If you ask a room full of marketers and businesses, why mobile is big you’ll hear about the number of increasing ads being served and new customer acquisition. Walk across the hall to another room full of techies and you’ll get hit over the head with a new way of viewing transportation, the world around you, and productivity tools that begs the question of how you got by without them before.

Here’s a personal reason why mobile is going big: Plenty of times – like right now – I’ll leave my smart phone somewhere while I’m on the computer, and think “I wish I can control my iPhone from my computer.” That notion is HUGE.  Why?  Because, it’s the opposite of how everyone used to think.  In the past, apps were created to control your computer from your phone, but not the other way around.  That’s a 180º turn, and a step up – the step up are all the implications mobile computing offers.

Will mobile replace desktop computing?  Not exactly, but the changes will be evolutionary.

Big companies like IBM and Microsoft are no longer in the forefront of the public’s mind and therefore have lost the influence that they once enjoyed.  The thought here is that mobile apps combined with cloud technologies are where the next game changing technologies exist.  This is a directional change (and leap!)  from desktop computing.  To quote Marshall McLuhan, mobile is a medium that is the message.  The first successful company that can be as flexible as a user with the ability to jump to different devices like a phone, a tablet or a can opener will have their seat at the throne…at least for awhile.

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.

If you’re a blogger or business whose focus is on the Latino market you really need to be at the Hispanice 2011 Latino Social media and Hispanic PR Conference, otherwise I doubt you’re a solid “player,” and are losing a HUGE opportunity.

Just look below at the sick array of brands and businesses that are sponsoring or supporting Hispanicize (and there are a ton more!), not to mention being backed by the Hispanic Public Relations industry.  Latino social media has entered a new beginning, and it’s pretty hardcore.

If this is not your thing, then it’s not your thing.  See you at another event.  But if this is your playground, then you really, really need to go -  tickets are almost sold out!

So if you’re serious about building your business, brand or blog and are concerned more over money, than hanging out in the digital space I hope to see you there.

Check out the official flagship website by the way – Hispanicize, and Facebook page and Twitter.

This track is sponsored by LatinVision, and moderated by Carlos Vasallo. A few of the featured speakers will be Mark López , Head of U.S. Hispanic Audience, Google; Matias Perel, Founder and CEO, Latin3; Giovanni Rodriguez, CMO, BroadVision; Sergio Carrera, General Manager, Televisa Publishing + Digital.

There will be four section to Focus Latino: Introduction, Reaching Latinos Through SEO, Search and Social Media Marketing to Latinos (roundtable), and Analytics for the Latino Market.

View the full agenda.

The beginning was great with early innovations and ballsy moves, but there’s another 80% to engage. So, “be like water” my friends…

(See my comment for some clarification)

Here’s yet another way Latinos are talking on Twitter.

The term #WepaWednesday was created by my friend @MsLatina:

I recently started a new hashtag on Twitter called #WepaWednesday to celebrate all the tweeters, bloggers and events that make us go “WEPA!”

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, “Wepa”, pronounced Weh-Pah, is a Spanish slang word, which originated with Puerto Ricans. It was originally used when dancing Salsa as an exclamation of joy

Adding to that, my interpretation of #WepaWednesday is Latin-izing the popular ‘humpday’ term commonly used for Wednesdays.

If your on Twitter for business don’t be afraid to use this hashtag; think of it as a way to “mix it up” and give a BIG #WepaWednesday to your Latino friends.

Wepa!

No posts today – I’m thinking (which is the same as writing to me anyway), and organizing.

Thinking is solitary, so I’ll share later.

If you have not seen, please go to the Hispanicize site and check out the beta version along with some cool articles. The bilingual posts are great!

You can also check out my post on Social Media Today about the Lack of Latino Attendees at Conferences. Someone brought up a point about light-skin, colorful eyed Latinos who may be there and I may have passed them off as White. Excellent point!!

Until later, my friends.

Given the recent buzz of how Latinos are leveraging social media, it may come as a surprise that they can find the same liberating experience through a large media corporation, namely Fox News Latino.

The social web has penetrated the way we communicate and has empowered the individual; not wanting to be tossed aside, large businesses have adapted these new tools and have learned to bend like reeds in the wind rather than be snapped in half “Fox News Latino has thrown itself into the social media space. The old way of doing things is no longer viable. We can’t sit idly by and expect people to come to our site…we need to bring our content to the online community,” said Adrian Carrasquilo, a writer and social media community manager for FNL.

By distributing their content and interacting on Facebook and Twitter, FNL is playing in the same sandbox that their readers play in. The comments section of their stories encourage feedback, their Facebook page remains open to input, and their presence on the even greater, wider open vacuum better known as Twitter leaves them utterly and intimately engaged with the public. The sensitivity meters are set on high and FNL is listening “We provide slightly different content to each community and post less on Facebook because we know no one wants their newsfeed cluttered,” he said.

There are many passionate Latinos working at FNL who believe what they are doing is valuable for U.S. Latinos “we are inspired by providing something for the Hispanic community in the U.S. and abroad that no one else is doing – news for second and third generation Latinos in English. Every day we are rewarded by being able to cover stories that don’t get as much attention as they should, and it’s a self-fulfilling cycle,” said Francisco Cortes, head manager of Fox News Latino. Francisco has been with Fox News for over 10 years, and over the course of a year he had met with top executives at Fox News and developed the idea of FNL. Francisco constantly praises his team and encourages reader’s input, “The more people we can reach with our stories, the more stories we will be able to unearth and receive from readers as well.”

The proof is in the pudding. Go to Fox News Latino and see for yourself. There are top notch and encompassing stories of interest to the Hispanic community across the United States. Topics range from News, Politics, Sports, and Entertainment with Health, Lifestyle and Español sections. Fox News Latino is positioning itself to be the online voice of Latinos. There is also a soon to be launched Community section which will draw stories from organizations that are doing good things to everyday people who are making a true difference in the lives of Latinos.

It’s encouraging to see the caliber of content produced by FNL, and more so is the opportunity for Latinos at large to participate and influence the type of stories they want to see by taking advantage of the social web. William James, an American philosopher and psychologist said “He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed.” The question now is thrown back to the Latino community: Will they take advantage of a large media corporation courting their input on what Fox News Latino should be?