Social media has become an indispensable part of our daily lives; it is the largest platform that lets us follow the news, makes it easy to communicate with large audiences and lets us share moments of our daily lives with other people. Social media includes many applications such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.
What Is Social Media Translation?
With developing technology, many people today use social media, communicate with people on the other side of the world, stay informed about events in different countries and even shop. Since such a broad platform includes many people who speak different languages, translating platform content into foreign languages is naturally a separate issue. In particular, companies aiming to reach a worldwide audience will face an obstacle if they publish their social media content in a single language. Companies whose goal is to gain more customers and reach a wider audience must use multiple language options in their service content and product descriptions. Social media translation serves people in exactly this area. Another important point within social media translation is subtitle translation. Especially on video-sharing platforms such as YouTube, offering different language options under videos will increase view counts and help the video appeal to a wider audience.
What Should Be Considered in Social Media Translation?
One of the points to consider when translating social media content is the character of the social media platform used. For example, Instagram is a platform created mostly for sharing photos, while Twitter is used more for posts in the form of text. Since each of these platforms appeals to a different audience, social media translation must also suit the social network in question. As some social platforms limit the number of characters (only 280 characters can be written on Twitter), social media translations must comply with these rules. Translations should be engaging and suited to the content, arousing the reader's curiosity from the first two sentences. The language used on social media actually forms a completely different jargon; the translator must master this language, follow current events and also have a broad imagination. The headline of the translated text should be eye-catching, and the points to be emphasised should be brought to the fore. Hashtags, which reflect the agenda of countries, are also of great importance in reflecting a country's culture, and if necessary, translations should be reinterpreted with these agendas in mind. For social media translation, the translator should also be knowledgeable about marketing tactics and strategies and prepare the translation in a way that attracts the target audience's interest.
Social media users often find texts in their own native language more engaging than content in a foreign language. A social media translation written in natural, fluent and plain language catches the user's attention even at a glance. A user who feels that the brand speaks their language may choose this company, believing it can meet their needs just as well. We mentioned the importance of social media for the size of market share. A poor advertising translation on a platform addressing such large audiences will damage your brand image and your social media reputation. For this reason, by working with the professional social media translators of our İyiTercüme team, you can convey your brand image soundly to other audiences and expand your market share.
A good social media translator creates text content that respects beliefs and values by taking cultural differences into account while translating. In particular, even if the ads shown to us by the Instagram algorithm after searching for products or people put the product we need at our fingertips, a poor translation can make us instantly give up on the product.
What Is Subtitle Translation?
Subtitle translation is a service provided mainly to translate the dialogue in series, films, documentaries and TV programmes into the target language. All dialogue in such broadcasts is first transcribed, then translated into the desired language, and afterwards it can also be dubbed according to gestures, facial expressions and the natural flow. Thanks to subtitle translation, we can now easily access and understand not only local series, films, videos and documentaries but content from all over the world.
What Should Be Considered in Subtitle Translation?
If we think of a film we have watched, a subtitle stays on screen for 6-7 seconds at most. The most important constraint in subtitle translation is time. The translator must use time efficiently and provide translation with clear, short sentences. Translations that match the jargon of the character in the video will help the character of the series or film be perceived the same way by all audiences.
Today, one of the main goals of social media users is to increase their number of followers. Having shared videos, images and ads translated into different languages will also help people increase their follower counts. Subtitle translation, used especially in videos, series and films, is one of the types of translation most preferred by viewers, as it preserves the originality of the film, the actor's own voice and the tone of voice in their reactions to events. At the same time, offering film trailers to viewers in more language options will help the film arouse curiosity among wider audiences and increase the number of viewers.
Frequently Asked Questions
The words used on social media platforms change every day. Some of the words used may not have an equivalent in another language. The translator also needs to keep up with the changing dynamics of social media language.
Some social media terms may have no equivalent in Turkish. In such cases, translators need to be creative. Great care must be taken to avoid misunderstandings and to avoid reducing the number of followers.
Social media content is content created by an individual or a company for social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter. This list also includes video platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, as well as instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram. Translating content for all of these platforms into different languages also falls within the scope of social media translation.
Social media translation is especially important for people who sell on these platforms and for influencers. If you publish your content in more than one language, it is even better to have a designer who can help you create visual posts. The number and length of the words needed to say something vary greatly from language to language. For this reason, good design skills may be needed so that the same social image still looks good when the text used in the visual is presented to different audiences in different languages.
The key point here is to make sure the designer can work comfortably with the language in question. This allows designers to arrange all visual elements carefully to avoid spelling mistakes, and ensures that the same quality standards apply to every audience, whatever language they speak. If your desktop publishing specialist speaks only one language, make sure you work with the translators involved in the process. This allows the translators to ensure accurate representation and improve the final image.