Does your social media speak your community's language?
This post was created to help celebrate Language Access Week 2026. Language Access Week is the brainchild of World Speaks, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing language access to communities across Nebraska & Iowa. Want to get involved? Visit https://worldspeaksomaha.org/language-access-week/.
If you are a nonprofit or small business that serves a multilingual community, one thing that you may already be thinking about is language access for your website and in-person communication – but what about your marketing?
I’ve worked with more clients who wanted to ensure that EVERYONE in their audience got the message when approaching their social media – and that means translating social media messages and graphics into different languages.
First, you may be asking, "Doesn't Facebook/Instagram/LinkedIn automatically translate messages?"
They do - but have you ever had Instagram (or Facebook, or LinkedIn) to translate a message for you? (Go ahead, go try it.)
The result can messsyyyyyy, and if there are words in the image (like an infographic, or a video header) those don't get translated.
If you are conveying a specific message you want your audience to understand, the best way to do so is to post a translated version of the message (and the graphics).
One of my recent clients needed a translation component in their social media program – they needed their messages translated and a solid process to ensure their translations went more smoothly. Here’s what we learned together:
First, think holistically. If you are going to put something on social in another language, first ask yourself if the website you're sending people to, the event you want them to attend, or the resource you are sharing is also available in the language you are posting in. If it's not, you may need to think a bit more about how to do this. In the case of my client, we were lucky that all of the supporting materials were already translated and available in the languages we needed.**
Don't rely on Google Translate. It isn’t always accurate and doesn’t get nuance or metaphor. My clients use either paid professional translators (who were already working on the project) or native speakers internal to their organization who are specialists in the subject matter the messages are about (like law, medicine, etc.) and can translate subject-specific words or phrases.
Plan in advance. Translations don't happen immediately, so this is where planning is your secret superpower. It's not the time for same-day social media content writing. The further ahead you plan your messages and graphics, the better off you'll be at ensuring the translations you need are done on time.
Create a process. When we first started translating messages, we had those doing the translations jump into our existing messaging document and put the translations where we were working & editing. With multiple multi-language messages, it got messy really quickly, so streamlining that process was our first order of business. Here's what it looked like:
Together, my client & I planned the messages & identified which needed to be translated and in which languages.
I wrote the base messages further in advance of the rest of our messages for the week.
The client edited the base messages & graphic content to ensure they were correct BEFORE we translated.
The client also designated who would be translating the message for me.
I placed each message, the graphic text, and the alt text (along with the English version of the graphic for reference) into a separate document for each language and sent it to the appropriate translator, who translated the messages & graphics.
I placed the translated messages & updated graphics in our main messaging document so we could have all weekly materials in one place.
We used Google Drive to store all our documents so we could see what might be needed in real time.
That gave us a nice, streamlined process. It takes a little work ahead of time, but it lets us feel comfortable in what needs to happen, and creates an end result that helps the community my clients need to reach.
The real lesson here - and the takeaway you may be able to use even if you don't need messages in multiple languages - is that having a solid social media process is going to help reach who you need to reach.
Planning and processes (the two P's) are your best friends.
**It's important to know that I'm not a language access professional; I'm a social media & digital marketing professional. I can help you develop a process, but I can’t ensure your organization is doing what it needs to do to reach everyone. If you are in the Omaha area and are interested in language access for your organization, check out my friends (and client), World Speaks.
