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.
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.
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.
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.
(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.
Subtitle: Are there Latinas in social media? You betcha!
I am driven by We-media – content produced by the public – and am inspired when others share the same drive. A fewofmy online-cohorts are proposed speakers for a panel at the Blogher conference here in NYC.
Latinas are one of the fastest growing segment of bloggers. In this session, you can understand who we are, why we blog, where we are coming from and where we’re going…Our session will focus on Latinas as a group and how we are using social media to develop relationships and promote our businesses with a distinct flavor. Each of the panel speakers has effectively used social media to promote either her blog, home business, or herself as a brand.
There are a couple of posts on the chopping board right now, but they are in draft stages at the moment. In my effort to give quality content I cannot ‘push-button-publish’ them just yet.
Against my better judgment, I’ll share a post that has not quite made it to a draft just yet…it concerns a Hispanic man, or woman who defines themselves as a man…or woman, and not a ‘Hispanic’ man/woman.
This thought recalls the line made by the famous black actor, Sidney Poitier, in the 1960’s movie, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” – “Dad, the difference between you and me is that you see yourself as a colored man, and I see myself as a man.”
Of course, the context is quite different here than from the movie, but the statement is relevant and profound.
I had the pleasure of meeting 
There are a couple of posts on the chopping board right now, but they are in draft stages at the moment. In my effort to give quality content I cannot ‘push-button-publish’ them just yet.
