Latinos Lighting Up Social Media Landscape
Latinos have become the fastest-growing community online, with the number of Latinos using the Internet in the United States predicted to surpass 26 million in 2011.
A budding segment of that community—users of social media—is gaining momentum.
On Jan. 27, organizers of the Hispanic PR & Social Media Conference announced the lineup of speakers for the second annual gathering.
Meanwhile, Latinos in Social Media unveiled the beta launch of its new online gathering place.
The Hispanic Public Relations Association, Hispanicize and the Hispanic PR Blog revealed the roster of Latino social media leaders and bloggers who will be featured at the April 6-8 conference, known as Hispanicize 2011. The event will be in Hollywood, Calif.
Lourdes Rodriguez, president of the Hispanic Public Relations Association’s Los Angeles chapter, said the speakers at the conference “reflect the full spectrum of Latino social media marketing today.”
Among the conference speakers will be:
• Javier Farfan, director of cultural branding at PepsiCo.
• Cristina Alfaro, a communications manager for McDonald’s.
• Russell Bennett, vice president of Latino health solutions at UnitedHealthcare.
• Carla Dodds, director of multicultural marketing for Walmart’s U.S. operations.
• Rosanna Fiske, chair and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America.
• Jose Pinero, director of communications for the TV, video and music division of Microsoft.
• Olga Romero, leader of Hispanic and multicultural PR at Southwest Airlines.
Organizers said Hispanicize 2011 is “blazing a trail” by becoming the first national conference to bring together major Latina and Latino bloggers.
As for the new Latinos in Social Media website, the group said it’s “a centralized platform for expression, support, education, mobilization and promotion of causes.”
“We want our members to be part of our evolution into a full-scale online community that is truly built for and by Latinos,” said Ana Roca-Castro, founder and chair of Latinos in Social Media, known as LATISM. “The new latism.org provides increased flexibility for the future growth of our community as we move ahead into new realms of digital service.”
LATISM said the new site will let Latinos in social media:
• List themselves and their services for free in a searchable database of nearly 100,000 people worldwide.
• Connect their blogs to their LATISM accounts and share them through social media platforms.
• Join LATISM groups based on their interests.
• Organize national and local LATISM initiatives.
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