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.

Next to SXSW, Blogworld is the next biggest media expo on the planet.

The BlogWorld & New Media Expo just happens to be coming to my town this year and submission deadlines were due April 10th.

Here’s what I came up with along with the help of Jennifer Hutchinson of Mami2Mommy:

Curating Culture: Exploring the unique Influence of Latino Bloggers

This session focuses on how Latinos have approached social media from a cultural standpoint and have surpassed their own definition and expectations of what being social Latinos really mean.  Although their common denominator is their Latino-ness, they now find their influence reaching beyond the world of culture, race & identity, and are engaged in the greater world of social media, technology and business.

No need to go into it right now as it has as good a chance as any to be accepted…I will light a vela.

For instance, if you’re in the general market does it make sense to tout you’re Latino-ness?  I’ve met some prominent entrepreneurs who you wouldn’t think were Hispanic because they never talk about it.

However, if you are in the Hispanic market then it may be useful if you specify that you are Latino.

There are extremes to this as well.  How about the case for authoring a book? Do you keep your cultural identity as a moniker or adopt a non-Latino pen name?  Some authors want to sell books and be a successful author, not a successful “Latina author” per se.

It’s interesting how some individuals approach the problem, as well as their thoughts (or no thoughts) on the cultural ramifications.

Do you know any examples of the above?

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.

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?

We’ve all heard the statements:

• There are more Latinos in social media than non-Hispanic Whites

• Mobile internet access is highest among Latinos

• Hispanics purchase more electronic devices than anyone else:

* Digital cameras: 21% vs. 18 %
* Video gaming system: 21% vs. 12%
* MP3 player: 19% vs. 12%
* Advanced cell phone: 19% vs. 13%
* Digital cameras: 21% vs. 18 %
* Video gaming system: 21% vs. 12%
* MP3 player: 19% vs. 12%
* Advanced cell phone: 19% vs. 13%

Around the time the latest mobile report came out touting Hispanics as the largest mobile internet users, I became wary and began to ask: What’s the difference between Latinos and non-Latinos use of the web? From the above, the majority is entertainment.

More questions:

• Is mobile internet access the great equalizer?

• Are Latinos spending more time in entertainment or activities that they can improve their lives?

• What are the youth doing and how will this impact their adult life?

I hope in 2011 we make a second pass on internet statistics, and consider the above.

Better, what companies or organizations will embrace this conversation and spearhead a long term relationship with the Hispanic community? I think this conversation is already happening in many places.

Have you ever seen this question: How do you measure influence or success?

What is really being asked is what makes you happy? Or, by what outcome will you be satisfied?

Maslow

Different blogs have different reasons of purpose, but since I believe everything that we can possibly create or do can be traced back to ourselves, I propose that there may only be 5 (five) reasons a blog exists:

This may seem like a stretch, but hear me out:

1. Self-actualization – artistic, creative, writing blogs
2. Esteem – scholarly, expert blogs
3. Love/belonging – blog groups, hobbies, family
4. Safety – non-profit or blogs centered around causes
5. Physiological – blogs that provide an income, or to court potential mates, causes

Yup, Psych 101.  And if you’re still with me, let’s take another step: A Blogger: Making you see the World their Way = influence. To keep your message going, you’ll need to convince people to keep reading (hopefully, I’m not losing your readership here LOL).

So, we’re looking to fill our ‘needs’ which keeps us happy and hope to wield some degree of influence to continue its propagation.

Simple.

My Reasons

This blog leans toward my perspective on Latino social media as opposed to being an echo chamber (not necessarily a negative thing).  Some posts that I really enjoy writing flop and surprising, others do better than expected. My audience are the governance: They tell me what is wanted via traffic, comments and links – this is inline with some of the reasons why I blog.

Another part is of an artistic nature: It is our function as artists bloggers to make the spectator reader see the world our way, not his way (Adolph Gottlieb – edited).  This is what makes me happy/satisfied.

I think with some bloggers the above is more obvious than others.  If you keep peeling back the layers you can see how this is applies.

What do you think?

I’ve seen more conversation about this online, than on the news.  And this is what I find interesting: the rounds the report is making online vs traditional media.

It will be interesting to watch if the story gets ‘picked up.’

It’s been almost 9 months since I did the first comparison on Twitter Venn for Latino + Hispanic + Mexican to prove that the term Latino is preferred over Hispanic with users on the web (Hispanic is preferred in the ‘real’ world).  The study was to see what term was being used more on Twitter – Latino or Hispanic?  (I threw in ‘Mexican’ in from my experience as a blogger and the knowledge I gained of Mexican bloggers.)

The current results shows an increase on all terms from the initial comparison, and still reflects the same relationships:  ‘Mexican’ is used more than ‘Latino’, and ‘Latino’ used more than ‘Hispanic’ on Twitter.

Although I strongly suspect that these terms are being used more because Twitter’s usage has grown, I can not state it as fact because these charts were done on different days, and at different times.  From my experience, what I do know is those who are Mexican better identify with that term, rather than Latino or Mexican and I’m sure it’s the same with other groups.

I am interested in what you’re conclusions are, or if you’ve seen other data in relation to this.

UPDATE 11/03/2010:  What I failed to mention here is that Mexican may be used more than others because of the immigration situation going on here in the United States.

]]> http://louispagan.com/twitter-venn-mexicans-beat-latinos-and-hispanics/feed/ 11 http://louispagan.com/end-month-post-best-post-of-the-month/ http://louispagan.com/end-month-post-best-post-of-the-month/#comments Mon, 01 Nov 2010 12:56:42 +0000 Louis Pagan http://louispagan.com/?p=2249 Read more...]]> Subtitle: 1, 2, 3, 4…10…20…’tirty

Here are the 10 most popular posts in the last 30 days.