Tweet This post originally appeared on Acento.com Just over one year ago, the hottest device since the laptop – the iPad – first launched. One of the first websites the Acento Team checked (probably like many of you) was our own flash-based agency website – Acento.com. We discovered (as expected) that it appeared as a blank page. Steve Jobs famously attacked Flash, promising that his devices would never accept the Adobe-owned development platform. The Web was in transition (again). Gone were the desktops and even

Tweet This article originally appeared on MediaPost. How should marketers customize a Facebook initiative for the U.S. Hispanic market? State Farm’s Aymee Zubizarreta answered that question during our recent conversation about how the insurance giant found its voice and connected to its Latino audience with content about music, family and culture on the leading social network. Q: This past April, State Farm became the first national insurance company to create a bilingual (English, Spanish) social networking site for Latinos. Why did State Farm launch a

Tweet “Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent,” Steve Martin said, who recently released his 8th book – An Object of Beauty. Writing a book requires a great deal of persistence. But what about promoting it? I was surprised by how much persistence and work was needed after my book was completed. That’s what this third post in a series is about: how to promote your book. The first post discussed how to find a publisher or self-publish. The second post discussed how to

Tweet The following article first appeared on Fox News Latino. For years, Latinos have been held back by the “digital divide,” an information and technology gap relative to wealthier audiences that enjoy greater access to expensive computers and broadband connections. But two Internet trends will close that gap in 2011 and beyond: mobile and social media. In fact, experts predict that Hispanics could actually become leaders in adoption of new technology. Today, we still see a digital divide in home computer ownership. Six out of

Tweet This article originally appeared on MediaPost. Last week, the leading advertisers convened in Miami for the ANA’s annual Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference. Historically, Hispanic, African-American and Asian-American marketers have fought hard for budgets even though demographic trends point to the fact that today’s minorities will become the majority in the coming decades. Hence, the summit was subtitled, “Multicultural – The New Mainstream.” One marketer who clearly sees the growth of multicultural audiences converging with the growth of social media is McDonald’s. Rick Wion,

Tweet How can you incorporate social media into your marketing communications? Here’s a perfect example of how to do that. Juan Antonio Vargas Barraza, a PhD candidate in marketing communications at the University of Madrid and University of Guadalajara, showed me these two videos on YouTube from his home country of Mexico. The first video shows a young teenager taunting his chubby friend while attempting to cross a stream, walking across a makeshift bridge. A third friend videotaped these two, documenting the fat kid’s unfortunate

Tweet Following is a preview of Latino Link: Building brands online with Hispanic communities and content from Paramount Books. Larry Hernandez oftentimes wears a cowboy hat when he sings his brand of Northern Mexican Ranchera music. He uploads videos to his YouTube channel from his concerts or his daily, personal life when he walks around the towns he visits, doing something funny. In this manner, he constantly keeps in touch with his audience. Fans return to his YouTube channel often to watch his videos and

Tweet This article originally appeared on MediaPost and is a preview of Latino Link: Building brands online with Hispanic communities and content from Paramount Books. After reading Felipe Korzenny’s and Lee Vann’s column about Hispanics’ adoption of social media relative to other ethnic demographics, a question came to mind: how will social networks affect the acculturation process among Hispanics? The ability to keep in touch with family and friends from countries-of-origin via email, Skype and online newspapers back home makes it easier than ever. Travel

Tweet After reading Max Kalehoff’s column on MediaPost “Are Social-Media Experts Snake-Oil Salesmen?” (playing off of Business Week’s article “Beware Social Media Snake Oil”) you may wonder where the hype ends and the reality begins for social media marketing. A few weeks back, I had the chance to see Sally Falkow of Proactive Report present “Social Media: Moving Beyond Trial and Error” at the University of Chicago’s Gleacher Center. Of all of the self-proclaimed “social media experts” (e.g. snake-oil salesmen), Sally brings seriousness to the

Tweet Scott Monty gave an insightful keynote presentation at the OMMA conference last week about how Ford uses social media to listen and respond to its customers.  Check out his presentation below and their Fiesta Movement social media site where 100 “agents” document their 6-month trial of a Ford Fiesta via Flickr, Twitter, blogs, etc. Zero to 60: Social Media Strategy via Ford [Keynote - OMMA Global 2009] View more presentations from Scott Monty.