I haven’t posted much for the last couple of weeks because I’ve been doing some traveling. Right now I’m sitting in a Ferienwohnung (vacation apartment) in a subburb of Munich Germany. As I’ve been traveling I’ve taken notice of how social media and search are used by local businesses. It’s also been interesting to hear how people use it in Germany. I’d say it is very similar to the USA and advertising with social media is probably more prevalent in larger cities as apposed to small towns.
I just read a post on Clickz.com with an interview with Carolyn Everson, VP of global marketing solutions at Facebook. The central theme is that if you want to go global you have to go local. Since we’re also involved in localization it comes as no surprise to me.
“They do perform better,” she said. “The real trick is organizing globally but being locally relevant. And you want all of your Facebook creative to be optimized to get the best reaction. And that takes local input.”
Absolutely right! You have to look at it this way. If you simply cut and paste your copy and creative from one region to the next it will most likely be rejected. It can also be so bad that you end up offending the local population as well.
So, if you are trying to break into a new market or you want to ramp up your efforts via social media or any other online medium, make sure you seek the advice of a local or a company that specializes in localization.
