5 Things to Think About for International Social Media Marketing.

[sonia sharma]

1.Technology: So they access the internet on mobile, tablet or desktop? Know this about the countries you are targeting and you will be able to plan out whether quick and simple, mobile friendly content is best, or long form text. If mobile internet is popular, research into the speeds and 4G/3G coverage. If access is high, but speeds are slow, then perhaps avoiding using video and other rich multimedia is going to be better.
2.Social Media Site Preferences: In many countries, the most popular social media site is a home-grown site. Facebook and Twitter, of course have a huge amount of coverage, but assuming that you can reach your consumers through these is naive. Do your research into the most popular networks in the countries you wish to target.
3.Cultural Quirks: Does your target audience prefer a formal or informal approach? Do they respect authority figures? Do they prefer caring and soft or a harder approach? Are they impulsive? All of these questions shape the way you talk to your audience. Hint: Each country has different cultural quirks.
4.What is trending? What do they care about at that particular moment? If a certain celebrity is big in Germany, but not in Spain, then don’t mention them in Spain. If it is sunny in France but not in Russia, don’t talk about beach weather to the Russians. This is on,y scratching the surface, and really, a truly structured international social media campaign breaks down the trends in each individual country.
5.Local lingo and dialect: Possibly the simplest way to explain this is: Holidays in the UK and Vacations in the United States. Different cultures have different words and different meanings for words. Thongs in Australia have a different meaning to thongs in the UK. You need to know these terms to avoid embarrassment.