Author: John Bracamontes

We have been fortunate enough to work on international social media campaigns for clients outside of the U.S. who market their services outside of the U.S. and for clients within the U.S. who also market their services outside of the United States.

What we have learned is that while many of the underlying motivations are similar across users globally, their approaches (and many times platforms) are widely different and the cultural variances can affect the strategy significantly.

For example:

• In Brazil, customers will search for a brand’s reputation on the complaint website Reclame Aqui. We had never heard of this until research was done to create the strategy.
• In Spain, many adults do not move out of their parents’ home until the age of 29. As an example this is important when targeting first time energy provider seeking customers.
• Social media users between the ages 35 to 54 regularly use Whatsapp to contact customer support. In the U.S. Whatsapp is used as a texting app and has a much smaller base compared to the global population of users.

There are many differences in behaviors across all of these social platforms and apps, concerns of privacy, willingness to share personal and private information, the list goes on. Despite all of this variance in behavior when it comes to business, everything for the most part remains the same across the globe.

Here are a few examples:

• In social media marketing, most organizations are focused on tactics that are talked about as strategy. It’s not that these organizations do not want to be strategic, it’s just they are simply not doing it.
• Many of these organizations are doing what many marketers are very familiar with here in the States and that is curating 3rd party content only and sharing the same articles across all of their social channels accompanied by the occasional blog post written by someone in the organization.
• Again similar to here in the U.S. most Global Organizations fail to accurately employ strategic ad spend within their social efforts. While they do buy, it is reminiscent of the old days of TV, Radio and Outdoor media.

How do we help the International Companies in their Social Media efforts?

• We work with you to answer the following questions of why you should be on social media and the benefit it will bring to their customers.
  • Goal: Why do you want to be on social media? What will be the benefit?
  • Audience: Who are you trying to engage? Where are they online?
  • Channels: Where do you need to have visibility?
  • Content: What is your audience looking for and how are they searching for it?
  • Style: How should your brand look and sound on social?
• We focus on quality and accuracy. Many organizations feel they need to have a presence on all social media channels. While this may be true there is a higher probability that it is not. It may not hurt to be everywhere, but in most cases it can be a waste of resources.  Together we identify where your social media efforts should be placed.
• Lastly, get into the details. Identify and understand your targets social habits, needs online and wants as a consumer. This is intensive, justifies your tactical strategy and delivers multiples in return compared to campaigns initiated without doing this groundwork.

Social media behaviors & engagement change geographically, demographically  and psychographically. But the primary components of a strong business model and social media strategy do not.