Plain speak about social media
Jinfo Blog

By Tim Buckley Owen

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Social media seem to have a knack of constantly finding their way back into the news – most recently in the context of the riots in British cities. But there are also hints that some people may be getting a bit tired of them – social media, that is, not just riots.

Whatever the underlying causes of the riots, social networking is the current bogeyman. So we have Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron rather ill-advisedly suggesting that access could be blocked when trouble looms, and two men jailed for using Facebook to incite rioting even though that riot never took place (see BBC coverage).

But maybe Britain’s getting just a bit too exercised about social media. About a month previous to the riots, the American Customer Satisfaction Index revealed that consumers were distinctly unimpressed with social media services – particularly because of concerns about privacy and being targeted for advertising.

Now the technology analyst Gartner has followed up with its own global survey. This also reveals “social media fatigue” among early adopters, with almost a third of “aspirers” (younger, more mobile, brand-conscious consumers) indicating that they’re getting bored with their social network.

True, the findings are not clear cut. The ACSI survey shows an especially low satisfaction score for Facebook – 66 out of a possible 100 among American consumers, compared with an average of 70 for the social media category as a whole – whereas Gartner shows Facebook and other large global brands making headway in countries where they have not historically been strong.

As LiveWire has previously reported, social media usage appears to tail off once it reaches 50% of a country’s population. So businesses that increasingly rely on such media for marketing and promotional activity need to be prepared for change, and recent advice from language and business services specialist Liz Elting may offer some clues.

Writing on the Business Insider website, Ms Elting lists four social media pitfalls to avoid as your business goes global. Underlying all of them – not surprisingly in view of her company TransPerfect’s focus – is language. 

Social media require ongoing engagement which machine translation can’t provide, she says. So hire a local translation expert who knows not only the company’s international messaging, but also regional cultural norms and search engine parameters.

Whatever her own motivation, she’s backed up by another article in the marketing and advertising publication Mediapost, which points out that less than a third of online use is now in English, with Chinese the second most prominent language and a colossal increase in the use of Arabic.  What’s more, almost three quarters of global consumers are more likely to buy if the information is available in their own language.

Food for thought, in any tongue.

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