NewsTaco

By Jesse Luna, NewsTaco

As the Supreme Court of the U.S. starts to weigh in on whether or not Proposition 8, a ban against gay marriage in California, is legal, social media is buzzing and changing color with streams of red equal sign logos.

Human Rights Campaign, an organization devoted to supporting lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender rights, is encouraging others to use its logo and share its photos on social media sites to spread the word about the Supreme Court proceedings. My Facebook timeline has a sea of red logos.

Local activist Lucas Zucker made this comment on his Facebook profile, “You know your organization has successful branding when people are changing their Facebook profile pictures to your logo. HRC, you win.”

Of course this isn’t the first time a campaign has used logos on avatars to promote a cause.  During the election in Iran, tens of thousands of Twitter users changed their avatars to a green tint and you can find thousands of different symbols on avatars throughout social media with political, sports, and many other types of avatar “flair.”

If you support marriage equality and want to share that on your Facebook page or Twitter stream, you can visit the Human Rights Campaign Facebook page and grab a red avatar in solidarity.

This post was originally posted to jesseluna.com.

[Image courtesy Human Rights Campaign]

By Jesse Luna, NewsTaco

One of the primary questions at the start of a relationship is “Can I trust you?”

The same is true on online relationships and in the process of vetting new connections and networks. Everyone gets invites to join this or that and if you don’t have a previous relationship or personally know the person IRL (in real life) then you might be suspicious of the attempt to connect.

Connecting with this new person or group might turn out well, like a blind date arranged by your favorite aunt. Or, it could be a nightmare like a blind date you go on that one guy’s famous list.

This is what I did, do or have done before joining groups that became invaluable to me, really changed my life or are just fun.

A few years back, by being open to a new group of social media savvy folks from across the country, I was able to connect with this Latinos in Social Media (LATISM) group. Since then, I’ve made a lot of friends and eventually helped produce one of the first social media for social good conferences.

It took some time to trust the new LATISM group though. Eventually I met enough people, had enough live one-on-one conversations with LATISM supporter and I was sold.

I’ve been a part of several other networks on Twitter and they often raise dust before people understand what they are. When I was actively working with hundreds other to help save the life of Eric De La Cruz, a young man who needed a heart transplant, there was much scrutiny of supporters bearing the #ERIC branded Twitter avatars which I still wear today. “Who was this #Eric person, why are people asking for contributions and whoa, why are Trent Reznor, Alyssa Milano, Tony Hawk, and Dave Navarro supporting this campaign?” people would ask. Some took these questions further and dug deeper, often looking to find something wrong.

The creation of a new online network is a delicate thing. There has to be transparency but the forming network can’t spend all of its time trying to appease doubters. During the #ERIC campaign, skeptics were silenced when Eric’s sister, Veronica De La Cruz, started tweeting photos from the hospital.

So what should you do if you are trying to start an online group or network?
In real estate people talk about “Location, Location, Location.” In social media it’s “Transparency, Transparency, Transparency.”

Transparency (1) – Let people easily know who you are. Introduce yourself and your organization. The LATISM network spread quickly, first with the use of the #LATISM hashtag then by spreading the story of the creation of the group which was tied to founding member Ana Roca Castro (@AnaRC).

Transparency (2) – Let people know what you want. Have a Web site that explains your mission and intentions. For the campaign to save Eric De La Cruz’s life, we created a website that had background information and photos of Veronica and Eric when they were children to help people connect with what was going on. The site also had a way to take online donations.

Transparency (3) – Let people know who you really are. If there are holes in your story the Internet will find out and use it against you. The Internet is a big tattletale – photos, forum messages, public records, the Library of Congress!!! This is especially true if you are going to be doing any kind of fundraising or gathering of personal data.

And remember, bloggers like to dig.

Conclusion
Be authentic and build relationships. Also, don’t be a jerk and blow people off when earnest questions are being asked. As Dr. Seuss says, “There is no one youer than you.” But you need to do work to show people who you are.

Photo Credit:
Erlend Aasland on Flickr – License

By Jesse Luna, NewsTaco

This video tutorial shows you how to add ecommerce capability to your Pinterest Board. To make this happen we will tie our Pinterest pins to a social media friendlyecommerce site, Gumroad. This tutorial focuses on the Pinterest side of things but I have written about Gumroad in the past. If you’d like to see a full video tutorial on how to create a Gumroad item, just leave a comment below, on the YouTube page, on Twitter, Facebook, or send me an email (jesse dot luna at gmail dotcom) and when I get enough requests I will do the Gumroad tutorial.

[Photo by Jesse Luna]

By Jesse Luna, NewsTaco

This election season, voters accessed candidate and proposition information in many more ways than in previous years.

We still received the stack of campaign literature in our mailboxes, were exposed to a barrage of ads on our TVs and received more than our fair share of after dinner phone calls asking for our support, money and time, but there were a few new “touches” added to this year’s election material mix, many on social media and mobile platforms.

Election information in Social media ads
We saw ads on our favorite social media networks like Facebook pushing for candidates and causes. It was difficult to avoid them even if we tried. I heard from one community organizer who said that some ads had already reached a “saturation point” and really didn’t need to run any longer. In other words, he was sick of seeing the ads even though he and his organization were actively campaigning for that issue.

Why advertise on Facebook? It also helps that Latinos almost out-index every other ethnic groups on Facebook and Facebook makes it easy with a somewhat new “filter by Latinos” ad feature. I’m still not sure what that “Latino” algorithm looks like, though, on new media sites in general. Facebook recently hit the one billion users per month mark.

Online memes
This election we saw a flurry of image memes on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and more. Every time we saw a photo or tweet, we had the opportunity to shareit. At SEIU 721, we created a set of memes featuring our members holding “Yes on 30″ and “No on 32″ signs. We posted dozens of these photos and our members and community allies helped circulate them across the Web with Like, Shares, and Retweets.

This screenshot of the SEIU 721 Facebook page shows the “No on 32″ meme that we created on the right and a snapshot of the “No on 32″ mobile phone application that was created by the LA Labor Federation. The mobile app allows the user to put tape over one’s mouth in the photo to convey the concept that Proposition 32 would silence the voice of working people. (Yes, that is labor leader Dolores Huerta in the photo on the left.)

Parodies and Satirical Characters
As if we didn’t have enough real life political characters to follow, we also had the opportunity to follow spoof accounts like @MexicanMitt on Twitter. The @MexicanMitt account was so influential that Twitter temporarily shut it down during the Republican National Convention.

Another satirical piece was the “Mitt Romney Style” video by CollegeHumor.com which went viral.

Mobile Outreach
Just as Latinos out-index most groups on Facebook, we also use mobile phones more than other groups. According to a 2012 Nielsen study, “Overall, Hispanics are 28 percent more likely to own a smartphone than non-Hispanic Whites…”  In fact, for many Latinos, smartphones are a key part of personal access to the Internet.

In this election, mobile outreach included mobile ads on apps and social media sites and it also including texting. A texting service was provided by different campaigns to provide periodic updates, to alert people to new events and actions,  and for the final Get Out the Vote push on election day.

MomsRising.com had its own texting subscription set up. This is an example of how MomsRising.com engaged subscribers during the Republican National Convention.

This iPhone screenshot below shows some of the texting interactions received in the final day.  (Um, I accidentally texted to the SEIU 721 account instead of my wife when I typed in “pizza?”) I used the “find your polling place” feature and texted “VOTED721″ to the account once I did vote.

For this election cycle, most texting campaigns were tests for future campaigns.

As someone who was involved as a volunteer in the offline as well as online aspects of the campaign, I look forward to digging through the data to see what really worked and what needs to be improved. New opportunities to connect with all voters will arise with new technologies. Latino voters will continue to benefit from greater and easier access to political information.

If you felt you were engaged in this previous election cycle, what technology methods helped you connect with your candidates or causes?

Related articles

• Latino Voters in the 2012 Election
• White House Using Technology to Reach Latinos

By Melanie Mendez-Gonzales, NewsTaco

I’m headed back to the Latinos in Social Media Conference (Latism) but this time it’s in my home state of Texas: Houston, Texas October 25-27, 2012. Last year ¿Qué Means What? wasn’t even a year old. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with this blog. I was hardly posting once a month. After attending Latism ’11 and being around so many passionate and powerful Hispanics/Latinos, I had a better insight of what my voice really could be and would be. I’ve always known I have a cultural identity crisis. I just didn’t know that so many others could relate to it.

Last year I did learn lessons about blogging, social media, technology and reaching out to the Latino market. That was good. Pero, what I really appreciated about the conference was the relationships that I began. I made new connections and some of those have become great friends. I’m very much looking forward to seeing them again. I was able to put faces to Twitter handles and give big hugs to those I had been following and had learned from or simply made me laugh online. I met my roomie Alexandra from Undercover Mexican Girl; Byrdie Franco, Dallas/Ft.Worth Chapter Director and Alicia, PR professional from California. Plus, I got to meet some of the voices from a few of my favorite sites like NewsTaco (of course), Latino Rebels, Spanglish Baby and New Latina. These are just a few of the many amazing hermanos I got to meet.

I will never forget the night we shared by chance with last year’s keynote speaker, Dolores Huerta. Please read about it in my post from last year. I still refer to it to remind me about what other Latinas have done before me. (and are still doing.)

When I went to Chicago, I remember feeling shy and questioning ‘would I fit in?’ As I do many times, I slightly feared that if they found out I didn’t speak Spanish well or didn’t grow up with many ‘traditional’ Mexican or Latino customs, they wouldn’t like me. That’s not what happened. I came back to Texas feeling like I had found my tribe. Because of a memorable panel about being bilingual and speaking Spanglish, I have shed the shame I held on to because of my lack of fluency in Spanish. (Admittedly, it still creeps in from time to time.)

Since the conference, I’ve been able to connect with others still online and in person about Latino culture. I continue to meet others and get the privilege to introduce them to Latism or hear their stories of why they belong to Latism. My blog has grown and so has my career in social media managing.

Earlier in 2012, we launched a local chapter of Latism-San Antonio. We are babies and have so much to learn. Many thanks to those who have come to our events in San Antonio and I hope to make you proud by representing The Alamo City this year. I’m excited to have a different level of participation at this year’s conference as a San Antonio chapter co-director. Already it’s been different because I’ve had a slight (very tiny) glimpse of what the volunteers do to put on this conference. I am also moderating a business panel: Bilingual Content Marketing: Best Practices for Businesses. Come listen and participate if you are at the conference, Saturday at 11:45am.

So, yes, a year makes a huge difference. Last year I was headed out solita, unknowing who I would meet and what to expect. This year, I can’t wait for the abrazos, contribute to the conference and make new friends all over again. Nos vemos.

This article was first published in Que Means What?

By Rebeldes, Latino Rebels

Murder Was Recorded on Facebook

It is one of the most horrific murders of the social media age. Three Chicago teens decided to play a game called “”Pick ‘Em Out and Knock ‘Em Out” at 5 am on Tuesday morning. Soon, their game turned deadly and their target—62-year-old Delfino Mora—would die as he was collecting discarded cans. The murder would be posted on Facebook, and that Facebook post led to the arrest of Malik Jones, 16, Nicholas Ayala, 17, and Anthony Malcolm, 18.

Mora, a father of 12, left a family in shock. The tragedy resonated with many in our community, and when we learned that a fund was being set up by Chase Bank to help Mora’s family recover from their loss, we contacted Chase on Twitter and tonight they have confirmed to us that anyone can go into any Chase branch in the United States and make a donation to the Mora Family Fund. This is what Chase’s account told us:

If you have any problems with your donation, contact @ChaseSupport on Twitter.

UPDATE. July 20: One of our community members tweeted to us this morning that Chase is only taking cash because there was an attempt by an individual to commit fraud on the account. (How sad is that?) This is what we received:

This article was first published in Latino Rebels.

The Latino Rebels are a collective of social media influentials, bloggers, marketers, journalists, poets, writers, producers, photographers, and marketers. We use humor, commentary, opinions, independent stories, cross-links to others blogs, and our social media platforms to share our universe.

According to the most recent research Latinos are all over social media; we love it, more than any other ethnic, racial or cultural group in the U.S.  NewsTaco has reported on this before. But, while Latinos use social media more, it’s only to an extent – we have our limits.

According to Enhanced Online News:

When it comes to sharing personal information about themselves, Hispanics are more cautious…

So what does that mean? Lance Rios, President and Founder of Being Latino was quoted in the EON report:

Latinos are very loyal consumers. But in order to gain their trust, you have to assure them that you are legitimate. Culturally we tend to be sensitive to giving personal information so easily.

The results of the survey follow what social media insiders have been saying for a long time: that Latinos are innovators, community builders and naturals for taking on social media.

• 90% of Hispanics are likely to be on Facebook compared to 81 percent of the general population
• 57% of Hispanics access YouTube compared to 46 percent of the general population
• 47% Hispanics are likely to be on Google+, compared with 18 percent of the general population.

And yet,

65 percent of Hispanics are willing to share their names on social media compared to 87.1 percent of the general population. Hispanics are also more reluctant to post their relationship status – only 42.5 percent vs. 73.5 percent of the general population.

Here’s a cool infographic that explains it all.

[Photo By the italian voice, inforgrahpic by uSamp]

Latinos currently fall into different levels of technology adaption, but increasingly Latinos will be adopting technology and leading the way as consumers in this space, according to a presentation from José Villa, president of Sensis who presented The Hispanic Persona Project at South By Southwest on Sunday. This project Villa said, is to help understand that Latinos are not “consumers,” but rather, users of technology, and they vary in this capacity.

Villa explained that “Hispanic marketing is dying” since the market is growing and changing so much, and used the fact that 63% of Latinos are U.S.-born as an example of this trend. Latinos are no longer defined by languages they speak, thus, it’s incumbent upon people trying to reach this audience to cease thinking of them in these terms. “Everybody understands that you have to figure out this market if you’re going to be relevant,” he said.

The majority of the Latino population is under 30, an in order to better understand these 50 million-plus folks, Villa created four prototypes, or “personas,” based on ethnographic research. The focus groups for this research reflected the U.S. Latino population, by ethnic origin, age and acculturation levels (as defined by integration into American society, not just language).

The four personas defined by Villa are: Techfluential, Social Techie, Nostalgic Newbie and Utilitarian Explorer.

Techfluentials are what Villa termed the “classic early adopter,” who does everything online, uses mobile heavily and is not easily reached by Spanish language media. Social Techies, on the other hand, use technology primarily for social purposes; they are the first to adopt social platforms and use these heavily, but care not for how the technology works, investing in online shopping for example.

Nostalgic Newbies use the web to stay in touch with family and friends in their home countries, have a low acculturation level, are entry level users of online tools and new to social media. They use the web to help them adapt to life in this country, and are best reached by Spanish language portals. Finally, the Utilitarian Explorer has a mid-level of acculturation, a low level of tech adoption, defined as a “passive listener,” and uses the Internet primarily for entertainment.

Villa said these personas may be recreated or repurposed to different ends, but are help to think about the “Hispanic market” in a more useful and tangible way.

[Image By Analyn]

By Melissa Pitts

A couple of weeks ago Chow.com published an article on the popularity of Pinterest among food bloggers — and the pitfalls, namely copyright problems. The article mentioned one food blogger in specific who complained that her recipes were being posted on the popular social media site without her permission. Her complaint: that people were posting her recipes thus causing her to lose clicks to her site. While she was okay with the picture posting, the recipe part — not so much. Her response? To start a petition urging Pinterest to embed a character limit (like Twitter) so full recipes couldn’t be posted. Pinterest then responded with a 500 character limit, but food bloggers remain a bit miffed about the whole problem.

Other issues plage Pinterest, from copyright laws to the responsibility “pinners” inherit when they repin. The response from photographers to bloggers ranges from filing lawsuits to deleting accounts. As a food blogger myself I can only watch all this unfold with confusion. I put my recipes and pictures up on a public website — anyone, anywhere can access it — share and comment on my content.

As a blogger, it’s a dream come true when people find my little site, repin recipes and comment. I put my product on the web, repost on Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and so forth hoping people will see it. Therefore, how can I complain if someone posts my recipes on the worldwide web? If I didn’t want my content out there for the world to see, I wouldn’t post it. Don’t get me going on the whole ‘original recipe’ thing- how many recipes can there be for omelettes? Throwing lawsuits, petitions, or deleting my accounts on these social media applications is completely counterproductive to my goals of getting my site noticed.

The same Chow article raised the question if sites like Pinterest would go the way of Napster because of copyright problems (the author believed it was highly unlikely). I sincerely hope not! Napster was run by a bunch of students — and the response from the music industry was to throw their hands up and toss expensive lawsuits. Apple then created iTunes, charges artists an obscene amount to have their music on the site and fundamentally changed the music industry (and most people I’ve spoken to, for the worst).

So, I say to my fellow food bloggers: embrace it, love it, and “pin” away because the more your website is picked up by the hottest social media platforms- the better, right?

The South By Southwest festival in Austin Texas just wrapped up, and as one of the Latino-centric news outlets that covered the conference and its three different components — interactive (my reporting), film, and music — there are a few interesting takeaways. For me, the highlight of the festival had to be Austin-based Cultural Strategies’ brainchild, The Social Revolución, an event that highlighted Latinos in technology and social media. It was at this event, the first official Latino event of SXSW Interactive, that I saw the most Latinos in one place; and the most exciting thing was we were all gathered there to celebrate innovative work we’ve done with technology.

First, let me give you a brief overview of what it was like to cut for SXSW Interactive. Essentially, the festival is more like a tech conference, in the sense that there were keynote speakers, panels, sessions, and an assorted variety of parties and social gatherings. The people who attended the conference included journalists like myself, as well as marketers, social media folks, technology innovators, and assorted variety of professionals from all over the country interested in the future of technology in U.S.

Two of my biggest takeaways here were: there were not that many Latinos in attendance, and then there were very few panels or sessions that covered Latinos in technology (some of those available included innovations from Latin America, however).  This surprised me given that I had it on good authority that there were several other Latino panels submitted to the conference that never made it into the actual programming. What’s more, this pattern extended to African Americans; although the first day of the conference there were several panels dedicated to talk about this population in tech, I missed them because of the outrageously long line to pick up my conference badge.

To me, if I dare call myself an entrepreneur and a social media/technology professional, I left the conference wanting more — a whole lot more. I had so badly wanted to say that SXSW Interactive introduced me to new technologies by and for Latinos, or particularly interesting trends in the Latino community, or even a few more mixers where I could meet others with similar interests. Instead, I found myself sifting through copious panels and events to find something beyond what I had a ready found, specifically the aforementioned Social Revolución. When we asked one of the organizers, Armando Rayo VP of engagement for Cultural Strategies, about the event he told me the purpose was to address these types of concerns.

“Our goal was to bring Latinos together during SXSWi and shine the light on the those using social media to create change. We felt it was successful because it was a first of it’s kind event and filled a much needed void; a place where Latinos can come together at SXSWi,” Rayo told NewsTaco.

Back to my initial point, about the need for a greater presence of Latinos at this event, I applaud SXSW for collaborating with Cultural Strategies to produce The Social Revolución. It was a great event that allowed people to come together, make contact, find out about new things, and take away a new network and hopes that next year’s event will offer even more opportunities for Latinos in tech to network and innovate. Rayo actually told me that was the point of the event in the first place. But I want more, I know others wanted more, and I think that we can all work in our own ways to ensure a greater representation and participation of Latinos in this important annual conference.

Hopefully, this year the Latinos that met at The Social Revolución can rally their friends to submit more panels, perhaps SXSW will be able to collaborate with Cultural Strategies (which is planning to do the event bigger and better next year) and other groups to produce more Latino events, and organizations like NewsTaco can spread the word about this great event to folks who would benefit from attendance. Because, as Rayo told me,  this event was part–participation and part–education, “It’s all about relevance. Do Latinos see themselves in this space, tech/online and does SXSWi see how many Latinos are actually involved in the digital space?”

Ultimately, if we want more Latinos at and participating in SXSW Interactive, it will take more people like Rayo and more organizations like Cultural Strategies, but it will also take outlets like NewsTaco and the organizers of SXSW.  Or, as Rayo put it, “The numbers are definitely growing, but we should encourage SXSWi to add more panels and include more Latinos in their programming; this will definitely increase the attendance of Latinos at SXSWi. It’s a win-win.”

Immigration and LGBT advocates spoke about the ways in which they utilized digital media to organize around their issues and campaigns at the Still Invisible? Waging Stories with Social Media panel Sunday at South By Southwest.

The short version is that, via tools like Twitter and video, activists were able to push through changes to anti-immigrant and anti-LGBT legislation, such as deportation policy and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Panelists included DREAMer and Presente.org organizer Felipe Matos and Change.org Director of Organizing Jackie Mahendra. Both spoke to the fact that, via tools like Twitter or Vimeo, tangible changes came about.

“We challenge [institutional stakeholders] to their face, and they have to react to us, but we also use Twitter,” Matos said, adding that blogs were also helpful in allowing him to define his own narrative. The Internet, via tools like Twitter, also allowed DREAMers to create a national organizational network that spans 30 states, he said. Every time he appears on TV he gets feedback from others who are interested in joining — via social media channels of course — and conversely, he uses social media to gain access to traditional media platforms like TV shows.

“It happens often,” Matos said, of being able to engage institutional folks via Twitter specifically.

Jake Brewer, a surrogate for Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and undocumented immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas, said that digital storytelling is a whole different ballgame. Vargas did not attend the panel, due to a family emergency, but Brewer said the launch of his project Define American showed them that a truly social platform creates a community that catalyzes change. People may not open their mail or emails but they will almost always see a Twitter mention, he said.

Mahendra concurred, noting that a great cause combined with potent use of social media technologies can bring very tangible outcomes for activists online. “If you have this great mix of an amazing story and are able to tweet a journalist — you can see amazing results.”

By Juan Elizondo

Given the habits in my own home, I wasn’t surprised to read more evidence that Hispanics spend more time in social media channels than other ethnic groups in the United States. That was one of the findings of an electronic survey conducted in mid-February by American Pulse.

Facebook was the dominate social media channel for the three reported groups, with 60.7 percent of the self-reported Hispanics saying they visit the site at least once a day. Overall, more than half of the respondents said they visit Facebook at least once a day.

The survey also tested time spent and the frequency of visits onTwitter, Foursquare, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn.Those registered far lower than Facebook in both areas.

Alejandra Suarez is an assistant account executive at theHispanic-focused iNSPIRE! marketing firm and director of the Dallas chapter of Latinos in Social Media, a national nonprofit organization that seeks to empower Latinos through social media.

She says the communal nature of most Hispanic culturesdrives Hispanics to social media. That, in turn, creates another channel for advertisers to reach Hispanics.

Suarez says there is a wide mix of retailers and marketers who are successfully reaching Hispanic audiences in traditional and new media, as well as those who are trying but not hitting the mark.

“The key part of this is understanding this audience,” she says. “A lot of brands fail to recognize that this is not one giant audience and that you can’t talk to them as one big group.”

Suarez notes that there are significant differences among the bicultural nature of what iINSPIRE! calls Lateens, recent immigrants, and 2^nd and 3^rd generations residents who remain more firmly rooted in their native cultures. Layered within those generational differences are cultural and communication differences between people of various Hispanic origins.

Another challenge in marketing to Hispanic audiences is theresearch role that younger Hispanics take in purchasing decisions for products and services aimed at their parents and grandparents. That role comes, in part, because of language barriers, as well as access to and comfort with technology. The role of younger family members means advertisers must shape messages that appeal to those younger people while also providing the information that the older members of the family need to make their buying decisions.

“It’s challenging,” Suarez says.

Unfortunately, less than a third of the survey’s Hispanic respondents said they visit LinkedIn once a week or more and more than half said they don’t have accounts with LinkedIn, the social media of choice for professional recruiters, business owners and corporate hiring directors.

Social media is a great tool to stay connected to friends and family. The same power can be used to connect with people in our current fields of work and in the fields to which we aspire.

In addition to measuring total time in social media channels, the American Pulse survey looked at total time in all Internet channels. Blacks reported 7.2 hours per day on the Internet. Hispanics said they spend an average of 6.6 hours per day online. Non-Hispanic whites reported 5.3 hours per day.

Those findings also lend credibility to advertisers’ investments in online marketing.

[Photo By the italian voice]

Facebook is now allowing its advertisers to select their targeting based on ethnicity — specifically Latinos. This makes sense, considering that 1 in 6 Americans are now Latino, which represents a $1 trillion market, so brands that are increasingly headed to Facebook must be pushing the company to reach out.

According to ClickZ, the feature was most likely added in the latter part of 2011. Advertisers are not exactly sure what metrics Facebook is using to assign this classification, but it’s not based solely on language, given data from the company’s ad metric.

Facebook’s ad tool notes that there are 4.1 million users use the social network in Spanish in the United States. And, in a 2009 study from Facebook itself, the company utilized U.S. Census Bureau Genealogy Project data, including the frequency of popular surnames with a breakdown by race and ethnicity, to analyze users by race. So, the company may be targeting Latinos by any combination of these methods.

ClickZ wrote more:

Facebook has added a Hispanic targeting option to its self-service ad-buying platform. Marketers whocreate an ad and then select the broad category targeting option – as opposed to precise interest levels – will see an “Ethnic” tab. Currently the only subset option is “Hispanic,” which can be added to the targeting mix with a click on its check box.

Advertisers that work on Facebook’s platform currently target Latino users via zip codes with a high concentration of Latinos, as well as by targeting a users’ pages and interests, such as Univision or Telemundo.

“Lilia” is a short film that was released last year directed and written by Sam Lerma and produced by Ralph Lopez. It’s a story that many of us can relate to, dealing with a family who is on the financial brink when the father loses his job, further compounded when the patriarch decides to pull off a heist which ends up with disastrous circumstances.

Personally, I liked this film because it delivers a personal story told in a fragmented timeframe, and it has heart, which is what is missing from many films nowadays. Simply put, it does not have to beat you over the head with melodrama, and the fact that the actors are not household names works to their advantage. There’s a complete absence of scenes where the camera pans away to reveal the lead with a solitary tear streaming down his cheek.

I recently had the chance to speak with producer Ralph Lopez. Film making has been a lifelong passion for him; he’s gone from being the child that used to blow things up to the man responsible for making stuff happen. Upon talking to Lopez, you cannot help but notice his humility, he gives much credit to his inspirations and the people he works with. For example, he spoke at length about how Robert Rodriguez’s film “El Mariachi” and the book “Rebel without a Clue” propelled him forward. To this end, “Lilia” had a Kickstarter page which raised funds in order to create the film, giving it a community feel where people have the opportunity to patronize films that actually mean something.

This comes out as we have a conversation about his endeavors. We talked about the previously mentioned “Lilia” as well as his first feature film, “Wolf” which will be screened during the South by Southwest Film Festival (I’ll be attending in March). He refers to “Wolf” as a heavy piece that is going to cause people to start having a conversation, rather than just brushing things under the rug. “Wolf” is directed by Lopez’s longtime collaborator, Ya’Ke Smith, with whom Lopez has worked since high school; they previously produced “Katrina’s Son.”

The trailer for “Wolf” looks intense.  The film deals with a family who finds out their son has been molested, furthe complicated by the son’s feelings towards his molester.  The movie will be screened at South by Southwest in March, but you can see the trailer for yourself at the following link:

The future looks bright for Lopez. His films hit parts of us that hide in plain sight. We watch them and flinch because sometimes our comfort zone gets invaded – all the while we cannot turn away because we want to know what is going to happen next. I feel that’s a good thing because it gives us another perspective we can walk away from with characters we care for and can possibly care about. This is the heart and soul that is missing from most movies.

[Video By Exodus Filmworks; Courtesy Photo]