Producing bilingual social media content doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive

In terms of text on screen, there are a few different ways to do this. Consider using text on screen in one language and burnt-in subtitles (”BIST” or open captions) in the other (example left).

Other methods we’ve seen (with varying degrees of success) include using one language on the top of the screen, one on the bottom, or both on the bottom and using text formatting to differentiate.

If you’re using closed captions, some of the biggest platforms (Facebook and YouTube) include the ability to include more than one subtitles files (SRT / STL). This isn’t perfect, because the platforms rely on the user’s settings to know which language captions to show, but closed captions are important for accessibility.

So, in short, it certainly shouldn’t cost you double to do everything in English as well as Welsh.

👉 “The Welsh translation sounds clunky.”

You don’t actually have to use exactly the same wording in Welsh and English. Part of the art of bilingual production is to convey the same message with different words. Often, it’s better to start with a blank canvas than to translate what you have in English into Welsh. Think about it as a separate, fresh piece of content, rather than a translation of another piece of content. A good scriptwriter or copywriter who works in both languages should nail this.

👉 “Can’t we just use Google Translate?”

Google Translate (and some other machine translation services) have improved a lot in recent years, but there’s no guarantee that the output is correct, and maybe more importantly, there may be a better way to convey a message in the other language than to translate it directly. It’s always best not to cut corners. It’s a bit like cooking a gourmet meal in the microwave. Except this is your organisation’s public facing content and your organisation’s reputation, and you don’t want mistakes.

👉 “Using Welsh doesn’t have an impact.”

Using the Welsh language in your social media content can actually open up a market for you and it can certainly create waves and have an impact. Some of the biggest brands in the world have used the Welsh language to create impact. Take THIS AD from Budweiser for example, or THIS TWEET from Netflix.

It’s also worth noting that there were tens of millions of views on S4C’s social media content (of which, the vast majority is Welsh language content) in 2021-22 and that their content was seen 575,000 times per day on average during the year. (S4C Annual Report 2021-22)

👉 “There’s no point - No one reads the Welsh.”

This might be the biggest one of them all. According to the 2021 census, almost 1 in every 5 people in Wales speaks Welsh, and with the dawn of social media, it continues to be normalised more and more every day.

It’s worth considering how you are presenting your Welsh language content. Let’s take social media messages as an example. We know that everyone in Wales (with very few exceptions) who understands Welsh also understands English, so if you publish a bilingual social media message with the English first, human nature would suggest that most people will just read the English and move on, especially when social messages only show a few lines before a user needs to click “See More.” It can feel a little clunky to include a line on top of the message telling the user that this is a bilingual message (like we often see in email marketing), so consider this when you’re deciding which language goes first. Of course, how you do this will depend on your organisation, your target audience, your campaign and your message. There is no “one size fits all” approach.