WAW Recap: Marketing to Hispanics Using Social Media
We jumped a little afield of web analytics at this month’s Columbus Web Analytics Wednesday: Why Marketing to Hispanics Using Social Media works. The event was hosted and sponsored by Social Media Spanish, and it was chock full of good information. Natasha Pongonis and Eric Diaz presented a host of statistics about both the growth of the Hispanic population in the U.S., the many ways that Hispanics are heavier users of social media than the population as a whole, and how smart brands are targeting Hispanics using social media. They posted the full presentation on the Social Media Spanish blog, and it’s definitely worth checking out.
It’s a complex topic, which Natasha Pongonis highlighted early on with this chart (yes, sadly, it’s a pie chart) showing a breakdown of Hispanics in the U.S. (click to view a larger version):
One of the takeaways here was that there are a significant number of American Hispanics who prefer to communicate in English…and a significant number who prefer to communicate in Spanish! Some of the discussion later in the presentation centered on this challenge — simply “targeting Hispanics” is too broad of a classification, as even something as basic as which language to use in that targeting varies!
It’s a challenge: with social media platforms evolving rapidly in conjunction with evolving consumer expectations, marketers are faced with pros and cons of just about any strategy using these tools.
Not only was the content great, but Social Media Spanish secured a great venue, great food, and even a real photographer! I brought my camera, but Alison Horn really took some great shots, which she has posted as a set on Flickr. Check ’em out!
