In the 21st century, it’s never been easier to connect with people around the world. An online presence allows amateur and professional bloggers to talk directly to followers and customers, no matter where they are or in which time zone. It’s also the ideal way for a brand to reach a wider market, promote itself and build its international reputation.
Of course, a person’s or company’s – online reputation is an important asset and it can easily be put at a risk. If your experience and skills are trusted, then you’re well on the way to success. But it can only take a few negative comments or a bad service experience to alienate readers or customers.
Knowing how to monitor and manage your online reputation has never been more important. It can get harder when you’re working in multiple languages. Here are a few tips to help you make the right impression.
Localizing your reputation
English might still be the world’s most spoken language online, but it accounts for only around a quarter of total usage. Chinese is fast catching up, and is soon set to overtake English as the dominant language of the web. And use is growing fast among Arabic, Russian and Portuguese speakers.
If you’re serious about targeting a new market, then speaking to your audience in their own language should be a first step. That doesn’t just mean running your site through Google Translate. If you want it to be fluent, readable and easily understood, it’s best to use native-speaking translators or copywriters to translate your content.
Building trust and creating a positive customer experience means understanding your audience. Avoid jargon, colloquial expressions or cultural references that could cause confusion. The chances are your efforts will pay off. According to marketing experts Sak Onkvisit and John J. Shaw, the authors of International Marketing: Analysis and Strategy, people are three times more likely to purchase from an online site that is in their own language.
Target the best social media platforms
Social media sites can be a useful tool in building and maintaining your online reputation. As well as setting up accounts on key networks, monitor them closely for mentions of your brand.
Even though Facebook and Twitter are the most popular worldwide, they aren’t the leaders in every country. For example, if you’re targeting Russian users, you’ll want to use Vkontakte, which is reported to have over 100 million active users. The Russia-based site also has many followers in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova and the Ukraine.
Regularly invest in your brand
It’s very easy to launch a Facebook or Twitter page, but you need to invest time and effort in it to see results. The key is to engage with your readers and followers, interacting with them and answering questions. If you find you only have time to update social media every few days, it could be worth employing a local social media manager. This has the added benefit in that you can choose a native speaker who’ll get the language and local references right.
Talking, and listening, to your customers will help you build a loyal following and boost your reputation. Encourage comments and reviews, and consider using online polls or running a live question and answer session. Getting customers involved is a good way of finding out their views and showing you care. The worst case scenario is people posting negative comments on Twitter because they feel ignored.
Keeping track of conversations
When it comes to finding out what people are saying about you, you need to do more than simply keep track of your own sites and social media accounts. This can seem a daunting task. But there are plenty of free tools such as Google Alerts, which can track mentions of your brand name or keywords. You can set the frequency of these, from immediate alerts to daily or weekly updates. It’s also possible to adjust the settings to monitor different languages.
There are only five countries where Google is not the leading search engine. But these include China and Russia, two huge markets. If you have a presence in China, you need to monitor Baidu , while Yandex is the key player in Russia. Meanwhile, Japanese users still prefer Yahoo! Japan, and Naver is the favourite in South Korea.
Always encourage reviews and discussions
Glowing reviews can go a long way to boosting your credibility. But a few negative ones can obviously be damaging. By actively encouraging feedback, it gives you a chance to respond to criticism and attempt to put it right. It also helps you understand your customers’ experience, and improve relations in the longer term.
A good way to encourage reviews is by running a competition or offering discounts. But make sure you treat all customers equally, whether they write good or bad comments! If you come across as only rewarding positive feedback, this could harm your reputation. Taking a leading role in discussions and responding to existing ones can help ensure you’re taken seriously in a competitive market
There’s no doubt managing your online reputation across different languages takes time and effort. But if you invest in protecting your brand from the start, you’ll find the hard work is rewarded.
About the author
Christian Arno is the founder of Lingo24, one of the world’s fastest growing translation agencies. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 150 employees spanning three continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over forty million words for businesses in every industry sector, including the likes of MTV, World Bank and American Express. Follow Lingo24 on Twitter: @Lingo24.
image credit Vfacebook.net
I think engaging international customers in their own language could be hugely beneficial. I’ve previously hired translators to write website content in different languages and it seemed to open up a lot of potential. The problem was that we didn’t commit to using those translators long term to also help with social media customer engagement. I think for it to really be worthwhile, the company has to be fairly large with a strong international customer base.
very interesting, helpful post, totally agree that talking, and listening, to your customers will help you build a loyal following and boost your reputation.Also, if people take the time to comment on your blog, then the least you can do is answer them
It’s a great idea to expand our target auditory. I personally believe that before starting our online promotion for some other markets we need to learn all the aspects of our foreign target audience mentality, preferences and etc. I know that Yandex has different rules for SEO as well as Baidu. We need to know all the details before entering these search engines.
I believe language plays an important role when you are actually entering in to the new market (non-English) People living in UK or UAE of different regions are very concern about their language. Having a website content in different language (especially if you have an ecommerce store) can surprisingly increase the buying ratio.
It’s true on-line reputation is an important asset for any business. 70% of internet users are searching the web in another language other than English. It is most important that your site must be cross cultural. So that it can appeal people from different languages and cultures.
Good practice is to encourage reviews and discussion. It is also beneficial.
Good notable points are discussed.
Good article post shared, thanks
Ya I like this post. Its very informative & Thanks for share it.Target market is a group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and ultimately its merchandise towards.A well-defined target market is the first element to a marketing strategy. The target market and the marketing mix variables of product, place(distribution), promotion and price are the four elements of a marketing mix strategy that determine the success of a product in the marketplace.Once these distinct customers have been defined, a marketing mix strategy of product, distribution, promotion and price can be built by the business to satisfy the target market.
Hey this was really an interesting blog post. I think maintaining relationship with your customers is not easy. It has never been easier to connect with customers. In fact, Internet allows customers and entrepreneurs to develop an online reputation by talking directly to consumers via social networking sites, blogs and websites.Keep up the good work.
Just a quick question, how about the SEO aspect of a website that has multiple language version, do we have to optimize every language version? Thank you for sharing your ideas. This is the first time I visit your blog. Expect me every now and then.
Seriously I have no words for this post because this time whatever I read is new for me. I was knowing that the Local languages are helpful in engaging with customers but the way we should engage to them–I was unaware of that. Additionally I am strongly agreed to the fact that we should not just stick to the main search engines like Google etc. instead we should work on local level !! Thanks
Mostly bloggers use multiple languages in their website or blog because they know that if they want more exposure then they add more language for readers. I have heard that many users don’t like native language instead of national language so, they prefer country language. This is the time of social media if you want more visitors then you make profile on social media websites and use different languages to attract more clients and users.
Use various language to increase online reputation is important because many people don’t like to use English language instead of their country language. It is good to create strong profile on social media websites and use different languages to attract more and peoples. Blogger always require spreading blog link among as much as internet users, so this is great technique.
It can definitely just take a few bad comments or bad service experience to ruin a good online reputation. I think it’s always important to encourage reviews and discussions if you’re trying to manage your online reputation.
Especially responding to bad reviews about you in a positive way and try to make things right will show your serious about making sure each of your costumers has a great experience with you. And it will also show people that you’re not trying to hide anything, which will just earn you more trust.
Online reputation is one of the things and key points that you have to develop when you want that fast approach to drive traffic to your site. It’s really hard especially that the world’s most language used is Chinese. It’s a known fact,we can’t deny it.
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Thanx for sharing. On internet it is easy to get attention of the world but the competition has entered into internet also and so it is needed to do some investment for making it brand.
You can also write in an English that is easily understandable by non-native English speakers. So that would mean avoid using jargon and other esoteric language as well as idiomatic expressions that are unique to your local. Be universal.
You have good points as English is not the native language for many.It is important that you understand the local market and work accordingly so that you don’t lose potential clients.
Good points you have discussed here, Christian. With regards to social media, it is very easy to build profiles in Twitter and Facebook but these sites will not boost your online reputation if you don’t know how to use them properly. Based on my personal experience, it’s good to build friendships first before starting a business relationship.
Online reputation is a very important thing for everyone in the internet field.
I agree with Bishwajeet that, Online reputation is a very important thing.
Thanks with Regards,
Seoexp @ Hosting
Indeed, regular investments in your brand can cause measurable effects. Facebook still the leader when it comes to communication.
Using tweeter is a great way of communication here in internet world. thanks for this update!
It is important that for online reputation you known different languages for blogs. For online business you need to know about English because English is the language that can understand everywhere & every people.
I wish more people would know the importance of using different languages in a blog. One translator or two could mean the difference between being successful and losing readers day by day.
Russian are getting more and more popular in internet and as stated, Chinese are raising rapidly.
Let’s all make sure we adapt to the new internet !
Very helpful piece. I have been trying to start up a simple movie blog, but I never knew how much SEO was required. Many thanks.
Using tweeter facebook and other social media sites are the best to do the same job and it also makes funny activity..
thanks
Nice tips. Online reputation is a very important in Now a days your tips are helpful for new web blogger. I am also a new blogger and your tips are useful for me thanks for this informative post.
Using different languages in your blog could help you attract more readers across the world. However, if you are not really familiar with other language be careful of how you use their language because that could lead to miscommunication or even misunderstandings.
Some interesting points. As a global product we are always looking for ways to expand to other markets whose primary language is not English. The other search engines you mentioned will definitely help.
We have different languages use but the most spoken is the English because many of the country uses this language to communicate other people esp. to the person they really don’t know.
Utilizing diverse language in your blog could help you capture the interest of different people of different nationalities. However, you have to be cautious in using foreign language as it may lead to miscommunications that could ruin your reputation.
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This is something which is very new to me..that Keeping track of conversations, I wasn’t knowing that this is also important !
Monitoring your reputation is important, without these, you will not built good relationship to consumers. always know every step they take so that you will not get any mistakes!
This is something which is very new to me..that Keeping track of conversations, I wasn’t knowing that this is also important !
The reason why social media is getting into the limelight is that it is the most interactive media that is available in this recent era. People can feel the personal connection of the enterprise using lets say Facebook and Twitter more than it do during actual face-to-face inquiry.
English is still the basic way to communicate to legions of multi-language speaking peoples of the world. And yes, you’re right, monitoring the trend of discussion by the target clients is important so that you can according to their fads.