I’m not sure if I’ve ever posted the reason I made the transition from a Latino politics blogger to an active social media advocate within the Latino social media. So here we go…
My original blog – LatinoPundit – served a purpose to fill a void of the lack of Latino bloggers. I wanted to bring Latinos into mainstream discussions about politics and society, and also raise awareness of Latino subject matter. That was done for over a period of 5 years. Nowadays, you can find Latino blogs on a plethora of topics. With that purpose now filled, there was no reason to continue with the Latino Pundit blog.
With the knowledge that the Latino population is growing, I knew that Latinos would be more closely examined. And who else, but big businesses would have an interest? So with social media growing as well as the Latino population, it only made perfect sense that marketers would begin to enter this area.
I’ve had 5 years of experience online interacting and community building before social media became trendy…and from this advantage , I knew that I’d be ahead of any marketer without this type of experience. Thus I entered the Hispanic marketing world and rebranded my self as such.
One significant contribution to the Latino community was the national community feature for Latinos In Social Media (now called LATISM), building off the idea AnaRC had from her tweet “Where are all the Latinos on Twitter,” and the directory of Latino professionals. Call it being at the right place at the right time, because if I didn’t see Ana’s tweet, LATISM probably would of not happened. Thanks to all those involved with LATISM, the very first Latino based social media seminars took place in NY, then FL and DC followed…a fourth and what looks to be the largest yet is taking place this September. (If you can, catch LATISM in action via tonight’s Twitter party.)
My continued purpose in social media is to contribute to Latinos and social media as a whole from this blog to continuing projects that serve the greater community.
I had the pleasure of meeting Manny Ruiz earlier this year. From my first impression he seemed to be a stand-up guy, savvy business owner and a genuine family man. Nothing Manny has done since has altered my opinion…actually the more he does the more he confirms my initial read on him.
PapiBlogger is the nation’s first bilingual web site devoted to showcasing creative parenting tricks for fathers and mothers. Together with its popular Facebook fan page www.Facebook.com/papiblogger and its Twitter page www.Twitter.com/papiblogger, the bilingual blog serves as a forum for parents to share creative parenting ideas for children ages infant to young adult.
He is currently documenting his family road trip. Go check him out.
Latinas are one of the fastest growing segments of bloggers, and it’s easy to understand why: They promote themselves in English, Spanish and Spanglish. They use social media to develop relationships and promote their brands with flavor. Their identities as Latinas influence everything they write, from politics, to parenting, to techonology, and more. Monica Vila, Jeannette Kaplun, Melanie Edwards, Silvia Martinez and Lex Esparza speak out about how they use social media to break the stereotypes, dismiss the multicultural divide and reveal the common denominators amongst Latinas.
Due to a couple of last minute ‘emergencies’, I was not able to make the NGLC event that I had looked forward to attending. From what I hear, the event was a success. Here’s a video from last week:
Mindset – the perfect elixir for age and classification. Lili says it perfectly, “…is it really about generation, or is it about lifestyle? …put the ‘generation’ to the side for a second, (because) it’s a mindset…”
As part of a conversation I had with David Chitel, Founder of the New Generation Latino Consortium – April 5th, NYC – we did a short interview to share with you.
(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.
Here’s an example where passionate consumers apply pressure on a company. A Facebook group put pressure on Puma to launch a US site in Spanish. Their slogan: PUMA – Un millón de amigos para que PUMA nos hable en español.
I had no idea that Puma brand sneakers are such a passion for US Hispanics (the last I checked, I think I have one pair). That aside, the group looks to be fairly active. The page is loaded with videos, pictures and user participation. As of date, there are 750 members.
I had the pleasure of meeting 
Here’s an example where passionate consumers apply pressure on a company. A 
