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.

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."

Correction: Pew Research indicates that 18% of Online Hispanic Adults Use Twitter

I ran across an interesting tweet by Luis Pagan that referenced a Pew Report on Twitter and Status updates.  In addition to showing an increase in making status updates on Twitter or another service - from 11% to 19% since April 2009, the report shows that 18% of online Hispanic adults use Twitter. 

Thanks to Tomas of http://www.hispanictips.com for pointing this out.

View the full report

Flock, Univision's Highly Customized Web Browser for the Online Hispanic Audience

Univision Interactive Media recently launched Flock, a highly customized web browser for the online Hispanic community.

Responding to Latinos' social nature and use of both social networking sites and email to communicate with friends and family, the browser offers entry points to these key online destinations. Easy entry points to these popular destinations has been astutely positioned with Univision's web content to create a uniquely branded experience for the online Hispanic market, both in English and Spanish, with the goal of keeping this important market close to home.

 

Source: Hispanicad.com

NASA Astronaut Starts Agency's First Bilingual Twitter

NASA, one of the government agencies that has been doing some interesting work in the use of social media for the general market, has figured out a way to promote its mission with the Hispanic community. 

Jose Hernandez, who is set to fly aboard space shuttle Discovery in August, will be twittering about his training experience in English and Spanish.

Read the Nasa press release to learn more about this initiative and Jose's interesting background and sign up to follow Jose at http://www.twitter.com/astro_jose.

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

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

AOL Making Significant Investments in the U.S. Onine Hispanic Market

It's been a busy month for AOL in terms of launching new sites and content for the U.S. Online Latino audience. This activity seems to be a strong indication that AOL is making serious investments in this growing market.

This week AOL People Networks announced the launch of its Bebo U.S. Latino site in collaboration with Hearst Magazines Digital Media and AOL Latino.

Bebo's Lifestream Platform allows users to connect with other users and with content from multiple sites, including Flickr, MySpace, Facebook and others.  Users can connect with existing friends or others who share common interests and tastes.

AOL Latino will contribute music and entertainment content and Hearst Magazines Digital Media will provide other interactive content, including content for young girls planning their quinceñeras - http://www.bebo.com/mis_quince.

Source: Finchannel.com

AOL also launched another Spanish language resource called TecnoPadres.com, a site designed to help less technically savvy parents navigate the web. The site aspires to help parents monitor their childrens' use of the Internet and keep them safe and the site will license and translate content from the OnlineMom, a site/blog that was created by a tech-concerned mother, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

National Council of La Raza targets 17 million Eligible Voters with an Online Media Campaign

The NCLR recently launched a new interactive website to promote Latino voter registration and participation in the upcoming election. With fun music videos that highlight the importance of making the Latino vote count and a series of famous Latinos urging the community to register and vote in both English and Spanish, the site uses an innovative and culturally-relevant to reaching this increasingly important voting block online. 

Check it out at www.YoVotare.org