Hispanic affinity cluster opens opportunities for brands and for Facebook

Last week Facebook announced the launch of a new Hispanic affinity cluster.  In essence, Facebook has figured out a new way to identify U.S. Hispanic Facebook users and group them into the new cluster that marketers can use to target Hispanics.

Previous to the new cluster, marketers could target Hispanics on Facebook by using language preference, geography, age cohort and interest as I discussed in a post published in October 2011.  The new cluster not only makes it easier for marketers to target and segment Hispanic Facebook users, it also increases the number of Hispanics that can be targeted.

I spent some time playing around with the new Hispanic affinity cluster and discovered that you can use it to further segment Hispanics by age, geography, precise interest, language, relationship status and education.  However, the cluster is limited in that you are unable to further segment Hispanics by broad interests such as mobile device ownership, business and finance, jobs and shopping.

There are 22 million U.S. Hispanics active on Facebook

Facebook’s Hispanic affinity cluster consists of 22 million U.S. Hispanics or 12.4% of Facebook’s U.S. audience.  Facebook’s reach among Hispanics puts them among the top media companies in the U.S. in terms of Hispanic reach.  It was not surprising that those in the Hispanic cluster are young.  55% are 18-34 vs. 48% or all U.S Facebook users and 8% of those in the Hispanic cluster are 13-17 vs. 6% of all U.S. Facebook users

Hispanic Facebook users are also geographically concentrated in Hispanic regions of the United States.

• 22% of Facebook users in California and Texas are Hispanic
• 19% of Facebook users in Arizona are Hispanic
• 18% of Facebook users in Florida and Nevada are Hispanic

In Los Angeles alone, there are 1.6 million Hispanic Facebook users or a full 26% of all Los Angeles Facebook users.

Hispanics on Facebook are extremely engaged across various interests

When you look at the Hispanic affinity cluster against precise interests, it becomes evident that Hispanics on Facebook are highly engaged across various interests, including:

• Movies: 14%  Hispanic affinity cluster vs. 7% of U.S. Facebook users
• Consumer Electronics: 25% Hispanic affinity cluster vs. 21% of U.S. Facebook users
• Cooking: 25% Hispanic affinity cluster vs. 22% of U.S. Facebook users
• Personal Care: 6%  Hispanic affinity cluster vs. 3% of U.S. Facebook users
• Insurance: 8% Hispanic affinity cluster vs.6% of U.S. Facebook users

As I compared the Hispanic affinity cluster across more interests, I found that Hispanics are more interested in most things when compared to non-Hispanics.  This is consistent with the fact that Hispanics are more active social media users. Facebook itself says that “69% of those in the Hispanic cluster were active on Facebook 6 out of the last 7 days vs. 62% of all U.S. users”.

The new Facebook Hispanic affinity cluster represents an improved and viable way for marketers to reach Hispanics.  It also represents a great way for Facebook to drive advertising revenue.