You need to translate social media content for your business. What tools should you use?

Social media content is one of the best ways to reach your audience around the world but translating it in other languages gives you a greater advantage and helps you build a solid brand. It will also increase your organic rank as well as traffic plus gain more followers. Use it wisely and leverage its power!

Translating social media content is important when reaching younger audiences who may be beyond the reach of traditional media. Also, businesses may reach larger, more targeted audiences with a lesser budget. Also, in cases where mistakes are made, it is easier to correct social media content than it would be with more traditional forms of media.

People on social media are mostly categorized according to their location. And therefore, content targeting particular set of people deserves to be written in the language which most of them understand. Doing this alone, can help them navigate through the intent of that content. However, this can only be achieved by translating such content considering their language and most importantly, their culture.

Whenever you work with social media content for your business - choose a living being, hire a translator! You can use Google Translate, Microsoft, AI - whatever comes to your mind - but you will never achieve the flexibility, sensibility, creativity, comprehensibility and responsiveness of a human being. The best you can do is letting translators do their job - breathing new life into your social media content.

Doing professional translations it does permits to translate the original language to other language taking into consideration of each country used terms , phrases, etc. which not always have the same interpretation

I'd prefer to use the word localize because it is crucial to put in mind while translating the cultural and societal nuances of the target language to help better engage with the audience and their needs.

When considering translating social media content, a crucial decision is whether to maintain separate accounts for each language or use a multilingual approach within one account. While separate accounts offer tailored engagement, managing multiple channels can be demanding and may spread resources thin. Conversely, multilingual content within one account promotes inclusivity but maintaining language consistency and addressing the needs of diverse audiences within a single platform can be challenging. The choice rests on factors like audience segmentation (user demographics, preferences, and behaviors) and resource allocation (human, financial, and technological), aligning with broader business goals for effective social media localization.

Consider the target audience, adapt content to platform specifics, integrate SEO strategy, maintain brand voice, be aware of local trends and events, comply with legal requirements, and establish metrics for measurement and analysis.

I can tell you what NOT to use. If you're targeting Instagram and thought to use Canva, please don't. At least, don't expect that your (human) translators access Canva to translate your posts, because Canva isn't designed for that. The whole experience of translating a Canva project to another language might be a nightmare. Please consider planning your posts in advance, and consolidate them in a single file (CSV, JSON, even Word), so that you can send that file to your translators and then import the translated content file into the social planning tool of your choice.

Don't call them "tools", but actual living, breathing, human translators are the way to go! Obviously, they are "more expensive" than the free web-based tools, and "slower" than a click-and-done website, but there is just no comparison in quality.

Traditional translation methods fall short for social media content. It's crucial to leverage keyword research tools to pinpoint the exact terminology. Additionally, defining the buyer persona in detail is essential, as mirroring their language is key to capturing their attention. This approach may sometimes require bending traditional language rules to align with evolving trends in syntax and lexicon.

Using machine translation or AI for a large volume of social media content will be cheaper indeed, however, it must be proofread and edited by a professional native translator who understands the culture and locality. Otherwise it could be a disaster for the business/individual.

Editing machine translated (AI, no AI – same difference) as a non-linguist unfortunately is not "safe". Speaking a language even as a mother tongue is not the same as actually being able to grasp, create, and re-creating all aspects of language I am afraid. Otherwise we'd all be out there writing bestsellers each day, right?

I guess as a non-professional translator I'd stick to AI translation to save time of labour and then edit the text with my own human eyes. Being sure that the thought and tone are not lost in translation.

To optimize translated social media content: 1. Research keywords. 2. Customize content for platforms. 3. Encourage engagement. 4. Use compelling visuals. 5. Ensure localization. 6. Monitor performance metrics.

Have a content plan, list of tools you use regularly and know how they work to craft your message and visuals, do some keyword research in ad creation mode, copy/paste to your message, write your message, include cta, share and genuinely engage! It is social after all and be active. Have fun and keep on keeping on!

Jesus F*ing Christ, enough with the tools craze already! Show your carefully crafted social media content some love and hire a human translator with a passion for your passion, and you will shine in any language.

My human brain. Et puisqu'il faut élaborer à plus de 125 caractères : mon cerveau, ma cervelle, ma matière grise, mon humanité, mon originalité (et pas du recopié-recraché automatique qui n'a d'intelligence que le nom).

Right now I have to consider (for my acutal content) if I should translte it or let other's Translating Tools (Chrome sources e.g.) do the work. The question is who must make an effort. The one who posts or the one who reads.