What do I need to know about using Twitter in multiple countries?
We are launching into several other countries at the same time and would like to know if I will need to set up a separate Twitter account for each country or just use the one we already have?
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Oct 5, 2014
Wow, thanks for all of the great info! I work for Trivaeo, a company that deals with Business Process Autimation. It started off in the UK, and we are now launching into USA, India, Spain, France and a couple more in the works. Deciding how to manage all of the Social Media for this has become kind of over whelming. All of the information that has been provided has been helpful. Thank you!
Oct 1, 2014
Hi Ericka
I don't have information about your business and why you choose Twitter for your Corporate Communication and brand building. I hope you programmed before a marketing intelligence analysis to identify in each country the best social network for your target clients. In my opinion, I think that you have to personalize your communication for each cluster in each country. In this way, I'm agree with Eddy recommandation.
Regard.
Jamil Ouazzani
Capital Value Consulting
Oct 1, 2014
Hi Ericka,
Although I agree with most of the answers however I would be keen on knowing the nature of business to which you are creating a twitter account for.
It makes sense to have one twitter account for professional services and luxury brands but not for consumer brands. Luxury brands sometimes need to have different accounts.
Different demographics need to be engaged differently. You need to take into consideration your audiences' own social trends and habits. Cultural differences will sometime impose having different accounts (it all depends on the type of content you intend to use to engage with your target audience). Some visuals for an instance might be inappropriate to use or share in some cultures while completely acceptable by others.
Language is only one element to consider. Feel free to let me know the countries of operation and will give you some insight on what the trends could be in these countries or geographic areas. (if the information are confidential you can send me more details in a private message)
Oct 1, 2014
You might benefit froman online translation system, I use one from the firefox browser. The plugin is called "IM Translator" and you can highlight the foreign language and right click to open a translation dialog with boxes to select languages.
Oct 1, 2014
Hi Erika - Great question! In most instances, it makes sense to keep one branded social media account across your business but I can think of some in which is would not. For instance, I previously did social for a restaurant chain with locations in the US, Scotland, and UK. What we called 'shrimp' here was 'prawn' overseas. If I used one account, my messaging would not be correct to one target market, so I separated them.
In this instance, it was easier to separate them. Simple things like 'flavor' in the US and 'flavour' in the UK made a small but noticeable difference. And, as Nadya mentioned, English may not be the primary language, and the dialect could be different. We did this across social channels like Facebook and Twitter, but kept one page for the company on LinkedIn and Pinterest.
Hope that helps!
Oct 1, 2014
Ericka, I'd ask which particular countries are you launching into?
No doubt, English is a handy international language for communication, but still there are countries where people don't actually speak, or even read it. So, if your product requires some extensive Twitter marketing campaigns; or, in general, you plan to actively post there some important updates, and your potential customers don't really perceive the English language, then it's definitely going to be a fail.
Otherwise, if the language situation in the countries is acceptable, it's absolutely OK to have one Twitter account, as well as in the other social networks.
Oct 1, 2014
Hi Ericka,
Nice question and many people are confuse with it. As my personal experience.
You should have only 1 account for twitter as well as Linkedin, FaceBook and GPlus. If you will have multiple account than its not easy to manage all on regular basis also the audience will be divided. Means you will get 100 followers from Australia 90 from USA and 20 from UK it would be shown on different account. If you use single account for all countries than it would be 210 followers on your page or account and it would give a fantastic impression.
You can also connect me on skype if you need more help my skype is ankit_universal.
Ankit Jain
CEO
Universal Technosoft
Skype: ankit_universal