This past week I had an opportunity to hear about how Hispanics are involved in social media by a group of panelists who are involved in this particular niche target. I like to thank the Multi-Cultural Special Interest Group and the DFW chapter of the American Marketing Association for putting this together, I thought this was a great idea for those who are interested in shifting to the Hispanic market. The panelists in this discussion included the following:

JD Garza, President and CEO of En Vivo
Mark Harland, Regional Marketing Manager of Chevrolet
Santiago Bourges Waldegg, Interactive Creative Director of Dieste
Juan Fuara, Hispanic marketing consultant and author of Hispanic marketing books such as “Hispanic 101-The Whole Enchilada”
Jeff Whang, Digital Strategist of Click Here Inc.

Mark Harland first started using social media in his region as a experimentation in low cost means of communicating with his customers. He says, “Social media allows people to listen to you and it’s all about building relationships.”

Juan Faura took a more sociological view of this topic. First he illustrates that young people actually segment themselves into different groups, this transition takes place naturally. Juan says that “Latinos become acculturated into the U.S. and even though parents influence their children, Latino adults look to young adults for social media access.”

Santiago brought up an interesting point that was very useful. He says that language is a mistake for social media. “Try to communicate in English at first, if someone communicates with Spanish you speak in Spanish. Just don’t worry about language worry about content.”

Near the end of the panel discussion, someone in the audience asks what’s the next big social media wave. Santiago mentioned that it’s location based apps and mini blogs such as Tumblr. He’s absolutely right. We’re seeing another shift in social media technology where geo-location apps such as Gowalla and Foursquare is becoming such as trend that businesses are using it as a way to market and advertise, similar to what they are doing with Twitter and Facebook.

I had a great time and I networked with some great people who are in the same industry that I’m studying. I highly recommend you join your local AMA chapter.

Related articles

• Marketing To Hispanics (realestateradiousa.com)
• New Survey from Orci Finds American Advertisers Acknowledge Hispanics’ Impact on U.S. Culture but Half Don’t Market to Nation’s Largest Minority (eon.businesswire.com)
• New Survey Finds American Advertisers Acknowledge Hispanics’ Impact on U.S. Culture but Half Don’t Market to Nation’s Largest Minority (eon.businesswire.com)
• Unum Releases Videos to Help Spanish-Speaking Customers Understand Products and Services (eon.businesswire.com)