This year, Houston will host the first ever Blog Elevated National Conference in the fall.  Geared towards Houston’s strong and growing blogger community, the Blog Elevated Conference is one of many national social media conferences and events that have recently taken note of Houston’s growing social media Klout in the online space.

Last year, Latinos In Social Media (LATISM) also held their national conference here in Houston.  This past January, the Dad 2.0 Summit took place in our great city as well.

What does that mean?

That the time is now to take your blog to the next level!

This month for our Lunch & Learn series Lisa Conder Stauber (@Milehimama), founder and director of the Blog Elevated Conference as well as the online communities #HoustonBloggers and #TXBloggers, will join us to discuss Creating An Engaged Community Through Blogging.

Whether you’re a new blogger, a hobby blogger, a professional blogger, an aspiring one, or simply curious about the blogging community in general, you won’t want to miss this Lunch & Learn session.  The event is FREE to attend and open to all members of the public.

Here’s how it works:

• You bring your lunch
• We’ll bring you the scoop on the latest in Social Media
• Completely FREE
• Open to ALL

This is the third session in our Lunch & Learn series and will once again take place at the Clayton Library near the Museum District from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.

REGISTER TODAY!

For questions or comments contact juan@latism.org or sandra@latism.org. 

Join us on Thursday, February 21, 2013 as Constant Contact leads an in-depth presentation and discussion on The Power of Email Marketing. This is the second session in our Lunch & Learn series and will once again take place at the Clayton Library near the Museum District from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.

Here’s how it works:

• You bring your lunch
• We’ll bring you the scoop on the latest in Social Media
• Completely FREE
• Open to ALL

About our Speaker – Celina Enamorado

Celina Enamorado is a General Manager with ACK Supplies, LLC / BizMetrics based in Houston, Texas. In this role, Ms. Enamorado coordinates, manages, and leads a team of professionals providing knowledge, leadership, and outstanding growth in the company. The main core is exporting, online marketing, email marketing, social media, web design, hosting and product sourcing.

Ms. Enamorado is a qualified marketing, financial and business administrator and holds a Bachelor of Science on Industrial and Business Administration, a Master degree in Business Administration with a focus in Marketing from the University of UNITEC, as well as, a Master degree in Banking and Finance from the University of IEB. She is also certified as a Local Expert Trainer for solutions provider in Email Marketing and Social Media for Constant Contact. In addition, she serves as a trainer, advisor and consultant for non- profit organizations such as; SCORE (Service Corp of Retired Executives), SBDC (Small Business Development Center – University of Houston), WBEA (Women Business Enterprise Alliance).

With over 15 years of experience, Ms. Enamorado is no stranger to marketing and finance, working as a CFO and an entrepreneur, which taught her the importance of knowing your target market and how to keep them as long term customers (fans).

Before starting ACK Supplies, LLC in 2006, Ms. Enamorado worked for 9 years for a diverse range of organizations, including Computer International Marketing Corporation and Micronix International as well as, non- profits such as the Honduran Chamber of Commerce American. During those years she learned about international marketing, exporting / importing, brand positioning and how to integrate different markets within the company’s Strategies.

Ms. Enamorado works with small businesses and entrepreneurs helping them to maximize their revenues and position themselves within their target market; by showing them how to grow their business, as well as how to know their clients’ needs. Additionally, she helps them by analyzing their strengths and weaknesses and helping them turn those weaknesses into strengths in order to accomplish their long term goals. By creating doable strategies and setting reachable goals.

Ms. Enamorado offers a wide range of programs and services – from online marketing, translations, business planning to product sourcing and business consulting. She also coaches and teaches other people how to achieve the same success.

More about our Lunch & Learn series

Every last Thursday of the month we will bring you something new and intersting taking place in social media right now. Our goal is to provide our members with the substantial tools and resources they need to be successful in the realm of social media. We hope to achieve that via one-on-one communications, expert panels, workshops, etc. If you’re interested in working with us or contributing your expertise please reach out to juan@latism.org or sandra@latism.org.

SAVE THE DATE:

• Thursday, March 28, 2013; 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. - YouTube 2.0: How To Build Your YouTube Network
• Thursday, April 25, 2013; 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. – Topic To Be Announced

Wix Training
The online wysiwig website builder  Wix is holding a training in Houston on Monday, February 11, 2013 at 7PM at Caroline Collective. There’s still room in this free training. Register at Eventbrite.

Houston Hispanic Forum’s Career & Education Day
Tomorrow is the annual Career & Education Day at the George R. Brown Convention Center. The free event is open to all students grades 6-12 and their parents. This event is Saturday, February 9, 2013 from 8AM to 3PM.

Earlier this month we partnered with Houston Social Media Breakfast for the January breakfast, “Reaching the US Latino Community through Social Media.” The event featured two great speakers talking about the realities of reaching out to Hispanic audiences using social media. Panelists:

• Julie Jameson Grayum, PR Business Manager/Account Supervisor with Lopez Negrete Communications, and
• Vanessa Astros, Vice President of Communications at Fleishman-Hillard Houston

There’s a storify board with a compilation of tweets from the audience. In addition, we’ve pulled together some takeaways points.

Common Sense Tips

• Know who your target is.
• Understand what your objectives are.
• Know who your market is and what is your goal.
• It is crucial you have someone in your team that gets your brands voice.
• Make sure that when you go in you have a clear message and a clear audience.
• Do not ignore Spanish comments. Treat them the same as you would other inquiries.
• If you can’t help your customers via social media (resolve their problem) you need to respond (don’t delete or ignore).
• A fan doesn’t need to be your fan. They can unlike u anytime. Treat everyone with respect and build that community. ENGAGE!
• A fan can leave you anytime; so be cool, reward, respond, don’t delete.

About language & culture

•  It depends on what your product is and what your objective is, THAT will determine what language you should use.
• You don’t have to post in Spanish, but you do have to be culturally relevant.
• You don’t need separate English and Spanish Facebook pages, you can target posts by language.
• Targeted-language posts are a great way to reach the Latino market on Facebook.
• Be careful, if you have Spanish posts on English-dominant Facebook pages, you may see a backlash from English-dominant customers. Use the targeting tool.
• Adding a few Spanish words to your content doesn’t make it culturally relevant. Don’t try to Latinize your post (throw in a random ” taqueria”) without being culturally relevant.
• You can use Spanglish (fi it’s in line with your brand), but be careful with. You can over do very fast and alienate your customers.
• Know the culture. Having someone in the office from the Latin culture will help. Having someone who can speak/write in Spanish can help with the comments coming in. Don’t have anyone on staff who can help? Call a friend. You need someone who gets it.
• Do not rely on Google translate to post in Spanish! Google translator will not do the job.
• DON’T subtitle or dub videos into Spanish. It gives the appearance that they’re an afterthought. It’s a lack of respect for your audience.

About the Hispanic market & social media presence

• The spending power of Hispanics will be $1.5 trillion in about two years.
• The Hispanic market really is the mass market of the future
• Hispanic marketing budgets need to catch up with the changing demographics and increased spending power.
•  The US Hispanic market is VERY diverse. Understanding the basics will help with Facebook, Twitter and BEYOND.
• Understand Hispanics/latinos come different backgrounds and can be very different.
• Hispanics login to social media (most platforms) more than their counterparts.
• Hispanics over index on social media by all measures except inactive accounts.
• Hispanics are more active watching videos online and downloading music.  They also tend to watch videos longer.
• Twitter and Facebook are most popular among latinos.
• The Hispanic consumer is loyal but will be turned off the moment you show disrespect.
• Hispanics are committed to companies that are committed to them.
• Hispanics will give and send business to new businesses as long as they are treated with respect in the establishment.
• While hispanics will do all pre-purchase research online, but will make the purchase in-store, on the phone or in person

Additional tips

• Search engines do differentiate Spanish content vs English. You will need to do SEO for Spanish.
• Don’t create Spanish language content that just links back to an English-language site.

Want to check out future events? Like the Houston Social Media Breakfast Facebook page or check back on this blog.

Houston Mini Maker Faire 2013
The first annual Houston Mini Maker Faire will be held this week, on Saturday, January 19, 2013 at the Stafford Centre. “Maker Faire brings together families and individuals to celebrate the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset and showcase all kinds of incredible projects. At Maker Faire, you’ll find arts and crafts, science and engineering, food and music, fire and water but what makes this event special is that all these interesting projects and smart, creative people belong together. They are actively and openly creating a maker culture.” Tickets are $15 in advance.

Startup Demo Day
The next Startup Demo Day is Thursday, February 7, 2013 from 6:30pm until 9:30pm. Startup Demo Day is where Houston’s local startups come pitch their company, current status, and where they are headed next. They can hear feedback from local Mentors & Entrepreneurs as they offer insight to each pitch. The event is held at Start Houston, located at 1121 Delano St., 77003.

LATISM Houston will begin offering a Lunch & Learn Series later this month.

• You bring your lunch.
• We’ll bring you the scoop on the latest in Social Media.
• Completely FREE
• Open to ALL

Facebook & EdgeRank: What You Need To Know
January 31, 2013
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

E-mail Marketing: From Emails To e-Newsletters
February 21, 2013
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

YouTube 2.0: How To Build Your YouTube Network
March 28, 2013
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

WHERE:
Clayton Library
Carriage House Meeting Room
5300 Caroline Street
Houston, TX 77004

For more information contact Juan Alanis at juan@latism.org or Sandra Fernandez at sandra@latism.org, or visit hou.latism.org.

We are excited to partner with Houston Social Media Breakfast for the January breakfast, “Reaching the US Latino Community through Social Media.”

Date & Time: Friday, January 11, 2013 from 8:30am to 10:00am
Location: Canopy Restaurant, 3939 Montrose Blvd., Houston TX 77006

Panelists:

• Julie Jameson Grayum, PR Business Manager/Account Supervisor with Lopez Negrete Communications, and
• Vanessa Astros, Vice President of Communications at Fleishman-Hillard Houston

More info, from the Facebook invitation:

In 2010, whites Texans made up 45 percent of the population and Hispanics 39 percent. By 2020, those numbers will be reversed. The Office of the Texas State Demographer predicts that in 2030 the state will be majority Hispanic.

What does this mean for social media? We are partnering with Latinos in Social Media Houston Chapter for a special social media panel to answer these questions and more.

1. Do you have to post in Spanish to reach the Hispanic audience online?
2. What are some of the bigger social media trends for Latinos?
3. What is the purchasing power of the Latino audience?
4. How will Latinos affect the political landscape?

Add your suggested questions to the Facebook event page.