Localized social media marketing refers to “localizing” your pages and posts on social media and cultivating content for smaller, more specific audiences. As beneficial as this can be, many global brands fail to do this. Instead, they generally create one post and send it off to their regional teams, where it’s then translated and reposted.
There are several reasons why brands don’t localize their social media activity. First, it requires more work and money because a global campaign can’t be rolled out. Second, there are multiple images to work with that can be confusing for the marketing teams. Lastly, localized posts require more approvals.
Even though it does take extra effort to localize social media, it often pays for itself. Let’s look at the key benefits to localized social media marketing and why you should consider it in 2019.
Why You Should Ditch the “One-Size-Fits-All” Approach
If you’re among the many retailers and brands that still use the same campaign for all of your audiences, consider the following benefits to localized social media.
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Be more customer-focused. If your goal is to improve the customer experience, localization will help you achieve this. Localized social media marketing drives personalized connections and shows customers that you understand their unique needs.
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Encourage more comments. People are more likely to comment on social media posts that are relevant to them. By localizing your posts, you can form emotional connections with your audience.
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Show your cultural sensitivity. Though you should be careful with using religion and other cultural norms in your marketing, you shouldn’t write it off completely. Show that you understand your target market and their way of life.
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Build a local presence. Identify the regions that you want your brand to stand out in and find ways to be involved in their communities. This may include donating money to a charity or running promotions that align with their festivities, seasons, celebrations, etc. This helps your brand stand out from the crowd.
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Get more reviews and feedback. Customer reviews are more likely to happen on location pages. Customers tend to engage on these pages because they feel more personal. Plus, your regional teams will probably be better equipped to answer questions on a local page.
As tempting as it may be to ask your teams to translate and repost the same social media posts, it’s worth your time and effort to develop localized social media marketing campaigns. This way, you can reach your target audience on an emotional level and show customers that you truly care about them. The brands that do this will be the brands that stand out.
