Heard About Latinos in Social Media?: A Q&A With Co-Founder Louis Pagan

 Following is a Q&A with Louis Pagan, co-founder of Latinos in Social Media.  He shares all about the Latinos in Social Media 3-city tour that begins in New York in early October, his perspective of how to reach Latinos online, and insights on the growth of this audience.  He, along with FH Hispania Plaza friend Juan Tornoe, and Nancy Perez are among the most influential drivers in connecting Latinos online. Hope you enjoy.  Thanks for your time, Louis! (Maribel Ferrer)

MF:   How did the concept of Latinos in Social Media come up?
LP:  The concept of Latinos In Social Media (LATISM) came from a process of related events.  We first noticed the involvement of Latinos on Twitter and were impressed by their numbers and correlated that with a known need from businesses that expressed a lack of access to Latino content providers.  Our LinkedIn group was then established to reach professionals that may service this need.  The outcome was a directory of Latino based services and content provided by professionals and amateurs alike that we published recently. We evaluated our progress and identified a need for further growth.  Our answer was to expand our scope and unite Latinos who utilize social media as a means of networking and communication among bloggers, professionals and businesses.  We tackled various social media portals like Facebook, and Twitter in an effort to expand our base and received much interest from within our community as well as businesses interested in reaching the Latino market. The formation of the Latinos In Social Media ‘Heritage Tour’ was a natural outcome of our resources.  After New York, the tour will take to Orlando also in October and then to L.A. in early December and Houston in February 2010. For more updates on dates, visit the site.

MF: How did you determine which partners to engage?
LP: Social media is hard to measure and does not deliver any reliable metric.  What we looked for however, were individuals within each target state who wielded a noticeable influence on various social media platforms.  We looked at Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn numbers to determine which individuals had impressive network access.  This process was critical as we had a limited time to develop a conference series during the impending Hispanic Heritage month and felt it would serve better to partner up locally with established networks rather than building that infrastructure ourselves.
We identified three individuals Juan Tornoe in Texas, Nancy Perez in Florida, and George Torres in New York.  Each of these individuals are well respected and experts in their fields.  They have helped grow LATISM in leaps and bounds.

MF: Why the need for such a tour?
LP: With 21 million Latino internet users, Latinos In Social Media serves as a voice and establishes a presence for Latinos in social media.  We are unprecedented and seek to pave the way for Latinos who are now proven to be the most tech-savvy and innovative demographic on the internet today.  We encourage innovation and leadership within our community and foster communication to further propel our vision of becoming the premier social organization for Latinos.  LATISM is made up of individuals whose passion is social media. What is also unique about LATISM is our ability to cross-promote laterally among one another, while at the same time reach other levels in order to provide services to businesses that are in search of Latino content providers.  We are bringing in individuals who are at the top of social media charts from bloggers to SEO providers to network gurus and consultants as well as heads of Latino outreach departments for major businesses to network and provide seminars aimed at social media and Latinos.

MF: Based on your experience, where are Latinos doing the majority of their social media networking?
LP: Maybe I look through rose colored lenses, but I see Latinos everywhere.  I find networks of Latinos on Facebook as well as Twitter and MySpace to be sufficient.  Latinos also can be found on QuePasa.com and various other narrow-visioned specific network providers like MiGente.  But, I think someone who is seeking out Latinos on these smaller, specialized networks should tread lightly and know what they are searching for specifically if they feel the larger networks will not provide them with the interest they are looking for.

MF: From your perspective, what are the top 3 most important things any marketer should know about Latinos in social media? (continues)

LP: Latinos are a diverse group within diversity.  What I mean by that is that there are unique subgroups both culturally and in interest among Latinos - one thing we are not is homogenous. 
A second thing for marketers to know about Latinos in social media is that we are unique from other markets.  By way of our culture we are ‘naturally’ social.  From reading and experience I feel this is the major force behind the growth of Latinos in social media.  Last I checked we are adopting social media at a rate of 50% above any other group. Lastly, I would say that in spite of all of the above we are consumers after all.  We are not from Mars and there is no magic formula or Brujería that one must know to reach us.  A little common sense, dedication and research will provide enough information to become familiar with Latinos.

 MF: How does a brand get started in social media aimed at Latinos?
LP: A brand can get started by aiming at the networks (like LATISM.org), that has already established a network of Latinos and form a relationship.  If you choose to engage Latinos via social media then you are entering the world of permission marketing.  This means your brand has to be transparent and relatable and would do well to convey an genuine concern for the Latino community (I actually recall a very hilarious satire piece on the Onion related to this). 

MF: How much Latino presence do you think there is currently on the blogosphere? 
LP: I started out as a blogger and in many ways I am still a blogger at heart (as a matter of fact, I still blog fairly consistently at LouisPagan.com).  True blogging is a labor of love and is concerned only with providing content, nothing more.  Latinos have grown in the blogosphere and have made tremendous steps to make their voices heard.  For instance, President Obama had a bloggers-only conference call recently, which included one Latino blog that I am aware of.  Also, from my own direct experience and witnessed elsewhere, the constant growing body of Latino bloggers have conveyed a feeling of saturation.  Although that may sound negative it is actually a good thing as more Latinos step up their virtual podium providing more opinions and better content.Personally, I feel blogs are a forgotten part of social media.  With all the hype about Twitter and Facebook in the news these days I see little attention given to blogs as opposed to a few short years ago when blogs were all the rage.  Don’t feel sad for blogging though, because blogs hold their own.  Blogs are ubiquitous, and can be found linked to from all social media portals.  They are the tenacious opinion-platforms of individuals who seek to elaborate and communicate their point of view freely and unrestricted.  If that’s not social media, I don’t know what is.

Louis Pagan
co-founder Latinos In Social Media (LATISM.org)
http://louispagan.com
http://twitter.com/louispagan
http://facebook.com/louispagan

Comments

[Raul Ramos y Sanchez]

Louis Pagan is a tireless advocate for social media and Latinos are a growing part of that movement. I congratulate Louis for his innovation and energy.

[José Huitron]

"...one thing we are not is homogenous"

True! We each have a voice and unique set of experiences that help make for a dynamic and diverse mix of opinion, attitudes, interests, insights, and opportunities.

Great post!