Hispanics less affected by recession, buying power still soaring
July 7th, 2009

An article by Arizonian Jack Dunning explains why Hispanics have been less affected by the recession than other non-Hispanic Americans. Using recent studies by Univision and the Pew Hispanics, he points to some results:

Just 45 percent of Hispanics carry credit cards compared to 71 percent for non-Hispanics. And even a lesser amount take out loans, only 34 percent versus 53 percent for non-Hispanics. They shop more frequently than non-Hispanics, take more brand prescriptions, and pay more attention to advertising.

With less credit cards and loans comes less debt. And because Hispanics are more likely to rent homes than to own (44% vs. 23%), they have been less affected by foreclosures.

All of these reasons might be why Hispanics are more optimistic about the state of the economy than non-Hispanics, and a reason why Hispanics are more willing to spend. Buying power for Hispanics is increasing at twice the rate of non-Hispanics, and it’s impossible for companies and advertisers not to take notice. Simply translating marketing materials (Hispanics are 38% more likely to buy from an advertiser than non-Hispanics [Index 131 to 95], according to Univision) will bring your business one step closer to accessing a powerful sector of the U.S. economy.

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5 Trends That Will Shape Small Business in 2010

2009 was a pretty wild year in the world of marketing. While social media was building up steam in previous years, it pretty much went mainstream this past year. In fact, many businesses became fatigued from hearing so much about Twitter, Facebook, and social media in general.

As the hype settled and people began to understand how to use and integrate these new platforms, more change was brewing. The evolution that was social media in 2009 set the table for the realization of some significant trends to bubble up into the world of small business in 2010.

The groundwork for some of these trends has been in place for years, but I think we will see small business owners finally start to embrace the following five significant expansions in the New Year.

1) Real time is big time
At some point in 2010, all search results will consist of real-time information, scores, reviews, tweets and all, right there and up to the minute. We’re addicted to up to the minute connection and we want more. It’s kind of like the Meryl Streep line in Postcards from the Edge, “Instant gratification isn’t fast enough.”
Most everything we do will be instant. Google Wave wants to introduce real-time collaboration.
An iPhone app called Shazam will tell me the name of the song playing on a coffee shop stereo right now. Oh, and I can buy it on iTunes, right now too.
Another, called Red Laser, will tell me where to get an item from a photo. It will also give me the best price available for the item anywhere, right now, from a bar code scan.

2) Location as plumbing
Imagine standing on a hill overlooking the downtown skyline and pointing the camera on your phone in any direction and getting a full tour of what you are looking at, including restaurant recommendations from friends in your favorite social network.

Walk into a museum, plug in your headphones and point your phone at a painting or sculpture. Then, read about it while a video interview from an expert on the artist loads.

Augmented reality and location aware services have been around for a while. Now that Facebook and Twitter are starting to play with geo-location for tweets and update, enabled by the GPS technology on most every new phone, look out, it’s going to tip.

Location sharing services like Foursquare, Loopt and Google Latitude, are already receiving mainstream media mention. It won’t be long before every rating and review site, such as Yelp! and Insider Pages, build this into the foundation and push coupons and discounts out to you based on location.

Anywhere you go you will be able to locate friends nearby or the location of every Twitter follower in a city you are visiting.

Your location, or that of your customers and prospects, will become another data point in the marketing mix.

3) Filtering gets social
Having access to vast amounts of information in real-time and the stores of data from throughout history are both a good thing and a bit of a curse. While we can now find the answer to just about any query, we are pummeled with so much information that we cannot sift through the good and bad and true and false.

Filtering and aggregating information became a valuable skill in the last few years as tools like RSS readers and search alerts allowed us to subscribe to and collect the information we wanted to read most.

I believe in the coming year another layer of filtering will become just as important as search engine optimization. Look to see search results peppered with recommendations from our social contacts.

When you search for the best attorney in town, a good movie or the best place to get some authentic TexMex, not only will you see the organic search results earned through Google’s algorithm, you’ll also see what your friend Jimmy had to say about such things.

Social search has the ability to eclipse the value of traditional SEO efforts. As more and more information is added to your social graph, I believe recommendations from trusted sources in your networks will carry significantly more impact in some cases than the results that reach the top spots in organic search.

4) Kitchen sink on the cloud
Will desktop applications and computing become a thing of the past? While not completely, 2010 looks like the year that small businesses will truly embrace applications that exist online only.

Entire software suites such as Google Apps and Microsoft Office Live will finally allow document, spreadsheet, database, and presentation software to function as Internet applications at greatly reduced costs and ultimate real time collaboration.

File sharing and storage, including total file backup from tools like Dropbox and Mozy, will become standard in the small business toolbox.

Project, task, scheduling and collaboration of all manners have made a dramatic move to the web with tools like CentralDesktop and Backpack, as remote workers and a global supply chain have dictated. Look for these kinds of tools to be routinely used as client service tools that eliminate the need to drive a few blocks to consult.

Online meeting tools like GoToMeeting, WebEx and even Skype, with video, will continue to allow people to connect in richer ways online.

The sacred cow of the desktop, financial data will finally move online completely as QuickBooks Online. Tools like Freshbooks make it very easy to do bookkeeping online while providing secure access for financial employees and outside accounting resources.

5) Fusion boosts offline
While the entire focus of this article to this point has been about changes online, the mantra for 2010 will be the convergence of online and offline for the greatest leverage.

No matter how wired we get as a society and business, there will always be a need for face to fact trust, building engagement. Now that small businesses have moved more online, the smart play will be to find the best ways to fuse the online and offline activates in ways that make the return on both even greater.

While LinkedIn and Facebook may be great places to find prospects and create awareness, they are not always the best platforms to build relationships deep enough to create a sale.

Using these platforms to create awareness for content that resides on your web site or to drive people to events where they can learn and network in person, will become an essential part of the marketing process.

In addition, using online tools such as Twitter and Biznik to further facilitate existing in person relationships, will become another tool that small businesses will add to their competitive arsenal. Now when a member of your sales team meets a prospect at a Chamber of Commerce function, they may follow them on Twitter and invite them to connect on LinkedIn as a matter of process and as a way to more easily communicate, refer and connect, all apart of the trust building cycle.

Elements of these trends have been brewing for some time and adoption of any trend generally happens over time and almost immeasurably. However, now is the time to analyze the impact these ideas may have on your business this year and into the future.

John Jantsch is a marketing and digital technology coach, award winning social media publisher and author of Duct Tape Marketing.

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Google announced the deal with Twitter, showing off how it has decided to present real-time Internet content within search results.

This means that when you do a search, you will receive website results as well as social media results such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. For the moment, it’s currently mostly seen with very popular topics but make no mistake, it will eventually be integrated for every search.
All users may not see the new section immediately.

“Google will build a section called “latest results” into the regular Google search results page that automatically refreshes Internet content from sources like Twitter. Singhal showed off how a search for “Obama” would bring up tweets, Web pages, and other Internet content related to the president as it was generated. At the Web 2.0 conference in October, Google struck a deal with Twitter to get access to the service’s “firehose” of tweets. ”

The paragraph above is from the CNET News article. Read the entire article for full details.

Are you still thinking if Social Media is right for your business ?

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Many small business owners are already on Facebook. But to really understand the potential of facebook, starting a Fan Page for your business may be your answer. But how can you use a Fan Page to achieve fantastic results?

Top 5 Ways to Leverage Facebook Fan Pages
Posted by Social Media Expert at 3 December, 2009, 9:41 pm

1) The first way to leverage Fan Pages is to set up your Page for success. One of the first things you need to do when you set up a new Page is to give it a title. A tip with this is to think about using keywords related to your business that you would like to be found for. You also want to choose a good, clear photo for your Page. Another thing to note is to make sure you have filled out the Info tab on your Page thoroughly with all the relevant information about your business.

2) The second way to leverage Fan Pages is to build your Fan base. You have to be a little proactive about getting Fans, especially when your Page is new. An easy way to invite people is to use the “Suggest to Friends” link underneath the picture on your Fan Page. Facebook will then pull up a list of your Facebook friends and you would just click on the ones you want to send invitations to. You’ll want to consider people like former and current clients, people you’ve partnered with in your business, vendors you work with, people who you know have purchased from you before, etc.

3) The third way to leverage Fan Pages is to interact and engage with your Fans. Once you have some supporters of your Page, you want to encourage more dialogue and interaction between yourself and them and even among each other. The biggest impact comes from simply having conversations with people. One thing that I do on my Page is to just ask open-ended questions. Asking people to share experiences is another great way to get a dialogue going.

4) The fourth way to leverage Fan Pages is to provide good content. Offering regular content will naturally encourage interaction because you are giving people something to respond to. You don’t need to come up with all the content yourself, either. You might just link to an interesting article or blog post you have found on the web related to your business or industry. What content like this does is attract comments from your Fans, which is activity that in turn goes out into the News Feed. The more activity on your Page then, the more attention to your Page you have a chance of attracting.

5) The fifth way to leverage Fan Pages is to use them to drive traffic to and from your blog or website. To do this, you definitely want to list your website in the Info section, and you also want to share links in your updates to your own site. You can also use an application like Notes to enter your blog feed so that it pulls your posts into your Page. You also want to add your URL to your email signature, and use the free badges and widgets Facebook provides that you can add to your website. You can check out faceboook.com/facebook-widgets for those. Once you have something like this on your site, visitors can just click on it and they will land on your Page where they can become a fan.

So, if you don’t have a Page yet, head over to facebook.com/pages/create.php and start one now. If you do have one set up, use these tips to help make your Page stand out, get noticed, and become a helpful destination for all of your raving Fans.

Please contact us today for more information about Social Media for Small Businesses

Citi Mobile en Espanol Spanish Smartphones

Hispanic consumers now have even more options when it comes to their everyday banking. Citibank has just launched Citi Mobile en Espanol to enable customers who prefer to bank in Spanish to do so from their smartphones. The Spanish-language service lets customers manage their accounts, pay bills, locate Citibank branches and more – all from the convenience of their cell phones. Citibank is the first major U.S. bank to offer mobile banking in Spanish.

“Citi Mobile en Espanol offers our Spanish speaking customers the ability to bank anywhere, anytime on their smartphones,” said Liza Landsman, Executive Vice President, North America Internet & Mobile, Citi. “With Hispanic customers making up almost one-quarter of our customer base, the service makes banking even easier for this important and growing audience.”

Hispanics are among the most active mobile Web users in the United States. According to a recent independent report on Wireless Internet Use from Pew Research, nearly one-half of English-speaking Hispanic consumers reported accessing the Internet via a handheld device in 2009.(i) Of these consumers, about 29 percent reported going online “on a typical day” through a mobile device.(ii)

Citi Mobile en Espanol mirrors the functionality of the English-language Citi Mobile for Smartphones. It is accessed via the same convenient URL as the English version, http://www.citi.com/, from any mobile device. Using Citi Mobile en Espanol, users of web-enabled mobile devices including BlackBerry® smartphones, Palm® devices and iPhone(TM) devices can easily do all of the following in Spanish:

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Why we are not marketing to Hispanics effectively? By Halim Trujillo

In 1955, Raul Cortez launched Channel 41 (KCOR-TV) in San Antonio, Texas and in 1962, SIN (Spanish International Network) was created by Emilio Nicolas Sr., Emilio Azcarraga Vidaurreta and other visionaries. Since then, Hispanic advertising has only been a matter of language and culture. Today, in the realm of the 2010 census, and with the level of information that we have access to -regarding Hispanic consumers- we know it is no longer only a matter of language and culture but also of many other things in between.

Unfortunately, few people in our industry understand that the market has changed and that it is not only about advertising to Hispanics in Spanish language but also in English or in both languages at times. Everyone talks about the importance of acculturation among Hispanics but very few understand what it really means, while others just like to say that we need to start looking beyond acculturation. Do they really understand what beyond acculturation stands for?

For the last six years, I have seen many Hispanic agencies masking the truth about marketing to Hispanics and telling their clients that advertising in Spanish is a “must” even if they are trying to reach young or bilingual Hispanics. The reason behind this is their fear to disappear; however, these Hispanic agencies should know that they will continue to exist as long as Hispanics continue to live and breed in the U.S. and as long as their agencies move in the same direction that the Hispanic market is moving. Keep in mind that it’s a matter of culture and no one understands the Hispanic cultural cues like those Hispanic ad agencies that are truly immersed in the culture and play an active role in it.

If the ad industry took more time to read the information that the Pew Hispanic Center, the U.S. Census and other sources release -almost every week or at least once a month- regarding the evolution of the Hispanic market, there would be a better understanding of the importance and relevance of English language among Hispanics as well as other variables that are often ignored.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, the migration of Mexicans into the U.S. has declined by almost 40% between February 2006 and February 2009. Nevertheless, the number of Mexicans going back to Mexico -during the same time period- has remained almost flat. What this means is that a large number of Hispanics from Mexico are now moving to the U.S. to settle, opposed to the popular belief that most recent arrivals are here as seasonal workers or are coming to save enough money to build a house back home and then return to their countries.

When we look at the figures regarding Hispanic children and their generational background, we see that the numbers have changed drastically in the last 27 years. These figures now reflect the fact that Hispanics are settling in the U.S. to put down roots and start a family. Hispanic children now account for 22% of all children under the age of 18 in the U.S. In 1980, the majority of Hispanic children (57%) were Third generation Hispanics -U.S. born with both parents born in the U.S.- and 30% were Second generation -U.S. born with at least one parent being foreign-born.

However, in 2007 the majority (52%) are now Second generation and only 37% are Third generation. This translates into a higher likelihood of bilingualism across Second generation Hispanic children.

Now, it’s also very important that we all understand what being bilingual means. By definition, being bilingual means that one can speak two languages with the same proficiency. However, being truly bilingual means that one can speak, read and write two languages with the same proficiency.

Unfortunately, there is no source out there that would tell us what is the percentage of Hispanics that are bilingual, truly bilingual and the percentage of those that might just be somewhat bilingual but still claim to be bilingual. As you can see, we are missing something that drastically impacts how we talk to bilingual Hispanic consumers.

Additionally, from a socio-economic standpoint, we are also missing important aspects. We all talk about where Hispanics fall in terms of income brackets, college education, acculturation and buying power; however, no one really worries about how Hispanics will vary based on their social background, their motivation for migration and their migratory status. If we were to include these and other variables into the marketing equation, we would be able to easily identify six to eight different archetypes for Hispanics.

If we started using these archetypes in our target definition and in the development of our Hispanic marketing strategy, we would note important differences in terms of media consumption, language preference, shopping behavior, attitudes, passion points, brand preference and cultural-connectivity between them.

In a nutshell, Hispanics are not being reached effectively because most agencies and marketers are solely focusing on language and/or culture. However, if we truly start unmasking other aspects of their lives, we can be more effective in connecting with their core.

Contact us today for more information about hispanic internet marketing.

You can read the complete article at: http://searchengineland.com/yahoo-launches-mobile-site-en-espanol-29704

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I just read the following article, that explains how two preschools in South Florida are using social media to give their students new experiences in learning.

Social media influencing Jewish education at Boca, Weston temples
Two South Florida synagogues are using social media to give their students new experiences in learning.
Preschoolers at Congregation B’nai Israel in Boca Raton will soon be joining the blogosphere. And at Temple Dor Dorim in Weston, students will use computer software and a camera to talk with children in Israel.
Read More

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You can read the full article:
Coca-Cola targets local Hispanic market, features Mexican soccer player on outdoor ads

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