Should businesses concentrate their social-media efforts on a local audience, or branch out with a global campaign? The short answer is, it depends. Across the Internet-connected world, as it is in America, social media offers businesses a platform to have an intimate, two-way discussion with their current customers while enabling them to seek out new customers at the same time. Social media is an amazing branding tool and an amazing customer-service tool that can be tracked and measured in a cost-effective manner.
So why not go international with a social-media campaign? Several reasons, actually.
The Argument Against an International Social-Media Campaign
There are four commonly cited obstacles that trip up companies seeking to take take their social-media strategy international:
Language barriers - even among English-speaking countries, subtle nuances and difference in language and meaning can lead to catastrophic marketing and branding disasters.
Cultural barriers, such as different currencies, different holidays, political considerations and ethnic or religious sensitivities can be insurmountable without intimate local knowledge.
Legal barriers such as rules regarding advertising and marketing language - which are much stricter in Europe, for example, than they are in the United States - can lead to serious and long-lasting repercussions to reputation, capital and the ability to conduct business.
And finally, it is hard to understand the differences in social-media networks themselves. What do we mean by that?
Facebook is the largest social-media network in the world, and therefore the one on which your global campaign should focus, right? Not if you're doing business in China. Then you would want to establish a presence on Qzone - or Renren if you're marketing to college students or Kaixin001 if your target audience is office professionals. Is your market in Brazil or India? Then you would reach out through Google-owned Orkut. Mixi is the biggest network in Japan, and LinkedIn-esque VKontakte dominates Russia.
Needless to say, there will be a steep learning curve on most of these platforms, or more likely, you will have to expend resources to hire a local social-media manager who knows the network, knows the language and knows the culture.
So when is it worth it to initiate a global social-media campaign?
The Argument for an International Social-Media Campaign
Global social-media marketing experts generally recommend that their clients establish or expand social media campaigns in new countries in the pursuit of one or more of four long-term goals:
They want to generate more traffic for their website.
They hope to increase their brand exposure through followers and online engagement.
They are actively trying to tap into new markets through social endorsements and paid advertising.
They want to establish a customer service platform to communicate with existing and potential customers.
Focus Less on ROI and More on Impact
Same as in America, people around the world are generally not on social media to buy, they're on social media to connect. Therefore, calculating return on investment can be difficult. When calculating the benefit of your global social-media campaign, develop a yardstick to measure your progress that isn't based on dollars and cents.
Do this by establishing predefined, short-term goals before you begin your campaign. These goals will, of course, vary depending on which of the four previously discussed long-term goals you are after. Those trying to tap new markets, for example, may measure traffic from shares, measure lead generation or track referral traffic. Those hoping to set up a customer-service platform, on the other hand, may look at the how their online customer reviews have improved or declined.
There is no single answer to the question of whether or not it's worth it to globalize a local social-media campaign. International social-media outreach can be very difficult, but very beneficial. What are you after, where are you attempting to expand and what can you afford to spend in both time and resources? Taking your social-media campaign won't be easy, but if done right, it can help you establish yourself in new international markets.