Have you ever been at a party with Latinos before? Do you think they are loud? Well, get your ear plugs because in 2009 the Social Media party will be louder than ever. Perhaps you didn’t open the invitation last year; but make no mistake, Latinos are already taking about you and your brands and they are sharing opinions and obtaining advice on which products and services they should buy. It’s time for you to show up and say HOLA!
Research suggests that Hispanics are very active online and they are big in Social Media. They over index non Hispanics in every single key metric you can think of: engagement, time spent, number of connections, etc. Forrester suggests that such attraction to social media reflects the Hispanic culture’s strong orientation to entertainment; it fits its collectivist nature and it fulfills the need of Spanish language online content.
Over the last few years, we saw some of the big guys extending their offerings to the Hispanic market, like MySpace Latino; some existing ones getting constant facelifts, like Quepasa.com; and we also observed some sporadic efforts that were dissolved with the same energy and pace as they emerged.
Yet, the methods to capitalize the opportunity and engage with this audience have been austere and disappointingly boring. Sometimes it feels like Hispanic marketers are condemned to repeat the same mistakes as their non Hispanic marketing counterparts and never learn from their successes and failures. If banners, and display advertising in general, have proven to be a not-so-effective way to monetize and conquer the social media arena, what makes some believe that Hispanics would respond differently if you throw banners at them?
The truth is that when reached appropriately, Hispanics are willing to talk; communicating is in their veins, its part of their culture and most primitive needs. Perhaps best of all, only a few companies have tried to engage this highly loyal audience in a dialogue, so they haven’t developed a thick skin and repellent instinct to corporate discussion as some non Hispanics. The opportunities are here, today.
Why don’t you conduct a quick experiment? Look for brand names of your interest in the Social Media components of some of the US Hispanic online properties below?
Can you see the opportunities?
