My recent trip to India has once again sensitized me to an assumption that writers and speakers too often make:  that everyone understands what you mean to say.

This is absolutely not the case.  Test yourself – what do the following three words mean?  Flyover, Subway, and Removalist.

If you are in India, a Flyover is a local bridge that “flies over local traffic”; elsewhere, it has something to do with airplanes.  In much of the world, a Subway is a road or pedestrian path that goes underneath another road; in most of North America a Subway refers to the Metro.  (Or a sandwich shop.)  In Australia, a Removalist is someone who transports your possessions when you move houses; elsewhere this person is called a house mover.

When the mother tongue of the audience isn’t English, the problem intensifies.

Before delivering a critical presentation or posting a widely read blog or Twitter post, answer the following questions about your audience:

• What is your audience’s English comprehension level?  Do you need to do part of your presentation in their language?  Or at least open with a local phrase?  I give a number of suggestions to address the issue in this Tipsheet.
• Which English do they know? (American, British, Canadian, Indian, Australian, Hong Kong, etc) Does it make sense to test your content with a smaller group first?
• Can you use local examples to help them better relate?  Or is it better to keep with universal principles – and be vanilla-generic – to avoid making an embarrassing mistake.

One of the most important reasons for a digital strategy is that it forces you to define your target audiences, and  lets you focus the version of your language squarely on this target.  Without a strategy, it will become increasingly difficult to use the “right” language – or have an impact.

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