Subtitle: Habla Espanol?
Confession: Despite that I’ve been working within Latino social circles for many years, I am not fluent in the Spanish language. I DO have a working knowledge however…
In an effort to improve my Spanish I’m taking time to study over the the summer in preparation for a vacation and to broaden my reach on and offline as well…also, my daughter’s language skills are developing rapidly, and I want to communicate with her in both English and Spanish as she grows.
I place my self as an advanced beginner or at the intermediate level. What I’m doing is using online podcasts, social media sites, and books as well as my wife 
to practice. So for this month, and next I’ll be less active online as I dedicate more time to this goal as well as some others.
Popularity: 38% [?]
A noticeable disappointing practice (arguable), is the Google news search feature for latino social media: 90% of it is coverage of business and politics…not much of what YOU are doing in social media as individuals.
I like what Cafe Media is doing…there is much more of a cultural vibe to what they report on. Also, this is why such organizations such as LATISM is important – it’s by individuals for individuals.
…holiday weekend, light to no posting.
Popularity: 32% [?]
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.
Popularity: 50% [?]
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.
Manny successfully launched one of the largest Hispanic PR/Social media conferences and has a respectable blog. His recent endeavor is PapiBlogger:
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.
Popularity: 45% [?]
My friend and colleague Kety Esquivel, wrote up a great post on The Huffington Post:
For the last two years I have had the distinct honor and priviledge to be a panelist at SXSWi. Unfortunately, I have been one of the only Latino panelists and potentially the only Latina panelist….On the conference circuit, the response that I get often for this dearth of Latino and Latina panelists is: we don’t have any other Latino/Latina panelists because there is no one else out there. My experience has been that many of the conference organizers blame the digital divide.
Popularity: 46% [?]
Subtitle: Laitnos in social media kicking butt in LatAm.
Latinos from both sides of the American hemisphere are devouring social media. Check out the latest bullish graphs and read on…
Mas: You can find them on Twitter by following #latism #latam #latino #hispanic
Popularity: 43% [?]
I’ve decided to take back the reigns and resurrect the NYC Latino social media group that was originally started on Meetup about a year ago.
It was a tough decision, as I’m well aware of the dedication, disappointments, effort and challenges that come with the territory (let’s not forget the awards), which translates into many sacrifices inherent to maintaining such a group.
Join me.
Popularity: 66% [?]
A couple of weeks ago I set the stage for a question: Do you see yourself as a Hispanic man…or a man?
When you wake up in the morning and look in the mirror, who stares back at you? A man or a Latino? A woman or a Latina? When is it that you walk into your culture…is it when you get dressed, or prepare your meal or turn on some music?
How would a Black man respond? Does a white man see a white man or a man?
I wonder how many Latinos see themselves as men (or women) first, and then Latino – or vice versa.
Your answer may show how culture dominates your outlook, and I’d imagine differing generations would have varying degrees present.
Personally, when I wake up I’m disassociated with the conversation of society – it’s just me and the new day. Slowly the reality and conversations of the world catches up to me and I done the cloth of culture.
Popularity: 23% [?]
Subtitle: Waxing Data Visually
Data visualization (DV) has been with us for a little while now. DV frees us from standard pie charts and bar graphs that are prevalent these days. By representing data in new ways, we stimulate a means for which new ideas and conclusions can occur.
One of the first visual representation was done by Martin Wattenberg, who represented the stock market on the web in a ground breaking manner. Go to Jeff Clark’s site who continues to present data in innovative new ways.
Twitter Venn
The below picture captures the terms ‘Latino’ + ‘Hispanic’ + ‘Mexican.’ I’ve done this for self-amusement several times and the results are always the same: Latino is always present double or more than Hispanic, and the term Mexican surpasses both terms on Twitter.
More interesting are the most used terms associated with each labeled sphere. If you click each sphere, the bottom left presents common terms. You can get a feel for some of the conversations that may be occurring – you’ll be surprised by what you see.
Twitter Spectrum
Twitter Spectrum compares the relationship between two terms and how they are associated with one another.
I’ve plugged in the terms ‘Latino’ and ‘Hispanic.’ It’s a little funny to see the term ‘lol’ fall right between them…’health,’ ‘census’ and ‘marketing’ are other notables.
With no doubt, I am sure many of you have already seen these technologies. What I wanted to accomplish in this post is one of the ways I use these techniques to challenge some of my ideas, as well as look for new trends. If you use data visualization in any way (or now start using it) I’d be curious to hear about it.
Popularity: 79% [?]
