countries have varying time zones and they could be experiencing different seasons.
- Stay up-to-date with global trends, as trends can vary from one country or region to another.
- Create emotional content because emotion is an international language that everyone speaks.
- Regularly look at analytics to see how well you are performing across your different international social media channels and make improvements accordingly.