Where to Find the Top Blogueras

Posted on May 21, 2012 by
Image

From left to right: Ana Flores, Blanca Stella Mejia, Eliana Tardío Hutardo, Helena Osorio-Zavala and Yoly Mason

Looking for the top Latina bloggers? You are in luck! The list of the 65 Latinas that were selected by Latinos in Social Media (LATISM) to attend the first-ever Top Latina Blogger Retreat taking place this week in Washington, DC is a great start. The selection was made by a committee of leaders from top Latina bloggers communities including: Latina Bloggers Connect, Las Blogueras, Blogs de Mamás and New Latina.

The bloggers represent a wide range of topics including: Fashion & Beauty (Mercedes Sanchez and Flor de Maria Rivera), Health (Lisa Quinones and Laura Tellado), Art (Rachel Mátos), Parenting (Silvia Martinez and Jennifer Hutchenson), Technology (Lynn Ponder) and Food (Nicole Presley and Yvette Marquez).

Here is the complete list:

  1. Mirna Arce • http://ahorrosconcupones.com/
  2. Rachel Mátos • http://www.theartmuse.net
  3. Verónica Arreola • http://www.vivalafeminista.com
  4. Caryn Bailey • http://rockinmama.net
  5. Elisa Batista • http://www.momsrising.org
  6. Jeannette Kaplun • http://todobebe.com
  7. Elizabeth Cerezo • http://thoughtsofamommy.net
  8. Jesse Nuez • http://www.hechoparamama.com
  9. Brenda Cisneros • http://www.mejorandomihogar.com
  10. Yvonne Condes • http://momsla.com  //  http://yvonneinla.com
  11. Janice Correa • http://mamistimeout.com
  12. Marta Maria Darby • http://mybigfatcubanfamily.com
  13. Luciana Gabriela Davidzon de Scher • http://www.latinfoodlovers.com/
  14. Laura de Ona • http://SolyPimienta.com
  15. Julie Diaz Asper • http://blog.gigcoin.com
  16. Melanie Edwards • http://www.modernmami.com
  17. Ana Flores • http://spanglishbaby.com
  18. Monique Frausto •  http://BlogsbyLatinas.com
  19. Teresa Garza • http://checalamovie.net
  20. Dariela Cruz • http://www.mamitalks.com/
  21. Carolyn Gonzalez • http://www.caroincarolina.com
  22. Maura Wall Hernandez • http://theothersideofthetortilla.com
  23. Viviana Hurtado • http://www.thewiselatinaclub.com
  24. Jennifer Hutcheson • http://mami2mommy.com
  25. Denisse Icaza • http://ahorrosparamama.com
  26. Nadia Jones • http://www.justicejonesie.com/blog
  27. Roraima Lassanske • http://www.mamacontemporanea.com
  28. Tracy Lopez • http://latinaish.com
  29. Yolanda Machado • http://sassymamainla.com
  30. Adriana Maestas • http://latinopoliticsblog.com  // http://politic365.com
  31. Yvette Marquez • http://www.muybuenocookbook.com/
  32. Silvia Martinez • http://www.mamalatinatips.com
  33. Yolanda Mason • http://lasblogueras.com
  34. Silke McDowell • http://www.growingbilingual.com
  35. Blanca Stella Mejia • http://micaminar.com
  36. Melyssa Mendoza • http://changeyourliferideabike.blogspot.com/
  37. Raquel Negron • http://thedigitallatina.com
  38. Monica Olivera • http://www.MommyMaestra.com
  39. Eliza Ordonez • http://www.vivafashionblog.com
  40. Monica Vila • http://www.TheOnlineMom.com
  41. Maegan Ortiz • http://vivirlatino.com
  42. Helena Osorio-Zavala • http://pinkguayoyo.com
  43. Maria Jose Ovalle • http://www.verybusymamablog.com
  44. Chantilly Patiño • http://www.biculturalmom.com
  45. Angelica Perez • http://www.newlatina.net
  46. Mariana Perez • http://thedomesticbuzz.com
  47. Carolina Pichardo • http://www.youngurbanmoms.com
  48. Lynn Ponder • http://webcitygirls.com/
  49. Nicole Presley • http://presleyspantry.com/
  50. Jeannette Quiñones • http://www.sazonboricua.com
  51. Lisa Quinones • http://www.autismwonderland.com/
  52. Flor de Maria Rivera • http://flordemariafashion.com/
  53. Migdalia Rivera • http://latinaonamission.com
  54. Vianney Rodriguez • http://sweetlifebake.com
  55. Roxana A. Soto • http://www.spanglishbaby.com
  56. Ericka Sanchez • http://nibblesandfeasts.com/
  57. Mercedes Sanchez • http://bechicmag.com/magazine/
  58. Dania Santana • http://www.lafamiliacool.com/
  59. Alejandra Suarez • http://www.brandlateen.com/
  60. Eliana Tardio • http://www.elianatardio.com
  61. Laura Tellado • http://holdinoutforahero.org
  62. Laura Termini • http://www.chicanol.com
  63. Maybelline Valenti • http://www.naturalmentemama.com/
  64. Carrie Ferguson Weir • http://tikitikiblog.com
  65. Ruby Wright • http://www.growingupblackxican.com/

Do you have additional blogger recommendations? Are you a bloguera? Let us know and share the link to your blog!

Posted in Bloggers, LATISM, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Unleashing the Power of the Latino Social Media Influencer

Posted on January 4, 2012 by

2011 was the year social media became significantly threaded through public relations and marketing efforts of all private, non-profit and public sectors. Social media buzz has become as important as media placements to many brands and organizations. But how do you get organic social media buzz?  And especially, how do you get social media buzz within the Latino community when your brand/organization does not serve the community through targeted social media channels?  You turn to an allied… the Latino Social Media Influencer (LSMI).

Here is the issue for marketers: Note the word “allied” mentioned above.  An allied implies a developed relationship, one that takes time to cultivate and which is built on trust, interaction and loyalty.  Obviously, you must crash the party NOW and start getting your allies (hopefully and good amount of LSMIs) aligned if you want your social media buzz to blossom.

Here is the issue within the Latino community: You will be surprised of how many Latinos do not make the most out of their social media relationships and take their connections for granted. It is true that influence is not, and should not be measured in numbers of Twitter followers or Facebook “likes,” but without the numbers, people/organizations will simply skip through your influence potential. If all you have is 50 followers, a particular brand might (or most likely will) ignore your complaint, but this is not the case if you have 10,000.  Let’s acknowledge and empower each other. Let’s become connected!  Not in the search of revenue, but in the process of strengthening our influence as a whole. In other words, drop the Farmville nonsense unless the crops you are harvesting go to feeding the hungry.

I’ve been amazed by the recent crowdfunding movement, but have also asked myself why isn’t there one united front that can develop such concept specifically benefitting Latino’s and spearheaded by the LSMI?  If there is one, well, let’s get the LSMI behind it! Just one example of how the power of the LSMI can be unleashed.

Being a LSMI does not mean you know the ins & outs of all things social media. It means you have reach and are able to ignite action from your connections (RTs, clicks, likes, views, votes, donations, etc). Able to engage.

As we start 2012, my challenge to Latinos in social media is to be present, conscious of the power they have through their social media connections to impact important issues, promote topics of interest, and start a domino effect towards something great.

Here is to all the LSMIs! The power is within you all.  Let’s get noticed.

Posted in Social Media, Social Media Influencer, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

PRSA Chair Rosanna Fiske to Join Hispanic Public Relations Chat

Posted on September 28, 2011 by
Rosanna Fiske

As a special Hispanic Heritage Month edition, Hispanic Public Relations Chat (#hprchat), the first and only ongoing twitter chat dedicated to Hispanic PR, will host PRSA Chair and Chief Executive Officer Rosanna Fiske on Wednesday, October 5th.

Elected in 2010, Fiske is the first Latina CEO of PRSA, the world’s largest and foremost organization of public relations professionals with a community of more than 21,000 public relations and communications professionals across theUnited States.

Join #hprchat as Fiske discusses key topics of interests, including:

  • Talent Diversity in Public Relations- Is the gap widening? What efforts are underway to address diversity? Is their lack of Latinos in corporate communications leadership positions in corporateAmerica?
  • The State of Hispanic PR:  Is PR being optimized by brands conducting outreach to Hispanics? What is the opportunity for Hispanic PR agencies?
  • The Role of Social Media and SEO: What should the role of social media be in PR? Is understating SEO important knowledge for PR Pros?
  • Blogger Compensation: What is PRSA stand in blogger compensation? Is this practice more common in Hispanic Public Relations? Should it be monitored? Who is optimally responsible for adhering to regulations?
  • PRSA Initiatives: What to expect at the upcoming PRSA conference? How is diversity being addressed at the conference?  What is PR Serving America? Strategic partnerships? How can Hispanic PR pro’s get involved with PRSA?

Participants will also be able to submit a select number of questions by sending them to @andycheco w/o the hashtag.

To participate it is recommended that you follow the chat on tweetchat.com or a similar web application. Just enter the hashtag #hprchat and join the conversation.

#hprchat starts at 8:00 pm ET and runs until 9:30 pm. We hope you join us on Wednesday, October 5th.

Posted in Bloggers, prsa, Public Relations, Rosanna Fiske, Social Media | 1 Comment

Here Is Proof That Twitter Is a Latino Thing.

Posted on September 22, 2011 by

As if you didn’t know that Latinos have taken over Twitter, here is the proof! Music, beauty pageants, and tweets! Check it out! Thanks to @miblogestublog for sharing, definitely a great find.  Enjoy!

Posted in Twitter, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Engaging Hispanics in Social Media

Posted on September 14, 2011 by

Hard to believe that at this point very few brands are engaging Hispanics in social media. Many are either “afraid” (for lack of a better word) or do not give the importance deserved by the market to launch their very own Hispanic channels. Brands are still only dedicating a small fraction of the overall marketing dollars to the Hispanic market and budgets are often the excuse for not investing in Hispanic social media outreach.

Few brands are on top of their game when it comes to having their own dedicated Hispanic channels or effectively engaging Hispanic third party organizations and influencers to reach their Hispanic audience via social media.  Here are four key factors I think you need to consider right now for success tomorrow:

1)      Your own Latino social media engagement channels: Yes. You do need a dedicated Latino facebook, twitter, youtube, etc. Why? Otherwise what you are serving is a watered-down cocktail at most. Your message will not have the impact you want it to have. You don’t need to be everywhere; you just need to be where your consumer is.  

2)      Language: Yes, we are Hispanics, and many of us speak Spanish, but guess what? Many of us speak and prefer English too! Why would you choose to purposely alienate those of us that do? Besides, some of us are not too great with the Spanish thing.  In my opinion, most organic conversations in Hispanic social media are happening in English. Even Univision and Telemundo are servicing social media in both languages. If you have been listening to what those of us working in the Hispanic market have been saying, you would know that language is not as important as cultural relevancy, so why not have that relevant message reach many more? I believe that for the best engagement you must incorporate a mix of both languages. Note: I am not talking about Spanglish here.

3)      Strategic Partnerships: So, you don’t have your own dedicated Latino social media channel… not a problem.  This is not the ideal situation, but luckily there are established organizations with fantastic reach that can help you spread your message. BeingLatino, Hispanicize and LATISM are three excellent organizations that can help you navigate through the Hispanic social media space.

4)      Amigos: Bloggers are king and reynas! They are your best allies. However, there are many fish in the ocean, so be sure to have an understanding of who’s who before you decide to go fishing. There are many Hispanic blogger networks that can help you navigate this world. The organizations mentioned on factor 3 can also assist you with outreach.

Finally, the ideal scenario would be to have a combination of all four of these on your strategy, as I believe they are codependent in achieving the desired outcome.

Your thoughts are welcome!

Posted in BeingLatino, Bloggers, facebook, Hispanicize, LATISM, Social Media, Twitter, Univision, YouTube | Leave a comment

The Challenges of Having a Blog…

Posted on June 8, 2011 by

I have always thought that the best benefit of having a blog is that it teaches you discipline… at least in theory.

You must remain motivated, you must be consistent and you must be creative. So, it has been about two months since my last blog post, where have I been? Well, between switching jobs, remaining engaged in satisfying client work, suffering of a case of spring fever and barely having time to enjoy a glass of wine… I’ve been contemplating about (aka, procrastinating) writing a blog post. However, one of the biggest challenges of writing a blog is deciding on a topic and so much have been going on out there (Weiner’s wiener, Shakira being “pregnant,” William Levi separating…) that it has been hard to focus.

Moving on to other news… HPRChat will be celebrating its one-year anniversary next month. Yes, one year!  And what a year it has been… the crew (Manny Ruiz, Louis Pagan and Migdalia Rivera) of Hispanicize (by the way, excellent conference), HPRA’s NY Chapter President, David Henry and LA Chapter President, Lourdes Rodriguez, ImpreMedia’s Pedro Rojas, executive editor of La Opinion and Hilda Garcia, VP, Multi-platform News and Information and the “Rey of Facebook” Being Latino’s Founder and CEO, Lance Rios, all have join us in the conversation. What’s next? Well, join us of on Wednesday, July 6 for a conversation with “La Reina of Twitter,” LATISM’s own Elianne Ramos!

Back to the discipline thing… Yes, I must find it in me to post more frequently. Maybe I’ll post about my trips to the beach or the best ways to engage an audience in social media or why Hispanic print outlets need to smell the coffee and get with the program if they want to get a piece of the budgets from Fortune 500 companies. As you can see, there is plenty to come.

Thanks for being patient!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Drama, Success, Insights, Prizes & Fun: My Take on Hispanicize 2011

Posted on April 11, 2011 by

It was an amazing three days at Hispancize 2011. If I were to post all of the information shared during the conference this blog post may have been too long for you to read. Since there will be a number of other conference reviews for you to browse through, I’ve decided to share only a selection of moments experienced.

DRAMA

You know you’ve made it when PETA decides to crash your event. Yes, perhaps the most unexpected act at the second annual Hispanicize conference was the abrupt appearance of a PETA protestor who dressed as a hotel staffer took over the podium during one of the conference’s luncheon keynotes. She was swiftly removed from stage and the hugely successful Hispanicize 2011 continued as planned. (I know this is what they were hoping came out of that stunt, guess it worked.)

SUCCESS

Over 400 attendees were at the event which took place at the Renaissance Hotel in the heart of Hollywood, almost doubling the attendance of Hispanicize 2010.  Key topics were discussed in 30 themed sessions, with over 70 panelist providing key insights about the industry.

INSIGHTS

Lee Vann, CEO and Founder Captura Group shared an informative presentation on how to build and manage engage communities of Hispanics on Facebook to drive ROI through a case study of Unilever’s ViveMejor program. Access the deck here. Great statistics!

Rosanna Fiske, APR, CEO and Chair of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the first Latina executive to ever lead the world’s largest public relations organization of 30,000 members gave one of the most dynamic keynote speeches during the conference. She shared the fact that spending on PR is up to $4 billion. That according to eMarketer, PR pro’s are the most effective in leveraging social media. She noted that Hispanics are the mainstream in America, and how the current Latino population is not ours abuela’s Latino population of two decades ago. Fiske talked about how we have to reclaim our identity and lead with it, pointing the fact that we are the next generation of US leadership.

Fiske continued by addressing two key points:

  • Companies need to understand social media should be 1/3 about conversations, 1/3 about brand & 1/3 about others
  • We need the next generation of Latino leaders in PR, we are not doing enough to develop our talent

Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA) announced the launch of a Dallas affiliate, which will become a full chapter later this year, adding to the organization’s New York and Los Angeles chapters.

Hispanicize announced that its third conference, Hispanicize 2012, will take place in Miami next April.

PRIZES, PRIZES and more PRIZES…

Conference attendees took home a number of prizes ranging from a washer, dryer and refrigerator courtesy of Lowes, to a number of iPads. I was fortunate enough to take home a Flip cam courtesy of Telenoticias and a $100 certificate courtesy of SuperBoleteria.com!!!

FUN

Hispanicize proved to be an excellent networking event; bloggers, journalists, PR pro’s and brands alike connected during scheduled cocktail hours and after-party. I had a blast meeting some of my twitter connections, including: @MNSiobal, @Eva_Smith, @IvetteZurita, @RJ_C, @JacqCarly, @ediaz33 and @lancerios.

Overall, a conference that can’t be missed.

Continue the conversation on Hispanic PR Chat…

The debate of blogger compensation was at center stage throughout the conference.  For additional insight on how to collaborate with bloggers, join Hispanic PR Chat (#hprchat) on Twitter this Wednesday at 8 pm ET.

Also, join the PR conversation with Rosanna Fiske, special guest of Hispanic PR Chat this October!!!

Posted in Bloggers, Hispanicize, hpra, hprchat, Me, prsa, Public Relations, Social Media | 6 Comments