Question

A busy tourist hotel in Bangkok has employed a social media coordinator to deal with news, comments, queries, and reviews across multiple social media sites. The hotel attracts backpackers from over 50 countries, many of who struggle to communicate in English. As a marketing specialist, how would you advise the hotel in terms of handling multiple language social media sites? Explain your answer. 

Answer 1

Although English is the primary language used on the Internet, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, and Portuguese are significant untapped language markets that are driving the creation of multilingual social media. Most customers would like to see information in their own language before going ahead with a purchase. Various approaches can be taken and these can include: using analytics dashboards to find out customer language statistics and developing accordingly; not to rely on automated translation tools but instead use native speakers to respond; focus on visual images rather than words, if possible; use social tools if possible (there are 6 billion translations on Facebook each day and Twitter supports 40 languages); create separate accounts for different languages; post information on multiple accounts in different languages; use “loan” words that have universal understanding; make sure posts are made taking into account different time zones.

Expanding into multilingual social media can tap into diverse markets; strategies include analytics, native speakers, visuals, and social tools.