What’s new

Look & Feel – The new design is strikingly simple. Online Hispanics can now navigate a wealth of official Spanish language government information through an intuitive and elegant interface designed to help visitors find the information they need most.

Enhanced Search – Users can search for official Spanish language government information with GobiernoUSA.gov’s new search engine that is up to 9 times faster the previous version. The 5 most popular daily search terms are displayed on the GobiernoUSA.gov home page.

Original Timely Content – Up-to-date content is now front and center, with clear home page links to timely government resources on most sought after information and GobiernoUSA.gov’s original Spanish-language articles. It’s now easier for Spanish speakers to find GobiernoUSA.gov’s plain-language easy-to-understand stories on timely and relevant topics such as the features of the new green card, what to expect from an airport security screening, or summer safety tips.

Useful Tools – The new “Útil y rápido” (Useful and quick) section of the site gathers links of the government’s most compelling and useful Spanish language tools on one easy to navigate page. Visitors are one click away from checking their social security balance, calculating credit card debt, and evaluating their health.

Social Media Channels – Spanish preferring users can now easily engage with GobiernoUSA.gov through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, RSS and a widget all accessible from the “Connect with Government” bar on the bottom of each page.

What’s to come

Continuous User Testing – While this is a huge leap forward, GobiernoUSA.gov is now poised to keep getting better. By emphasizing search and making it easier for users to find what they are looking for, GobiernoUSA.gov is gathering data that will enable it to provide better services to the Hispanic community in the future.

Challenges, Dialogs, Contests – Just as user dialogs played a huge part in this redesign, GobiernoUSA.gov will continue to collaborate with the Hispanic community through challenges, dialogs, and contests to guide future improvements and services.

Mobile Apps – GobiernoUSA.gov’s English language sister site, USA.gov, has received a lot of attention for its mobile app store, highlighting mobile friendly services from different government agencies and programs. There are currently very few government mobile apps in Spanish, but we expect that to change soon, especially given the recent Pew report demonstrating that Hispanics are significantly more likely to access the Internet from mobile phones.

An extremely valuable resource for the Hispanic community

If you’re not already familiar with GobiernoUSA.gov, now is a great time to check it out. The GobiernoUSA.gov team is dedicated to connecting with the Hispanic community through a strong cultural perspective. We’re convinced that there is no better resource for Spanish preferring Hispanics seeking to interact with the government.

With Google’s free machine translation software, Google Translate, showing up on an increasing number of websites, I’m afraid that Hispanic online expectations are at risk of declining even further.

Google Translate is Free. Or is it?

Many marketers and web managers looking to reach Spanish speakers online view Google Translate as the silver bullet. Copy and paste a little snippet of code into your website and presto, your website is now available in Spanish (or any other language). As a result, you can now find Google Translate on many websites including those of countless federal, state and local Governments.

What you will also find on these websites is a lengthy disclaimer that prominently states that content translated by Google may not be accurate, reliable or timely. These disclaimers also completely absolve the website owner of any and all liability that may arise because of inaccurate machine translation. I want to be very clear: website owners are consciously using a system to translate their websites and in the same breath, acknowledging the system may not provide accurate, reliable or timely results.

I believe the cost of potentially inaccurate, unreliable or dated content on any website is simply too high for my clients. Even the smallest translation mistake can destroy the credibility of a website and the organization behind it, severely impacting valuable goodwill.

So no, Google Translate is not free. In fact it can be very costly.

Effective Communication Requires a Human Voice

Eventually technology may be able to provide near perfect translations, but today professional communications experts are needed to produce accurate, reliable and timely translations. It is true that most professional translators leverage machine translation as part of their process. Once a machine provides a systematic conversion of text from one language to another, a human is needed to deconstruct the context of the original message and provide an appropriate and meaningful communication. There is no way to build valuable relationships with your customers without involving talented writers.

Clearly Google’s powerful brand, strong credibility, and free service have lured many marketers to use Google Translate.

I wonder if Google’s brand would be so powerful if it used only machine translation to write the copy on its sites.

If you can’t beat them, join them

According to ComScore Media Metrics, Facebook is now the fourth most popular website among Hispanics and growing. Facebook reaches close to 10.55 million Hispanics per month, nearly 45% of all online Hispanics. This massive Hispanic audience coupled with Facebook’s free social media platform represents the best place to build a community of online Hispanics. Instead of building and maintaining social networks of their own, it seems that Hispanic publishers have figured out that it makes more sense to build communities on Facebook.

Incremental revenue for Hispanic publishers and for Facebook

Facebook is quickly becoming an important referrer of Internet traffic. By building large, engaged communities on Facebook, Hispanic publishers can generate incremental traffic to their websites which in turn will boost revenues. As these communities become more significant, look for Hispanic online publishers to monetize them directly by integrating advertisers into their Facebook pages. Although good for Hispanic publishers, at the end of the day this trend is best for Facebook. As Hispanic publishers build communities on Facebook, Facebook gets more registered users and more monetizable advertising inventory at no cost.

The race for Facebook fans is on and Telemundo is winning

In general, Hispanic publishers have created several Facebook pages focused on key topic areas and push content through them on a frequent basis. Some publishers have gone as far as proactively promoting their Facebook presence by integrating Facebook Connect on their own websites. The following is a quick rundown of the current Hispanic publisher landscape on Facebook*.

Telemundo – 138,000 Facebook fans**

Telemundo has built a strong base of Facebook fans by creating individual Facebook pages for its popular shows. Currently Facebook is not integrated on Telemundo’s websites, but according Peter Blacker, Sr. VP of digital media, they have actively promoted their Facebook presence on air.

Univision – 92,000 Facebook fans

Thanks in large part to the FIFA World Cup, Univision.com has quickly amassed a significant audience on Facebook. The Univision.com home page prominently features a call to action to login through Facebook Connect, and World Cup games streamed by Univision.com include an nifty Facebook integration where fans can interact with each other. In addition to a soccer specific Facebook page, Univision has a handful of Facebook pages focused on various topics such as film, news and music.

The rest of the pack

Currently there is a large gap between Telemundo and Univision and other Hispanic online publishers on Facebook. Here is where the rest of the pack currently stands:

• Terra - 6,300 Fans
• AOL Latino - 1,700 Fans
• Batanga - 630 Fans
• MSN Latino – 207 Fans

At the end of the day, the Facebook phenomenon is simply too powerful to ignore. Hispanic publishers will continue to build and maintain communities on Facebook, and those that are able to proactively engage with and monetize these communities will succeed.

I think this is exactly how Facebook wrote it up.

*Technically this should be “likers” but I just can’t get comfortable with that

**My analysis was very informal and I may have missed a few Facebook pages, I only analyzed pages that were readily accessible through Facebook search or the “Favorite pages” section. If you have a favorite Facebook page from a Hispanic publisher, please let me know!

I chose a rhetorical question for the title of the presentation because most of us know that being social is hardwired into Hispanic culture. Being at the conference with a couple hundred Hispanics really brought this point to life. The atmosphere was friendly, fun and-well-social.

In addition to being highly social, Hispanics consume a ton of media. I came across statistics that indicate that Hispanics teens spend 13 hours per day with media, more than any other ethnic group.

I then took a look at technology usage and showed that Hispanics are leapfrogging to the latest and greatest technologies, including mobile. What’s more, Hispanics have an extremely positive view of the technology and once they get their hands on it, the use it and love it. Here are some key facts:

84% of Hispanics have a broadband connection vs. 79% of Whites
36% of Hispanics view the Internet as tool for building a better life vs. 30% of general market
68% of Hispanics are wireless Internet users vs. 54% of Whites
81% of Hispanics text vs. 62% of Whites

Hispanic social media, the perfect storm

When you combine the highly social Hispanic culture with strong technology usage, you get a perfect storm. I argued that social media is the perfect avenue to unleash the Hispanic culture. For the most part, every day Hispanic culture is confined to neighborhoods throughout America. Social media changes that. It gives every day Hispanics a voice and provides a global, viral platform for spreading the culture.

When it comes to social media sites, I showed an analysis using data from Quantcast.com and ran down the most popular social media sites among Hispanics. Here are the top 5:

YouTube.com, 15 million monthly Hispanic visitors
MySpace.com, 8.8 million monthly Hispanic visitors
Facebook.com, 6.2 million monthly Hispanic visitors
Twitter.com, 3.0 million monthly Hispanic visitors
Univision.com, 1.9 million monthly Hispanic visitors

I spent some time talking about Twitter and highlighted new data that indicates that Hispanics are heavy users. I was able to bring this point to life, and have fun with the audience, by showing real time, lively, insightful and highly social Tweets from conference attendees.

The Hispanic social media opportunity is wide open

I wrapped up with a call to action for marketers to engage with Hispanics through social media. US Hispanics are extremely active with social media and few companies are proactively leveraging this medium to reach them.

So don’t be shy. Be like Hispanics. Be social.

Are Hispanics really more social?

Getting to the bottom of this question is critical because there seems to be a disconnect among Hispanic marketers when it comes to social media. On one hand, there are countless studies indicating that Hispanics are extremely engaged with social media. On the other hand, few marketers are proactively leveraging social media to reach online Hispanics.

Hispanics Are More Social, Really

In the past year numerous studies have clearly demonstrated that Hispanics are actively using social media in large numbers. Here are three points to consider:

1. A critical mass of US Hispanics use social media websites

In January 2010, the most popular websites among Hispanics, in order, where Google, Yahoo! Microsoft and Facebook. comScore Media Metrics indicates that 10.55 million Hispanics, or 45% of online Hispanics now use Facebook.

2. US Hispanics are tech savvy and love the Internet

The 2010 AOL Hispanic Cyberstudy paints a clear picture of online Hispanics today. They are young, affluent, have large households and are “more enthusiastic about the benefits of the Internet than the General Market”. What’s more, the study shows that Hispanics are more sophisticated technology users.

3. Hispanics are extremely engaged social media users

A recent report from Tamara Barber at Forrester Research indicates that Hispanics over index the general market across all Social Technographic® segments especially “when it comes to high-order” social media “activities”.

Using social media to reach Hispanics is a no brainer, or is it?

Given the data, it is surprising that 78% of companies surveyed in a recent Orcí survey are not using social media to engage Hispanics. What’s more 74% of those surveyed do not know if social media is a viable way to engage Hispanics.

I understand. Social media marketing is a new marketing discipline with many challenges. It falls in an awkward space between digital marketing and public relations that few marketing agencies can fill. Social media marketing requires creative thinking and writing, human resources who understand the Hispanic culture and social Internet, budgets, and, yes, approval from legal.

Add that to the fact that Hispanic budgets and resources are scarce, it’s no surprise that Hispanic social media marketing lacks the priority it deserves.
That said, social media is here to stay, and marketers who fail to accept this reality will be left behind.

To me, using social media to reach Hispanics is a no-brainer for two simple reasons:

1. A critical mass of Hispanics are actively using social media
2. Today, your competitors are not using social media to reach them

So are Hispanics more social? ¡Claro que sí!

They’re just waiting for you to talk to them.

Are you using social media to engage with Hispanics? If so it would be great to hear what your experience has been. If not, why not?

My theory is quite simple: Most Hispanics expect Hispanic websites to be poor quality and as result, use the general market version of a site even if Spanish is their preferred language.

Do you agree?

Online Hispanics will scour your website to find mistakes and experience gaps

It’s a fact: most Hispanic websites are inferior to their general market counterparts. Hispanic budgets are smaller and resources more scarce. Most online Hispanics are comfortable enough in both English and Spanish to compare sites, and they do. Online Hispanics will evaluate Hispanic sites to try to find the mistakes that will invariably be there.

The most common mistakes found on Hispanic websites are language related. Spanish websites are riddled with translation errors, grammatical mistakes, missing accents, tense inconsistencies and incorrect punctuation. Most disturbing to me is the emergence of machine translation on several high profile websites such as Recovery.gov. (Perhaps the Government should have hired professional translators to localize Recovery.gov which would have resulted in a better experience for non-English speakers and even created a few more jobs.) In my opinion, machine translation is simply not an option for converting websites or any other communication. Even though machine translation services such as Google Translate are free, I believe that the negative impact on user perceptions are simply too high. What’s more, if a user wants to translate a site with a machine, they can do it themselves.

Even high quality translated websites can fail to make an emotional connection

Don’t get me wrong, there are many Spanish websites that are impeccable translations of English versions. That said, they are just that, translations. Online Hispanics might not find any language mistakes on such a site, but the content may miss the mark because it was intended for the general market and doesn’t make a connection with the Hispanic user. After reading a few sentences, Hispanic users may sniff out the translation and lose interest. It is far better to develop original content for Hispanics or adapt English content so that it resonates and connects with them.

Online Hispanics know they’re missing out

In addition to language issues, Hispanic websites are often not as deep and don’t have the same features and functionality available on the corresponding general market site. This essentially tells Hispanic visitors, “you are not as important to me as the general market”. Sadly, Hispanics have come to expect poor online experiences in Spanish. According to the AOL Study, less than 3% of online Hispanics think that Spanish sites have more useful information than English sites, so they may just bypass Spanish sites all together and go straight to the English site.

Develop a great Hispanic website and you will be rewarded

Online marketers are faced with an interesting challenge and opportunity due to the fact that Hispanics have low expectations when it comes to Hispanic sites. On the one hand, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get Hispanics to even a visit a Hispanic site due to their prior negative experiences. On the other hand, there’s an unmet demand for high quality, culturally relevant Hispanic websites that provide comparable value to the corresponding general market site. Such sites will delight online Hispanics and have a high likelihood of driving marketing objectives. In addition, as I have discussed previously, Hispanics are extremely engaged with social media and are likely to share a good site with family and friends.

For the last 10 years, my goal at Captura Group has been to create compelling Hispanic online experiences that change the expectations of online Hispanics.

I invite you to join me in this pursuit.

Social media has completely changed the nature of how content for online consumption is produced. Companies must now speak to consumers through content that’s less formal, more timely, shorter and ultimately more engaging.

The social Internet has opened the door for anybody to produce and distribute content, particularly in the Hispanic online space, where there is a relative lack of quality online content.

This represents a powerful opportunity for advertisers, and marketing agencies alike.

New roles for marketing agencies

This explosion in content production is changing the way some agencies operate and how advertisers reach consumers online.

“It’s huge,” said Joe Kutchera of dotGlobal, a digital Hispanic/Latin American marketing consultancy agency. He is writing a book about launching websites that cater to Hispanics.

“It’s taking [marketing agencies] from banner production to content production,” he said.
At Captura Group we’ve always produced content for online Hispanics, but more recently we’ve reinvented our content development process to better engage with online Hispanics while providing value for our clients.

We have gone from a long content development process designed to produce relatively static content for websites, to a much more agile process that almost resembles a newsroom.

Today, we are producing and publishing timely and relevant content on a daily basis. This includes writing Facebook and Twitter updates that are similar to news headlines, responding to consumer questions and feedback, and also producing and syndicating articles to many Hispanic online publishers.

Original content has benefits, pitfalls

Kutchera says there are good reasons to embrace the concept of producing your own content. Companies have better control over their message, and benefit from increased engagement and SEO. But he also offers a word of caution for those who try to sell first and engage later.

“No matter what language you use, consumers can figure out in the second whether the content is real or not, and if it sounds cheesy they will drop it,” he said.

The ability to produce and distribute quality content is really the key to online marketing today. After all, content is and always will be king.

Here are ten tips for using content to effectively reach online Hispanics:

1. Don’t be afraid of the social Internet, embrace it
2. Develop clear goals and objectives upfront
3. Establish a voice and develop guidelines to ensure it is always consistent
4. Ensure that all content provides value to your target audience
5. Don’t be afraid to test out different things
6. Make sure content is engaging, stimulate a conversation
7. Create an agile process, including legal approvals
8. Make sure your content is social media optimized to maximize sharing
9. Avoid using regional Spanish when engaging to national Hispanic audiences
10. Be consistent when using the formal “usted” and “tu” communication forms in Spanish

What does that mean for us marketers?

We need to proactively address the demographic shift that’s occurring right now.

Jennifer was born in North Tonawanda, N.Y., a community of 32,000 people, out of which 97.9% are Anglo, and where Kimmelweck rolls are hugely popular. Jennifer remembers her father asking her if her friend Adrian from high school was Puerto Rican. Jennifer did not know what he meant. She asked Adrian if he was Puerto Rican and that was the beginning of a journey that has transformed her into being what America is becoming, more and more multicultural.

North Tonawanda meets Mexicali

Jennifer ended up moving to San Diego, where she met Arnulfo Manriquez, or “Nufi,” an immigrant from Mexicali, Mexico, and got married. She then became Jennifer Manriquez, and the country became a little bit more diverse.

Jennifer distinctly remembers her first experiences trying to fit in to the Manriquez family. At a family wedding, Jennifer was with Nufi’s multiple sisters and aunts who didn’t realize she spoke Spanish.

“Ella esta muy flaquita, no es Latina para nada” (”She is too skinny, she is not a Latina”), they said in front of Jennifer, who played it cool. When her future cuñadas and tías realized she spoke Spanish, they were slightly embarrassed, but, more importantly, a bit more accepting of the skinny white girl from North Tonawanda.

It took a while for Nufi’s mom to come around as well. At an early family dinner, la suegra cooked spicy chile rellenos for the family and a bland chicken dish just for Jennifer. Jennifer, who loves spicy food, immediately downed the chile rellenos, and her future mother-in-law said with a smile, “You really are a bit Mexican.”

Tamales meet Kimmelweck Rolls

Today Jennifer and Nufi are happily married and have three kids. Although they mainly consume English media, they speak to their children only in Spanish at home. They celebrate Christmas on both Dec. 24 with tamales and salsa and the 25th with ham, scallop potatoes and Kimmelweck rolls.

When Judge Sonia Sotomayor was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, Jennifer’s oldest daughter asked her, “What is a Latina, Mom?” Without hesitation, Jennifer answered, “You are.” Her inquisitive daughter then asked, “What are you mom?” and Jennifer said, “I am white.”

Jennifer’s advice to marketers is to inject multiculturalism into advertising and messaging. “Advertising that reflects my family’s multicultural reality is what resonates with me.”

Astronaut José Hernández, aka @Astro_Jose, tweets in both English and Spanish to 100,000 people who have been following his remarkable life from picking the fields as a child in northern California to outer space.

It’s not hard for him to find followers these days.

The majority of online Americans now visit social networking sites, and Hispanics and other minorities continue to visit them more than Non-Hispanic whites, according to the 2009 Multicultural Marketing Study by the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University, DMS Research, and Captura Group.

The study also reveals that social media usage among Hispanics and other minorities continues to grow by double digits with Facebook and MySpace leading the way. What’s more, smaller social networking sites such as Hi5, Black Planet, Twitter and LinkedIn have strong appeal with certain ethnic groups.

Most online Americans visit social networking sites at least twice a month

In the past year, we found that usage of social networks across ethnic segments has grown exponentially. Marketers take note: most Americans now use social networking sites and use them as increasingly important means for communication and information.

Although ethnic minorities are still more likely to visit social networking sites when compared to Non-Hispanic Whites, the gap has closed considerably as social networking has become more popular.

Most ethnic segments now prefer Facebook over MySpace

In 2008 we found that MySpace held a firm lead over Facebook. Today, the tables have turned and Facebook has become more popular among all of the ethnic groups that we analyzed with the exception of Spanish-Preferring Hispanics.

Social media preferences are beginning to fragment among minorities

When considering a social media strategy, marketers should take note that ethnic groups have preferences between social networking sites. Consider the case of Hi5, a social media site with a strong presence in Latin America. Its success in the southern hemisphere has made it extremely popular with Spanish-Preferring Hispanics in the U.S. who want to connect with family members back home.

Today, Hi5 competes with both Facebook and MySpace among Spanish-Preferring Hispanics (29.1 percent usage versus 36 percent and 41 percent, respectively).

These findings are important because as social networking has become ubiquitous, specialized sites have become viable options for advertisers looking to target ethnic audiences.

Asian Americans are twice as likely to use LinkedIn and Twitter

The 2009 study also included the usage of LinkedIn and Twitter. We found that both sites are still emerging and most popular among Asian Americans. We attribute the popularity of LinkedIn and Twitter among Asian Americans to higher income levels and technology adoption.

More social media growth expected for 2010

In the past year, usage of social networking websites has exploded among all ethnic groups and we expect this trend to continue. While preferences of certain social networking sites might change over time, social media promises to remain relevant for all ethnic groups.

People such as José Hernández can expect many more followers.

For marketers, the sky should also be the limit.

We recently hired Tony, an intern to help us with a couple of projects here at Captura Group. As I have gotten to know him, I realized that he personifies the online Hispanic consumers that we marketers are trying so hard to reach.

Below, I introduce you to Tony and to the millions of Hispanics like him online today.

Tony is bilingual and bicultural

Jose Antonio Uribe, aka “Tony,” was born in San Diego to first-generation Mexican immigrants. He is 26, and lives with his parents and sister in National City, a suburb of San Diego that’s about 60 percent Hispanic. Tony’s family is very much Mexican American. Spend a few minutes in his home and you’ll notice something that’s happening in millions of Hispanic households across the United States: communication is a flawless mix of both English and Spanish.

He speaks only in Spanish to his mom, exclusively in English with a sister, and mixes both with his father. He watches television mostly in English, but he also catches “Sábado Gigante” with his parents and telenovelas with his girlfriend.

Tony is a proud “American Latino”

He celebrates Christmas on December 25, but also Reyes Magos on January 6, one of the most important Catholic holidays in Mexico. He celebrates Thanksgiving, but with a Chipotle turkey, and drinks tequila instead of eggnog.

Like many Latinos, he entered the workforce at a young age to help his parents. He was considered an “at risk” student by his high school counselor, and as a result enrolled in a program that helped him keep up his grades while earning extra money.

He would later graduate from the University of Phoenix with a BS in marketing.

Tony is tech savvy

Tony has been online as long as he can remember. He vividly recalls an old PC that his dad bought for the family and connecting to the Internet with NetZero and chatting on AOL. A music trendsetter among his friends, Tony was a big fan of music sharing sites Napster and LimeWire. Although Tony mainly visits English-language websites’, he communicates online with friends and family in both English and Spanish. He prefers Facebook to MySpace, although he still visits the latter once a week to keep in touch with a 350 friends.

Although Tony considers himself value conscious, he’ll save up hundreds of dollars for a product he considers worthwhile. Today, Tony sports an Apple Mac Mini and orders Chipotle burritos from his iPhone, a product he purchased “the day it came out.”

His iPhone boasts about two dozen applications, which he switches constantly. He uses the Facebook application the most to communicate with his 185 “friends.”

Tony says “Don’t try too hard”

What advice does Tony give to marketers looking to reach him and his peers? “Don’t try too hard”.

Tony feels that stereotypical Hispanic advertising misses the mark with him.

He rarely clicks on an online ad, but rather goes directly to the product website when he sees something that catches his eye. He goes online to buy clothing, books, music and event tickets. He is always looking for websites that offer a Spanish component so that he can share his interests with his monolingual friends or family members.

“My world is very multi-cultural; America is very multi-cultural, campaigns that reflect who I am appeal to me.”