Emotional texts. Trending topics.

“What is trending today may already be out tomorrow. If you don’t have this dynamism on your radar, you quickly look old.”

Let’s start with social media. What skills do language professionals need to translate such texts?

Social media is a universe of its own. Here we employ specialist linguists who are familiar with the digital language areas. They are very familiar with Facebook, LinkedIn & Co. because they know the language of the users, conduct targeted hashtag research and use emojis and terms that fit the cultural environment. There is no rigid user guide for effective social media content. They are fast-paced media: you have to understand the tonality of the channels and practically “surf along” without losing sight of the desired message. What is trending today may already be out tomorrow. If you don’t have this dynamism on your radar, you quickly look old. That is why our translators must always be aware of the latest developments and be able to adapt their language.

Blogs and posts are becoming increasingly important for businesses. 

That’s true. Our teams are increasingly writing and translating blog articles and posts. It is important that these articles are creative and provide added value to the reading audience in the form of interesting information. Without research that makes you think outside the box, you won’t get far. The tone must be right and reflect the company and its products. Only if you find the right dose of facts, emotions, humour and puns, is it possible to electrify the target group. The reward for well-written and well-translated blogs and posts are likes, smileys, clicks and a loyal following. Plus: the content must be linked to the company’s other channels. Good blog content must never be thought of in isolation and is – like all corporate content – part of the strategically designed messages. Incidentally, blogs are excellent platforms for companies to launch topics or to profile themselves professionally in their core business.

Is it worth the effort for companies to run a blog?

Definitely. Search engines love blogs and therefore bring people to the website. Prerequisites: the blog has to be continuously updated with new, interesting and lively content, preferably using an eye-catching mixture of texts, images and videos. This of course requires sufficient human resources in the company, but often there is not enough capacity. We can assist you here: not only do we write and translate blog content – we also perform the important SEO check. It goes without saying that content is king, but without the appropriate keywords, the key is missing which opens the door to the blog and thus to the website.

How does foreign-language search engine optimisation work?

First, we define the main keywords together with the customer. A one-to-one translation of the keywords usually comes to nothing. The same search term is searched in the individual language regions using completely different keywords. We use tools here that track the best hits in the target languages and show us the search volume. Finally, our SEO team checks the finished translations. They check keyword density, ease of reading, sentence length and text length. In this way, we optimise content for all relevant search engines.

Whether social media or websites: companies and institutions are increasingly using videos. What is important in this respect?

Subtitling is a discipline in itself: special skills are required because reading takes longer than listening, translation professionals need to summarise what they say in as few words as possible. This requires a strong sense of timing and the ability to develop linguistic solutions. It really is a challenge to shorten statements so that neither the content of the message nor the emotional content is lost.

Localisation is a term not familiar to everyone. What’s behind it?

Yes, we language freaks (laughs) have a vocabulary that is not immediately clear to everyone. Localisation means that translations take into account something important: the cultural and regional peculiarities of a language region. Therefore, we work exclusively with language professionals who translate into their mother tongue and have roots in the respective region. A sense of the idiosyncrasies of a specific language area is essential for the success of multilingual online texts, whether for a website or social media activities. Only those who are familiar with the local colour do not make linguistic gaffes. Localised translations are clearly more effective. In a nutshell, you could say: localisation is applied language culture expertise. 

The next language freak keyword is transcreation. What is meant by that term?

Welcome to the world of creative language which is of course used primarily in marketing communication. Unlike with editorial texts, it is not about translation in the true sense of the word. Rather, it is about achieving the same communication goal, especially triggering comparable emotions. Primary objective: transcreation must attract attention and arouse emotions! Phrases, word games and linguistic peculiarities are reinterpreted in transcreation and tailored to the intended language region. Although translation professionals always keep an eye on the core messages, they repackage the content, continue to execute individual passages if they are particularly important in a target region, while cutting or even ignoring other passages. Successful transcreations fit easily into the life of the target language region. They are authentic and credible and are therefore highly accepted.

How does Apostroph support companies where technology is concerned?

Our Apostroph system is equipped with many interfaces, which we connect directly to the CMS of the contracting company. One click and we have the order on the table. Special connections for e-commerce enable our customers to process translations of product descriptions directly in their environment, specifically in a variety of formats. Our technical team is continuously improving the in-house neural translation machine and developing customised business solutions for efficient language management. In short: the entire process is extremely easy and fast – and therefore cost-efficient.