How social media can help translators and interpreters to grow their business? Catherine Christaki accepted to be interviewed on this matter, and her answer can be summarized in a simple formula: go for it! Enjoy her expert opinion.
Catherine, thank you for agreeing to answer this interview about why translators/interpreters should be present on social networks. First of all, could you spend some words to let us know something about yourself?
Thank you for having me
Jean-Marie :) I was born and raised in the lovely island of Crete in Greece. I
studied Modern Languages in the UK then returned to Greece in 2001 to be a
freelance translator. In 2010 I discovered the wonderful translation community
on Twitter and then came our website, blog, and Facebook and Google+ accounts.
Lingua Greca Translations as a company was founded in 2012. To explain why I
switch between ‘I’ and ‘we’, the second partner of Lingua Greca Translations,
is my husband and fellow translator, Christos
Floros. We moved to Toronto in Canada a few months ago and we work mainly
with other translation companies, might expand a bit into direct clients in
2015. We translate from English French, German into Greek and we specialise in
IT, Technical and Gaming.
I saw on your Twitter account that you started
in October 2010 to tweet about translation (#xl8 #t9n), languages & business. Why did you decide to join Twitter and what were your expectations
about this move?
Twitter for me and our
company was the first step to social networking and to meeting lovely
colleagues as well as expanding our client base. I decided to join Twitter
while attending
the annual ATA conference in Denver. Brainstorming about our Twitter name
led to coming up with our company name, Lingua Greca Translations. I didn’t
know much about Twitter at the time nor did I have a specific strategy or
goals, I just followed the recommendations of the conference speakers to join.
Several of them
mentioned it should be part of a translator’s online visibility ‘portfolio’,
along with a website, a blog and a LinkedIn profile. And they were so right! I
think Twitter
is a must for translators for several reasons: first and foremost you
connect with colleagues and get the chance to meet amazing people.
Communication is instant and translators are known to be very approachable and
friendly :) Secondly, it’s the best medium to stay abreast of trends and news
in the translation industry. Thirdly, it’s a great way to follow your existing
and potential clients, learn about the developments in their companies and
communicate with them (in a helpful and friendly way, not in a spammy ‘I offer
translation services, give me work’ way).
Since 2011, you regularly rank among the top
ten of Language Twitterers, as you mention on your website. Could you tell us
what is the amount of daily work necessary to get such a brilliant result?
Let me start by saying
that there are very few ‘set’ rules about social networking. The basics for
most social networks include the following:
* be helpful
with what you share, don’t mix professional with personal, your profile
photo and description are important, avoid automating your sharing between
networks, don’t complain about clients and avoid naming names in public. For
Twitter in particular, I’ve written two posts with common mistakes, here
and here.
Apart from the basics
above, each Twitter user can follow their own process about what they share and
how to find and organize that content. My process is based mainly on reading
translation blogs (a lot of them as you can see on our blogroll) and a few other
blogs on business and social media. I spend 3-4 hours per week (usually on
weekends) on Feedly (RSS reader), choose the
posts I find most useful and then I use Socialoomph
to plan my tweets for the week. Those same tweets appear in our Weekly
Translation Favorites every week since the beginning of our blog.
Beyond Twitter, have you got also a
professional presence on other social networks? If yes, which ones? If you
believe, as I do, that being present on social networks is strategic for
freelance translators/interpreters, which social networks and/or marketplaces
would you recommend in particular, and why?
I have a profile on LinkedIn, a
Google+ account
and I also maintain our company
page on Facebook. Thanks to the blog reading and link choosing process
above for the content to share on Twitter, it’s very easy to maintain those
pages. I just choose the articles I like most from our weekly shares and post
them there too. Now, as to each social network specifically:
LinkedIn is a must for
translators, all professionals actually. Especially if you don’t have a
website, I think LinkedIn is even more important than your CV/resume. It’s the
best way for potential clients to find you and learn more about you. You can
use it as an online portfolio by highlighting the most important projects you
have worked on, you can add multimedia, use LinkedIn
Publishing to write articles about your profession and of course, it’s a
great tool to find like-minded colleagues and potential clients.
Google+ is quite good
but still fairly new. The Hangouts feature is very interesting and useful but I
think for now the most important use of Google+ is its affiliation with Google
(search engine) because having a Google+ profile increases your position in
Google search results significantly.
I think Facebook is
kind of optional for translators. We work mainly with companies, so we are in
the B2B (business to business) field, whereas Facebook is a great tool for B2C
(business to consumer). If I were selling products instead of services,
Facebook would be on top of my list. It still has lots of uses for linguists,
but I think most of those uses can be better covered with Twitter and LinkedIn.
What advice would you give to a
translator/interpreter (beginner or experienced) who wonders about the need to
be present or not on social networks? And what advice would you give him/her
about the do's and don'ts to participate?
Definitely go for it!
Everyone should have a nice, complete, professional-looking profile on
LinkedIn. As I said above, it’s your online portfolio, a kind of resume but so
much more interactive and full of features than a simple CV or even a website
in some ways. We usually put a lot of time and effort into building an
attractive website but most people don’t bother reading all the pages, checking
out the projects, clients and the other information we add in our websites. The
one-page profile on LinkedIn is the quickest way for potential clients to see
if you might be a good fit for their company, either as a freelancer or for an
in-house position.
Apart from LinkedIn,
it comes down to personal choice. Obviously, I’d recommend Twitter to be next
in terms of priority, but every linguist can choose the network that appeals to
them more. Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Xing (especially for linguists living in
Germany) are other good choices for linguists.
It’s important not to
overdo it at the beginning though, social networking and sharing can become a
bit overwhelming. Just choose a social network, learn the ropes and when you
get to the point of understanding how it works and what it can offer you, you
can then decide if you want to join another network as well.
During the annual ATA
conference in San Antonio in 2013, I gave two presentations about social media
for translators, you can find the slides on our
blog with lots of tips about using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
What do you think about privacy on social
networks and how a freelance must deal with it?
Follow the simple
rule: everything you write and share, is written, lives in the Web and is
available for anyone to see (and judge and comment on). Be very careful about
what you are sharing about yourself, your family and friends and most importantly
(since we are talking about professional profiles) your clients. If you want to
share bikini photos from your last beach vacation, don’t use your professional
account on Twitter of Facebook, create a personal one. If you want to complain
about your client, call a colleague or find specific groups on LinkedIn
dedicated to naming and shaming companies that pay late etc.
Have you ever got some job opportunities thanks
to your presence on Twitter / on other social networks?
I sure have! Mostly
from my presence on Twitter and LinkedIn and I’ve noticed a difference in how
you build relationships that lead to work between the two networks. On Twitter
it takes longer to get to know people and for them to see what you are all
about based on what you share and talk about. So, when someone I know from
Twitter contacts me for work, we’ve known each other online for quite some time
already.
On LinkedIn it happens
faster and it’s more about timing. For example, when you answer a question in a
group and another member appreciates your answer and thinks you are a good fit
for future projects. Let me give you some examples.
- I got a nice project from a colleague a few weeks ago. She
contacted me through LinkedIn and said the reason she picked me is because
we have several common contacts, which could mean that we’ve worked with
some of the same people.
- A translation company owner contacted me a few months ago for work
saying that he appreciated the useful links I shared in a LinkedIn group
we were both members of.
- When I added “Apple translator” in my job title last year, three companies that localize apps contacted me the next week.
Generally speaking, the main objections that critics of social networks are doing is that it's useless, a waste of time, and so on. Balancing the pros and cons, what would you answer to these critics after five years of presence on Twitter about the results you’ve obtained both personally and professionally?
Creating and
maintaining account on a social network always takes some time at the beginning
and it can be a bit overwhelming until you learn the ropes. But after that
initial bump, it always becomes a pleasure afterward. I’ve heard many people
say “I tried Twitter but I didn’t understand how it works so I just stopped
using it”. You have to give each network you join some time, read a few
articles online about do’s and don’ts. And don’t wait for it to lead to work
right away. Your main purpose should be to meet
colleagues and clients and get to know them better.
* * *
I will translate later this text in French and in Italian, because I think it's important to reach as many people as possible. Please, don't hesitate to comment and let us know what's your take on Translators-Interpreters & Social Media.