Social Media | The Global Connect

Getting Social On 2012: Social Media Marketing Is Here To Stay

If you’re a blogger or website owner and don’t realize by now that social media marketing makes a great impact on search engine optimization, then your site is doomed to failure. Social media marketing is indeed here to stay, which makes 2012 look so promising for all online marketers. This year is going to be very exciting for all web users, techies, and experts. That’s why it’s worth knowing what lies ahead for all of us.

This incredibly advanced digital age makes it possible for all people to acquire all kinds of information, whether they need them or not. With the advent of current and popular social media sites coupled with the availability of different smart phones, it’s not hard to catch up with the latest trends in news, business, fashion, lifestyle, and sports, anymore. The convergence of social media and mobile marketing makes it easy for everyone, especially marketers to do their thing and reap amazing benefits.

Here are some social media marketing trends worth knowing. Take note of these and start adapting to the seemingly prolific ways to do business online:

1. More social media sites will become greatly popular.
If you have been enjoying traffic from popular sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr, then it’s time to improve your game and take advantage of the perks that social-media-site-dwarfs-turned-giants offer. Sites like Google+, Digg, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon are just some of the social media sites to watch out for. You might want to take note of new but steadily rising sites like Pinterest as they are about to take the social media scene by storm too!

2. User preference for rich media like video and images will grow further.
This is one of the reasons for website owners to reinforce the video and image content in their sites. Users’ craving for visually entertaining and stimulating content prompts these social media giants to improve their site features that aim to accommodate this particular need. Why else would YouTube be this popular?

3. On-time, real-time is the way to go.
And because people want to get informed in the soonest possible time, they go for anything and everything that can give them immediate updates. Thus, it would be wise to tap social media sites that allow you to get such perks. It would also be a good idea to add features in your own site that enables your target audience to and current information which will keep them interested and thus a loyal patron of your site and services.

4. Be aware of the many upcoming apps.
Applications on social media giants like Facebook will keep on coming. It will be wise to be on the loop when it happens. Of course, you need to watch out for other websites’ apps too. The trick here is to find the social media sites that best match your needs and maximize the apps they offer.

I told you 2012 will be exciting! This is as good a time as any to start making changes in your site or blog if you haven’t taken advantage of social media marketing yet. Embrace the marketing package that these sites offer. Be ready to work hard towards making this the year of social media marketing victory!

Amanda Dean is an expert for an e-commerce promotional products business and loves reading books and novels. Visit her Twitter page at http://twitter.com/amanda_dean.

Astute language selection helps maximise global reach

Twitter recently announced that their social networking service is now available in five new languages bringing the total number of available languages to 17. Users can now tweet in Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Hindi, Filipino and Malay. Twitter’s announcement also made a mention of a number of other languages that will be added to their Translation Centre, an online crowdsourcing hub, for eventual availability.

Like many other online utilities, the growing support for various languages on Twitter is an indicator of how important it has become to offer a multilingual website. In order to increase global reach, website availability in languages that have a sizeable internet user base is now a necessity. Language selection, however, is also based upon the popularity of a specific product or service in foreign language markets. Twitter and other social networks have based their language selection upon the population of native speakers online and their sites’ existing popularity within that specific demographic.

So far, Twitter has localised its micro-blogging service in all the major languages used online. It is now moving on to languages that will allow it to target specific regions that have low internet penetration at the moment. The selection of Hindi is an example of this approach whereby Twitter aims to target the non-English speaking population of India, which vastly outweighs its English speaking population. With continued improvements in the telecommunications infrastructure and the resulting increase in online population, selection of Hindi is an astute move to target a sizable number of web users in India.

The continual growth of languages on the internet is altering the way companies use the web to engage with a global audience. Just a decade ago, languages apart from English were non-existent on the web, but with rapid growth worldwide, web users have been bestowing it with local features. The business world is now taking heed and following user demand of offering localized content.

Social media: Aiding chaos?

As England came to terms with the mass riots that occurred in the country, questions have been raised on how the situation became so severe in a matter of few days. After the disorder was quelled, the authorities swiftly moved to punish the perpetrators and point out the methods employed by the rioters. Unsurprisingly, social media was blamed for aiding the rioters in organising themselves which resulted in looting and civil unrest. Similar incidents occurred in the US earlier this month where social media fuelled flash-mob violence in several American cities. These incidents prompted a debate on the negative aspects of social media with some sections calling for a curb on social communication channels.

Social media’s ability to turn communication into interactive dialogue allowed the rioters to mobilize themselves in numbers that were difficult to control. As social media is not under any regulation, the authorities could not take any action that would have resulted in better control of the situation. Now the on-going debate about negative uses of social media has reached the top echelons of governments in some countries. While some made social media as a scapegoat to hide their own shortcomings, others have raised justifiable questions about the problems that could arise through negative use of social media.

The debate on the negative uses of social media is certainly required, however, the entire premise of such debates cannot be focused upon blaming social media entirely. Violent gangs have existed in the past while riots have also occurred sporadically. Social media has just become a tool for the rioters to achieve what they intended to and that is organised looting and violence. Violent instincts in some sections of the population were the main reason for the unrest as some members of society were quick to embrace them.

Social media itself cannot be blamed entirely even though it was used by the rioters to organise themselves. Rather than curbing the use of social media, something that has been ferociously opposed by free speech supporters, a monitoring mechanism should be in place to limit and curtail negative use. As the use of social media platforms becomes more widespread, the solution lies in monitoring not fighting technology as the means to an end.

User driven social media localization

As social networking giants like Facebook and Twitter continue to make headway in emerging markets, a new trend is leading the way in creation of localized content on social networking websites. Users from different parts of the world use local terms, phonetically written, and country-specific social characteristics for their social media communication.

Even though English remains the most used language on the Internet, the non-English speaking world has seen increased use of localized social media content being created by users. The unavailability of local language support often results in local terms being used, often phonetically, and cultural characteristics being displayed in social networking sites. This is an indicator of how important localization is for different markets. As a result, localized engagement results in higher market penetration for the networking sites. Such findings are very useful for companies who operate in different markets and intend to have a multilingual social media campaign. Social media communication has to target all markets and a strategy should aim to be culture/region specific.

For companies, adapting social media communication for different markets can be challenging. Just consider the amount and frequency of communication that occurs through social networks and imagine having to replicate the same in many different languages. Add to that how cultural differences would significantly alter the messaging because of local differences and sensitivities. What might be acceptable in a western country might not work well in a conservative one. This is one such example of differences that exist, and this is why native users of social media can be used and studied to create localized strategy in social networks.

Social Media penetration is still considerably low in the non-English speaking world but it is increasing and with a higher number of users online. Targeting these users would require a social media strategy that is localized and caters to the target market. Users are already leading the way in localizing content for themselves; the trend should be an indicator of their preferences and companies should follow accordingly.

Visit our social media localization page for more information on the service that we offer.

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