Guest post by Luisina Gisel Harvertz Hefling
I talk to translators on LinkedIn and Instagram every day. No matter where they live, I hear the same questions about branding and social media. They often ask me which platform is the best to promote their translation services, and how to start creating content. In this article, I’ll walk you through clear, practical answers.
I remember a translator who felt pressured to join Instagram (on top of LinkedIn) even though she disliked it because she hated the other channels even more. To make matters worse, many colleagues were encouraging her to sign up without considering her personal circumstances. Despite my efforts to discourage her, she went ahead. Don’t worry, I’ll go deeper into that later.
First things first, you need to be crystal clear on these aspects:
I know from experience, creating translation content is hard. It takes time to come up with an idea, shape your POV about it, and get people to see it. But the whole posting process becomes sooo much easier once you figure out what content you enjoy creating. Do you enjoy sharing grammar tips? Talking about translation events? What about translation theory? Whatever it is, combine it with your specialization and personal experience, and ta-da! You’ll have plenty of ideas. Maybe not right away, but with practice, they’ll start flowing.
Then, find your favourite format. The only way to know is to try them all: short texts, long texts, short videos, long videos, live streams, short audio, long audio, maybe only images, etc. If you’re not comfortable recording videos, skip them. Maybe you’re more into writing articles, who knows? Only you after experimenting.
This is key: open your calendar and block specific time slots for marketing activities. That time budget will determine the platforms you choose, the content formats, the quality you can deliver, how much you can engage on each platform, and the results you can realistically expect. Take into account that videos need editing, and images need designing.
For example, if in the previous question you picked long videos and short texts but you have little time, you could post one long video per month and repurpose it into several short text pieces.
Remember when I told you about the translator I advised against joining Instagram? It wasn’t because I think the platform is useless. I love it! It’s because there’s absolutely no point in being somewhere you don’t want to be. There’s an industrial amount of options to choose from, so choose wisely. Your feelings “leak” into your content —it happened to me, and I see it on other creators' content too. If you dislike a certain social network, there’s zero need to be on it (no matter what everyone says).
Your goals will guide your actions. What do you want to achieve? Is it more brand visibility? More customers? More networking opportunities? Write down your goal and identify which path (platform) can take you there. Bear in mind that social media isn’t the only path, there are more channels that I’ll show you after the next topic (but don’t skip it!).
To close these questions, use this example to guide you on how to follow your preferences to choose channels, topics, and formats.
“Identify my what?” The buyer persona is just a technical term for “ideal customer”. Imagine that person you’d absolutely love to work with. They’re not a real person, just a character you create to be super clear about the type of customers you want to attract.
Maybe you’ve already worked with someone who was almost a dream. A customer who provides you with everything you need to do your job, who pays on time, who brings you projects about that topic you adore. Use that already existing person as inspiration for your fictional character. Describe them as if they were the main character of a novel you are about to publish. Every detail counts, especially why do they even need a translation. Maybe they want to study abroad or franchise their business. Whatever it is, go beyond the surface: why do they want it, what goal or dream are they pursuing (and you are helping them achieve), and how do they feel about it.
Your buyer persona is just like any real person. They are online too (maybe not chronically like some of us), so where are they digitally hanging out? This is when you identify how to find your translation clients online. What platforms do they use daily? What are they looking for there? How do they feel on each platform?
Important: your buyer persona probably uses more than one platform, so spotting the intention behind each one is crucial. For example, they might use TikTok for instant entertainment, LinkedIn to learn from experts, and blog articles for deep research on a topic (among other intentions). Would they watch a long, in-depth explanation on TikTok? Would they expect a light entertainment video on LinkedIn? Probably not. Matching your content to their expectations is one of the ingredients of success.
You can use this chart from the 2025 Social Media Study by Metricool to see where they might be based on their age. By the way, I recommend you (a lot) reading the whole study to apply those insights to your social media strategy.
I bet you clicked on this blog post hoping to find out which is the best social media platform or marketing channel for translators. And I’m sorry to disappoint you, but such a thing doesn’t exist. Just as translation, there’s no one-size-fits-all in marketing. What does exist is the best platform for you particularly. If you haven’t noticed, marketing is very similar to translation: everything depends on the context, you need to adapt your communication to a specific person (call it target reader, target audience, or buyer persona), and, ideally, determine your favourite topics and formats (like your specialization).
As I anticipated before, I’m about to share the basics of some channels to help you decide. Keep in mind this is just a veeery brief summary, so I encourage you to dig deeper on your own.
This is a must-have if you ask me. Can you promote your services without a website? Yes. Will you attract and convert even more clients with a website? Absolutely —but only if you build a good one. Why do I recommend it so much? Because it’s like a virtual store, a place to showcase your services, expertise, and more, that magically appears in front of potential clients. Like Godric Gryffindor’s sword, it reveals itself to those who need it.
There are many ways to build a website: some easier, some harder, some free, some paid. You can build it yourself if you have time to learn, or you can hire a web developer. And don’t worry, you don’t need to know how to code or anything like that.
But what are the actual benefits? People can find it on Google, learn about your services and experience (cough, include a portfolio, cough), and contact you, all in one place. You can also drive people there from your social media. You can have a blog (long text), and add it to your content marketing strategy, etc. If I list all of the benefits, this article would be excessively long, so let’s move on to the next path.
E-mail marketing is great to turn potential clients into actual clients. If they’ve given you their e-mail, they are already interested (maybe they signed up trough your website). This marketing channel doesn’t require much time: you can send anything from one email a month to several a week. And unlike other social media, it keeps working even when you’re offline. The tricky part is spotting a topic to write about that interests your readers, and that also prompts them to take out their wallets.
As I mentioned before, I love Instagram, but it’s not for everyone. This platform requires a lot of “maintenance”: your success is directly proportional to the time you spend interacting, and the amount of content you post. Don’t panic, posting once a week also works, but you’ll have to spend hours each day interacting to make up for it. SEO is becoming increasingly important here, which makes Instagram great for reaching new audiences and building trust.
What about the intention? People come to Instagram to connect, to interact with creators they like (plus friends and family). They’re drawn to nice pictures and fonts, but also to inspiring posts and to content that sparks an emotional connection. Review your previous answers to see if this app aligns with both your goals and your buyer persona’s interests.
Every translator is on LinkedIn. I don’t have proof, but I don’t doubt it either. This platform is often called the “Facebook for professionals”. Everyone here has a personal brand, a business, or a piece of advice to share. They want to be seen as experts in their fields, connect with other experts, learn, and teach. Rich pieces of content explained simply are often found here, not only job offers. You can even find memes and entertaining posts, but with a deeper connotation behind.
One feature worth signing up for is setting up your profile in more than one language. And you can translate it yourself! Yep, you read it right. Nothing of automatic translations here (except for post captions). Isn’t that great news for translators?
Now the bad news: this app also demands a lot interaction to boost your content. But, unlike Instagram, LinkedIn’s algorithm gives you more control over your growth and your audience. Another silver lining is that you don’t need to post as often as on Instagram, you can do a lot just by commenting and interacting. Oh, and SEO said “present!” here too… so you better learn about it.
Facebook pages are sooo underrated. They appear on Google search results and have plenty of business features. Think of them as your shop’s front window. Besides, you can manually translate text posts! The tricky part is actually reaching people with your content. How that algorithm works is a mystery even for the most skilled marketers.
My third favourite social media! Pinterest is almost perfect. It works as a search engine, so by setting up a good SEO strategy and posting pins regularly you should be good to go (no need for endless interaction here). But… there's always a but:
I’ve been posting translation-related content on Pinterest for over a year, and it flopped so bad. I’m still figuring out whether that’s because of the pins’ optimization features (they don’t contemplate translation as a category), or simply because there’s no audience for that content there. Stay tuned for updates.
Another underrated platform in the translation community. Here’s why you might want to use it (if it suits you and your target audience): videos are practically eternal. You could watch today a video uploaded 10 years ago if YouTube thinks it’s relevant for you. Why? Because SEO rules this platform. As long as you optimize your content properly, it’ll be perennial. People can find your videos through Google search or within YouTube itself. You won’t find content from months ago popping up on your Instagram or LinkedIn feed, so that’s definitely something to keep in mind.
A not-so-great update, though, is YouTube’s new automated voiceovers and titles translation (both powered by AI, of course.)
A hidden gem very few talk about. Google My Business helps people to find products and services nearby. You set it up once and forget about it. Don’t actually forget though, check it every once in a while to see if the profile is up to date. By using it, people can find your profile when they search, for example, “English literary translator in [location]”.
Let me show you these two examples:
This search results page includes the Google My Business widget (the square on the right):
This other search result page uses AI to find information on websites and social media profiles to bring you the info. you are looking for:
I mean… I can’t not mention it. It’s like THE platform for translators and interpreters. It has everything: detailed profile features, job board, continuing professional development, forums, networking spaces, and I’m sure there’s more. I couldn't explore every feature yet, but from what I saw, it’s overwhelmingly complete, and exclusively made for language experts!
There are also tutorials for you to get familiar with the platform.
As I mentioned before, there are industrial amounts of channels to choose from, for example: TikTok, Threads, X (formerly Twitter), Discord, Substack, Twitch, Telegram, Reddit, Bluesky, Snapchat, etc. etc. I know translators who use some of these, so please don’t limit yourself to the “known” platforms, explore them before choosing. I can’t tell you about them now because this article is already long, but you can always do some googling yourself, and reach out to me regarding branding and digital marketing for translators.
Time to put everything together. By now, you have identified the topics and formats you’d like to post, who they are for, where to post them, and how much time you’ll invest in all that. Now let’s see some examples of how to merge all that info:
“Should I be on more than one platform then?” It depends. There are platforms that allow you to “do it all”: reach new people, connect and convert. There are others that allow you to do one or two of them. It’s up to you, your target audience, and your mental health to use more than one. But don’t forget this: it’s much better to have a good and active presence on one single platform, than being in more than one poorly and inconsistently. Again, choose wisely.
As you know now, creating content is the last part of a digital marketing strategy. There’s much to do before that, like building strong brand foundations to know what, where, why, and how to post. If you want to learn how to build a genuine personal brand, I’ll be speaking about that at ProZ’s upcoming event for International Translation Day on September 29th and 30th. It’s free, so you better go! (And, if you miss the live, you can always watch the recording after!)