When we think about social media we tend to think about in terms of our own social circle and it’s a good bet that most people in your social circle speak the same language. The problem if you are a brand is that all of your customers may not all speak the same language.

So when does it make sense to start using other languages in your social media?

Here are 4 questions you should ask before starting international social media.

• Are we selling in that region? You may get a lot of people coming to your site from all over the world, but are you shipping to that region? Do you plan on shipping or building stores there? If not, then you don’t need to worry about international social media
• If you are a government or on a government grant, you may be required to offer multiple languages in your home country. This should be easy to check. You are either doing work with governments or you are not.
• Can you maintain content in two different languages? This starts with your website. Do you have multiple instances of your websites in different languages? The first step is to make sure you have at least a website in multiple languages. From there you need to decide which pieces of content will be multi lingual.
• Does your company have the ability to communicate in multiple languages? Producing content for the website can be done via translators with a quick turn around; but may not be quick enough for social media so someone on staff might be needed to monitor those accounts.

Like gaining traction on international SEO, international social media can be rewarding for a business, but the foundation must be in place before proceeding otherwise it will be money badly spent.