Translating Twitter: Machine and Manual Methods
While most of the work we do at e2f is focused around games, mobile apps, technical content and voiceovers, companies dealing in multiple language markets need to consider multilingual social media for marketing their brands, services and products.
Many also use Twitter to monitor news and updates based on keywords, hashtags and handles from media, government agencies, potential prospects, current customers, business development partners, and other areas-of-interest.
To facilitate such international multilingual audiences, Twitter and Microsoft partnered up to offer Bing Translator. Their first foray in 2014 was less-than-successful, and was quietly withdrawn within a few months. The retooled service returned again on 22 Jan 2015. It combines machine translation with human corrections/ suggestions to allow people to understand foreign Tweets in their own native language.
There are a few caveats. For instance, anything with a hashtag (#somewordorphrase) will not translate. Since it is machine translation, it often misses or mangles the choppy, clipped abbreviations and acronyms common to Twitter.
Some people love the Bing Translator feature. Others hate it so much they made a Chrome extension to hide it completely. Your Mileage May Vary (#YMMV)
Beyond Bing, to localize Twitter and its related apps (Periscope, Vine, etc.) into native languages, there is a voluntary crowdsourced translation service, called the Translation Center. The community has been around since 2010, but didn’t really start picking up until 2012 with the advent of gamification, achievements, and, at times, targeting use of social media for social good. Of course, all of this is useful for Twitter as a social media platform, but not for your Tweets themselves.
When considering translating and localizing your product or marketing content, also consider the social media campaign that must go along with it. And if you need professional results, consider hiring professionals. If you have an upcoming project, contact us at projects@e2f.com and let us know how we can help!