Following last month’s feature, How the use of social media differs across the globe, B2B Marketing’s Oliver Matejka pools together the advice and endorsements of our commentators to provide a four-step guide to cracking new global markets with a B2B social media campaign
1. Listen in
It’s easy to reduce ‘listening in’ to simply reading what customers are discussing over social media channels. But when thoroughly practiced, it can provide marketers with invaluable real-time insight for adapting strategy; from tone of voice to content formatting.
In order to produce content attuned to an unknown audience, it is still essential to analyse existing conversations using social media monitoring tools and collating secondary data. Emma Durant, global marketing strategist at Lionbridge explains: “Social media monitoring tools let you see what your target audience is talking about, and who they’re talking with. This will either verify the existing thoughts you had about your target market, or open you up to new ways of thinking. Either way, it allows your business to see the similarities and differences in your target markets.”
For comprehensive monitoring and sophistication, David Friedman, director of corporate communications at SendGrid, suggests BuzzSumo and Buzz Stream are particularly good tools to use. These programmes enable users to research influencers and manage relationships while conducting personalised outreach.
2. Content creation
Once you are familiar with the social modus operandi of a new marketplace, content needs to be created: “This is where your campaign can come alive,” says Nick Leech, digital director of 123-reg. “Take the chance to create unique and captivating content wherever possible. It’s important to focus on creating a well-researched piece of content that reflects the culture and approach of your target audience.
“By focusing on one key piece of content, it can then be repurposed for different markets once necessary changes have been made. You also need to confirm that every piece of content you create is localised effectively.”
According to a recent webinar by global customer experience leaders, SDL, 71 per cent of the global market prefers to be addressed in a language other than English – so localising is key. So, if the campaign is set to cross language, ensure your translator is a native speaker to avoid making any cultural or linguistic blunders.
3. Broadcasting
Showcasing this content effectively is perhaps the biggest challenge. Daniel Barker, CMO of navabi, believes that when it comes to global social media operations there are three key decisions:
1) Broadcast the same message globally.
2) Split out particular geographies (countries, regions).
3) Both.
With an element of hedge betting, it’s little surprise to find most companies fall into both, Barker explains: “[Best practice is to] begin with a core set of global profiles, and then tailor social ads to particular regions on top of that.
“At the point any one region is large enough or specific enough to warrant investing in and maintaining a continual stream of content, those may be added on as you go. Facebook makes this easier than other social networks, allowing you to define equivalent pages per region, so if someone lands on the wrong page they’re automatically redirected based on language or region.”
By now, most networks have their own analytical tools, however Baker explains why Twitter is particularly good for this: “It allows you to view response data by region, as well as to tailor ads down to cities, postal codes, and even in some cases to show sponsored content when particular TV shows air in particular regions.”
4. Monitor
Once the campaign has been launched, monitoring its performance is imperative, because, as Leech points out: “International campaigns never sleep”. On a practical level, he suggests: “The likes of Google Analytics can be used to monitor your campaign and measure it against the metrics of that particular market – you’ll see what works in that market, what might need further pushing and what more you need to do to tailor your content to suit your audience.”
A lot to take on board? David Friedman, director, corporate communications, SendGrid astutely sums up the challenge with a single reassuring line: “Ensure you are always culturally sensitive in the region you are operating in, and test and focus test even more, and you should be fine.”
