By Cristina Colella
Online marketing plays a key role in the professional development of language professionals allowing them to promote their services and generate leads. Therefore, if you want to build your reputation in the translation and language industry, you should learn how to do personal branding online. In order to launch a successful career, you should learn how the Internet works and how to increase your online presence.
First of all, if you are planning to become a content writer, the knowledge of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial. SEO represents the process of affecting the online visibility of websites and web pages to improve their ranking on search engines. Regarding content writing, you need to publish high-quality content that is grammatically correct and based on a number of keywords related to the topic you are dealing with. Keywords have to be repeated a few times throughout the text, using synonyms as well. Optimizing your written content increases its visibility on the Internet and it will get your websites and web pages on the first page of the search engine. And why is that important? Because 75% of Internet users don't go beyond the first page. Hence, it is essential to get your web content in the top 10.
As far as translation is concerned, online marketing comes into picture when promoting your activity raising the attention on the solutions offered to the clients’ problems and building a network of relations that includes both prospective clients and competitors. To achieve good results, it is essential to identify the type of reader and tailor your texts adapting styles and tones to your prospective readers. For example, if your working languages are Italian, English and Russian and you wish to reach out to speakers of all the three languages, it is recommended to develop specific content in each of your working languages. Personally, I have created a professional profile on LinkedIn in all the languages I chose to work with because I believe that that would help me to develop a professional image.
Similarly, if you are planning to target both translation agencies and direct clients, you should adapt your content keeping in mind that two different types of are involved. When communicating with translation agencies it is acceptable to use technical terms and acronyms specific to the field of translation. But when addressing a direct client, don't forget they probably won't have any technical knowledge related to translation. Therefore, it will be normal for a translation agency to read "EN>IT translations." When addressing a direct client, a different tone of voice is required. Therefore, it is better to write "English to Italian translations." Spending time in tailoring your content and clarifying technical concepts will increase your chances of getting a job.
Storytelling is also an effective way of promoting your professional activities. What does that mean? It means we use online tools and social media platforms to talk about our achievements or to share news about our most successful projects. As I got two articles published on Modlingua.com and a creative summary on YouTube, I used my Twitter and LinkedIn profiles to share and promote the result of my work.
To sum up, online marketing is an extremely effective tool for newcomers, as it helps them with their professional development, and more experienced linguists, who use it to gain more contacts and diversify their business.
Intern profile: http://www.modlingua.com/interns/959-cristina-colella-italian-russian-english.html
