--- title: Brands and their Global Social Media Challenges description: What are the challenges that brands face globally in their social media marketing efforts and how can they cope with them? image: http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/462269/file-2296080612-jpg/Iliyanas_Blog_among_50_PR_Blogs Chosen_by_Graduates.jpg --- [**](https://www.facebook.com/iliyana.stareva) [**](https://twitter.com/iliyanastareva) [**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/iliyanastareva) [**](http://instagram.com/iliyanastareva) [**](http://www.pinterest.com/iliyanastareva/) [BUY INBOUND PR NOW](https://www.amazon.com/Inbound-PR-Agencys-Transforming-Business/dp/1119462215/) [Iliyana Stareva ](https://www-iliyanastareva-com.sandbox.hs-sites.com) ## Iliyana's Blog ## [Brands and their Global Social Media Challenges](https://www.iliyanastareva.com/blog/brands-and-their-global-social-media-challenges) [fa icon="calendar"] 23-Jan-2012 09:20:00 / by [Iliyana Stareva](https://www.iliyanastareva.com/blog/author/iliyana-stareva) - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) A few days ago I came across an interesting [whitepaper](http://www.lewispr.com/Resources/The-Global-Social-Media-Challenge.aspx) by [LEWIS PR](http://www.lewispr.com/) about the social media challenges brands and organisations are facing globally. The main emphasis is on the fact that nowadays “every brand is a global brand”. Thanks to the internet and social media buyers can easily learn about companies and their products, they can interact with them as well as with other customers and most importantly they can express their own opinions. Organisations on the other hand have to listen to these multicultural, multilingual voices and correspondingly respond. The paper looks at the challenges of a multinational social media strategy, that works across borders, but also suggests some ideas how to cope with them, so I thought I should briefly present these to you. Here it goes: **Challenges:** - **Organisational challenges** How do you effectively organize your social media marketing efforts - do you need multiple blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter profiles for each country or is just one global presence enough; which country is responsible for which region in the case of a crisis; how can you assess your global audience etc?  - **Language** To what extent is content creation in the local language necessary; would English be sufficient enough or is a mix of both the best decision? How do you then correspondingly monitor and listen in the chosen language(s)? - **Platforms** How do you decide which network is on the top of your priority list – the global leaders Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube or the local online networks that play a role in that local community? - **Culture and politics** When you don’t really have control over the content created about your brand in social media, how do you still manage to carefully deal with issues such as incorrect translation or government regulations?  - **Timezones** How fast can you react in a social media crisis that is happening in Australia, but you are currently in Germany, so that it doesn’t all turn out to be a huge disaster?  - **Product messaging ** If you alter your product according to the needs and regulatory requirements of specific markets, how do you make it clear to which markets you refer to when promoting those products via social media? **Recommendations:** - **Understand where your communities are** Research your existing communities and find out who is talking about you, what and where by setting up monitoring tools such as Radian 6, Facebook Insights, Google Trends, so that you can find out which countries are engaging the most with your brand. - **Organize your channels** Set up a clear social media strategy by choosing just one channel as your priority hub whether it is your website, blog, Facebook page etc. and use the rest of the networks where you are present to promote this focal point as well as to listen to the conversations happening there. - **Develop content that meets your audience’s needs** For your global priority hub create content relevant to your global audience that provides a global view. For your other channels that are focusing on smaller communities make sure that you “talk” to those communities accordingly in terms of language, local needs and news etc. - **Engage at a local level** Find out who are the biggest influencers in each community and then build and personalize relationships with them. - **Manage local issues** In case of a crisis give exact data, be quick, transparent, professional and polite and respond in the local language, according to the local market. - **Implement a global social media policy** Set appropriate social media guidelines by making sure that everyone in the organisation knows which channels are used and why, who is responsible for them and how to contact them, what are the rules (e.g. using social media at work allowed or not) and how to react in a crisis. - **Measure, iterate, refine** Monitor the number of subscribers to your blog, use web analytics etc. and set Key Performance Indicators to find out if you have reached your social media marketing goals. The paper also provides some very specific examples and tips about cultural differences in the usage of social media in 15 countries.  I wasn’t aware of most of them and I think you’ll find them quite interesting. For instance, did you know that in Hong Kong there is a local social media counterpart of each global network leader: renren for Facebook, sina for blogging, Youku and Tudou for video sharing and Sina Weibo for Twitter? What can we conclude? Well, do your research (properly!), set a clear strategy, organize your activities, listen carefully and measure adequately.   Source: [LewisPR](http://www.lewispr.com/Resources/The-Global-Social-Media-Challenge.aspx)    Topics: [Social Media](https://www.iliyanastareva.com/blog/topic/social-media) ![Iliyana Stareva](https://www.iliyanastareva.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Iliyana%20Stareva_3.png?width=100&height=100&name=Iliyana%20Stareva_3.png) #### Written by [Iliyana Stareva](https://www.iliyanastareva.com/blog/author/iliyana-stareva) Iliyana Stareva is a thought leader in Customer Success and AI. She’s the author of Inbound PR, a keynote speaker, and currently leads Customer Health for EMEA at ServiceNow. Iliyana has held global and regional roles at ServiceNow, Cisco, and HubSpot, spanning customer experience, operations, and digital transformation. 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