1. Audit: Trends & Research A Look at African American and Hispanic Social Networking Usage 952538735General Demographics Social network users are equally likely to be men and women, but are more likely to be young: 75% of online adults between ages 18 and 24 have a social network profile, as do 57% of wired adults between ages 25 and 34. Profile ownership drops to 30% among 35-44 year olds, 19% among 45-54 year olds, 10% among 55 to 64 year olds and 7% of online adults 65 and older. Similarly, social network users are also more likely to be students -- 68% of full time students and 71% of part-time students have a social network profile, while just 28% of adults who are not students use social networks. Whites are less likely than African-Americans or Hispanics to have a profile on an online social network. Nearly one third 31% of online white adults have a social networking profile, compared with 43% of African-Americans and 48% of Hispanics Read the full report at pewinternet.org More Demographics From a recent survey… 85% of adults age 18-24 said they would visit a social-networking site. The second highest percentage among age groups was for those 25-34 (74%). Those over age 65 had the lowest likelihood (32%) of visiting a social-networking site. Those with children under 18 living in their households are more likely than those without children to visit a social-networking site (65% versus 51%). College graduates are less likely than high-school graduates and those who have not completed college to visit social-networking sites (48% versus 60%). Non-Caucasian consumers (Hispanic and African Americans) remain more likely than Caucasians to participate in social-networking site activities (73% versus 49%). Hispanics are more likely than Caucasians to download coupons (34% versus 23%), post videos (30% versus 11%), and buy products (24% versus 14%). African American Trends & Research Smartphones increase African American use of the Web “Use of the Internet on mobile devices has grown sharply from the end of 2007 to the beginning of 2009,” with 56 percent of Americans saying that have “at some point used wireless means for online access,” the Pew Center said. The research shows African-Americans are the most active users of the mobile Internet and their use of it is also growing the fastest: Forty-eight percent of African-Americans have at one time used their mobile device to access the Internet for information, e-mailing or instant messaging, half again the national average of 32 percent. Twenty-nine percent of African-Americans use the Internet on their handheld on an average day, also about half again the national average of 19 percent. Compared with 2007, when 12 percent of African-Americans used the Internet on their mobile on the average day, use of the mobile internet is up by 141 percent. The high level of activity among African Americans on mobile devices helps offset lower levels of access tools that have been traditional onramps to the internet, namely desktop computers, laptops and home-broadband connections. By a 59%-to-45% margin, white Americans are more likely to go online using a computer on a typical day than African Americans. When mobile devices are included in the mix, the gap is cut in half; 61% of whites go online on the average day when mobile access is included, while 54% of African Americans do. Looking across a range of digital activities — some done online typically using a computer and others being non-voice data activities on a mobile device — African American and white Americans, on average, do the same number of activities. So if you are looking to reach African Americans, mobile needs to be a part of your PR plan. Hispanic Trends & Research Market Intelligence: 7 Questions About Social Networking Sites Targeting Latinos Mar. 18, 2009 1. What new players have recently entered in this sector? In the last three weeks two players made significant moves. Bebo announced that it is expanding into the Hispanic market by partnering with eight-year old sister network AOL Latino as well as Hearst Digital, which will provide video, photos, polls and various content from its MisQuinceMag.com site.In addition, Mio.TV bought Spanish Social Network Wamba.com. Mio.tv’s aim now is to reach more than 50 million Latinos in Europe and the Americas with its video, games and social networking facilities—a goal given an instant boost by Wamba’s 8.4 million users, mainly in Spain and Mexico. Mio.tv aims to become the default bilingual online portal for the millions of latinos on the web, offering a slew of online video channels, gaming, social networks and communication services. Last year, Radio One purchased Social Networking site Migente.com’s parent company Community Connect Inc.,(CCI) which also owns Black Planet and Asian Avenue for $38 million. Radio One announced that the purchase of CCI was meant to diversify outside of radio broadcasting, and cash in on social network advertising revenues, which E-marketer predicts will reach $4.1 billion annually by 2011. 2. Are there the same players in the Hispanic market as in the U.S. general markets?What is interesting is that the players that are active in the Hispanic and Latin American markets sometimes differ from the major players in the U.S. market (MySpace and Facebook). 3. Is there a rationale for Hispanic specific Social Networking Sites?There is a clear demographic imperative for Media companies to target multicultural audiences via Social Networking sites: Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders collectively will outnumber Whites by the year 2042. In fact, among children, major users of social networking sites, under the age of 18, they'll outnumber Whites by 2023. But cant general market social networking sites meet that demand? Yes, if you look at the fact that MySpace Latino and Facebook lead in the ranking with social networking sites with most Latino users. However, as the market evolves and more Hispanics go online that may change. According to Juan Alduncin, president of Panamerican Media, a firm that sells online advertising for major portals, including QuePasa.com, Hispanics have specific cultural demands and ways of communicating and a social network exclusively targeting them can best meet that demand.One specific demand is in the realm of music, Hispanic social networking site QuePasa is currently negotiating with a major music library provider in order to distribute that content over its website. QuePasa has more than 8,000 communities (forums around particular topics) created by its more than 400,000 U.S Hispanic users (according to ComScore). Advertising in community sites can be sold at high CPM´s because the audience is very defined.Other Hispanic social networking players include MyGrito.com, LatinosConnected, MiGente and Salsalicio.us. Table: Top 3 Reasons to Buy Media in Hispanic Social Networks 1. Hispanic SNW sites cater to different demographics within the Hispanic market2. Large number of users actively engaged with the content3. Advertising viewed on friend’s page adds word-of-mouth credibility 4. Music seems to play an important role….Yes, another online media company with a strong social networking component is Batanga. Batanga.com features a large collection of streaming Latin content with exclusive online radio stations, on-demand music videos, lifestyle news and gossip from the Latin entertainment world. As QuePasa, the website maintains a dual language consumer experience. Cyloop is another company with a strong bet on music. Hoodiny(Parent company of Cyloop) and Terra.es (Owned by Telefonica) entered into a joint-venture to create a powerful music platform. The result was a co-branded site, accessible from both cyloop.terra.es and terra.cyloop.es. “The way we are growing Cyloop as a music service is by being very flexible. Cyloop does not only exist as Cyloop, but also all Warner music properties in LatAm are powered by Cyloop. We leverage all of our technology to deploy our platform for given labels. We are not selling advertising right now in Latin America. Instead, we are partnering with ISPs, media companies, music retailers and wireless companies, providing them with branded Cyloop platforms that they can build their communities around. We take care of all tech and back-end systems”, Demian Bellumio, president of Cyloop told Portada. 5. What social networks lead in Spain and Latin America?To the ones cited above - MioTV , Cyloop and Wamba- there are other major players like Hi5. In addition, Hispanic specific social networking sites like QuePasa and Batanga get a substantial amount of visitors from Latin America.Hi5, is the world's third-largest social network behind Facebook and MySpace It has a significant amount of share in Spanish-speaking countries. Spanish-speakers made up 40% of the site's 59.6 million January visitors. Overall, Hi5 gets about a quarter of Facebook's traffic and a little less than half of MySpace's, according to comScore.The San Francisco-based company is creating an online
glitter economy
involving digital doo-dads that can be swapped and traded by its 70 million registered users. 6. The “global”channel of the Internet must play a role in reaching out to Spanish – speakers worldwide….Yes, particularly the production and distribution of radio content and online video content targeting Spanish-speakers has global dimensions.Telemundo, for example, is broadcasting telenovelas over Spanish Internet channels. 7. Does the advertising pay enough for Social Networks to thrive?The jury is still out. Generally it has not been that easy to convince major brands to advertise in social networking sites. This is because the brand can´t control the environment the advertising is placed in. So it is not always easy for social networks to monetize their traffic with advertising revenue. However, the very high engagement of social networking users and the ability to target them around specific themes (forums, microsites etc.) lends itself very well for creative online advertising programs.Hispanic social networking CPM and CPL should also command a premium over general market social network advertising. In addition, particularly online video advertising (e.g pre-roll) should become a major money maker as users of these sites tend to download lots of videos and music. Friday, June 26, 2009 BrandWeek Why Social Media Is the 'Fabric' of Hispanics Online Sixty five percent of Hispanics online are now using social media, according to Manny Miravete, vp, sales and strategy, MySpace and MySpace Latino. Speaking at the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies’s 2009 Media and Account Management conference in Las Vegas last week, Miravate stressed social media can be used as either a tactical or strategic medium. “You bring what you do in your daily life online and social media is enabling that. You can run a simple banner or create a brand profile,” he said. “You can put your brand in that social arena. Social media has mass reach. It’s the fabric of Hispanics online.” Miravate argued that the difference between MySpace and Facebook is that MySpace is a social portal where users can customize their experience and choose to interact with content. Facebook, he said, is more of a social utility. Consumers are really savvy and know if they are being advertised to, so marketers should create an ambassador for their brands, Miravate said, pointing out that marketers should also develop the experience and content around passion points. Most successful campaigns have pushed or pulled from traditional media to the Web. Miravate offered the following advice: “Understand the key driving points for the brand. Connect what your brand can offer and what users want. Pharma has been slow to come to the medium; others like wireless have jumped right in. You need to bring very tangible value to users.”In Miravate’s view, social media is a great way to use direct response. Some agencies use it just to drive sales and reach10 million U.S. Hispanic users. It’s low cost and delivers high returns, he said. Branded initiatives are helping to launch new products and drive use and purchase behavior. He encouraged agencies to come up with ideas and then use social media outlets as a vetting process—what’s possible and practical. “We love to brainstorm the new and coolest ways to connect,” Miravate said. “Keep it simple. Build the digital capabilities within your agencies so you’re able to deliver a broader based communication experience for clients—they are asking for it.”Separately, at the conference, outgoing AHAA chairman José Lόpez-Varela, executive group account director at Houston’s Lόpez Negrete Communications, transferred the organization’s leadership to Gisela Girard, president, COO, Creative Civilization, San Antonio.