Latino Rebranded: Latinos and Social Media

Subtitle:  Carbon copies of carbon copies

Imitating success is a great way to learn and implement a proven formula to better ensure your chances of reaching goals, especially if you’re breaking into a market and still have a learning curve to encompass.  There are experts in every field who you can emulate and benefit from by learning from their mistakes and capitalize from their accomplishments.  However, by continuing along this path of secondhand originality you will not blaze a path of your own or have much innovation by following the footsteps of others.

At some point, the field that you are in will demand fresh proposals and bold ideas as the status quo grows commonplace and stagnates.  To meet these needs one must churn out innovative contributions and constantly thread fine lines of speculation as one’s proposals are brought to market.  But, how is this done?  How does one find newness?

Sometimes this requires stepping back from your field and taking an inventory of what others are doing as well as yourself.  I always say to look for what’s not there: find and fill a need.  Of course, if you’re in touch with your own individuality this won’t be very hard to do.

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Subtitle: What makes you unique?

People approach developing what makes them different (Your Personal Brand) in two ways: they look at what others are doing and modify it, or they stumble on an idea that nobody is doing, and hope to be successful. On the surface neither of these two techniques are necessarily wrong however, they are external ways of looking at things.

You cannot learn how to be unique. You already are unique – there is no one else like you – you must find that uniqueness within and bring it out.

I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty.

You don’t grasp the fact that what is most alive of all is inside your own house…

-Kabir

How much better would it be to bring forth your individuality, define, nourish, and hone it into a magnificent blade displayed for all to see, and use that tool to carve and hack out your success? Isn’t that why you wish to be unique after all – to be successful?

A successful person is not necessarily one who has a great business, or has a lot of money, or is popular, etc.  What good are those if you are unhappy?  Success is the mastery of oneself, conquering one’s fears – then you’ll be happy.  Isn’t that what you really want – to be happy?

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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.

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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.

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I’ll be at NSHMBA’s social media panel June 30th, in New Rochelle, NY.  Drop me a note if you can be there.

Click below for more details:

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Subtitle: Avoiding  Burnout.

Since I’ve been very active and consistent in social media, I think I should supply an explanation of my absence – this blog, Twitter and Facebook.   So here it goes…

What I want to believe is that I’ve been busy with multiple projects, and would like to jot that down and be done with this post.  But for those who know me, know that I thrive in multitasked environments and am very happy spinning a few plates at once.  Truth is that I underestimated the girth of one task, and combine that with some challenges in other areas  I had no choice, but to drop a few things in order to complete others.

By no means am I beating myself up here…far from it.  I’ve avoided short-circuiting myself by putting a few things off, and in that time benefited by taking an inventory and evaluated many of the things I’m involved in.  This was a great way to prioritize and focus on what matters most.

That’s the short story.  There are many more details of course, but I’ll spare you the excruciating details.

See you on the web!

Popularity: 43% [?]

Subtitle RE-RE-RE-RE-RE-Tweet

Social media can get monotonous when everyone is doing the same thing.  There are certain principles and techniques that do work, and caution to the brave? soul who dares to diverge.  What I’m not talking about is quite different – be original, be yourself because there will never be another person like yourself.  EVER!

I wrote this on Facebook earlier, which turned into a funny thread thanks to the public.

Here are some tips that I found which are suiting:

Celebrities are not more interesting than you. They’re not smarter. They have skills. In social media, they have mad skills. Mad, crazy, enviable marketing skills. You can have respect for individuals and their game – and don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for the Scott Montys and Chris Brogans of the world. They are succeeding and deserve props.

But it doesn’t mean you have to follow what they say, or emulate their game or even read them. That makes you an observer. An observer that sits in a wagon pulled around by “the influencers.” What chance do you have if you’re not even thinking on your own two feet?

Here’s how to escape the social media wagon:

1) Unsubscribe from one of the talking heads. How do you expect to be original and innovative when you read what everyone else reads? Lightning will not strike down upon you, I promise.

2) Subscribe to one of the thousands of other bloggers out there that are putting out real and original content. Content about politics, design & art, relationships, news, fashion, careers and issues. Content about things that matter. (Yes, fashion matters too).

3) Write about something else besides social media.

4) Repeat.

Good advice.

The end here is the “pearl before swine:”  things that matter. Social media is not a means in of itself, but a set of tools which deliver content.  It is the content that is king.

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(This is a re-post of an oldie, but goodie…enjoy.)

This would be a follow-up post to my “Is Your Brand Bull?” post.

Via the BuzzBin:

1) The online community — a.k.a. the market — doesn’t give a damn about your personal brand.

2) The only people who give a crap about personal brands are the personas trying to prop them up as a business model.

3) While personal brands are concerned with themselves, the market is also concerned about itself.

4) The market doesn’t care about the persona, only what value the persona contributes to the larger community.

5) Ultimately, if the market does not perceive value, the personal brand — while famous — will not successfully monetize him/herself.

6) Businesses do not need personal brands to succeed online. They need to come off their ivory towers and communicate with the market in real conversations.

7) Then companies need to listen so they can give back to their online communities and markets vis a vis real valuable information or products.

Messaging — whether delivered through a personal brand or from the corporate ivory tower — doesn’t work online!

9) Personal brands can be contrived and faked.

10) If a personal brand promises one thing and delivers another, their personal name is mud!

11) If a company over-relies on personal brands it can be let down with no social media presence post persona (Microsoft and Scoble)

12) Personal brands can let the market down… in some cases regularly (Calcanis).

13) If a personal brand becomes regularly tied to a corporate brand, then it’s not personal. It’s business.

14) Having personal interaction is a small part of the larger value proposition to the market in order for it to have a transaction with you. It is not a business model in itself.

15) The difference between a good personal reputation and personal brands is subtle. One delivers constant substance while the other relies on BS to overcome shortcomings.

16) The only value of a personal brand is blinding the uneducated on lack of social media expertise (from Micah).

17) When a personal brand fails to deliver real expertise, the market turns quickly on the persona.

18) Twenty years later national personas gone wrong get super bowl ads (MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, or in the case of K-Fed 2 years later). Micro personal brands online are simply forgotten.

19) When reality catches up with personal brand hype, bad endings occur.

20) The marketplace wants solutions, not to feel better by hanging out with coolness. Even better if you can provide both, but at least provide the prior.

21) Personal brands are like toilet paper. They are a tradable commodity on the interent. Reputation is another thing.

22) Social media consultants rely on personal brands, communicators rely on building value between organizations and their stakeholders.

23) Communicators can measure their social effort, personal brands talk about friends and “hubris.”

24) A personality oriented brand does not necessarily equate to successful results. Ask John “Maverick” McCain.

25) The marketplace doesn’t need specific personalities. There’s always another chap who can fill the role.

Popularity: 24% [?]

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?

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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 few of my 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.

Please take the time to go over and vote for their panel.

Hint: If you want to find engaged mommy bloggers, go follow #BlogHer on Twitter.

Popularity: 43% [?]