In an article from the BizReport, Kristina Knight shares some insights she gathered from Liz Elting who is the CEO and founder of Translations. In her article, Elting shares valuable thoughts about brands and social networks working together to build an international presence online.
According to Elting, before a company goes “social”, several key questions should be asked.
– What are the predominant sources of our website traffic?
– How does this differ by region?
– How do we define conversion, and what are our conversion rates?
– Has social media had any effect on those rates in our home market?
– Is there evidence that it might in international arenas?
– Do we have local resources in each target region to manage localized social media?
She notes that while social media is all the buzz these days, it is certainly not the solution for everything. The lady chief also shared three tips for integrating social media into the international space.
1. Know where to find your customers. Elting notes that as an entrepreneur, you have to make sure that your international customers are using social media tools to find or discuss your products. Otherwise, a social media campaign might not give you positive results.
2. Integrate your social media. Elting reminds e-commerce merchants that social media marketing campaigns, for it to be truly effective and successful, should be part of an over-all “comprehensive marketing plan” that has consistent messaging and branding.
3. Allocate adequate resources. Elting recommends properly distributing resources to the development of regional marketing materials, targeted marketing messages, pay-per-click (PPC) ads and other materials that will up your conversion rates and help you enter new markets. Otherwise, what you’ll get is a poorly performing social media marketing campaign.
