Hispanic social media continues to be one of the hottest topics in the business of Hispanic marketing. More statistics come out every day about Hispanics and how they use social media. A steady flow of conferences, panel discussions as well as interest from marketers and their agencies have kept the space top of mind for the last 18 months. I wonder if all this excitement is missing the mark because we're still looking at the market from the lens of Hispanic marketing circa 1990?
Let's take a step back and think about why the Hispanic marketing industry exists. Hispanic marketing exists primarily for three reasons:
- Language
- Population size
- Culture
The Spanish language was the original nexus for this industry, and even today, most Hispanic advertising is in Spanish and runs in Spanish-language media. The size of the Hispanic population has elevated it above other ethnic groups in a country of immigrants -- its population growth continues unabated into 2011. Cultural (behavior and belief) differences between Hispanics and mainstream Americans have created challenges for all series of organizations looking to tap into the opportunity of this perpetually emerging market.
However, when we look at social media, do these distinctions between Hispanics and the rest of the U.S. apply? Starting with population size, the market opportunity in social media does appear to be as compelling as in the analog world. Large percentages of Hispanics are online and using social media -- so there is scale to justify the attention. There are plenty of data pointing to the fact that Hispanics tend to have more friends, followers, connections, etc. -- a direct translation of their larger offline social networks. Size alone does not make a market -- a large group of people with Latin surnames using Facebook, Twitter or YouTube is not in itself a marketing opportunity.
So we turn to language. Most online Hispanics are comfortable reading and writing in English. We know half of all U.S. Hispanics were born in the U.S., and with a large youth population, we can infer that more Hispanics will be able to navigate their digital lives in English. Moreover, since social media is in essence an amalgamation of content created by consumers, there are no Spanish-language versions of social networks, micromedia, or video sharing sites. There is no channel 34 of social media.
Lastly, are there cultural -- behavioral and belief -- differences between Hispanics and the mainstream market that result in different social behavior? Can we say that large swaths of 20-30 million Hispanics who are online exhibit some distinct social media behavior that would create an opportunity to connect with them? Do they update their status differently on Facebook or create different tweets? Do they join different groups on LinkedIn or not enjoy watching kitten videos on YouTube as much as everybody else? Do Hispanics view social media differently? Do they read or write blogs for different reasons?
I wonder if these mostly demographic distinctions, which were the basis for the modern Hispanic marketing industry that started in the 1960s, are the right way to approach Hispanic social media. In an environment that empowers consumers to create content and connect with others who share common interests, passions, and experiences, maybe we need to reframe the discussion.
Are we missing the boat by focusing on Hispanic demographic and behavioral distinctions? Is Hispanic social media really all about psychographics -- and tapping into digital psychographic communities?
Let's look at what is distinct about Hispanics in social media. An easy one is that Hispanics are organically part of Hispanic communities online. Stated another way, if you're Hispanic and using social media, you're more likely to have friends, connections, followers, etc., that are Hispanic. So what? Well, there is a network and amplifier effect. Reaching a Hispanic in this environment has the potential to virally reach other Hispanics who are connected to each other.
Digging deeper, there is something even more distinct and powerful about Hispanic social media use -- the ability to connect with others who share similar life experiences and interests. What is the quintessential shared experience among all Hispanics? I would argue that it's the fact that we live in two worlds -- our ethnic world defined by either our parents'/grandparents' home country and our mainstream, American world. This cuts across the Hispanic acculturation spectrum. If you believe that we are the sum of our life experiences, then there is a potentially powerful connection among tens of millions of Hispanics living in the U.S. that social media has the potential to tap into.
Lastly, social media has provided Hispanics with the ability to find and create content that matters to them -- highly niche content beyond the cookie-cutter "Hispanic" content created by Hispanic TV, radio, magazines, and newspapers that was designed to be all things for all Hispanics. Remember, Hispanics are a highly diverse group in the U.S., from 22 different nationalities, who now live across this varied country, who speak differently, eat different foods, and have very different passions. The long-tail world of social media content has created a conduit for these hundreds of Hispanic sub-groups to connect with each other digitally.
So how can marketers and brands successfully utilize social media to reach Hispanics? I will delve into that subject in my next post, where I'll share some interesting new research on our Hispanic Personas project.
COMMENTARY: Jose, my friend, I don't know where you are coming from, but online social networks like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have sizeable hispanic audiences. Hispanics also have several social networks designed for their unique language and cultural needs.
QuePasa, is one of the world’s largest Latino social networks and gaming sites focused on Hispanics and Latin Americans, with options in English and Spanish. Quepasa recently reported that its membership base increased 255% in 2010 to total more than 27.2 million registered users. The site added 2.2 million users and generated 16.4 million unique visits in December 2010, compared to 1.2 million new users and 7.1 million unique visits in December 2009. Page views increased to 184 million page views in December 2010 from 175 million in the previous month.
QuePasa Corporation, the Quepasa site owner, wants to be what's happening for young Latino Web users in the US. The company in 2008 repositioned its QuePasa.com site from that of a Latino Web portal, becoming a social network targeting 18-34 year old Hispanics in the United States. From QuePasa.com's demographics the strategy worked.
The site offers services such as:
- Blogging
- Chat
- User created communities
- Bulletins
- Message boards
- News
- Invites
- Photos
- Music
- Online games (they just recently acquired an online development company)
- Video
Quepasa earns revenue mainly through display advertising on its site. The company also operates adult dating Web site Corazones.com.
This site reaches over 5.8 million monthly people, of which 338K (6%) are in the U.S. The typical visitor visits esmas.com and watches Univision.
I had a look at Quepasa's website traffic and demographics and it's not bad:
Website Traffic
Monthly Traffic
Monthly Traffic
Dat2 | BR | GLOBAL |
---|---|---|
Page Views per Month | 28,285,624 | 117,645,312 |
Average Page Views per Visit | 11.18 | 11.83 |
Visits per Month | 2,529,931 | 9,943,855 |
Cookies per Month | 1,704,399 | 6,622,238 |
Home Traffic | 86% | 86% |
Work/Education Traffic | 14% | 14% |
People per Month | 1,489,537 | 5,767,178 |
Monthly Page Views per Person | 18.99 | 20.40 |
Monthly Visits per Person | 1.70 | 1.72 |
Demographics
Global Traffic Frequency
Business Activity (US)
Business Activity (Global)
The majority of QuePasa.com's audience are from Brazil and Mexico with 22.38% and 14.80% of total monthly visitors respectively. Colombia and the U.S. are next with 6.58% and 6.28% shares respectively.
This is not rocket science, people. Latino's and Brazilian's love to have fun and enjoy life. They are identical in many ways. They work hard too. If you have been to Rio de Janeiro they call themselves Cariocas for a reason. Both take regular siesta's or naps around the middle of the day. The men make love to their women, play with their kids. They normally don't dinner very late, usually around 8:00 p.m. and they party all night. Life is good.
QuePasa.com provides cultural uniqueness. They either speak Spanish or Portuguese, there is no in between. You will not find that on homogeous, culturally diversified social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter. QuePasa.com fills that gap.
Courtesy of an article dated March 4, 2011 appearing in MediaPost Publications Engage:Hispanics
I really do appreciate your feedback. I'm still struggling with the technology but I wish everyone all luck with this competition. I've been pinned down with a sick grandchild and today a very sick daughter - both with gastric flu which afflicts us all at this time of year - so this is the first moment I've had to get to the computer
Posted by: Pandora Charms | 02/16/2012 at 01:01 AM