9013: Sundry Thoughts On Social Media.

Social media like LinkedIn can be a pain in the ass, particularly with the “People You May Know” functions. The overwhelming majority of selections tend to fall into three categories:

1) People you don’t know
2) People you don’t want to know
3) People you wish you didn’t know

And it gets somewhat uncomfortable when receiving an “invite” from people within the above silos. However, it’s a pleasure to “un-friend” the weasels who turn out to simply be using connections to sell themselves or their services.


Another annoyance involves the people who do not update their information. The “People You May Know “ queue is filled with people you damn well know are no longer holding the positions stated in their profiles. For example, the LinkedIn profile above keeps popping up for Mark Modesto, identifying him as a President at Draftfcb. Um, the man was ousted about a year ago.

On the flip side, there are instances of folks who cannot update their information. For example, the “People You May Know” listing occasionally includes the deceased. It’s really bizarre to view these profiles—still featuring contact information, indicating years in a “current” position and displaying recommendations that now read like online tributes.

Thanks to LinkedIn, you don’t have to be Cole Sear to see dead people.

7659: Social Networks Not Social To Latinas.

From Adweek…

Do Social Networks Overlook Latinas?
38% of Hispanic women in the U.S. say these nets lack content created especially for them

Elena Malykhina, Brandweek

Social networks represent a huge opportunity for marketers trying to reach Latinas—but many in this growing audience believe they are being poorly served by such nets.

Thirty-eight percent of Hispanic women in the U.S. say these networks lack content created especially for their unique interests, according to a new study by research firm Sophia Mind.

The study, titled “The Use of Social Networks by Latin Women,” is based on interviews with 3,300 Latinas in the U.S., Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, ages 18-60. The research found that Hispanic women in the U.S. are one of the fastest-growing online demographics.

“Brands are understandably eager to reach Latina women and our research shows the best way for marketers to connect with them is through social networks,” said Andiara Petterle, CEO of Bolsa de Mulher, the parent company of Sophia Mind.

Facebook is the social network used most by U.S. Hispanic women, followed by Twitter, Hi5, MiGente, Univision and Bebo, per the study. While American women use social networks mostly to connect with friends and family, women in all the countries surveyed use such venues to find information on products and services.

In all countries, more than 85 percent of Latinas visit social networks on a regular basis. But when it comes to U.S. Hispanic women, only 21 percent feel social networks meet their needs. Their main complaint, according to the study, is the lack of specific content for Latinas and the lack of an increased participation of Latinas in social networks.

“Marketers have a golden opportunity to deliver meaningful content and targeted messages to Latinas through social channels,” said Petterle. “By speaking with Latinas in an authentic way, brands can build lasting brand awareness with this massive market.”

6807: Marketing And Mind Games.

Reporting and studying in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• The Los Angeles Times reported on the likely residual effects to come from General Motors’ reinvention, focusing on the collateral damage to advertising and marketing. Reduced budgets will rock everything from advertising agencies to media outlets to sponsorships. Which means multicultural agencies will really get screwed. And there will surely be a dramatic increase in robot suicides.

• Studies from California universities indicate online social networks could result in psychological—and potentially moral—harm to avid fans and followers. One study speculated that the quick, instant transfer of information on social media sites does not provide people with enough time to develop a moral response. “If things are happening too fast, you may not ever fully experience emotions about other people’s psychological states and that would have implications for your morality,” said a researcher. This could explain why social media is so attractive to advertising executives, who have traditionally displayed a complete lack of morality.

Essay 4945

From AdAge.com…

----------------------------

Multicultural Players Make Social Networks, Mobile Their Priorities
ANA Survey Finds Clients Show More Movement, Interest in Areas Than General-Market Counterparts

By Laurel Wentz

NEW YORK -- Multicultural marketers are doing more mobile marketing and are more interested in using social networks than their general-market counterparts.

The Association of National Advertisers recently surveyed its members and found 38% of multicultural marketers are using mobile marketing, compared with just 28% of general-market advertisers.

A few more respondents in the general market (20%) said they already use social networks than respondents working in multicultural areas (16%), but the trend is clear: Twice as many multicultural marketers (36%) said they plan to start using social networking for the first time in the next year, compared with 19% in the general market.

It’s not surprising that multicultural marketers are moving fast into mobile marketing.

Beyond the basics
“Hispanics are much more likely to do advanced mobile activities,” said Tamara Barber, an analyst at Forrester Research. They are more likely than non-Hispanics to have cellphones with cameras (65% and 48%), video (41% and 17%), music (42% and 15%) and internet access (57% and 39%), according to Forrester’s phone survey of 3,000 Hispanic adults.

In social networking, Ms. Barber said a number of general-market sites have added Spanish-language pages, such as MySpace Latino and a bilingual LinkedIn. “There’s a ton of energy right now around Spanish and bilingual sites.”

MySpace, for instance, hired a former AOL Latino account director, Manny Miravete, in December 2007 as its first VP for U.S. Hispanic sales and strategy to develop advertisers for MySpace Latino, which has almost 9 million Hispanic profiles.

BlackPlanet
Multicultural sites are also active in social networking. Community Connect’s BlackPlanet worked with Coca-Cola during Black History month to celebrate black musicians. With a sponsored profile for Coke, a Coke mini site and a music area on BlackPlanet, Coke netted 250,000 friends, said Kay Madati, VP marketing at Community Connect.

Multicultural marketers trail the general market in other areas, such as use of search, blogs and websites. Almost all general-market companies surveyed -- 95% -- have websites, compared with 86% of respondents who said their companies have sites for the multicultural market. That gap is closing as more companies make multicultural consumers a priority. Best Buy, for instance, introduced a Spanish-language version of its website in November 2007.

The money multicultural marketers spend on new media was fairly evenly split between incremental dollars (35%); budgets shifted from traditional media (40%); and dollars taken from other marketing efforts such as PR, promotions and direct marketing (33%).

The ANA surveyed 326 marketers from the general market and 53 executives who do multicultural marketing.

Essay 4739

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

------------------------------

The online divide

While Web sites like Facebook and MySpace are designed to help meet new people, college students are using them to communicate along racial and ethnic lines

BY DAVE NEWBART, Staff Reporter

In theory, social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace should help college students meet new people outside their existing social groups and help students who live at home expand their horizons.

But a new study suggests that students use the sites largely to communicate with people they already know, and tend to use such sites along racial and ethnic lines. And the study shows that students who live at home actually use the sites less than those who live on campus.

The study, by Northwestern University assistant communications Professor Eszter Hargittai, was published recently in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Hargittai surveyed 1,000 students at the University of Illinois at Chicago about their use of social networking sites.

She found the use was widespread: 85 percent of men and 89 percent of women use the sites. That was slightly lower than another study that found that 94 percent of students at Michigan State University use the sites, but still significant.

But which sites were used varied by race.

Whites, blacks and Asian Americans favored Facebook over MySpace. But Hispanics favored MySpace. Meanwhile, Asian Americans were the only group that used such sites like Xanga and Friendster in significant numbers.

Hargittai couldn’t say for sure why the disparities existed but speculated that many Latinos, who tend to go to college in lesser numbers than whites or Asian Americans, could use MySpace to stay in touch with friends who aren’t in college. Formerly, Facebook was only open to college students. (While blacks also attend college at lower rates, she said the sample was too small to make significant conclusions.)

“These services are used for keeping in touch with people you already know,” she said. “People tend to hang out with others like them” and stay in touch with others in the same community, she said.

She said sites like Xanga and Friendster are popular in many Asian countries and account for their popularity among Asian-American students here.

For students who live at home -- as is the case with most UIC students -- the networks aren’t necessarily expanding their social base. While 87 percent of students who live on campus use Facebook, for example, just 71 percent of students who live with their parents do. She said part of the reason is time: Commuters might be spending more time getting to or from school or tending to family obligations than socializing online.

“One important aspect of going to college is to meet people, create social capital,” she said. “These students are missing out.”