Somewhere, somehow blogs became less sexy in pop-culture.  I can understand why, but as social media matures there will be more.

Here are two new blogs that hit the pavement:

The Orange County Register – It can be difficult for us to connect with each other. So we have created this blog in an effort to help bring together the many segments of Latino Orange County, the many viewpoints and the many experiences.  We want it to become a place where the many voices of Orange County’s Latino communities can be heard, where people can come, exchange information and ideas and get to know each other. We want it, too, to become a welcoming place for anyone who seeks to share the warmth, hospitality and confianza that makes us who we are.  OC Latino Link

El Pasajero – Responding to an increasing Latino population and ridership, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Friday launched “el pasajero”, the nation’s first blog in Spanish from a major transit agency. “We have to recognize that the majority of our customers are Latino,” said Marc Littman of Metro. “We want to put a Latino face on Metro, so people can identify that it’s not just white bureaucrats running this agency.” (A little known fact is that I once had a Transit Blog covering NYC transit – don’t bother searching as it’s down and was a very long time ago.)

One of the highlights of this session was acknowledging the influence of women bloggers over Laitno male bloggers.

Without minimalizing the effort of women I have two thoughts on this:

1) Latino men don’t see blogging as ‘manly’ when I started to blog back in 2003 men ruled the blogosphere, but as more women started to blog maybe the view of blogging being a manly leisure has changed.

2) Related to the above, men are just reading less.  Novel sales for men are down, and men view novels as a feminine past time – think Oprah book club.  In fact, in the 19th century, reading novels were considered a low-status and leisure for women.

Meet the Latino Tech Bloggers

Technology has the potential to make us smarter and faster.  It is the great equalizer.

Latino tech bloggers have used technology to lead a path for their communities to go forward.

Photo courtesy: WiredLatinos

Powerful Insights on How to Use Twitter to Build Followers and Engage with Legions of Latinos

My biggest issue when talking about Twitter is a) not sounding like everyone else b) solidly conveying my ideas in a concrete manner that captures what I do intuitively.

1) Most of my presentation focused on simple SEO techniques that are used to determine the key words people use in their searches.  You better bet that these key words used in search engines are the same terms individuals use in their conversations.  This is how you find your relevant audiences and communities, as well as influencers.

2) I broke down Twitter into it’s simplest aspect.  Twitter mimics conversations in a text format.  If you improve your conversational skills you dually enhance your Twitter relationships.

Let me back up a little.

In October, I talked about the importance of publishing your content on a blog that you own versus a social media site like Facebook or Twitter.  I subtitled the post as “Centralized Me,” to build on the concept of concentrating your content to one main platform.

The Comment’s section of a blog is the site’s social component, for without it a blog is only a new media site with a one way conversation void of reader interaction.

Google Buzz, in essence does to your blog’s comments what other social media sites does to your content – spreads it far and wide.  If readers use Buzz the exposure of your blog will be multiplied, which is every blogger’s dream.  But I have to ask, will those who use Buzz also comment on your blog?

Latino Rebranded integrates a button called TweetMeme and if you look, more people Tweet posts than actually comment.  On Facebook, my followers comment or “like” my blog posts, as well as Networked Blogs – a Facebook application that delivers new posts to people’s inbox and utilizes an RSS feed as well.   Now Buzz, can be added to the list.  (I just had the thought that an opportunity exists for a program to pool together all these outside conversations and dump them into one spot – the Comment section.  Maybe it already exists?)

Taking all of the above into consideration, the ‘push-button’ interaction that they all offer will subtly deter comments because in the mind of the reader they already have commented – in the form a tweet, a buzz or a ‘like’.

I’m not saying to not use any of these services, because they are great tools that leverage your blog’s exposure – and that’s what you want!  But, with the awareness of conversations happening outside your Comment section you can start thinking of ways to harness them for the benefit of your blog.

As you may know, my roots are in the blogsophere, so it’s great to see continuing progression.  Latino blogs moving in upper and cross-lateral directions is great stuff.

BlogWorld 2009 had the innovative idea of hosting a multicultural panel.  A clear sign of vision and pulse of the current situation in the U.S.A.  I had the honor to be invited by Jose Villa from Sensis to represent the fastest growing group both online and offline: The Latino(a)s!

My eyes, ears and mouth were sealed shut.
It’s interesting to see how businesses and marketers are now paying attention to previously ignored niche networks.  By this I specifically mean low-income demographics and urban communities.

There is an entire “sub-culture” of bloggers / twitterers complete with celebrities and household names I had never heard of!

I’m sure this experience will reverberate as more marketers and brands familiarize themselves with these ‘sub-cultures’ (unfortunately termed).  As a matter of fact, there are huge personalities and networks that are prevalent, but sadly unknown because of the unbalance of media attention.

I profit, so therefore YOU are.
Let’s be honest, the only reason why Latinos and other ‘minorities,’ are beginning to see engagement is because of money.  If profit was not desired via the new Latino romance, businesses would not be interested.  It’s a numbers game.

Here’s the twist:  some of these networks are hardened or better…petrified toward the monetization of their efforts.  They are suspicious and bitter because of the lack of attention and throwback that they have unduly swallowed over the years.  This wall of resistance will be undoubtedly be perplexing to the naive marketer.

I would hope that this chip (boulder if you will), on their shoulder can easily be traded for a more valuable token.  Opportunity will be knocking at the door, and it would be smart not to shoo it away.

Best course of action: set sail for the sun.
The challenge here for underdeveloped communities is NOT to rush in and haphazardly connect with businesses, but learn how to elevate themselves on more stable platforms in order to better control these opportunities and leverage their deal making abilities.  It is tenfold more beneficial to become business owners rather than remain consumers. Then, and only then can Latinos participate in economic decision making processes.

MF: How much Latino presence do you think there is currently on the blogosphere?

(…)With all the hype about Twitter and Facebook in the news these days I see little attention given to blogs as opposed to a few short years ago when blogs were all the rage.  Don’t feel sad for blogging though, because blogs hold their own.  Blogs are ubiquitous, and can be found linked to from all social media portals.  They are the tenacious opinion-platforms of individuals who seek to elaborate and communicate their point of view freely and unrestricted.  If that’s not social media, I don’t know what is.

Thanks Maribel.