How to manage Facebook pages for multiple languages?

Question

Say I have a Facebook page about dogs. I share information and links about dogs, so the pagename is "Dogs".

Say also, I share mainly information in Chinese, English and French.

Say, some people do not know all 3 languages, so are interested in information only in Chinese, other could be interested in information in English and French, but not in Chinese...

How can I manage the subscribers to the page? Should I create 3 Facebook pages "Dogs English", "Dogs Chinese", and "Dogs French" and switch sharing every article or information in respective page? How can I link that pages between each other?

Answer 1

I do the same thing, with English, Japanese, Thai and Turkish. I've found it's pretty much necessary to have each language have it's own page, for several reasons. First, it's easier on the reader, who might feel alienated by seeing content in another language. Second, it allows me to control the links that end up getting featured at the bottom of the post. Another reason is that the content can stay relevant from a cultural or national point of view.

One objection that was raised was that we might be "watering down" our likes by spreading them over several pages. This might be true, but I don't think a higher number of likes is a better goal than having stronger reader engagement.

The likes can also work to your advantage, since you can test a Facebook page in a new language in a new market and see how the audience responds.

Also, if you start getting to the point where you have four or five or more languages it starts to seem absurd to have them all fighting for attention on the same page.

Answer 2

Updated on July 6, 2013, added the first option:

You have three options:

• Facebook now allows you to target your post to your chosen demographic, by choosing their language or location, and the targeted post will not be visible to your other fans even on your wall.

  How do I control who sees my Page's posts?

  To make sure only certain people will be able to see your post, click the dropdown Public menu when you're writing your post and select Location / Language. Type in the countries or languages of the people you want to see your post.

  Your Page post will only show up in News Feed or on your Page for people in the countries you choose or for people who speak the languages you specify. Even if people share your Page's post with their friends, only friends in the audience you choose for the post will be able to see it.

  

• You can create one page for each language and promote each one on two other pages.

• If your updates are short, you can include all three language in one post, starting with the most popular at top. I know many successful pages which use this method, for example they post both English and Spanish in one update and there is nothing wrong with that.