Communicating with Hispanics

Hispanic Heritage Month: Communication Strategies

Posted On September 13, 2020By TranspanishIn Latinos, Mulilingual Digital Marketing, Spanish Translation, Translation Buyers/ 2 No Comments

From September 15 to October 15, the United States marks National Hispanic Heritage Month to celebrate the achievements of the Hispanic community along with its history and culture. Initially introduced as Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968, it was expanded into Hispanic Heritage Month in 1988, with the start date of September 15 being chosen because this was when the Hispanic countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua declared their independence in 1821. Mexico and Chile also declared their independence in September, on September 16 and 18 respectively. While the date was chosen due to these events, it celebrates Hispanic heritage of all backgrounds.

What Is the Significance of Hispanic Heritage Month?

Since its foundation, Hispanic Heritage Month has regularly featured everything from parades to presidential addresses to mark the occasion, and as the Hispanic community in the United States grows, it is looking to become an ever more important event.

At present, 60 million Hispanic people are living in the United States, some 20% of the country’s population, a figure that is predicted to grow to 111 million by 2060, having already become the largest minority group in the country. This celebration is an invaluable and increasingly unignorable opportunity for content creators and businesses alike to show their support for the community and win over loyal Hispanic customers – the most brand-loyal group in the United States.

Hispanic Americans, however, are a diverse group, with family backgrounds coming from all over the Hispanic world and there being vast differences between Cubans in Florida, Puerto Ricans in New York, and Mexicans in California. The Hispanic heritage of the United States goes far beyond immigration, with many states once also being part of Mexico or the Spanish Empire, and some cities being predominantly Spanish speaking, like Miami where 70% of the population are native Spanish speakers.

The influence of Hispanic heritage on the United States is undeniable yet is an often overlooked part of the country, something that is going to become harder to ignore for those looking to succeed in everything from marketing to politics in the future of the United States.

What Is the Difference Between Hispanic and Latino?

While the terms Hispanic and Latino are often used interchangeably in the United States, they actually have very different meanings. Latino refers to someone from Latin America, including both Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries, due to them both being Latin-based languages. Meanwhile, Hispanic refers specifically to Spanish speakers.

While many often have a fixed view of what a Hispanic person looks like, the Hispanic community is incredibly diverse, including black and indigenous Hispanic people who are often overlooked in such definitions. They are both rather generalizing terms and a better approach still is to be aware of the unique cultures and heritage of each unique group.

What’s the Best Approach for Communication with the Hispanic Community?

The best approach for communicating with the Hispanic community is the same as for any group, which is to show respect and understanding. This means taking the time to show you understand them as a group and respecting the Spanish language and any traditions, while also being aware of the differences within the community. As such, it is best to use content that has been professionally translated and culturally adapted.

If machine translations are used, the use of which should be avoided, they should at least be proofread. Not doing so shows a disrespect that risks harming your relations and therefore your goals with the Hispanic community.

First, you should learn about the intricacies and issues in the Hispanic community, taking the time to research the group and plan what you want to say. Hiring someone to help out with this often-difficult process will have better results for both you and your consumers.

As part of content adaptation, it’s also worth adapting social media platforms for the Hispanic community, instead of using a mix of Spanish and English on the same platform and hoping that the poor-quality automatic translation tools will take care of the rest. Creating unique content will show respect for the community and that you value them as much as your English-speaking audience.

It’s not just about the language, it’s also about showing support and awareness in a way that some rival businesses may not, thus losing valuable customers. This is something Transpanish can help you out with, by providing natural and well-adapted content on social media platforms to ensure that you get the most engagement and success possible with your target community, and by providing you accurate Spanish translations for your documents and all types of texts.

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English - Spanish - Portuguese Social Media Tips

The Essentials of Multilingual Social Media – Transpanish

Posted On December 6, 2019By TranspanishIn Mulilingual Digital Marketing, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers, Translations/  No Comments

Social media platforms are excellent tools for promoting your brand around the world. However, to truly internationally promote your brand, it’s essential that your content is suitable for your target audiences. Of course, this means having content that will resonate with and attract your audience, but it also relates to actually speaking your audience’s language. Multilingual social media can help your business access new and exciting markets that you may well have been missing out on with a monolingual social media policy. However, managing multilingual social media platforms can have its issues, so here’s what you need to consider.

Translation, Localization and Engagement

A successful social media platform is key to your brand online, and engagement is key to running a successful social media platform. Engagement is crucial in modern marketing so your approach to multilingual social media should consider it a priority. Getting real engagement from social media can be difficult and there’s no real hard and fast rule for it, but engaging and localized translations of posts will definitely help.

A poor translation is arguably worse than no translation at all, so it is important to invest in an expert translator who can help you understand how your target market thinks. This means avoiding erroneous machine translations and, instead, using content that reflects the cultural context of your audience, with relevant phrasing to show that you understand them as a customer.

Having a Consistent International Brand Identity

While it’s important that your multilingual social media strategy reflects the differences in your audience’s cultures and languages, it’s also important to make sure that your brand is consistent. This can sound almost like a paradox and it is indeed difficult if you think small picture, but to help make matters easier, you should make sure that your translator not only understands your target audience but also understands you as a brand and how you want to be presented, making sure the core essence is the same.

Reflecting Your Brand with a Bilingual Social Media Manager

Social media management isn’t just related to posting content, it’s ultimately about engaging with your followers. As such, it’s important to have multilingual staff who can naturally respond to comments or complaints, be it on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. For instance, if you have a Spanish Facebook account, it’s imperative that you have a Spanish native speaker as a social media manager who can interact with your followers to ensure engagement is natural, making sure that you understand your followers better and that they are more likely to use your services. If you don’t have staff who can readily respond in their various native languages, then you will likely be very slow to respond to your followers, thus harming your engagement.

Having Separate Accounts for Different Languages

While your company may be multilingual, not all of your followers will be. Posting content in, say, Portuguese on your English Twitter will likely alienate your followers and harm engagement. Make sure to have different accounts for each language on each platform and keep them separate to improve engagement and reduce confusion.

Localizing Hashtags

Hashtags are wonderful tools that act as a form of free promotion and they can be very helpful if used correctly. They also vary from language to language so make sure to research the correct hashtags and use them in the correct respective languages for the most relevant outreach and engagement.

Of course, having interesting content is also key but without good multilingual social media management, you risk missing out on key engagement.

Are you ready to speak to your multilingual audience?

Producing great content in another language takes time and commitment. We can help you expand your reach and establish a connection with an audience that speaks Spanish or Portuguese. If you’d like to find out more about our service, visit Multilingual Social Media.

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