Optimising Social Media Platforms: The Importance of Professional Translation
There is no doubt that social media platforms have changed the way companies do business. It is easier than ever to attract new clients and reach a wider audience. Your business can take off in a matter of days because of your presence on social media platforms. If a trend goes viral, your company could potentially explode into global markets. If your business or service sells abroad, you need to translate your social media accounts to reach your target market. Poorly translated content can have a negative impact on your brand. That’s why professional translation is essential for your brand.
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Customised Content
Most businesses have multiple social media accounts as they want to reach their clients on all platforms. Global Citizens Translation services understand this and that is why they offer professional translation services that include options on a range of platforms.
Writing a post on your Facebook page or uploading an image on Instagram are two very different things. They are different platforms and each of these is used to target a specific audience based on your companies market. For this reason, you must be flexible with your content, to ensure it reaches the right audience. Because your social media accounts need to be constantly updated to keep your audience engaged, you will need to continuously translate new posts.
Adapting to Each Platform
If you have ever looked into different social media platforms, you will know that each one is different in terms of word count. Some platforms will only allow you to use 250 characters while others have their limitations.
When you upload text to your social media account, it is important to know what you are doing and how much space you have available to you. If the text is too long, only part of your message will show and when you get this translated, the message won’t make any sense to your customers.
There are many important social media strategies to follow to maximise your brands’ success and one of the most crucial is adapting to various platforms to ensure your message and translation are clear.
Immediate Response
Although you may not be able to immediately respond to a personal message in another language, with professional language translation services, you can quickly post something to your social media site that responds to a query.
When running a business, you cannot wait days or weeks to answer a question from potential customers or clients. To ensure you stay on top of your game, you must be proactive and respond to questions in a prompt manner. When you must share content that is relevant at the moment, you will need it to be professionally translated to guarantee you get the right message across.
You need to play effectively to ensure your business shows agility, this strategy must include translation of your social media content on all platforms.
Connecting with Users
Although English is commonly spoken in the business world, overlooking the importance of others languages means your organisation could suffer. Failing to translate your online content can cost your business a lot of money as the importance of professional content translation is often neglected. Professional business translation is crucial to ensure your business doesn’t miss out on any opportunities or turn away from certain demographics.
One of the main factors to ensure success across your business social media platforms is engagement. You are trying to connect with your customers and bring them closer to your brand. This is not going to happen if your social media content is only available in English and no other languages.
You do not have to go translating your social media accounts into a variety of languages, you only need the ones where your audience is based. When you share content across platforms, you must use professional translation services to guarantee your content is carefully worded and sounds natural to the reader.
Opting for Human Translation Services
Although there are lots of digital options when it comes to language translation services, there is still no substitute for human translators. Translation software has come on leaps and bounds but it still does not compare to skilled and highly experienced human translators.
You should avoid machine translation on social media sites, especially when dealing with languages such as:
- Chinese – Mandarin or Cantonese
- Thai
- Vietnamese
- Arabic
Even translating languages like Spanish or German to English turns up some interesting results. Social media users are particularly demanding when it comes to content. If it is not correct your business could get a negative reputation. Letting digital software translate your online content can result in a range of problems, some of which include:
- Content with lots of mistakes
- Creating a message which is impossible to understand
- Translating content into an offensive message
Your business can easily alienate or offend a wide audience. So it is important to work with professional translation services when optimising your social media platforms.
Continue Reading: Different types of translation services in need today
Understanding Your Business Strategy
To get your message across in a successful fashion, you need native speakers who specialise in professional translation. Once they understand your business strategy, they can convey the right message without losing the essence of the content. Another way to optimise your social media translation strategy is to create different profiles based on geographical areas.
This way, each account and the content your business creates is tailor-made for each country’s culture and language.
The most effective way to get close to your audience is to localise your social media platforms. This will ensure more relatable content for your target clients.
Professional translators are essential when it comes to adapting your social media content for other markets. When you put your trust in skilled translators, you basically reduce the chance of errors. Errors that could otherwise be fatal for your business and brand.