International social media marketing is a continually growing and effective way for businesses and corporations to develop, expand and target new customer bases with relative ease and minimal expense. Social media serves to promote new businesses’ visibility in a global arena and can ensure that new products and services are launched to mammoth audiences with minimal effort and investment.

International social media marketing refers to the process of encouraging greater interest in a company’s website and offerings. Successful online marketing demands a focussed targeting of relevant consumers and attracts the attention and interest of this audience. One of the greatest benefits of marketing through social media is that the enthusiastic audience encourage the potential for increased customer awareness and support through simple sharing of marketing material. In doing so, the business’ customer willingly becomes a promotor and in turn, maximum marketing efficiency can be achieved with minimum cost.

The following article offers 10 facts about international social media marketing with the aim of offering valuable information to help streamline and support future online marketing plans. The statistics and facts listed below serve to demonstrate the ways in which international social media marketing can be channelled in order to achieve the greatest results for a firm and reach the widest relevant consumer groups.

1. International Social Media Marketing Relies on Uncommon Networks

The term ‘social media’ tends to conjure up thoughts of Facebook and linking up with friends across the globe. This is absolutely one of the benefits of such platforms and indeed, the motive behind the majority of people signing up to a site. However, social media is crucial to the development of international business and economic growth as well.

It is important for businesses to recognise that social media stretches far beyond sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, particularly for those who want to trade in Asia. A large number of Western internet users are not familiar with some of the world’s leading social media sites, with 3 of the top 10 sites being Chinese: Qzone, QQ and WeChat. With hundreds of millions of international users signed up to these sites, marketing on a global level should access foreign social networking sites to ensure optimum success rates.

2. Translation and Language Consideration is Vital for Success

A prime consideration for social media marketing on an international level is that of languages. The demand for translation services on social media sites is increasing across the globe and businesses are wise to ensure that their marketing material is available in multi-lingual formats. Portuguese is the fastest-growing Facebook language at the present time, closely followed by Arabic. This information is invaluable to those looking to spread awareness and favour for their brand and products on a global scale. Ensuring that marketing schemes are available in languages such as English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese and Arabic is a sure way to maximise readability for the largest audiences.

On Facebook alone between the years of 2010 and 2012, English users increased by 69% whereas Portuguese users increased by a staggering 800% – an incredible potential customer base for online marketers!

3. The Vast Majority of Marketers Use Social Media

The benefits of international social media marketing have not been missed by many current marketing professionals. In fact, as reported by Social Media Video 2013, 93% of marketers utilize the benefits of online marketing and as such, newcomers to the field will benefit from well-established plans and advice.

4. Social Media Account Holders Exceed 1.6 Billion People Globally

Any savvy marketer will recognise the potential of this number and will acknowledge the potential for mass communication on an international level. For businesses in the West, penetrating Asian consumer bases has never been simpler or lower in cost. 561 million social media mobile users live in East Asia alone and India consistently ranks in the top 3 countries in the world for social media activity.

Marketers challenged with international campaigns would be foolish not to access these waiting customer groups and, in fact, would be in a very small boat – only 6% of new business start-ups have not made use of some form of social media marketing.

5. Pinterest is one of the World’s Fastest Growing Social Media Sites

The most successful international social media marketing professionals accept that their campaigns need to be launched on a number of sites and that relying on Facebook and Twitter will no longer suffice. In fact, Pinterest has the highest growing user sign-up of all social media sites, boasting a whopping 4337% rate of growth in America.

Online marketers need to maintain a current understanding of the platforms that are continually developing and maintain increases in new membership sign-ups in order to ensure that their marketing models are relevant and effective.

6. Social Media is Being Embraced by Older Internet Users

Online marketers are now able to access customer bases from a wider age demographic than in previous years. In fact, the fastest growing demographic on sites such as Twitter belongs to the 55-64 year old bracket and this is a hike of 79% since 2012. Whereas social media was once reserved for young adults, marketing professionals are now able to target material directly to older customer bases and access tech-savvy consumers with larger disposable incomes in the 55-64 year age bracket.

7. Some Vital Countries are still ‘Up for Grabs’

Analysing global social media landscapes highlights that there are some obvious gaps in social media marketing in some of the most economically important countries. For example, in Germany, the social media platform Badoo ranked at number 2, higher than twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn. This tells us two important things:

• Germany is benefiting from alternative sites that are not recognised in the UK.
• That the leading global social networking sites such as Twitter and Pinterest are not captivating the attention and favour of Germans and their customer base.

8. We Can Learn a Lot from Norway!

Norway has exceptional results when it comes to online marketing and they boast impressive rates of interaction with their customer bases. The UK secures a 45% response rate from consumer groups to questions asked of them, whereas Norwegian brands boast a whopping 87% response rate. Arguably, Norway’s smaller population levels mean that targeting customers is simpler, but securing such high response rates is nonetheless encouraging. Global marketers are wise to review Norwegian marketing methods and recognise their ability to target a wide spectrum of customers on a domestic level with simple and captivating campaigns.

Turning Norwegian social media data capture methods into international models is relatively simple by adopting the tone, simplicity and captivation of their marketing methods and merging with first rate translation and multi-national appropriate ideas.

9. Facebook is Not Russia’s Prime Choice

Russia is one of the business world’s most attractive nations and companies who penetrate the interest and indeed the pockets of Russian consumers are those who enjoy higher profit margins, mass consumer groups and exceptional international presence. It is therefore interesting to know that the site VKontakte surpasses Facebook as the leading social network platform in the country.

Businesses who want to reach out to Russian customer bases, particularly those in the young adult and graduate demographic are wise to utilise VKontakte for their social media marketing, as the site is recognised as being one of the most used on a daily basis. In fact, members of this network are acknowledged as keeping the site running at all times in the background to benefit from audio and video options whilst they use other sites – perfect for online marketers who intend to use audio and visual campaigns.

10. International Social Media Marketing Costs Less

One of the prime benefits of international social media marketing is the potential to access the most effective and rewarding marketing schemes for a fraction of the cost of alternative methods. Social media acts as the ideal channel for consumers and reviewers to communicate their findings and opinions and share the excitement and anticipation for new services and products.

Companies who launch marketing plans through social media platforms benefit from extensive sharing, liking and commenting on a global level. Utilising some of the world’s most popular and familiar platforms means that a business can, with intelligent and attractive marketing, expect their launches to be shared internationally for a fraction of the cost of alternative outlets such as cinema advertising, billboard promotions and hardcopy prints. What is more, the online tools such as interpretation that are offered by many platforms mean that marketers are able to benefit from the built-in and free support of the platform.

One thing that is clear is that social media is increasingly becoming one of the most important marketing tools for effectively reaching an international audience.  Whether you are a 1-person start-up or a blue-chip multinational, ignore it at your peril!

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