Translation Blog

Social media marketing is a brilliant way to showcase your business to the world. Many companies have a renewed focus on social media translation, ensuring their content is effective with global audiences. However, it can be hard for companies to adapt captions effectively due to the unique challenges of social media. For maximum impact,  a social media translation should always be carried out by a professional transcreation agency.

This article briefly highlights some of the main challenges when translating social media content and tips for overcoming these obstacles. This helps ensure that your translated content can make your business boom!

1. Translate Social Media Jargon First

All social media platforms use jargon that has been developed for that specific site. For instance, words such as “Like,” “Tweet,” and “Follow” have originated and are primarily used in the English language. Your social media translation must consider how these site-specific words are used in different languages.

Before translating your captions, it’s a good idea to take on the individual challenge of social media jargon first. Take all terms used on your preferred social media platform and decide whether to find an appropriate translation or keep them the same in all languages. A professional transcreation agency can help if you’re unsure how to do this.

For example, a “Tweet” on Twitter might mean the same in English and Spanish. However, a “Like” on Facebook might need to be translated to “me gusta” in Spanish. Likewise, “Follow” may need to be translated to “seguir” for Spanish speakers to understand your meaning. Your social media translation will be much easier if you first handle all these specific terms.

2. Take Care with Internet Slang

Internet slang that most English speakers are familiar with includes LOL (laughing out loud), IKR (I know, right), and IDK (I don’t know). However, some of this slang may be hard to translate.

Policies on internet slang differ depending on your transcreation agency. Some translators will suggest a direct translation of all slang words and abbreviations to ensure your message is retained. Others may ask you to adapt your source text to remove confusing abbreviations before beginning your social media translation.

Either way, your translator should keep the translation flowing while using context to get your point across. The context will give the person reading in their native language enough clues, and they may even be able to understand internet slang in the original post.

3. Choose Your Words Wisely

We are all familiar with the character limit that Twitter enforces. This character limit goes across the board for all languages (excluding Chinese, Korean, and Japanese), but translated content is rarely the same length as the source text. Your social media translation will likely be longer!

If your preferred social media platform restricts characters, your translation must stay under the character count restrictions. A transcreation agency can help you adapt your text so it has the same meaning without exceeding the character limit. If this is impossible without cutting out crucial parts of the post, the original post can be translated into two or more posts in the new language.

4. Don’t Use Machine Translations

It may be tempting to run a social media post through machine translation, such as Google Translate. Some social media platforms even offer automatic social media translation directly via the app. However, machines offer word-for-word translations. When using this direct form of translation, it is near-impossible to translate personality and maintain your brand voice.

Your posts will be much more successful if you hire a professional transcreation agency to translate your captions. This will allow you to remove the “machine” feel of the translation, producing more authentic and engaging content. It will also ensure that the post still sounds like the original and retains your brand personality.

5. Remember to Translate Emojis

Different gestures mean different things in other languages. Let’s take the simple “thumbs up” emoji as an example. In the UK, a thumbs-up means “great job” or “okay”. However, a thumbs-up gesture takes a vulgar meaning in Greece and countries throughout the Middle East. It is seen in the same way English speakers view the middle finger!

You want to avoid accidentally offending anyone reading the social media translation. Therefore, you must remember that emojis also need to be translated! Basic marketing translation research is all you need to succeed in this area, or a qualified transcreation agency can handle this for you.

6. Know Your Target Audience

Always research your target audience before starting a social media translation. You must be familiar with local customs and how certain words or gestures are used within your target audience. Get a clear picture of who they are in your head and build your content strategy accordingly.

When defining your target audience, consider age as well as nationality. You will not want to translate a post so that teens and young adults will understand perfectly, but your target audience is elderly adults. For example, reducing slang and removing emojis is a much better strategy for older populations. A transcreation agency can help you picture and tailor content to your new audience.

7. Get Creative with Translations

We all know that social media is becoming a huge digital marketing platform. Marketing translations translate from one language to another and from one target audience to another. They make your content understandable and enjoyable for a new target audience.

If using social media as part of your marketing strategy, hiring a transcreation agency is non-negotiable. They can offer creative solutions to ensure your social media translation evokes the right emotions and engages your unique audience. This requires a deep understanding of the culture and can take your content up a level.

Renaissance Translation’s Social Media Translation

Social media translation may initially sound like an easy thing to do. However, a lot of work and thought goes into the final translation. It is essential to translate not only words but also emojis, internet slang, and site-specific words. You must also retain the original post’s character while keeping within the character limit and connecting with your new audience.

If you want to improve your presence in foreign markets, Renaissance Translations can help. We offer professional translation services in any language and have access to over 5,000 professional translators worldwide. Our expert translators have all the required skills to provide social media translations of the same quality as the original. Contact us today to discuss your project or request a quote online.

When taking your company overseas, brand translations ensure your business name makes sense in international markets. Both literal translation and creative translation can be used for translating brand names and slogans, and both are offered as professional services. But what actually are literal and creative brand translations? And what is the best option for your company?

Choosing the type of translation that works best for your company is essential in ensuring your brand conveys its desired message to your target audience. This article looks at these two types of translations, their applications for translating brand names, and the best option for your business.

Creative Translation vs. Literal Translation

Literal translation is a straightforward and direct way of performing brand translations. It takes your brand name and slogan and translates them into another language word for word. It is the simplest form of translation, and it’s often integrated into machine translation.

Some benefits come with using literal translations, which include:

• Speeding up project turnaround as computers can perform these translations
• Making the content easy to understand when translated into other languages
• Ensuring no important pieces of information are excluded from the translation

Literal translations are good for some documents, such as step-by-step instructions and other impersonal content. It effectively gets the message across in different languages quickly and easily. However, it is not the best option for translating brand names and slogans. When applied to these types of content, it can lead to embarrassing errors.

On the other hand, creative translation – or transcreation – is a more human translation. It doesn’t just ensure that the phrase makes linguistic and grammatical sense; it also ensures that it works well in the context of communication and the culture of your new audience. Transcreation thus comes with its separate share of advantages, including:

• Considering the context of the message and making it more effective
• Properly translating idioms, sayings, and slang to avoid any embarrassing mistakes
• Taking the target audience into account and making the content culturally relevant.

In brand translations, this creative and culturally-aware translation process is highly beneficial. But while creative translation has advantages, only professional translators with great knowledge of the target audience’s culture can perform well. Therefore, it cannot be done by machines. It is also more expensive and time-consuming than a literal translation.

What is the Best Method for Brand Translations?

So, what is the best method for brand translations: creative or literal translation? When you compare the two, the choice is clear—creative translation is far superior. It is a more human translation that puts the brand name in context. It ensures that it will be understood across cultures and helps form positive brand associations with your new audience. Literal translation doesn’t have the same impact.

Another option for your brand name is to use phonetic translation. Phonetic translation or transliteration essentially keeps your brand name the same. However, the letters and symbols used to write your brand name are changed into the writing system spoken in your chosen market. The sounds and syllables are identical to the original, but the script changes.

Phonetic translations can be effective, but you must ensure your brand name doesn’t mean something else in your target language. The brand could be in trouble if the name has a negative connotation. And if the brand tries to correct the mistake, it will be a long and costly procedure. Therefore, creative brand translations are often thought of as the superior method to use.

Examples of Brand Translation Errors

Many companies have made brand translation errors. Coca-Cola is a prominent example – the company used a literal translation for its brand translations. Unfortunately, their translated name meant something like “bite the wax tadpole” in Chinese. The company has since integrated a creative translation approach, and the name now reads “tasty fun” in Chinese. Much better!

The Bing search engine learned from the mistakes of the brands that preceded them. When the Microsoft company used literal translation, they found that some of their characters had negative associations translating the name to “illness” and “disease”. But with creative translation, it worked well across a variety of international markets.

Factors to Consider When Choosing a Brand Name

With embarrassing repercussions, brand translations are crucial to get it right! You can make things easier by carefully selecting your brand name to make it more easily translatable. Here are some factors to consider when developing a brand name that works well in global markets:

• Pronunciation & Spelling: A brand name that is simple to spell and pronounce will be easy for people of all dialects to recognise.
• No Negative Connotations: It is a good idea to run it through various machine translation applications. This helps to ensure it does not have negative connotations in the language spoken by the markets you want to enter.
• Trademark and Legislation: Check the brand name availability to ensure you don’t come across any trademark or legal issues. Using a brand name that already exists internationally could lead to considerable costs and hassles when expanding globally.

If you have already named your company or have a well-established business, don’t worry. Professional creative translation services can help adapt the name to suit whatever target market is in your vision. But steer clear of literal translation tools, or you risk making embarrassing translation mistakes.

Renaissance Translations’ Brand Translations

Getting your brand name right the first time is so important, so it’s advisable to take it to a professional translation services provider before making it public. If you already have a brand name, creative translation can help also you adapt it to suit new markets.

If you need brand translations, we can help. Renaissance Translations offers professional brand translations in any language. We provide literal translation where appropriate but generally perform transcreation or transliteration. Our services also cover a range of other industries, such as marketing, engineering, medical, financial, and many others, providing support elsewhere as your business expands.

Get in touch today for professional translation services you can rely on. We are members of the Association of Translation Comapnies in England and SDL LSP Partner programme. Brand translation is so important! Don’t trust it to just anyone—trust us.

If you’re hoping to expand your business into China, you need a reliable language partner that can translate Mandarin. Mandarin translation services are the only viable way for companies to enter the thriving Chinese market, ensuring your marketing collateral is influential among the Chinese population. In fact, it is necessary to sell your products or services in China. Requests for English to Mandarin translations have never been higher, particularly for marketing materials. Here we take a closer look at why entering this market is beneficial and how a professional agency that can translate Mandarin can help you stand out from the competition.

With over 1.3 billion Mandarin speakers, China is a target market that businesses must recognise! There are many reasons to take your business to China and invest in Mandarin translation services. Here are some specific benefits that will come after you translate Mandarin content for your next marketing campaign.

1. High Market Growth Rates

The first reason to translate Mandarin marketing content is the high market growth rates in China. The country has one of the highest gross domestic products (GDPs) worldwide, estimated to be $14.72 trillion in 2022. This is the second-highest GDP globally after only the USA. GDP rates are a fantastic measure of the economy, proving that the Chinese population is becoming wealthier is gaining more purchasing power.

Taking your business to China gives you access to this growing economy and enables you to convert new Chinese customers. But to do this, you must invest in Mandarin translation services. Marketing materials are one of the most crucial elements to translate into Mandarin, and English-to-Mandarin translations for your social media, advertisements, and website are essential.

2. Large Market Demographic

The current population of China sits at around 1.45 billion. Within the country, these billions of people speak several hundred languages – around 302 to be precise! However, Mandarin is by far the most widely used, spoken by 80% of the population. Mandarin Chinese is also the official language of the country and used for all official documents.

Therefore, businesses looking to enter the Chinese market should translate to Mandarin over other Chinese languages. A professional Mandarin translation service makes it possible to influence and communicate with this significant population effectively. This also explains why English-to-Mandarin translations are so popular – these are the two most spoken languages globally!

3. Translate Mandarin for Effective Communications

The Chinese population is unique, with their own perspectives and ways of doing business. Chinese is an expressive and emotive language, and politeness and respect are embedded deeply into their culture. Therefore, nothing can jeopardise a sale or the reputation of a company quicker than cultural misunderstandings, unintentionally offensive content, and miscommunications.

The best way to ensure a clear understanding is to hire a professional Mandarin translation service that offers creative services, such as transcreation. Transcreation is a must for marketing materials. Translators will translate Mandarin while considering the cultural context. They can adapt colours and images to ensure your message is delivered clearly, and make your English to Mandarin translations perfectly tailored to the unique Chinese population.

4. Clear Brand Messaging

When taking business overseas, you need to maintain your brand identity. Ensuring the prospective customer can relate to and understand the intended meaning of any marketing materials is critical. This understanding is what prompts your new audience to convert into paying customers, signup for your service, or purchase your products.

Professional English-to-Mandarin translation services ensure your brand messaging is preserved when you translate to Mandarin. For example, professional translators account for cultural differences when translating marketing content for the Chinese market. Google Translate or other automatic online translators cannot capture this sensitivity, but you can ensure that customers receive the right message when using a professional Mandarin translation service.

5. Competitive Advantage

Chinese is one of the most translated languages in the world, and English to Mandarin translations are among the top language pairs. Many businesses are seeing the potential of the market, and Mandarin translation services are in higher demand than ever.

Unfortunately, this means that any business entering China has competition from many international companies. With so many choices for consumers, hiring a language services provider to translate Mandarin could provide a unique selling point that propels your company past the competition. Choosing an experienced and reliable partner to translate Mandarin makes it even more likely that your translations are accurate, authentic, and effective.

6. Translating Mandarin Improves SEO Performance

The final benefit of hiring an agency to translate Mandarin is to improve search engine optimisation (SEO). In the modern world, SEO is a crucial component of all digital marketing efforts. When you translate a website or social content, you need to adjust the keywords and other SEO components so that your content shows up on foreign search engines. A professional Mandarin translation doesn’t solely translate Mandarin words – it considers SEO and improves your rankings in Chinese browsers.

Improved SEO ranking has ripple effects! Your website becomes more discoverable and gains increased website traffic. In addition, website visitors are more likely to remain engaged and share the content. Trust levels are also automatically higher when reading content in your native language. All of this can be achieved through professional English to Mandarin translations.

Translate Mandarin Content with Renaissance Translations

As you can see, there are many benefits of investing in a Mandarin translation for all your business marketing collateral. When you translate to Mandarin, you can enter a growing economy, communicate clearly, improve your online discoverability, and ultimately boost sales.

If you need to translate Mandarin, contact our team. Renaissance Translations offers a comprehensive Mandarin translation service from Chinese language experts. We can translate Mandarin marketing materials for your company to ensure your next marketing campaign is successful. Our company is member of the Association of Translation Companies in England and we are also members of SDL LSP Partner Programme. Contact our project managers today to get a quote on your project.

Translation, localisation and transcreation services are three different services offered within the translation industry. When hiring a professional company to provide translation or transcreation services, it is important to discuss your specific goals and requirements. If you are launching an international or multilingual marketing campaign, we advise opting for transcreation services over a more literal translation.

What is Professional Transcreation? 

Transcreation, also known as creative translation, is a high-level type of translation combined with copywriting, ideal for international marketing campaigns. A text or slogan is transcreated into a new language in a way that captures the meaning and intent of the message.

Experts offering transcreation services should consider the local context and the business needs of the campaign. Good transcreation examples have accounted for local history, culture, and folklore, as well as metaphors and idioms of the target language. It is important to think about and address unique references that are recognizable to the original audience but may not be clear to the target audience.

One successful transcreation example comes from the Pixar film Inside Out. In most versions of the film, the vegetable that baby Riley dislikes is broccoli, but in Japan, broccoli does not have a negative reputation amongst children; the Japanese version of Inside Out depicts baby Riley disliking green bell peppers. This small change conveys the same message to the audience, but in a local context.

Three Examples of Transcreation Fails

Poorly transcreated marketing materials can be disastrous for a marketing campaign. There are plenty of transcreation examples where companies failed to invest in transcreation services. This always led to poorly executed and embarrassing marketing campaigns.

• One well-known example featured Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) signs encouraging their new Chinese customers to “eat their fingers off” when first launching in China in the 1980s. The slogan “finger-lickin’ good” had not been contextually transcreated, with embarrassing results. Using professional transcreation services instead of a more literal translation would have mitigated the problems with this transcreation example.
• Another example of a company failing to use transcreation services was when the American Dairy Associationsent their iconic “Got Milk?” campaign to Spanish-speaking countries. When the phrase is directly translated to Spanish, it can be interpreted as “Are you Lactating?”. Needless to say, this slogan was both inappropriate and poorly received.
• Hiring high-quality transcreation services would have helped P&G when they launched the Pampers diaper brand in Japan. Instead, the product launch became one of many notorious transcreation examples online. P&G had successfully used advertising featuring imagery of a baby being delivered by a stork in the USA. Assuming that this imagery would resonate in Japan, they launched Japanese tv adverts that were similar to the American adverts. However, in Japanese folklore, babies are delivered on giant peaches floating down a river, not via stork.

In short, professional transcreation services can help you achieve the intended communication goals in new markets. You also need to consider the complexity of your content and differences in original and target audiences when choosing the services that are most appropriate for your project.

Renaissance Translations’ Professional Transcreation Services 

Your carefully designed product deserves a marketing campaign that will get a positive reception from the target audience. Don’t let your entry into new international markets become as iconic as some of the transcreation examples mentioned above.

Our experts offer professional transcreation services at affordable prices. We have transcreated documents and campaigns for many global brands. Your partnership with Renaissance Translations comes with professional memberships such as ATC and SDL LSP Partner Programme. We can also guarantee to meet any tight deadline placed on us. Contact us to find out how our transcreation services could benefit your marketing campaign.