The globalisation of markets makes countries interconnected and pushes companies to develop outside their domestic market. This phenomenon also includes the emergence of social networks. We live in an ultra-connected world, where consumers are looking for a certain proximity, a certain social link with brands. Social networks have had a major impact on our lifestyles and have totally changed the way the Internet is used, to such an extent that they are becoming a real growth lever for companies by enabling the acquisition and retention of new customers.
In this article, you will find all the keys you need to achieve your goal: the internationalisation of your company, through the implementation of a marketing strategy and the use of the most suitable social networks!
The international marketing strategy of social networks
As mentioned earlier, the rise of social networks has made them a real strategic tool in the internationalisation of companies. More than 30% of the world's population is active on social networks. To internationalize a company via social networks, the company must analyse and evaluate the culture of the target market (norms, values, languages and religions), consumer behaviour (lifestyle, buying behaviour and consumption habits), as well as the quality of translations, in order to adapt this strategy to the target market as much as possible. If not, it can be counter-productive.
The selection of the most appropriate social networks for your activity
In order to maximise the effectiveness of an international social network marketing strategy it is necessary to take into account the existing variations in the use of social networks, as not all countries use the same social networks, let alone in the same way.
Top 3 most popular social networks
- Facebook:
- The world's leading social network
- Over 2.45 billion users
- Messenger attracts more than 1.3 billion users
- Average age of users: 25-34 years old
- Goals: create a community and ensure its loyalty, share content about the company and its products.
- Best publication times: Monday or weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) at 9am, 1pm and 3pm
- YouTube:
- 2nd most visited website in the world after Google
- Over 2 billion users
- More than 80,000 videos viewed every second
- Goals: to be more human, to connect to consumers, to gain notoriety, to promote its products through advertising, collaboration or partnerships with influencers
- Best time to publish: weekdays between 19:00 and 23:00
- Instagram:
- One of the most popular with young people
- 1 billion users
- 500 million stories a day
- « Buy Buttons » concept
- Average age of users: 25-34 followed by 18/24 year olds
- Goals: to highlight the company's activity, to make its products known, to create a social link with the community
- Best publication times: Monday and Thursday when users wake up (from 7am to 9am) and late afternoon (from 5pm to 6pm)
While most social networks are used around the world, there are variations that companies need to consider depending on the market they decide to enter.
Examples of variations
- In China:
- WeChat: instant messaging used to share content (videos, photos, stickers, links), organise contests or share QRcodes. The majority of its users are men between 18 and 35 years old. WeChat is also popular in Asia and Africa.
- Sina Weibo: mix of twitter and Facebook, micro-blogging used for influence and content marketing and targeted advertising. Its audience is mainly composed of people over 30 years old living in big cities.
- In Russia:
- Vkontakte: Russian Facebook, used for content and advertising. Its audience is mixed and ranges from 18 to 35 years old. Vontakte is also known in Ukraine.
- Odnoklassniki: mix of Facebook and Copains d'avant, used for content marketing and to organise contests and mini quizzes. Its audience belongs to the 18-44 age group.
The growing importance of social networks in today's society means that they have become a real tool in the implementation of a company's internationalisation strategy. While it has many advantages, such as establishing a real social link with consumers, acquiring and retaining new customers, a certain control over one's brand image or even strengthening one's notoriety and visibility, this tool has certain limitations. Its use requires a real knowledge of the target market due to the technological differences in each country. The use of a social network differs from one country to another, so the company will need to be well informed on this subject for its strategy to be effective. Alternatively, this can be harmful to the company's development because of consumer misunderstanding.
Zoé C.
752 WORDS
WEBOGRAPHY
- https://www.adt-international-marseille.fr/le-marketing-des-reseaux-sociaux-a-l-international/
- https://www.openvalley.fr/reseaux-sociaux-international/strategie-internationale-reseaux-sociaux/
- https://www.openvalley.fr/reseaux-sociaux-international/
- https://fr.slideshare.net/Voyelle/etablir-une-strategie-reseaux-sociaux-a-linternational
- https://comarketing-news.fr/les-reseaux-sociaux-mettent-le-cap-sur-le-commerce/
- https://www.ecommerce-nation.fr/infographie-utiliser-les-reseaux-sociaux-pour-votre-site-e-commerce/
Dear Zoe,
ReplyDeletethanks for this interesting article. I have heard that the "Buy Bottons" on Instagram are not trustworthy and redirect consumers to fraudulent websites. Is this true?
Furthermore, regarding the existing variations of social networks in China and Russia, I would like to know how popular these variations are and if Facebook and Instagram still also play an important role in these countries or not?
Charlotte P.