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.

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.

What should the company do? Obviously, the first step is more research to understand everything about the Hispanic market vis-à-vis this company’s products or services (we’ll call them products for simplicity moving forward). More often than not, we arrive back at where we started – Hispanics are generally unfamiliar with the products or services because they did not use them in their home country and since arriving in the U.S., and without the trusted advice or recommendation of their large network of family and friends, the brand is in what I call the conundrum of the “Hispanic vicious cycle.” The Hispanic vicious cycle is exemplified by a Hispanic consumer who is unfamiliar with a product (or even how to use it or integrate it into their daily life), and therefore does not purchase it, and while they would be willing to try the product if recommended or used by a family member or friend, the fact that their family and friends are also unfamiliar with the product means that they will just continue to never purchase it.

Breaking this vicious cycle can be difficult, but the results can turn the tide and result in a fortuitous cycle, whereby product usage by a small group of Hispanics is amplified by word of mouth recommendations and advice, results in a multiplier effect and potentially rapid growth in the market.

So how does a marketer help their clients break the “Hispanic vicious cycle” and convert it into a positive fortuitous cycle? The answer is to apply a two-part marketing and communications strategy that simultaneously emphasizes trial with word of mouth (“WOM”) activity.

While the exact approach to driving product trials and word of mouth activity in the Hispanic market will vary depending on the particulars of each product, company and industry, there are some general guidelines that can be used as an effective framework. Let’s start by looking at driving trial product consumption.

Driving Trial Activity

There are numerous tactics and vehicles that marketers can use to generate product trials, ranging from online coupons, to street-level hand-outs to direct mail and in-store trials. More important than the vehicle for delivering the trial is providing a culturally relevant context in which to try to the product. For instance, trying to get Hispanics to try a new instant coffee product will need to be positioned and “sold” in the context of how most Hispanics consume coffee– for instance, mixing it with milk instead of water (resulting in some variation of “café con leche”). The context of the trial activation will have to be adjusted to cultural tendencies of the Hispanic market. This context will involve everything from the messaging on the trial materials, to whom, and when and where the trial is offered.

Building a Word of Mouth Campaign

Simultaneously, to flip the Hispanic vicious cycle into a fortuitous cycle, an effective word of mouth strategy needs to be developed and executed. Word of mouth marketing it neither new or unique to the Hispanic market. However, most marketers, particularly ad agencies, have a difficult time adjusting their marketing programs to drive real word of mouth activity. This is because effective WOM marketing starts with sparking conversations. Not simply driving awareness or even trial – but actually getting people to talk about a brand, product or service. How do we do that in the Hispanic market?

Insights. It starts with identifying the key insights that will get Hispanics to talk about the product. This is where great planners and strategists dig deep to uncover strategic insights that contribute to the idea – the sound, motivating, and relevant thought to be communicated. But that’s not enough – the insights will drive the messaging, but what and who will generate that spark – the one that starts that real, invaluable conversation and fortuitous cycle of Hispanic WOM activity?

Influencers. The “who” that is critical to igniting conversations are Hispanic Influencers – people who:
1) have high social influence and are effective communicators
2) enjoy new things and have a propensity to trial new products
3) have social networks 3-6 times larger than the overall Hispanic population
Research can help create a profile of Influencers that includes demographic, influencing, and personality type characteristics. These are the people to focus on to “seed” conversations. So how do you reach them?

Generating the Spark. The best ways to spark conversations is not with traditional, broad reach media (which has an important role in providing “air cover” when budgets allow), but with digital media, social media and experiential programs. Digital media allows a marketer to target consumers with the type of precision that is necessary to pinpoint and reach Hispanic Influencers. For instance, a media buy can be placed targeting 25-34 year old Spanish-dominant Hispanic moms, living in certain ZIP codes with social networks of more than 200 people. Social media tactics and programs allow Influencers, and then other consumers, to virally spread information at the click of a “POST.” Experiential marketing provides the opportunity for one-to-one interaction with Influencers and closes the gap on technology usage.

While this Trial and Word of Mouth approach is hardly the norm in Hispanic marketing today, I see it becoming the future of our industry. The writing is on the wall as the U.S. Hispanic market continues to grow, with more companies competing for Hispanic consumer pocketbooks, combined with trends towards tighter advertising budgets, greater marketer emphasis on ROI, and increasing prominence of social media activity.

(a summarized version of this article was published on MediaPost EngageHispanic on November 5, 2009)

It is all over the news that there was a shooting incident today at Ft. Hood outside of Killeen, TX.

The interesting social media story is that within hours, if not minutes, of the shootings the Austin American-Statesman set up a Twitter account called @FtHoodShootings to cover the news of the event.

In less than two hours they have almost 2000 followers.

Much like URLs, the Twitter land grab has started and will only accelerate. As events happen or stars become famous, people will move quickly to snatch up Twitter accounts with relevant names. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

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.

While this isn’t a new trend, it was, for the most part, a trend that did not seep over into the multicultural marketing industry.

However, that is starting to change. I feel like every conference or event I go to these days is filled with 20-50 [fill-in the market here] social media experts.

So how do separate the wannabes from the real experts?

A couple of questions to ask and look out for in evaluating so called “Social Media Experts:”

1. Do they have actual CLIENT social media program experience vs. simply PERSONAL experience derived from their own Twittering, Facebook wall posts and blog posts?

2. Are they selling social media programs as finite campaigns (e.g. a Facebook fan page to go with a 4 month paid media campaign?). If yes, this is a red flag.

3. Do they have experience in launching social media campaigns for clients that involve more than a Twitter feed, Facebook Group/Fan page, YouTube channel, and/or Ning social network?

4. How well versed are they in implementing tracking, dashboards and analytics tying social media efforts back to concrete business goal, results and providing clear ROI?

5. Do they have experience running social media programs in complicated client environments with significant exposure to liability (e.g. Fortune 1000 companies, CPGs, regulated industries, government agencies, etc.)?

Start with question #1, and if they pass the mustard on all five questions, you know you’re talking to someone with valuable experience and insights

In terms of multicultural social media experts, use the same criteria listed above but in the context of real-life client experience with social media programs targeted to specific multicultural audiences. Multicultural social media programs are a recent phenomena, so be suspicious of anyone who claims 4 years of experience reach Hispanics or African Americans with social media!

Most people get over that phase pretty quickly as they figure things out. However, we all have one or two friends who ten years later are still forwarding stuff. It’s usually a good friend or relative so you can’t add them to your spam filter. For the most part you learn to ignore them and automatically delete every email they send. Sometimes this causes me to miss a real email from them, but I can’t be blamed for that – looking for real content in the flood of FWD garbage is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Twitter is getting that way now. People are seeing tweets they like and re-tweeting immediately. It’s really easy with apps like TweetDeck that have a RT button.

The problem is that you and your friends and people in your industry follow a lot of the same tweeters, so if you all RT something, you’re just sending it back and forth to each other. It’s an even bigger problem if you’re following a hashtag and people start to RT messages with that tag.

So the point is this: Some things are interesting and worth forwarding, re-tweeting, or calling everybody you know and telling them about it, but not everything you hear that may be a little clever or interesting needs to be re-sent.

Next time, instead of reaching for the RT button, maybe think about what you just saw and whether you can digest it a little and add something new to the conversation, rather than just FWD it along.