Translation Best Practices for Social Media

There is no doubt that language on social media has changed the way we express ourselves. The written language is now closer than ever to the spoken language, and it has never been easier for anyone to write in front of a large audience. In Spain, for example, one of one out of every two companies is on social media and if your company also sells products and/or services abroad, you should definitely get translation and adaptation of your content to the country's social media networks. We can't emphasize enough that bad translations on social media can seriously damage your brand image.

Best practices for social media translations

Your content on different social media platforms reflects your brand identity, and your company's particular strategy often determines the type and tone of content that conveys your brand values. Each platform has its own nuances and, of course, its own obstacles when creating and translating content:

Content customization

Writing a post on LinkedIn or Twitter, or sharing a photo on Instagram, are two very different. These are different platforms for different audiences. This is why the content must be adapted to each social media platform and translated accordingly.

Space limit

Some social media platforms, such as Twitter, limit text to 280 characters. Other platforms have no limits, but if the text is too long, only part of it will be shown in the preview. To make sure your readers keep reading, you need to make an impact in the first few sentences.

Urgency

Don't do tomorrow what you can do today! You can't wait a week to respond to a social media post, you need to share relevant content during that time if you want to get the most out of it. That's why you need to plan carefully with built-in flexibility, including social media translation services.

Engagement

The key to success on social media platforms is making sure your posts reach users and bring them closer to your brand. So what you share, and the translations, must be well written and natural.

Get away from machine translation on social media.

Close the Google Translate window now! Social media users are aware and particular about what brands are sharing. If the message is difficult to understand, contains errors or is automatically translated, it can provoke criticism from the user and damage the company's reputation. Your social media is the face of your business. Make it work and hire a professional translation company like Idiomatic Canada.

Social media translation strategy

Within your wider social media translation strategy, the first point to consider is defining any potential language varieties (by geographical area) and the tone you wish to convey, according to the target audience you're aiming your general business strategy at on social media. It's essential to define your tone with a native speaker of the target language - someone who understands how your strategy can be conveyed without losing the essence of the content in the source language.

Another way of tailoring your content to customers in several languages is to create different profiles depending on the geographical area they're present in. This way you can be sure that each account is adapted to each country's culture and language, and, being more relatable, this in turn will get you closer to your audience.

Our recommendation

Putting your trust in a translation company prevents you from making errors which could prove fatal for your brand: not only will you be publishing social media content in error-free, correct language, it also makes it easier to create content tailored to the target country, as the translators will be specialist, native speakers.

Your company's social media image and reputation are at stake, so don't give anything away to non-professionals or machine translations. In the same way that social networks should be managed by experts, the creation of content in other languages ​​should be left to professionals.

At Idiomatic Canada, we have extensive experience translating content for major brands' social media platforms on a daily basis - we work with native translators who specialize in digital marketing and community management. Contact us here.