Global marketing involves creating custom content for multiple markets while maintaining brand consistency. Here at Acclaro we've helped many companies learn the best ways to engage in countries from Brazil to Japan, Russia to France. Websites in Japan and other high-context cultures, for example, have much more going in terms of images and colors than on sites geared for U.S. markets. Knowing these differences means that new sites fit into the norms of your new markets, setting customers at ease.
Effective website localization ensures that your global users are comfortable interacting with your brand and have a clear understanding of who you are and what you are trying to say. Facebook's new Global Pages is one way that the social network is helping brands reach out to global markets but stay faithful to their core identity. Users from all countries will see a consistent Page name (translated into their local language), fan count, and People Talking About This numbers, but have localized updates, profile photo, cover photo, page apps and wall messages. These localized pages can be set up for different single- or multi-country language regions, plus a default page for everyone else. Facebook says that companies with existing multiple pages will be able to integrate them easily into the new system, resulting in a global dashboard that gives insights for all users across the world.
With this new launch there are still some questions. One is who can use the new Global Pages, as only companies that have a Facebook account manager currently qualify. Another is how the new pages will interact with Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm, especially as global updates across all pages could be difficult without using a third-party page management tool.
Another major concern is translation. Countries with multiple languages, like Belgium or Luxembourg, will only have one page that would need to have multiple languages in action. There is also currently no feature that allows companies to see engagement by language type. Pages will still be responsible for their own content.
If you rely heavily on Facebook as part of your global communication strategy, Global Pages may serve you well. However, reaching global users can also be achieved through a more customized approach, such as hiring a digital agency (either in-country, or a domestic company that can manage your global footprint), development of global social media guidelines, or partnering with a localization agency.
Photo attribution; perpetualplum
