Social Media Localization seems to have two different meanings. The first pertains to localizing benefits and promotions to consumers in different places (through location-based social media channels) to ensure they engage with your social media presence. The second, and probably closer to the intended definition of localization, is considering how your social media approach must change when engaging global audiences.

Localization is the term used to describe a company’s modification of their product, brand or communication so that it appeals more specifically to small populations with different cultural values. This is in contrast to the globalized approach, which we find when a company changes little except perhaps for the language it uses (for a quick comparison, look at the IBM international websites and the Pepsi Corporation’s international websites).

Often written about is the culturally or internationally-focused form of localization. And rightly so: companies should shape their message and communication according to their international audiences. The problem with this approach—the one that is most often identified as localization—is that it reduces whole populations into national identities. In other words, all too often firms that localize their marketing approach to China lump all of its many—different—cultures into one Chinese culture.

The same goes for marketing efforts here in the United States: sometimes they mistakenly lump all of us into a similar group even though we may be very, very different.

But large brands with a national presence and multiple locations—such as Starbucks or Panera Bread Company—could seriously benefit by changing their definition of social media localization to include intra-national efforts as well as international. Here’s what I mean:

The population of El Paso, TX, and Memphis, TN are similar in size (both hover around 700,000), but are quite different in cultural characteristics.  For example, Memphis has an African-American population of approximately 61%, and a Hispanic/Latino population of approximately 3%. Conversely, El Paso has a Hispanic/Latino population of almost 80%, and an African-American population of 3.1%.

How valuable are tweets, posts or curated news items about Cinco de Mayo, 16 de Septiembre or even Dia de los Muertos to followers, friends and fan in Memphis? Conversely, how do they observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day in El Paso? Each population is worlds apart in cultural cues, icons and significant events and dates.

So does it make sense to approach both cities the same way? Of course not. What’s needed is an approach to social media management that localizes domestically and not just internationally. Such an approach would accomplish three main goals of social media marketing:

Create a personal experience for the consumer/customer: One of the key elements we boast about with regards to social media is that they allow for a democratic approach to content creation and broadcast. As such, they elevate the individual voice above the corporate (even while crowd-sourcing content). So lumping everyone together into a large, broad category runs counter to the most fundamental philosophies of social media.

Give cause to engage by sharing common ground: Engagement is the key to successful social media marketing strategies. If followers, fans or friends don’t engage with your efforts, they might as well not even be there. We want comments, questions, answers, insults and compliments—these are our measuring device to tell if our effort is working. Creating more focuses campaigns through localization would obviously boost the potential engagement we could expect.

Form a close-knot community of loyal followers/friends/fans: It shouldn’t have to be stated that if a group has nothing in common, they simply won’t form a community. However, want a community, because community members are loyal evangelists for our brand or product. If the only thing followers, fans or friends have in common is that brand or product, then they realistically have nothing in common.

The problem with this approach is that it’s complicated and—so far as I know—there’s not yet a system in place to provide it. After all, a domestic/localized approach would need:

A network of small, local social media management firms: Small firms at each population center could ensure that an approach would be specific to each locale. The members of that firm would be familiar with that population and the demographics. What makes this difficult is that each firm is proprietary, and as protective as a pit bull over their clients.

An integrated approach to messaging and the flexibility to change the message as needed: Many large brands don’t want to spend the extra money to shape a message that they’ve already spent a ton of money creating in the first place. Yet, this is unavoidable. Cultural preferences and different cultural characteristics demand that messages be sensitive to these differences. Without taking culture into consideration, any message will fail.

As you can imagine, the approach becomes more complex (not to mention more expensive) as more and more management firms enter the campaign. However, I firmly believe that the payoff is going to include a number of very positive elements, including a local customer base that is engaged at a grass-roots level and ready to evangelize on your behalf, a community of followers that follow your localized engagement efforts, and an overall positive brand image among a variety (not single) of consumer/customer types and profiles throughout the country.

Article first published as A New Theory of Social Media Management Localization on Technorati.