Latino Rebranded: Latinos and Social Media

Subtitle: How some Hispanics are screwing up the social media sphere

What’s a ‘Link Haze’ or ‘Link Snip?’  Basically, it’s a collection of links about recent news around the web, usually with a quick bit of commentary, sometimes a bit of parody.

• Telemundo talks about how their going take over social media.
• What you don’t know about Mexico? Probably nothing.
• Hispanic media personalities join social media, but are still looking for personality.



• Portada informs us about what others are doing in social media except themselves.
• Financial organizations can benefit from informative webinars to get Hispanics to spend their money.
• Students using social media for immigration reform, and try to side step their studies in the process.

UPDATE:  I’ve received some slack (not surprisingly), for this post a few times already.  This was an attempt at humor, and is not to be taken seriously as I’ve stated above and in the comments.  Social media wears many masks and fits needs unique to others as they see fit.  In no way, I’m suggesting that my way is the right way.  However, I DO feel that some methods are superior over others and would be happy to discuss them on a case by case basis.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Below is a social media map (click on pic for bigger version), of where I have a presence in one form or another – active and passive.  The next version (soon) may have information on how I use these networks and the relationships they have to one another, as well as additional networks that are not included here.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Subtitle:  “Give me back that Filet O’ Fish, give me that fish.”

There’s a common piece of advice to “fish where the fish are.”  While no doubt this is a great short term strategy, but eventually the resource will dry up.  Why?  Because, soon enough everyone will start fishing in the same spot!

There’s some recent data released by HitWise that shows Facebook touting 50% of web visits and Twitter only showing 1% which may cause people to run to Facebook in crowds.  (Look at my other post from today for technical reasons why this data is not reliable.)

1.	Facebook	50.15%
2.	YouTube	15.21%
3.	MySpace	15.08%
4.	Tagged	1.16%
5.	Twitter	1.14%

So, you look at the above chart and see the heavy usage of Facebook, and you run off to establish your presence.  What’s wrong with that, you may ask…you reason: most of the traffic is there, so I want to go where I will have more return.

Personally, I don’t believe in chasing traffic.  I believe in making traffic, come to me.  Chasing traffic will drive you nuts (traffic is the web currency equivalent of money).  Rather, identify your strengths, develop what makes you unique, create value and as a side effect traffic will follow.

Promoting and networking are fine, but without taking a self inventory and honing your assets you’ll never break away from the crowd.  You may reap the rewards of hard work, but you’ll won’t make YOUR mark or unique contribution.

If you must go or do what others are doing, then it’s okay to do so for a time.  However, identify the time to breakaway and make your own inroads, plans, conclusions, methods, philosophy…make your own rules.  You’ll never have to worry about it being too crowded, because no one can ever do what you do best – and that’s being you!

Being your true self, is the key to generating traffic.

What do you think?  Am I wrong…half wrong – half right?  How do you generate lasting traffic?

Popularity: 18% [?]

Subtitle: Levels of Truth in Data Representation of Social Networking Sites

The recent data by HitWise that rated social networking sites, ranks Facebook as #1 with 50% traffic, and Twitter as #5 with a mere 1% is a perfect example of a data presented at a certain level of truth, leaving questions at all other levels.

1.	Facebook	50.15%
2.	YouTube	15.21%
3.	MySpace	15.08%
4.	Tagged	1.16%
5.	Twitter	1.14%

Here are the problems:

1. What counts as a visit on Facebook?  (Ex: If you click through 50 profiles, does that count as 50 visits?)
2. Twitter users for the most part use 3rd party applications to manage their accounts such as Seesmic Desktop and Hootsuite, not to mention mobile device access.  Surely, this type of access is not counted as a “visit.”
3. There are other uses for twitter such as search (again 3rd party apps can come into play), or just sit and watch your custom “lists” or groups and use them as a news feed – “visits” here do not account for this invaluable feature.
4. The specialized niches that each network serves (think LinkedIn), is severely undervalued by presenting this data as meaningful.
5. What type of traffic are going to these sites?  What are they doing there?  How is this important to me or my business?

Each point begs pertinent questions – what is the value of other networks?  Are visits the measure of usefulness?  How are the sites used?  Who is visiting these sites and what are they doing?  Nothing outlined by HitWise, comes close to providing answers.

The web is no different than any terrain – the more you know, the better you can use it to your advantage.  Thinking through what is presented here, we come to important conclusions – this is called being media literate – and can leverage the information in our favor.

Did you initially interpret the data as I did…that is, Facebook rules?

(In a little while, I’ll be posting another piece that uses the same data above. However, the discussion is about why you should not chase traffic, but make it come to you.)

Popularity: 17% [?]

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.

Popularity: 34% [?]

In my hometown – NYC – there are 2 events right around the corner (click pics for website links):

With major changes impacting the multicultural media business, can you really afford to miss the Multicultural Media Forum in three weeks?

What do top executives think about...

How  Census 2010 and multiplatform media will change the Multicultural Media Ecosytem?

What's in store for the business of Hispanic and multicultural advertising, branding, and marketing?

With upwards of 70% of the U.S. Hispanic market under 35, and 65% of its population growth being driven by US-born Latinos, the NGLC’s mission is to advocate two key points; 1.) New Generation Latinos represent a viable and lucrative media target audience that merits special attention and 2.) Quality media, marketing and entertainment resources are available to effectively touch New Generation Latinos who are critical to growing market share now and in the future.

The NGLC Media, Marketing & Entertainment Conference’ will be a one-day conference from 9:00am to 6:00pm on Monday, April 5, 2010 in New York City.

Popularity: 30% [?]

Subtitle: From blogs to microblogs and back again.

My blog is quickly becoming my favorite social media portal.  Re-wind a few months ago, and I would of had said Twitter.  But, I’ve come to re-appreciate my own pulpit.

There is pride to be taken in the creative process, more so in the ownership of one’s output.  There are those who are insanely successfully on Twitter or Facebook, yet when it comes time to direct traffic from those portals toward their own they fail miserably.  Why?  Because they truly haven’t established an independent and successful fanbase.

You see, a blog is your foundation…Facebook…Twitter…MySpace are all illusions of true networking.  With all this technology that surrounds us, it is easy to be seduced by shortcuts.  If you’re a successful blogger, you will take those concepts to any network and easily dominate them with the networking principles that you’ve learned from blogging.

Popularity: 35% [?]

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: 100% [?]

Subtitle:  Half the tweets on Twitter are in English

A study done by Semiocast (.pdf), reveled language usage on Twitter over a period of 48 hours in February, 2010.

The study found that most language used was English at 50% from English speaking countries and non-native English speaking users.

Other languages that were tallied – Japanese (14%), Portugese (9%), Malay (6%) – can be attributed directly to international outreach or social media popularity within that region.

Spanish came in 5th at 4% mostly from Spanish users who are in the US.  It’s my belief that this reflects the preference of Hispanic social media users of English as their primary communication language and reflects the young, acculturating traits of Hispanics online. My only wonder if there’s any public usage stats on Twitter’s Spanish translation page.

The rest of the 17% was a combination of various languages each accounting for no more than 2%

Popularity: 30% [?]

Subtitle: It is not the people that should look to businesses, businesses should look to the people.

Our visions of where influence derives is skewed.  Professionals do not make influential changes, but only identify, define, and market them.

Trends

In his book “The Tipping Point,” Gladwell talks about Hush Puppies shoes and how they went from almost being discontinued to a hugely successful brand.  Hush Puppies became a fad in lower Manhattan not on purpose, not because of a campaign, not because of any professional efforts, but because a few “kids” decided they were cool and the shoes became trendy and hip with their peers. 

Let’s look at social media for a minute.  The true value of social media is not the communication platform, but what that communication brings to the table.  Social media enables a company to gain vital insight to where markets are going by talking with the public.

Companies and Social Media

Companies need to talk to their customers to see what they are thinking.  Companies are usually ‘out-of-the-loop’ when it comes to what is being said on the ’streets;’  social media provides insight and establishes a public ‘advisory board’ that leads executives and marketing professionals to decide what to bring to the market – or discontinue.

The Public

Unbeknownst to the average person, it is they that are the true content providers and definers.  With the help of social media, this is slowly being realized – more people are providing top-notch content and participating in global dialogues.

Profitability is where professionals come in.  Once the public figures out how to crack this threshold, it is at that moment that that industry becomes open to change and revolution.

Here’s a modified statement from a popular quote for the movie “V for Vendetta” – It is not the people that should look to businesses, businesses should look to the people. Oh, so true.

Popularity: 48% [?]