Online Hispanic Trends

Only About Half of Latin American Companies Have a Presence in Social Networks

The results of the "2010 Latin America Social Media Study" carried out by Burson Marsteller show that less than half (49%) of Latin American companies are taking advantage of social media.

Mexico (80%) and Venezuela (75%) are in the lead, but Argetina (25%) and Puerto Rico (5%) are way behind the global average of 79%.

The study found that more Latin American companies are using Facebook (39%) than any other tool, and, of those who did, 55% had comments, indicating a strong interest amongst Latin American users in engaging with companies via social media channels.

Read the full article on Portada.

21st Century Hispanic Moms

eMarketer recently interviewed Isidra Mencos of BabyCenter en Espanol to learn more about a 2009 study entitled "21st Century Moms" conducted by her company.  

Among other interesting findings, the research found that: 

• "51% of BabyCenter’s US Hispanic users participate in online communities."

• "67% say it’s important for them to find information online in Spanish," and

• "60% of Latinas said they respond more fully to advertising in Spanish even if they are fully bilingual."

Source: eMarketer

How Telemundo is Creating a "Hispanic Digital Water Cooler"

In an interview conducted by Laura Martinez, Peter Blacker, executive vice president of digital media and emerging business, explains how Telemundo is using social media to leverage the power of social media to engage, as the article states "the throngs of Hispanics who are active on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms.  

Peter explains that this effort is part of Telemundo's five-year digital plan centered around "super serving" their audiences. Telemundo currently has over 180,000 followers across 17 different platforms, including Facebook and Twitter.

One component of its five year plan is to help its clients, who tend to be a bit uncertain about how to get involved in social media, begin to experiment. To do this, Telemundo is using actors and writers from its studios to develop additional storylines that Telemundo clients can sponsor to promote their brands in the social media space.

Importantly, Blacker and Telemundo recognize that it is important to provide interesting and engaging content with the goal of creating a "digital water cooler," and not just spam their social media audience with sales pitches.

Read the full interview at:  Multichannel News

Social Media and Mobile Internet Use of Hispanic Teens and Young Adults

The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently published a report entitled Social Media & Mobile Internet Use of Teens and Young Adults. 

A few of the more interesting findings on teens and young adults in general include: 

• Blogging and commenting on blogs by teens and young adults has decreased since 2006 while it has increased among older adults (from 28% to 14%),
• Both teen and adult use of social networking sites has increased significantly, but the sites where teens and young adults maintain their profiles are different, with 66% using MySpace compared to 36% of those 30 and over, and most interesting....
• Only 8% of Internet users age 12-17 use Twitter.

With respect to Latino teens and young adults, the results of Pew's research show that:

• Although not as often as White teens and young adults, Hispanic teens and young adults report going online once a day or three to five times a week.

• Although laptops have overtaken desktops as the computer of choice, Hispanic adults are less likely than White adults to own a desktop or laptop computer.

• Along with young adults, Hispanics and African‐Americans are more likely to go online wirelessly. According to the report "Half of all African‐American adults (48%) have used their cell phone to access the internet, compared with 40% of Hispanic adults and just 31% of white adults."

Media Usage Way Up for Kids and Teens, but Particularly for Black and Latino Children

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently released a report that shows that the amount of time young people are spending with entertainment media has increased signifcantly over the past five years, rising from 6.21 hours to 7.38. When taking into account "media multitasking," the number actually adds up to 10:45 minutes per day.

Among other interesting findings, the results of the study show that mobile media and social networking are driving this increased consumption, and that Black and Hispanic children spend much more time with media than White children do - 13:00 hours of of total media exposure for Hispanics, 12:59 for Blacks, and 8:36 for Whites.

The news release says that "top online activities include social networking (:22 a day), playing games (:17), and visiting video sites such as YouTube (:15).  Three-quarters (74%) of all 7th - 12th graders say they have a profile on a social networking site."

Source: PRNewswire

Sixty-five percent of Hispanics Now Using Social Media

According to Manny Miravete, VP, Sales and Strategy, MySpace and MySpace Latino, 65% of Hispanics online are now using social media. Miravete highlighted the fact that marketers should "“Understand the key driving points for the brand. Connect what your brand can offer and what users want" and "develop the experience and content around passion points." 

Read more at Brandweek

Profits Versus Global Growth Dilemma for Social Media Sites

Seems like a contradiction, but it's true....

Although many large social media sites such as Facebook and Veoh are experiencing dramatic global growth, this growth is actually having a negative impact on their profit margins.

These sites rely on advertising to make money, but in many developing countries the advertising doesn't translate into profit. The cost of making content available in these countries is also higher because companies have to purchase more servers to make content available to limited bandwidth users.

Some companies are taking steps to decrease these costs by lowering the resolution of videos and photographs in developing countries and others such as San Diego-based Veoh are restricting access in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Easter Europe completely.

Source: New York Times

 



 

Discovery en Español Making a Difference on Earth Day

In celebration of Earth Day, Discover en Español, in collaboration with La Onda Verde of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), is launching a multifaceted campaign to increase awareness of the state of our environment and get people to take action to make a difference.  Their campaign, called 3 Pasos, 3 Personas, will drive viewers to an innovative Web 2.0 site with the goal of getting each person to take commit to taking three actions and then inspire three friends to do the same.  Using a variety of social media platforms and email, participants will be able to see the number of total commitments in each area – water, energy and recycling.

It will be very interesting to see the results of this very innovative campaign!

Check it out and spread the word by clicking here: 3 Pasos

Online Hispanics: Younger, Very Social, and Accessing Internet via Cell Phones

A report by market research firm Mintel provides convincing evidence that online Hispanics are using the Internet to communicate using cell phones and computers at rates greater than other demographic groups.

The results of the survey analyzed in the report show that online Hispanics:

• Tend to be younger than the general online audience. Over 33% of online Hispanics were age 24 or younger in 2006.

• Are accessing the Internet via their cell phones. They browse the Internet via their cell phones more than three times as much as non-Hispanics per week (1.1 hours vs. 0.4 hours for non-Hispanics).

• Spend almost twice as much time using social networking sites and chatting via IM as non-Hispanics (5 hours vs. 3.5 hours).

• Are more likely to have social networking profiles than non-Hispanics (48% compared to 43% of Black Americans and 31% of Whites) and those aged 18-34 visit social networking websites 3.6 times a week on average, vs. just 1.3 times per week for over-35s.

Source: Cloud Computing Journal

Web Access and Social Networking Growing Quickly in Latin America

A Google commissioned study by Pyramid Research shows that the number of Internet users in Latin American and Puerto Rico is growing quickly due to more affordable computers, greater access and use of broadband, and a growing interest in the use of social networking sites and applications.

Pyramid Research projects that the regional residential base would grow to 160 million in five years from the 2009 figure of 100 million.

Alexandre Hohagen, Google’s managing director for Latin America, says “A lot of people in Latin America use the Internet just to be part of a social network.”

Another study conducted by Comscore in the Fall of 2008 found that 8 out of 10 users in Latin America said that they used social networks, with the favorites being MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, Orkut and Sonico.

Source: eMarketer