Let's review how world's biggest companies by Forbes magazine are doing their social media localization. While conducting this research we looked for links to social media accounts only on the websites. This means that we reviewed company’s global/international website and each localized (country-specific) website of this company. We didn’t look for social accounts on social media itself as there are many fake or similar accounts that can mislead a user. If the company provides a link to its social media on its website, there is no doubt it’s an official one. Our expert team reviewed first 1000 companies from the Forbes Global 2000 list. Only 420 from 1000 companies offer a country selection to their visitors/customers. Their social media were used for this report.

1. Social Media
Localization
Among Forbes Global 2000 Companies*
*Reviewed 420 companies among first 1000
by idmspot.com

2. With a constant growth of global
communication and international
marketing, you need to adapt not
only your website but also your
social media communication to
different audiences and locales.
Social Media Localization means
adapting all of your social media
constituents (language, content,
visuals) to different local cultures.

3. There are 2,8 billion active
social media users
worldwide as of January
2017 with 37% of global
penetration.

4. Introduction
Conducting this research we looked for links to social media (SM) accounts only
on the websites. This means that we reviewed company’s global/international
website and each localized (country-specific) website of this company. We didn’t
look for social accounts on social media itself as there are many fake or similar
accounts that can mislead a user. If the company provides a link to its social
media, there is no doubt it’s an official one.
Our expert team reviewed first 1000 companies from the Forbes Global 2000 list.
Only 420 from 1000 companies offer a country selection to their
visitors/customers. Their social media were used for this report.

5. Social Media Icons
Location on the Website
A common place to have links to
social media is the main page.
A nice way to place links to social
media accounts for those
companies that have a
global/international page is to put
them on one list. Here are great
examples from McDonalds and
Invesco.

6. Level of Social Media (SM) Localization
Common social account means
all localized websites have
common social media accounts;
Localized social account -
70-100% of all localized websites
have their own social media
accounts for each country;
Mostly localized - 40-70% of all
localized websites have their
own social media accounts;
Somewhat localized - 0-40% of
all localized websites have their
own social media accounts, and
the majority has common social
media accounts.

7. Example of Great SM
Localization - Starbucks
The Starbucks company has 47 localized
websites and localized accounts for almost
each of them.
➢ There are SM accounts in local language for 32
countries;
➢ There are SM accounts in local language along
with English for 3 countries and 1 region;
➢ There are SM accounts only in English (which
is not the local language) for 4 countries;
➢ There is SM account in the official but not the
state language 1 country;
➢ And there are SM accounts only on local social
media networks (Weibo and WeChat) for
China.
What gives in total 42 or 89,4% of countries
with its own social media accounts.

8. Local Social Media
It is important to know when localizing social media that
some countries favor other social networks than Facebook
and Twitter. For instance, in China it is Weibo and WeChat,
In CIS countries it is VK and OK.
32,9% of the companies with localized websites for China
and/or CIS countries have social media accounts in local
networks.

9. WEB Traffic
Web traffic is the amount of data sent and received by visitors
to a web site.
World’s biggest public companies get a lot of traffic to their
websites, and this traffic comes from different countries.
Usually, the most traffic comes from the native country, but
sometimes it can be another, geographically close country, or
a country that the company works the most with.

10. Top 5 Countries that Bring
Traffic and SM
Localization*
*We reviewed top 20 companies (by the number of monthly
visits) and their social media localization for top 5 countries
they get their traffic from.
➢ In 25% of the cases the most traffic comes
from another country than native;
➢ In 15% of the cases there is no native
country in the top 5 countries;
➢ 15% of the companies don’t have localized
websites for all 5 countries, but have for 2
or 3;
➢ 10% of the companies don’t have links to
social media on their websites;
➢ 40% have Twitter and Facebook together,
or just Twitter, or just Facebook, or a local
network accounts for all 5 countries;
➢ 30% of the companies actually have
localized accounts but for some reason
don’t link to them;
➢ 15% of the companies link to common
accounts on their localized websites.

11. To Sum Up:
Social media is a great way to reach your global customers. It is not enough to
have an account and post just in one language, you must target potential clients in
their own language, considering cultural differences as well.
Local social media users have their own behaviors online which should be taken
into consideration. Internal audits have repeatedly shown higher conversion rates
and more money spent on products when customers and potential clients are
targeted in their own language.
Building a localized social media presence is a powerful way to expand globally,
increase awareness about your brand, get traffic to a website, and increase
revenue.

12. Contact info:
Florian Auckenthaler
florian@designingit.com
designingit.com
843 709 8780
IDM Spot
idmspot.com