If you’re like me, you’ve probably seen innumerable reports and studies stating that Hispanics are more social.

Most of the data backing up this catchy headline focuses on social media usage. Hispanics are active users of social media platforms, particularly social networks like Facebook, micromedia such as Twitter, and the reading and writing of blogs. Research firms like Forrester have gone further and looked at what type of social media users Hispanics are by understanding where they fit into their well-respected social technographic ladder (“Inactives” vs “Creators”, etc.). Again, the data paints a positive picture that Hispanics over-index the general market in terms of their engagement level. In plain English – there are a lot of Hispanic social media users and they are more active.

All of this quantitative data is sound and the conclusion is pretty straightforward – Hispanics use social media, as much or more than their general market counterparts. That’s great and all, but it doesn’t really help a marketer figure out how to use social media to market to Hispanics.

Why not? Isn’t the data enough to support most brands and companies investing in Hispanic social media?

Unfortunately, the tools aren’t there. Hispanic marketers only have a two-dimensional prism to understand a three-dimensional world. Put another way, all the great data I referenced earlier just confirms that Hispanics are consuming/producing social media, but that isn’t enough information to understand how to engage them in this space Why? Because social media activity cannot be simply filtered as Hispanic unless Hispanics behave differently than non-Hispanics in this environment.

The problem lies in the simple premise at the heart of the multi-billion dollar Hispanic marketing industry – that most Hispanics are culturally and linguistically different from the “general market” and consume different media (i.e. Hispanic media, 90 percent of which is in Spanish). This premise is the reason why two symbiotic sectors exist:
• Hispanic advertising and PR agencies that create culturally and linguistically relevant communications for Hispanic consumers
• Hispanic media that provides Hispanic consumers with linguistically and/or culturally unique content they demand (where Hispanic ad agencies can buy media on and PR firms can “earn” coverage in)

When we talk about reaching Hispanics in social media the aforementioned premise no longer holds true. Specifically, the second part of the premise breaks down – Hispanics are not consuming different media – they are on the same Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other large scale “connected” platforms as everyone else. That is what makes social media so powerful – you can connect 500 million people on the same network, even though they may be in 100 different countries speaking 150 different languages.

The concept of segmenting one ethnic group – either based on language, culture or media consumption – becomes fundamentally more complex when everyone is on the same site, network or platform. You can’t simply cling to differences in the language of media consumption. You can’t look to Facebook “en Español” (ask MySpace how that worked out for them) when the content is no longer asymmetrical – you don’t have a single, centralized content producer (think Univision or SBS) being consumed by large scale masses. The “content-creation-to-content-consumption” continuum is peer-to-peer (with companies/brands mixed in at the same level of peers), so it’s very difficult to depend on only contextual relevance.

What we’re missing is qualitative data about if, and how, Hispanics use social media differently. Do they consume, comment on, or produce social content that is different than the general market?

Language plays a part, but when you are connecting 100s of millions of people on the same platform, there is a lot of cross-language media consumption taking place. More simply, do Hispanics exhibit different behavior on social media? Part of this qualitative question is whether they demand – and therefore consume – different content. But that’s only part of the behavioral equation.

Do they produce different content (e.g. talk about different things)? Do they comment differently (i.e. are they more likely to comment positively than the general market)? Do they exhibit different attitudes towards brands and companies in social media? Do some of the generally excepted models of social media behavior apply “apples-to-apples” to U.S. Hispanic consumers (i.e. does the Hispanic social technographic ladder have different rungs)?

I have anecdotal evidence from client campaigns that they do behave differently, but our industry needs more robust qualitative research and behavioral models to provide the 78 percent of hesitant marketers (according to an Orci report) with the intelligence they need to smartly “go to market” with Hispanics in social media.

B2B advertising has seen increased attention during the last few years, primarily resulting from the growth in digital marketing. Digital media, and specifically search engine marketing, have provided companies that sell products and services to businesses and professionals the opportunity to target their messages and offers to the right audience (usually the decision-maker or buyer) in the right industry (or companies) with a high level of precision.

With the growth in B2B advertising, one segment of the B2B market has been noticeably absent from the discussion: advertising to Hispanic-owned businesses (which I will refer to as simply Hispanic businesses). The topic of Hispanic businesses usually results in more questions than answers:

• Are there really that many Hispanic-owned businesses?
• Are there really that many Hispanic-owned businesses?
• Aren’t most Hispanic businesses small “mom and pop” sole proprietorships like single-location restaurants or dry cleaning businesses?
• Do Hispanic businesses even represent a viable market for my product or service (e.g. we sell CRM software to mid-sized companies)?
• Don’t my existing B2B programs reach Hispanic businesses?
• Even if I wanted to reach Hispanic businesses, aren’t they simply too niche to efficiently target with advertising?
• Do I need to advertise differently to Hispanic businesses?

So should B2B marketers pay more attention to Hispanic businesses? I would argue yes. Let’s start with answers to those common questions, or barriers, about Hispanic businesses.

Are there really that many Hispanic-owned businesses? – There are approximately 2 million Hispanic-owned businesses in the U.S. that generate almost $300 billion in annual gross receipts. By the end of this year, there will be 3.2 million Hispanic firms generating $465 billion (Sources: SBA, HispanicTelligence®). That number is expected to balloon to 4.3 million by 2012. In fact, as of 2007, 1 out of every 10 small businesses in the U.S. is Hispanic-owned (Hispanic Trends).

Aren’t most Hispanic business small “mom and pop” sole proprietorships – More than 50% of Hispanic businesses have 25 or more employees (U.S. Census Survey of Business Owners, 2002).

Do Hispanic businesses even represent a viable market for my product / service? – Hispanic businesses are in a variety of industries and range from the start-ups to large public companies, and therefore consume every imaginable business product or service. However, Hispanic businesses are concentrated in the following industries:

Don’t my existing B2B programs reach Hispanic businesses? – The short answer is yes. The successful Hispanic is bilingual (> 75% of Hispanic business owners / decision makers speak excellent English), and existing general market B2B advertising programs no doubt reach them. The question is do they effectively impact and engage them in meaningful way. I would argue no, and as there is an opportunity to tap into the unique experiences, challenges, perspectives and attitudes of Hispanic businesses with advertising built around unique Hispanic business insights. To put it another way, 44% of Hispanic businesses are owned by individuals of Mexican origin – do you think their experience as a business owner is different from their Anglo counterparts?

Aren’t Hispanic businesses simply too niche to efficiently target with advertising? – There has historically been a very real issue around the lack of viable traditional paid media properties that reach a mass audience of Hispanic businesses. I would argue that there are only 1 or 2 viable traditional publications that effectively reach large numbers of Hispanic businesses (Hispanic Business and Poder/Hispanic). However, digital media, including search engines, display media, performance and behavior platforms and social media have created new ways to effectively reach Hispanic Businesses.

Do I need to advertise differently to Hispanic businesses? – As I mentioned earlier, Hispanic businesses can be reached with general market B2B advertising, but not addressing the unique experiences, perspectives, attitudes, and challenges of decision-makers at these companies is really missing out on an opportunity to engage them in a meaningful way. The last question really gets at the heart of the untapped opportunity to market to Hispanic businesses.

To illustrate this, I’ve put together the following Hispanic business pyramid:

There is generally a direct correlation between the size of a Hispanic-business, who runs them, what their immigrant status, and what their acculturation level is.
So what is a B2B marketer to do? I would suggest the following approach:

1. Do some market research and try to figure out whether Hispanic businesses represent 10% or more of your market? (Some simple Census data will do the trick, especially with the “2010 Census Survey of Business Owners – Hispanic Business Owners” coming out in September). If yes, move on to step 2.
2. Figure out what segment of the Hispanic business pyramid you are targeting
3. Delve deeper into your segment and identify key insights among those Hispanic business decision-makers vis-à-vis your products/services
4. Consider customizing your products / services to address the Hispanic insights you have identified
5. Launch digitally driven, integrated advertising programs that allow you to cost-effectively reach and engage Hispanic businesses.

Unfortunately, most companies that have attempted to enter the Hispanic business market (banks, insurance/benefit providers, software companies, etc.) have done little else than simple extensions of their general B2B marketing in the form of sponsorships of local Hispanic chambers/professional/trade organizations and B2B networking events. I’ve seen firsthand the benefits and first-mover advantage reaped by health insurance providers and banks that have followed this approach and truly invested in the Hispanic business market.

Although the research looked at women both in the U.S. and Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil (where they likely represented higher socio-economic demographics), the data on U.S. Hispanic women was particularly interesting:

The most powerful take-away from the research was that “a majority of respondents across the US and Latin America agreed that they trusted comments on social networks more than ads.”

If you took out the words “social networks” out of that statement you wouldn’t find that claim all that interesting – it is consistent with what we know about Hispanics and their strong and influential offline social networks. What this research does show is what many of us have been preaching for the last few years – that offline Hispanic WOM activity is migrating online thanks to the growing omnipresence of social networks in U.S. Hispanics daily lives.

The Hispanic groundswell has arrived…

An encouraging sign that could indicate the economy is on the mend is increased interest from diverse organizations (Fortune 1000, government, non-profit, etc.) in recruitment advertising and outreach.

One area of significant interest is diversity recruitment. More and more organizations in a variety of sectors are beginning to examine ways their staff can represent the changing face of America. Looking at diversity recruitment, heavy emphasis is being placed on reaching qualified Hispanic talent. A number of organizations have mentioned to me Hispanic recruitment is a strategic priority for the next one to five years – particularly companies seeking specialized talent and skill sets, such as recruiting Hispanic STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) professionals.

I don’t think I will offend anyone by stating Hispanic recruitment has been a fairly formulaic business for decades. In most cases, organizations have managed Hispanic recruiting with three tactics:

1. Attendance at Hispanic career fairs / conferences, such as the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) Annual Conference, National Council of La Raza (NCLR) Conference, etc.

2. Participation and sponsorship of Hispanic professional and trade organizations, such as the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting (ALPFA), Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), etc.

3. Placing job postings on Hispanic-focused job boards such as LatPro.com or iHispano.com.

In many cases, these tactics are bundled by one organization – for example, companies recruiting Hispanic MBAs often turn to NSHBMA for sponsorship packages which include a booth at their annual conference job fair and the ability post positions on the NSHMBA job boards.

While the aforementioned tactics remain valid ways to recruit Hispanics, the rapid adoption of digital media – particularly heavy Hispanic social media usage – represents a seismic shift in how companies (and many of the organizations listed above) should approach Hispanic recruitment.

A review of two of the largest social networks in the U.S. – Facebook and LinkedIn – should provide a sense of how social media is changing Hispanic recruitment. Starting with Facebook:

• As of June 2010, Facebook reports they reach 1.4 million Spanish-speaking U.S. Hispanics.

• A quick search of Facebook pages shows there are:
o More than 1,000 “pages” with the word “Hispanic” or “Latino” in their name.
o More than 1,000 “groups” with the word “Hispanic” or “Latino” in their name.
• Facebook ads provide organizations the ability to launch cost-per-click ad campaigns micro-targeted to users based on such metrics as languages spoken, age, likes and interests (e.g. you can reach 60K people ages 30-64, who speak Spanish and have a college degree).

Jumping over to the professional social network LinkedIn reveals equally compelling opportunities:

• Searching “people” with the word “Hispanic” (in their profiles) returns 46,000+ professionals who can be filtered by location, industry, groups, company, seniority level, function and company size.

• There are currently 507 “groups” on LinkedIn with the word “Hispanic” in their name (the largest has 3,602 members).

• There are currently 417 “groups” on LinkedIn with the word “Latino” in their name (the largest has 2,191 members).

• Looing at nationality specific groups, there are as many as 150 Mexican groups, down to two groups for Costa Ricans.

• Linkedin’s Direct Ads platform allows advertisers to target users based on criteria such as age, gender, geography (e.g. a company can easily create ads targeting experienced hi-tech professionals ages 35+ in hi-density Hispanic markets)

These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Twitter, custom social networks (on Ning, etc.), and a variety of other social media platforms present equally compelling opportunities to reach even the most targeted Hispanic groups.

There is obviously more to effective Hispanic recruitment than hyper-targeted media channels or leveraging existing online communities. As with any type of advertising program, research is necessary to identify key insights from which to build Hispanic recruitment messaging and creative. In addition, most organizations already have access to the most important asset in developing effective Hispanic recruitment advertising – Hispanic employees. These assets, as well as leveraging key Hispanic insights, should drive the creation of content and creative that will drive awareness.

However social platforms like the ones previously identified, represent an opportunity to drive engagement through paid and earned media activity. This is critical to effectively activating Hispanic talent and getting the most out of the offline partnerships with organizations and event activations that drive highly successful Hispanic recruitment programs.

AdWeek published an article on their large, integrated, and ambitious social media programs.

Missing from all the buzz is any mention of Hispanic digital media or social media programs. Particularly H&R Block, who is using the Web and social media to answer consumer questions and create an “educational” halo around their service and brand.

Seems like a perfect platform to extend to the Hispanic market through social media, as tax preparation is usually more of a long term relationship based on education and trust in the Hispanic market. Screams social media to me…

I have posted a longer form version of the blog here on ThinkMulticultural.com.

Historically, reaching these diverse audiences has been the sole domain of the traditional media world, particularly Spanish-language TV networks, urban radio, Asian newspapers, and GLBT lifestyle magazines. However, with growth of social media, sparked by the early and sustained growth of blogs and social networks, there has emerged a set of platforms with the potential to drastically change the way these multicultural audiences are reached. Specifically, the opportunity to truly engage multicultural and GLBT audiences in a two-way conversation represents a seismic shift in multicultural marketing and communications.

Looking at the growth of the multicultural and GLBT blogosphere during the last few years provides a unique glimpse into how social media is changing multicultural marketing. In many ways, the growth and establishment of multicultural and GLBT blogospheres represents the emergence of a powerful new group of influencers — individuals going online and sharing their opinions with their friends, family and broader community – that are at their heart of their respective ethnic, lifestyle and immigrant communities.

Sensis agency President and multicultural marketing blogger Jose Villa will be moderating an insightful panel of prominent multicultural and GLBT bloggers at the Blog World Expo tomorrow (Saturday, 10/17 at 3pm) to discuss this powerful marketing medium and how to use it to engage the Hispanic, African American, Asian American and GLBT communities. Panelists include:
• Matt Skallerud of Pink Banana Media, a prominent GLBT blogger and social media expert
• Ana Roca-Castro of Premier Social Media and LATISM, a top Hispanic blogger and social media marketer
• Wayne Sutton, an prominent African American blogger and entrepreneur
• Sumaya Kazi, Executive Director of The CulturalConnect andSenior Social Media Manager at Sun Microsystems, who will be speaking on the Asian blogosphere

The panel will involve a lively discussion of issues such as:
• Are multicultural and GLBT bloggers just a part of the broader fabric of a diverse blogosphere or do they represent unique voices that represent their respective communities?
• What makes multicultural and GLBT bloggers different?

Session attendees will walk away knowing:
• Statistics and trends of the growing multicultural blogosphere.
• Key / influential blogs in these communities.
• How to effectively use social media to influence this population and gain brand ambassadors for your organization.
• The importance of authenticity when interacting with these users via social networking.

Click here for more information on the panel discussion and BlogWorld..

Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of discussion as to how to successfully launch a social media program targeting Hispanics, including what your goals should be and where to start?

I wrote an article for MediaPost’s EngageHispanic column that addresses the tactical approach marketers should take in using social media within the Hispanic market. You can read it by clicking here.

With 40+ pages of data, the Hispanic Fact Pack serves as a great bell weather for the overall Hispanic ad industry.

So I found myself wondering – where is the African American Fact Pack? How about the Asian Fact Pack? I know they are much smaller “industries” within the broader media and advertising markets, but don’t they deserve at least a 10 pager? At last count, there are a couple dozen African American ad agencies and even more Asian ad agencies. I know they don’t have the same number of players on the media side, but there are some significant media companies on the print, radio and even Cable TV fronts serving these markets.

This brings up a broader question – why haven’t these segments been able to create coalitions and aggregate their voices to have the same type of influence enjoyed by Hispanic advertising and media trade groups like AHAA, NAHP, and NAHJ? It can’t just be their market size – as both the African-American and Asian ad industries have seen significant growth buoyed by growing populations. I’d love to hear from African American and Asian advertising and media professionals to get their take.

As a quick update, Project MC has launched a beta network on Ning that you can join at http://projectmc.ning.com/. I joined today, and it appears that the network is still being tested. Other than the Ning beta site, I have not heard or read anything else about Project MC.

Hopefully the group gets off the ground, because I think their mission is relevant considering the state of multicultural advertising. No matter where you come down on the various debates swirling around multicultural advertising, no one can argue that the industry is not rapidly changing. A healthy internal debate and a chorus of voices from the leaders of African-American, Hispanic and Asian agencies are critical at this moment.

In terms of what I can ascertain about Project MC, there are some things I definitely like. Most importantly, I am encouraged to see African-American, Hispanic and Asian shops working together. There is truth in the old saying that there is strength in numbers. Not only do we have a louder voice when we join together, but we can take advantage of the diversity we so often promote – we can learn from our diverse experiences – both successes and failures. Beside the collective power of joining together, I think Muse and his colleagues are going about this project the right way by starting with a social media platform.

However, there are a few issues that I would like to see Project MC address.

First, what is the goal of Project MC? I feel the group needs a clearer, more defined, and ideally quantifiable goal than just “define the importance of [multicultural] agencies.” Do they expect to see ad spend increase by x% by 20xx, etc.?

Also, why aren’t prominent multicultural advertisers more actively involved, particularly on the groundfloor of Project MC? According to the Adweek story the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) is being reached out to, but I would like to see some multicultural leaders within ANA involved in launching the group. It is critically important to make the case for multicultural advertising, particularly with examples of ROI and business success that only advertisers can make.

Finally, Project MC needs a broader, more deliberate social media strategy. They are on the right path with the Ning social network, but they can’t expect the entire initiative to live on Ning. How do they plan on leveraging popular social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and social bookmarking sites that are already part of digital lives of the folks they’re trying to reach?

Project MC holds a lot of promise. I sincerely hope they get traction. There are some importance challenges ahead, not the least of which is addresses their biggest concern – turning dialogue into action!