Jay LeonardWh
en creating content, it pays to think big. Publishing online gives us access to a readership that’s almost too large to imagine. Do it right and your words could be read by people in places you might never even have heard of.
While a global readership might seem like something most of us dream of, with a little know-how it’s something that you too can achieve.
Decide Who You Are Talking To
When you write for the web, you aren’t just pushing out content at random. You are engaging with others, convincing them to buy into your idea or product. With this in mind, it helps to know who you are trying to reach and which parts of the world you want to expand to.
For example, your ideal reader could be a female entrepreneur, or you might want to address a young music lover. Going global makes your pool of readers much larger, so your female entrepreneurs might include women in Brazil, and your music loving youth could be reading in East Asia.
Keeping a tight focus on your target demographic as you go global will let you reach more of the kind of people that interest you. It also helps your budget go further. Are you looking to connect with female entrepreneurs in South America but less so with similar women in China? Then make your content culturally and linguistically suited to the South American readers, instead of spending time and money trying to reach everyone.
Embrace the Multilingual Web
Forget the idea that everyone online speaks English. Although English is often used in the corporate world as a linguistic go-between, internet users are a far more diverse crowd. The web is also more informal and driven by social connections.
Even people in countries who have strong English skills as a second language will prefer to engage with others in their native tongue. In fact, a 2011 survey by the European Commission found that although 48% of non-English speaking Europeans occasionally read English-language content, 9 out of 10 users preferred to visit sites in their own language.
This makes translation of your content a priority. Make good use of your budget by first figuring out which languages need to be top of your list. In our South American example, Spanish and Portuguese would be essential for getting your message across. If Europe is your key market, you’re likely to find German or French better languages to start with.
Take Languages Seriously
If you don’t get serious about translation, your foreign-language readers won’t get serious about your content. They will be too busy laughing at your language slips, if they stick around at all.
We all know of corporate giants who managed to offend or became a laughing stock thanks to poorly-translated slogans. The rest of us needn’t think we will do any better. Unless you are genuinely bilingual and up to date with current usage, you will miss hidden meanings. It’s also easy to opt for what seems the right word choice, when in fact it means something entirely different (for example, in German the word Gift means poison).
Native speaker knowledge will make sure you don’t sound out of touch or leave readers confused. Accurate linguistic choices will also help your SEO by keeping your keywords relevant. Cutting corners here, on the other hand, could leave search engines as confused as your foreign-language readers.
Understand Cultural Differences
The 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that while people worldwide are becoming less trusting of what they read, ‘a person like yourself’ has become the most trusted source of information. Your job is to be that trusted person to your reader, no matter where in the world he or she is.
Localization is an essential part of becoming ‘one of us’ in another culture. Using words and expressions that local people use makes your content more accessible. Being in touch with important cultural events or hot topics can be useful too. Of course, offending people is never a good idea and cultural knowledge also can guide us around dangerous topics or inappropriate language.
Show You Care
Now that you’ve opened up your content to overseas readers, make them feel welcome. Avoid anything that places your English speaking crowd above foreign-language speakers. For example, aim to respond to all comments, not just those in English. If you offer a way for people to contact you, make sure it doesn’t exclude certain time zones or languages. Showing you care about all your readers helps you to build a good online reputation.
Write with other cultures and languages in mind and you’ll be saying Wilkommen, bienvenido and yōkoso to international readers in no time!
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Jay Leonard.
Learn how to publish your content on B2C
Join our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage
Add B2C to your Google News Feed
We continue to fall for misconceptions like the false belief that we can get by in international business, international affairs, and national security using English only. Yet the last few decades have seen the loss of American jobs and business to foreign competitors, the dependence on foreign workers to take the place of Americans lacking language skills, and strategic national security blunders based on
foreign language incompetence.
States should require their elementary schools to have world language teachers who teach students regularly from an early age. This should be part of any type of “Race to the Top” or similar incentive. Perhaps states not requiring elementary world language should not receive federal funds. Any possible federal mandate should also be put into place. Colleges should have appropriate training programs for those who will become elementary level foreign language teachers. Until we take these steps, our nation will continue to flounder with the same foreign language deficit.
Teaching children via video or software only will not accomplish the above goals. We need elementary world language teachers. I agree, it is imperative that our nation’s children learn a second or even additional languages as part of their education. But we continue to make the same old mistakes. Without mandates or legislation, foreign/world language education is treated as an afterthought, something nice that is subject to budget cuts and the whims of insular xenophobes. We wait until children are in middle school or high school to start foreign language classes. This is too late based on the time needed to develop fluency and the age of the students. The ideal time to start is as young as possible, during the primary or early elementary grade levels when the students’ brains are at an optimal age for language acquisition. We treat elementary world/foreign language classes as a special instead of a core subject. Because foreign languages at the elementary level are not required or monitored, school districts trim budgets by reducing language staff, holding classes infrequently, or relying on inadequate replacement programs.
We allow children to be instructed by video or software only, thus losing the benefits of interpersonal communication and the flexible nuances of true communication between real people. In some cases, the software or video is used infrequently by a teacher who does not know the language. This is not a criticism of the software programs, but the reality that they are only successful when used as a tool by a qualified language teacher.
This is about keeping America strong. A U.S.A. in which all children can speak, read, and, and write English and at least one other language is imperative for the continued success of our nation.