Latino Rebranded: Latinos and Social Media

Subtitle:  You have to think, to blog.
Subtitle II: Social Media Is The Greatest Improv Theater (It irks me when I like my subtitles more than the actual post title).

This would be my first improv post, inspired from improv theater.

I’m going to write and let it flow.  It’s an exercise in fearlessness or in Spanish, an exercise in bollas (if that’s offensive, then gonadas…if still, then valiente).

It would be very cool if you could of seen this as I wrote it. I could of planned that out, but then it would of lost it’s improvness (I know… not a word).

Here’s some advice: if you’re going to do something, you should do it right. If you’re going to blog, get a grammar book and learn to write. If you don’t like to write, but still want a blog then hire someone to do it for you – Ghost Blogger. It would be nice, if you let people know about the stand-in, like Guy Kawasaki admits he does.

After a grammar book, comes a book on writing. Clear writing to get your message across would be key in a blog, no?

But we can’t say much on writing without talking about thinking. Clear writing, comes from clear thinking. If you can’t think, then you won’t write good. Sorry, they are related and you’ll have to do some thinking in order to have a blog…there are some exceptions thought, lol.

So, now we know why writing is hard, because thinking is hard. It’s a shame how many people can’t think write.

UPDATE:  So I was thinking (yes, I do that from time to time), wouldn’t social media as a whole be the largest improv theater in the world?  Twitter being first w/ text, and Facebook w/ pics.  With social media’s immediacy and push-button publishing, I’m sure most of it is made up as we go along.

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Subtitle RE-RE-RE-RE-RE-Tweet

Social media can get monotonous when everyone is doing the same thing.  There are certain principles and techniques that do work, and caution to the brave? soul who dares to diverge.  What I’m not talking about is quite different – be original, be yourself because there will never be another person like yourself.  EVER!

I wrote this on Facebook earlier, which turned into a funny thread thanks to the public.

Here are some tips that I found which are suiting:

Celebrities are not more interesting than you. They’re not smarter. They have skills. In social media, they have mad skills. Mad, crazy, enviable marketing skills. You can have respect for individuals and their game – and don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for the Scott Montys and Chris Brogans of the world. They are succeeding and deserve props.

But it doesn’t mean you have to follow what they say, or emulate their game or even read them. That makes you an observer. An observer that sits in a wagon pulled around by “the influencers.” What chance do you have if you’re not even thinking on your own two feet?

Here’s how to escape the social media wagon:

1) Unsubscribe from one of the talking heads. How do you expect to be original and innovative when you read what everyone else reads? Lightning will not strike down upon you, I promise.

2) Subscribe to one of the thousands of other bloggers out there that are putting out real and original content. Content about politics, design & art, relationships, news, fashion, careers and issues. Content about things that matter. (Yes, fashion matters too).

3) Write about something else besides social media.

4) Repeat.

Good advice.

The end here is the “pearl before swine:”  things that matter. Social media is not a means in of itself, but a set of tools which deliver content.  It is the content that is king.

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In case you missed anything this week, here’s a roundup.  Be sure to check out the videos for the upcoming NGLC conference in NYC next week.

Blog

Happy Belated Birthday to Latino Rebranded

Not all Social Media is Social

Brands

25 Personal Brand Manifestos (Re-post)

Facebook group pressures Puma to launch US site in Spanish

Hispanic social media

New Generation Latino – It’s A Mindset! (video)

Interview with David Chitel – NGLC (video)

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On March 25th, 2009 I started LouisPagan.blogspot.com and moved over to my own hosted server on April 15th – moved to self hosted site. You may find it hard to believe that I almost missed my own blog’s anniversary, but after blogging for many years this event tends to lose some relevance.

There’s been a lot of changes and growth since a year however, I feel I am only getting started.  There are many initiatives on the horizon so, keep on the look out for more information, more changes and additions.

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(Please note: this piece is an observation with no judgements made, and only serves as an observation and not a criticism.)

Generally, social media is understood as a conversation between people on the web…as opposed to old media, which is a conversation of a few to the many.

That being said, there are people who use social media as if it were old media, meaning they are using it as a one way announcement platform and not mingling with the public that they serve.  For example, you can have a blog and not have comments enabled.  Yes, you are using new media, but are not utilizing the social aspect.

Let’s look at an popular entertainment personality who it using social media, but lacks what I call the social element – Jorge Ramos.

• On Twitter, he has close to 5,000 followers, but only follows back 9.

• He broadcasts his messages to a large audience, and has no relationship strategy to interact with them.  This can be confirmed by his Twitter feed.

• He may use Twitter as a news filter and monitors only a few people – the two he recently retweeted and the ones he follows.

For those above reasons is why I say Jorge Ramos, is using social media but he is not being social.  Because of who he is he has an impressive following compared to who he follows.  I feel however, that if he added a more social element and actually got more involved with the community he serves his Twitter account may in fact triple in followers, and thus influence.

Note: I friend requested him on Facebook out of curiosity if the same trend is found; some of us are busy and may not have the time to be ‘everywhere’ we’d like to be.

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I thought of providing a summary along with each link here, but feel the titles themselves sum it all up well – let me know what you think.

(If you haven’t already, make sure you check out the very excellent post by @vistahispano: Five Rules of Engagement: Targeting Hispanics Online.)

(source: DORYANOLIVER’s photostream)

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That bald guy, walking in front of the pharmacy is…you guessed it – Me!

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Subtitle:  My commitment to blogging.

Blogs are an interesting format, for readers inadvertently discover that they at the whim (mercy?) of blog owners.  Happily, sometimes sadistically readers follow their chosen blog not blindly, but faithful that great content will reward their loyalty.  If unfulfilled, they dutifully leave in droves.

This weekend, I was reminded that I have limitations – I hit a wall and needed a few days to recover, thus the reason for this late post, as well as my absence yesterday here and other social media portals over the weekend.

From this, I’ve had some realizations:

1. My my voice is unique and cannot be duplicated by a ‘ghost writer.’ I’ve no intention of hiring a ghost writer (although it’s a fairly common practice, but not a fit for me right now); I’d rather let someone else blog here if I could not for an extended period.
2. Quality over quantity (related to the above).
3. I’m not stressing social media, but enjoying it.

I hope my regular readers were not deterred by 1 1/2 days of absence (I don’t usually blog over the weekend), and continue their readership and input here.  I’m here for the long haul and have many more new features and interesting content to offer.

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