Business Translation Center

Desktop publishing and social media marketing translation – are you getting the best out of them?

by OFER TIROSH 14/08/2019

Back in the day, social media marketing used to involve little more than typing a sentence and including a link to your website. How times have changed!

The way that we use social media has changed immensely over the 15 or so years since Facebook first launched. As such, the way that companies use social media for marketing purposes has also changed, as businesses around the globe strive to keep up with the latest trends in user engagement and the latest social media platforms tricks for ensuring that posts are prioritised.

Key to modern-day social media marketing success is the use of desktop publishing software and the use of video. In this article, we take a look at the former (watch this space for a subsequent article on video and social media and the rise of video translation, as video is increasingly used by companies as part of their social media marketing strategy).

Social media marketing statistics

To understand why it’s so important to get social media marketing right, let’s look at some statistics. According to this article on social media statistics from Dreamgrow:

  • 71% of consumers who’ve had a positive customer service experience from a brand via social media are likely to recommend that brand to others
  • 90% of social media users have communicated with a brand or business through social media
  • Users are more than 40 times more likely to share visual content on social media than other types of content

This last point is why the link between social media marketing and desktop publishing has become so essential in recent years.

Desktop publishing services for social media marketing

For those who don’t have an eye for design – or the time to spend on it – desktop publishing services are an easy way to buy in expertise. If your brand is serious about social media marketing, then it’s time to start producing visual content for your social accounts. First define the messages that you want to deliver and who your target audience are. Once these are in place you can hire a desktop publishing expert to create some superb imagery for you.

Whether you prefer photography, iconography or a mix of both, livening up your social media marketing campaign with visual content can reap big rewards. Be sure to have analytics in place in order to evaluate which images/campaigns achieve the highest engagement levels, them work with your designer to ensure that future campaigns are informed by that valuable feedback.

Social media marketing in translation

When you’re publishing content in multiple languages, it can be even more useful to have a designer on hand to assist with creating visual posts. Word length and the number of words it takes to say something can vary considerably between languages, so it can take some impressive design skills to ensure that the same social imagery looks good when the text used on it is presented in different languages for different audiences.

One key point here is to ensure that the designer is used to working in the language(s) in question. That way he/she can ensure that each piece of imagery is carefully proofed so that it is typo-free, ensuring that the same quality standards are applied to each audience, no matter which language they speak. If the desktop publishing expert speaks only one language, be sure that they liaise closely with a translator as part of the process, so that the translator can provide the correct wording and then proof the final imagery.

Final thoughts

The power and reach of social media is huge – and still growing. Using a desktop publishing service can help you to promote your brand, reach new customers and build up an outstanding online reputation. So, what are you waiting for?