Why Global?
Recent research shows that the United States constitutes less than 20 percent of the overall online market. For a global company, that means that even with a 100-percent-successful domestic social media strategy, you are, at most, reaching 20 percent of your online audience.

If you’ve focused your social media efforts on social networking, then you probably already have either a Facebook or a twitter account, at the very least. While both of those networks have some type of global reach, neither are reaching your whole global audience. If you want to reach clients in Germany, France, Mexico, India, Japan, South Korea or Taiwan, Facebook and twitter may not be enough.

But, where should you start?

Start with your website, focus on social networks
When you decide to take your social networking strategy to the next level, you should start by reviewing all of your online activities and determining which of them you could most cost effectively turn global. For B2B companies, the first step is most likely your own website. 

Step 1: Update Your Website
Skip this step if you can answer yes to all of the following questions:

• Can people in each of your markets around the world find your website?
• Is it translated into each and every language your customers speak?
• Is it searchable in different languages?
• Is it hosted within the countries you are targeting?
• Can a customer easily find the proper sales contact for his or her country/region?

Optimizing your website for international traffic is the first step.

Step 2: Drive Traffic
The next place to start is to drive traffic to your website. This would include revamping your pay-per-click advertising campaigns to ensure that you are targeting the right audiences/countries. It also means reviewing your SEO strategy and editing your key terms to make sure that you are capturing the search words your customers are actually using (and in their native tongue).

Step 3:  Social Networking & Content Sharing
A basic global social media strategy should focus primarily on social networks because, “social networking sites reach nearly 70 percent of the total global online audience, ranking as one of the most popular destinations on the Web,” according to ComScore, a leading global internet research firm.

Don’t get me wrong—revamping your web content is critical—but most of the rest of your efforts, at first, should probably be concentrated on building social networks and sharing content.

Once you’ve built your web of social networks, the possibilities are truly endless. You can send audiences to your new website, instantly share pertinent/local company updates, interact with key clients or dealers and obtain end-user feedback on a local basis (which is especially important for global B2B companies that do not offer the same product line in every country). Plus, the possibilities to target very narrow and specific audiences will increase dramatically with every social network you join.

Note: It’s important to note that the use of social networks varies vastly across different regions and even within countries. In some parts of China, web surfers are on one network, but in the metropolitan region of Hong Kong, people are using a different network. The intricacies of designing a social networking strategy to reach your audience can be overwhelming.

In my next blog post, I’ll talk more about developing a global social networking campaign by country. In the meantime, tell us how you are tackling the global social media question.