Understanding Your Hispanic Audience and Being Strategic

Latinos have become a large ethnic group in the United States. In fact, according to the last U.S. Census Bureau, there are now over 45 million Latinos in the U.S. with the numbers getting larger every year. The implications of this Latino population explosion are that American business owners must think of ways to sell their products to Latinos in the U.S. since the numbers of Latino consumers are growing each year. However, marketing products to Latinos is not as easy as it might seem. One reason that it is not easy is the language barrier. Many Latinos' first language is Spanish and not English. Thus, marketing ads that are in English which rely on understanding of English word usage and American humor may not be comprehensible to a Latino audience. There are other potential problems that are due to differences between Latino culture and mainstream American culture.

In order to sell products to Latinos or develop a successful social media strategy with a Hispanic audience, it is necessary to become more familiar with Latino culture and become more familiar with the wants and needs of Latinos in the U.S. There must be efforts made to read books and magazines that describe Latino culture and interests. In addition to that, there must be efforts to go to social networking sites and communicate with Latinos in order to find out what they are interested in and what they want. There must be efforts to understand the cultural motivations that are motivating your Hispanic audience in general and there must be efforts to understand the cultural motivations that specifically motivate your Hispanic audience towards social media.

For example, you must answer questions such as the following. What social networking sites are Latinos interested in predominantly? Are there any social networking sites that are totally in Spanish where large numbers of Latinos go in order to converse with each other? Are Latinos keeping in constant contact with their relatives who do not live in the U.S.? Are Latinos resentful because of having to speak English? Do they prefer to speak Spanish during times when they are not working at jobs which require English language? What social media strategies would make the most sense given what is known about Hispanic culture? You must ask these questions and many other questions in order to find out what is going on in the hearts and minds of your Hispanic audience.

Research, Plan and then, Strategize

Once you understand what is going on in the hearts and minds of your prospective Latino customers, then you will likely have a better chance at being successful when you join their conversations at social networking sites. In other words, starting conversations, engaging their interest and maintaining their interest takes careful research, planning and a sufficiently strategic approach. It is not something that can be done overnight. Establishing a successful social media strategy with a Hispanic audience requires a lot of learning and a lot of effort on the part of American businesses. But the efforts will be worth it for your business.

For more information about understanding the Hispanic population in the United States and how to connect with the right Hispanic audience, feel free to contact Hispanic Market Advisors.

Connect with Hispanic Market Advisors
* Follow Hispanic Market Advisors on Twitter
* Get updates from Hispanic Market Advisors on Facebook
* English to Spanish translation services