Latino Rebranded: Latinos and Social Media

Another huge project I am working on:

Latinos in Social Media and Being Latino presents:

Our 1ST ANNUAL THREE-KINGS DAY ONLINE TOY DRIVE & FUNDRAISER to benefit The Children’s Aid Society’s Latino Outreach Initiative
[http://www.childrensaidsociety.org] and the United Nations Children’s
Fund [UNICEF] [UNICEF: http://www.unicef.org/]

January 6th, the traditional day for gift-giving in Latin American tradition, to bring joy to disadvantaged Latino children in the US and Latin America.

The Toy Drive & Fundraiser will have two levels:

1st Level: Thanks to generous donations from our sponsors Time To Play,
Ingenio and Discovery Toys we will be donating new unwrapped bilingual Educational toys to the Latino Outreach Center of the Children’s Aid Society, located in Washington Heights, New York City. The toys will be distributed to poor Latino children in the area.

2nd Level: We will be collecting donations from our growing online
networks. This monetary donation will benefit UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and be distributed through UNICEF to centers aiding disadvantaged children in Latin America.

LAUNCH DETAILS:
• WHAT: Live Twitter Party
• WHEN: December 30th 2009, 8pm – 10pm EST
• WHERE: Twitter (use hashtag #latismtoydrive or enter latismtoydrive in
TweetChat.com – you must have a Twitter account).

HOW YOU CAN HELP:
• Donate ONLINE through our Chipin/PayPal account (http://bit.ly/7B8yL0).
Donations accepted until January 3rd, 2010. Donations accepted until January 3rd, 2010.

• Make a toy donation by sending new, unwrapped toys to: The Children’s
Aid Society -105 East 22nd St. Please use codename: LATISMTOYDRIVE. Toy donations will be accepted until January 4th, 2010.

• Follow and Retweet our Toy Drive message using #latismtoydrive on Twitter

• Write about it on your blog

• Post up toydrive widgets on your blog (http://bit.ly/5urQXF) and social networks.

All Toy Drive, Donations totals and ceremony pictures will be posted on
our Latism.org and Being Latinos website on January 6, 2010.

We thanks our sponsors Time To Play, Ingenio and Discovery Toys for
their generous toy donations, and our social media community for their
support!!

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My good pal Julito (@julito77) took a video of the panelists that participated at LISTA event last week.

Take note of the #vivaviernes and #latism tags.

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Subtitle: Twitter tips for newbie businesses

Looking forward to be participating in the LATISM DC Live Twitter party via Tweetchat (you can follow this link to observe some of the tweets and comments happening right now at the DC conference).

The goal is to provide tips for professionals and organizations on how to use social media.

You can observe or participate. Here are the details:

LATISM DC TWITTER PARTY DETAILS
DATE: Saturday, December 12, 2009 during the Latism DC Conference
TIME: 1:45 pm to 2:30 pm
TOPIC: Twitter tips for newbie businesses
AUDIENCE: Latino non-profit and corporate executives, professionals
HASHTAGS: #Latism #LDC (or use this link)

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Friday is all about LATISM-DC.  Latinos In Social Media, DC is the latest addition to the LATISM family of state chapters.

This has resulted in the 3rd social media conference presented by LATISM, a national group promoting social media and the Latinos behind it.  From their own state website:

LatISM DC, part of the LatISM Heritage Tour, is a conference that brings together a select group of Latinos in Social Media and business leaders in the region to discuss current topics related to Social Media. This two-day session focuses on Web 2.0, Gov 2.0, leveraging social media for non-profits, businesses and government.

This folks, is a full conference:

On the national LATISM site you will find a dynamic list of speakers speaking at this event (sorry, registration is closed). They will even have YOGA!!! How innovative is that?!?

A special thanks goes out to NCLR for graciously donating the conference space.

And a special thanks to Kety (@KetyE), and her team: Sylvia Aguilera (@httponline), Alma Suarez (@AmericanLatina),  Julie Diaz-Asper (@JulieDiazAsper), Elianne Ramos (@ergeekgoddess), Jennifer Lubrani (@meningioma)…aka, The Five Latinas. Six Latinas.

LATISM has reached a tipping point with DC, as they are at full capacity and have had to add a networking event to fill the demand.  Congratulations Ladies!

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Subtitle:  The Need To Pursue Media

The ability to cement your message within the stream of media conversation is more vital NOW than ever before.  We stand at the cusp of change.

With history unfolding before us, we must ensure our views engage the forefront of America’s, and thus the world’s conciousness.  Otherwise, others will define everything for us.

This is why I’m a huge advocate of new media.  It  provides the tools, which enables the masses to thrust forth with their stories and viewpoints.

If you are not so inclined, that’s okay but please support those who express this interest.

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Subtitle:  Rolling Rolling Rolling

I’ve finally got around to the mother of all links – the blogroll!  It is one of the quintessential and most coveted aspects of a blog (okay, I’m laying it on thick).

The blog roll is intended to keep track of those who measure the pulse of social media as applied to Latino content.  They are those who are in the trenches of Latino social media and have proven to be able to juggle multiple social media disciplines.  The Roll has started today and the links will stay up as long as their sites are kept up to date.

Know this, fellow blogrollees: If you are on the roll then I consider you the cream of the social media crop…ones who have potential (or already does) to influence this medium and beyond.

Know this, fellow readers: As I consider these few as great influencers, you should consider following them as well.  It is far from complete, so check back periodically as I will add more from time to time.  By the way, the BlogRoll can be found over in the side panel.

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Subtitle:  Here Come The Marketers

My eyes, ears and mouth were sealed shut.
It’s interesting to see how businesses and marketers are now paying attention to previously ignored niche networks.  By this I specifically mean low-income demographics and urban communities.

There is an entire “sub-culture” of bloggers / twitterers complete with celebrities and household names I had never heard of!

I’m sure this experience will reverberate as more marketers and brands familiarize themselves with these ’sub-cultures’ (unfortunately termed).  As a matter of fact, there are huge personalities and networks that are prevalent, but sadly unknown because of the unbalance of media attention.

I profit, so therefore YOU are.
Let’s be honest, the only reason why Latinos and other ‘minorities,’ are beginning to see engagement is because of money.  If profit was not desired via the new Latino romance, businesses would not be interested.  It’s a numbers game.

Here’s the twist:  some of these networks are hardened or better…petrified toward the monetization of their efforts.  They are suspicious and bitter because of the lack of attention and throwback that they have unduly swallowed over the years.  This wall of resistance will be undoubtedly be perplexing to the naive marketer.

I would hope that this chip (boulder if you will), on their shoulder can easily be traded for a more valuable token.  Opportunity will be knocking at the door, and it would be smart not to shoo it away.

Best course of action: set sail for the sun.
The challenge here for underdeveloped communities is NOT to rush in and haphazardly connect with businesses, but learn how to elevate themselves on more stable platforms in order to better control these opportunities and leverage their deal making abilities.  It is tenfold more beneficial to become business owners rather than remain consumers. Then, and only then can Latinos participate in economic decision making processes.

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Feel free to use the below banners on your website or blog and point it back to our site: Latism

Latinos In Scoial Media 'Heritage Tour'

Latinos In Social Media 'Heritage Tour'

Latinos In Social Media 'Heritage Tour'

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#LatISM Twitter party

This pic is awesome.  Special thnaks to @tiabel (her blog). And if want to know how to throw a great #latism Twitter party then follow these 10 tips.

Click on the pic to view some of the leaders that are bringing you these great parties giveaways and networking opportunities, and the Latinos In Social Media ‘Heritage Tour’ : @anarc @urbanjibaro @latism @tiabel @nancyperez and yours truly – @louispagan.

It is great to see the creativeness and passion that fellow Latinos have for social media and their culture.

I love this so much, that over on the Facebook group, I’ve made it into a discussion thread. Go there to see more examples of what Latinos are doing with #latism.

How an where do you use/find #latism? Here are two places that I found:

http://twitpic.com/d00xg @tibel
http://blip.fm/~bafo7 @LatinJazzMecca

If you stare at the twitpic and listen to blip at the same time you get real Chillaxed!

What about you?

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