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 While doing research for my book – Latino Link – I ran into one of my old co-workers and friends by happenstance, Tamara de Anda, during a trip to Mexico. Here we are at Café de Carlo in the Roma neighborhood of Mexico City. She is one of my favorite bloggers/tweeters in Spanish who writes by the name “Plaqueta.” Her blogging style reminds me of Seinfeld in that she writes about “nothing,” or really everyday life in Mexico City – the places she goes,

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.

Tweet My friend David Berkowitz told me about a new white paper that his agency – 360i – recently launched: 2009 Social Marketing Playbook. It highlights four questions that all marketers should ask when putting together a social marketing campaign: 1) Does the opportunity meet your brand’s objectives? 2) Does the opportunity leverage your brand’s existing arsenal of assets? 3) Does the opportunity abide by the social media rules of the road? 4) Does it provide significant value exchange? In addition, the playbook features social

Tweet Well here is a Catch-22 of social media.  AdAge reported that Ted McConnell, general manager-interactive marketing and innovation at P&G, questioned Facebook‘s potential as a marketing platform saying “What in heaven’s name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?” And also this week, the Mommy mini-bloggers of Twitter criticized Motrin’s new marketing message so harshly that McNeil Consumer Healthcare pulled the entire media campaign because of the criticism on the mini-blogging site. So,

Tweet What’s the difference between blogs and regular websites nowadays? It seems not much anymore. As Richard Jalichandra, the CEO of Technorati, said here “It’s getting harder and harder to define. Many mainstream media sites are adding blogs and blogging styles into their mix, many of the larger blogs are taking on features of mainstream sites and some blogs have transformed into full-blown mainstream media sites themselves with editorial staffs and business functions.” And with so many blogs out there and the barrier to entry

Tweet Take a look at the list of Olympic Games host cities and you’ll notice that they are a mostly Euro-centric bunch, with Japan and Korea being notable exceptions. For the 1968 games however, the Olympic Committee made a controversial choice to host the games in Mexico City, not only because of its high altitude but also because it was the first host city in a Spanish-speaking and third-world country. Sadly, the games were preceded by the massacre of Tlatelolco (also known as the Plaza