We're moving into an era where the line between companies and consumers is becoming more and more blurred. Social media sites like FB and Twitter allow companies to connect with the consumer quickly and on a familiar platform; review sites like Yelp and C-Net pit consumers against or with companies in order to keep companies on track with good business practices and good products; and of course, bloggers are able to reach the masses and over time become trusted resources for news and reviews.

Bloggers are all the rage lately. Anyone can have a blog with an internet connection. You can blog about ANYTHING (hell, I even have a blog about cookies!). And lots of people love to talk — they just need listeners. There are varying degrees of bloggers, too; each topic will have a few bloggers that rise to the top due to their expertise on the subject, their social network and their ability to communicate to the masses. Bloggers are like middlemen between the consumer and/or customer and the company, but they're usually on the consumer / customers' side.

If people were cities on a map, bloggers with a following would be a big dot with bold names. It is for this reason exactly that in my time here I reach out to bloggers. Recently we sent out a bunch of stuff to women with children who we thought would be interested in the Lovin' Scoopful brand — a light gourmet ice cream brand with less fat and fewer calories and they donate to the Special Olympics — to have an ice cream party. They blogged about it (examples can be found here and here) of course, and the positive reviews helped. Some important things to keep in mind when you're looking to reach out to bloggers:

1. You obviously want bloggers with a big following. Sometimes you can see how many people they have reading their blogs by seeing how many fans or followers on Facebook or Twitter they have. Other sites like compete.com and quantcast.com give a good ballpark number for visits to these sites. Unfortunately, you can't use Compete or Quantcast for sites like blogname.wordpress.com or blogname.blogspot.com, but most blogs have their own domain names. If you're a smaller brand though, or don't already have a direct connection with the writer, you may not want to shoot too high and go for the most popular bloggers because they get free stuff every single day and your money will be wasted on sending things to bloggers who won't review your stuff.
2. Relevancy is really important. Serious bloggers won't write about something that doesn't fit their audience.
3. Pictures captivate an audience. It helps if the bloggers you choose normally post pictures. It also gives the audience a visual perspective rather than a text one.
4. Bloggers are usually unbiased, and will post honest reviews and opinions. Don't let this discourage you, though; even the best products have critics.

Ideally it's a win-win-win situation: the blogger gets free stuff and popularity, the company gets information out to a targeted audience with very little cost, and readers get helpful tips and news from a trusted resource. There are still skeptics out there who don't see the utility in blogging or the importance of these online journals; however, incorporating bloggers into your media plan might surprise you.

As we see more and more ad dollars move to online, everyone is rushing to make their mark in the webspace. Of course, the current source of online media right now is social marketing, and one of the most common question for brands in this area is which to use: Facebook or Twitter?

Keep in mind that not only are these two different platforms but that you're also reaching slightly different audiences with each. That being said, depending on your product or service, both or either of these community sites could be a great way for consumers with a common passion for your brand to get together and have you push news to them. Consumers joining your Facebook page is a voluntary move that is incredibly welcome in an age where people are more and more weary of spam and secretly paid sponsorships.

In a nutshell:

Facebook
- There are about 125,800,000 accounts open in the US. Of that:
12.7 million are 13-17 (10.1%)
31.1 million are 18-24 (24.7%)
31.4 million are 25-34 (25%)
21.8 million are 35-44 (17.3%)
28.8 million are 45+ (22.9%)
43.4% are male, 54.6% are female (the rest of the accounts are not specified)

Twitter
There are 100+ million registered accounts (most, however, are outside the US). According to ComScore, 30% of their users were under 25 at the end of 2009, with that number having increased about 10% since 2008. Like Facebook (and most social media sites in general), Twitter is slightly more female, but the discrepancy between female and male users isn't as large.

The few facts above touch the surface of what kind of research can be done on these sites, but it is a good start. Things are changing rapidly in the internet world; for example, on Facebook, the 35+ age group is growing the fastest.

Social media is a great tool if used effectively: dog lovers unite under the Dogasaur Facebook fan page, and the health-conscious as well as moms join the Lovin' Scoopful page. Oh, and another thing: it's easier to target peripheral audiences, like supporters of the Special Olympics, using social media if it is done correctly. A couple of months ago I contacted the marketing person running the Special Olympics Facebook page and asked him if the Special Olympics and Lovin' Scoopful could trade shout-outs just because I knew that the Special Olympics has a very broad audience and supporters would like an ice cream brand that donated to a cause they are passionate about:

Users engage by commenting on, “like”-ing and retweeting status updates and pictures while seeing relevant information that they opted in to receive. Tailor your messages to your specific audience via the specific medium; even if your entire audience is a certain demographic, your social media audience may or may not reflect the same. With the internet becoming increasingly available and portable and networking sites growing bigger and bigger, you may want to use the data above to determine how much time you should spend expanding your brand image in these areas.

There are over 82 million mothers in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and 35 million of them have children under 18 and access the Internet regularly, based on a 2009 research report by eMarketer. Of this number a good percentage of moms are well connected power users in the social media space. The Internet is an integral part of the lives of 34 million mothers in the US. They not only go online to plan a trip or pay bills, they also use the Web to communicate with friends, share advice, blog and socialize. Moms are the ultimate Internet networkers, as they seek out other moms’ advice for what they’re looking for, with a large percentage of them using the Internet at least twice a day.

Since women do the majority of product research and household purchasing, savvy mommy blogs include product reviews and recommendations on items ranging from infant clothing to packaged food to new cars, brands have been taking noticed on the this trend and are now reaching out to these influencers to maximize their reach and presence online.

Moms visit parenting and family websites and blogs where regularly view news, weather and political content online, among them among the most current and savvy of all online users. They search for shopping deals for their kids, want to learn about cooking recipes, want to be involved in charitable causes, want to be up-to-date with the latest trends, among many other relevant conversational topics that would deal with home and the family. And when they find something great for their family, they talk about it, not only with their family and friends, but often with a much broader online audience. They are among the most technically savvy online power users who use social media channels such as blogs, social networks and Twitter as platforms to extend their influence in the space.

This group has been classified as Mommie bloggers, and they occupy a special place in the space that separates them from other groups online; as they have become the hottest and most influential target demographic that every brand wants to focus on these days. Like moms there are many other groups that are surging in online influence too, and how brands can take notice of them is by paying attention to the latest social trends and by listening to what they are saying and learning about their behaviors when it comes to selecting and buying products that best fits them.

Here is graph showing a growing trend of how much mommy bloggers numbers have increased over the years and what these numbers are estimated to be by 2013.

Written by Reese Ramos – Digital Marking Director

Recently, I had a chance to speak with an influential Hispanic player in the digital space, and one who has made a difference in making his voice heard and who has been able to recruit a solid fan base from the bottom up.

In an exclusive interview with Matt Reyes the founder of Twitteros, we will get a chance to learn more about his role as a successful Latino influencer in the online world and how the Hispanic market has grown and become a key player in the marketplace. According to eMarketer there are currently over 26 million Hispanics using the Internet every day, and that number is growing just as fast as the total number of people within this minority, and by the end of 2012, it is estimated that there will be nearly 30 million Hispanics on the Web.

Let’s begin!

Have you ever heard of Twitteros?

According to Mat Reyes, the term Twitteros is a Spanish adjective that means, “Twitter user”.

Matt is the founder of Twitteros, a social media community hub for Latinos that Twitter, based on the Ning platform that launched in late 2008. The community hosts profiles, music, photos, blogs, forums, and other features.

As he explains: “The whole idea of Twitteros is to connect all Latinos that Twitter.  We have so much to say and so much to learn from each other, and this group will only connect us even more!”

In my 1:1 chat with Matt Reyes, he was very open to share with us more about Twitteros and his role as an influencer in the market, so influential that the 2010 US Census partnered with him and his social network to encourage Hispanics to be counted and share the importance of taking part in the act.

Who is Matt Reyes?

I’m a Texas-born and Washington, DC—based marketer, musician, politico, and Texas Longhorn. I am the founder of the Department of Influence, a new media initiative, and created Twitteros.net.

I am well-versed and active in bottom-up media, organizations, and theory, I believe in the marketing philosophies of Douglas Rushkoff and Seth Godin. As a follower of these principles, I have helped organizations ranging from major brands to cultural arts institutions define their purpose, create authentic word of mouth, and become innovative.

How big do you think is the Hispanic influence online these days?
It's growing each and every day. We are still yet to be on par with the general market, but influence is much greater among younger communities.

Do you consider yourself part of the generation Y and a web 2.0 junkie with the creation of Twitteros?
Yes, I definitely consider myself a millennial and consider those who join Twitteros millennial-minded.

Do you consider yourself a tech junky?
Yes, of course.

How did the whole idea of creating Twitteros come up?

Basically, I modeled Twitteros after Twitter Moms with the goal of uniting Latino Twitter users and showing their diverse interests. Twitteros is the network for digitally influential Latinos.  (His profile reads on Twitter Moms: “I am a fan of Twitter Moms…even though I'm a dude!” From this, we can infer that his approach of creating a community like this moms' hub for Latinos to connect, seems to have certainly worked.

Why a parrot?

A parrot humorously replaces the bird that is famous on Twitter. Matt further explains: “I wanted a character that is Latino and thought the parrot would be a pretty funny take on the Twitter bird!”

How long has it been since you began your online community and how far have you gotten from where you started–traffic, members etc.?
Twitteros hit its 1-year anniversary this past December and we've grown to over 600 strong, influential members (subscriber) who are well-connected on the Internet. We've surpassed 100,000 page views since we began.

How is your audience broken down in terms of geography, US versus Latin-American based members?
The site is mostly Latinos living in the US right now. However, there was a big jump of Chileans who joined after the earthquake. We are also gaining traction in other parts of Latin America.

Are you considering of migrating your community to any other platform—Face book?
For the time being, Twitteros is based solely on Twitter and allows users to show their extended presence to their blog/websites. There is a Facebook page, but that is mostly for those who want to keep up with the blog posts that users post daily.

Are you still a one man show or do you have bloggers who write for Twitteros?
Fortunately, the members help keep the website vibrant and full of content, especially when important issues come up.

What's your influence with this year's census and Latinos?
Twitteros is currently an Official Partner with ‘Voto Latino’ to reach out to digitally influential Latinos to get a complete, accurate count in the 2010 Census.

Have brands also reached out to you to help them get a WOM in the Hispanic community using Twitteros as the platform for it?
Yes, we've had some support from @southwestair and @tmobile. We did a great campaign with T-Mobile during the Latin Grammys.

Where do you see Twitteros a year from now?
A year from now, I see Twitteros connecting even more Latinos with their varied interests both in the US and in Latin America. 60% of tweets are in a language other than English.

What do you like most about social media and what do you foresee in the future of digital space?
Social media is only as good as the apps and open-source development that come from it. Content is nice (and key), but the tools are where the magic happens.

With the direction Mobile technology is gone in recent year, are you thinking of integrating your community to mobile in the near future?
We are already connected. If you visit Twitteros on an iPhone, you can see the iPhone version of the site. (But, still no phone or Android application for Twitteros though).

Matt Reyes is one of those people who had a vision to connect Latinos online and his hard work and perseverance has paid off, his influence in the digital space among Latinos has certainly resonated in this community.  This is a growing community who is very interested in following the latest trends in technology and innovation, shopping online and connecting with people online. Like Matt, there are many other influential young Latinos who have made their mark in the space, by creating an ecosystem that is necessary and useful for people among a specific community to connect and share their ideas and passions with each other.

Feel free to visit http://www.twitteros.net and check out Matt’s channel on Vimeo.

It's been four long years since the last world cup took place in Germany, when Italy beat France for the prestigious cup! This Friday the referee’s whistle will mark the beginning of the first world cup of this decade, hosted for the first time in the African continent. The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be in its 19^th edition and it’s scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa. Soccer mania is seen everywhere: outdoor advertising, print, radio, mobile and online, with media spends this year higher than any other year.

Some of the biggest soccer stars today like: Messi, Torres, Ronaldo, Kaka, Beckham and many others will take part on the world's most-watched sporting event. According to the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ / Infront Sports & Media, billions of people watched the World cup, and a good chuck of it did so in 2006 via online, from which we can only speculate that those numbers will rise tremendously this year. Here are the 2006 numbers: FIFAWorldCup.com became the most successful sports event website in history with 4.2 billion page views from June 9 - July 9 — more than double the traffic recorded during the 2002 event. More than 125 million video streams, and more than 73 million page views on the mobile web portal after FIFAWorldCup.com went mobile for the first time. So, this clearly demonstrates that the online medium has grown quite a bit and that there is a huge market that can be prove to be high lucrative to tap into.

New and existing brands that support FIFA are beginning to spend more time and money in online marketing and have come up with many different ways to capture the loyal soccer fans attention to grab a piece of the pie. It’s all about making a good and long lasting impression, capturing the most eye balls and highest participation possible. Smart branding for an event of this magnitude and scale is key!

But before taking a look at the participating brands involved in this whole marketing game, let’s see how the hosting nation is branding itself to impress the world.

In preparation to this worldwide event, South Africa spent billions of dollars to brand itself the best way possible. Five new stadiums were built for the tournament and five existing venues have been upgraded. In addition to the stadiums being built and upgraded, South Africa has also improved its current public transport infrastructure within the various cities, with state of the art transportation systems and projects. Hotels, restaurants, parks and many other hospitality establishments have also spent millions preparing for this big event to be ready to accommodate visitors to full capacity.

South Africa has also implemented safety and security measures for local and international tourists attending the largest event in the world. Overall, the country has invested almost $10 billion, in four years leading this event, which they hope to be a great success and view the whole thing as an investment in the long run. That’s a lot of money for a developing nation struggling with so many internal problems like health and crime. Let’s just hope that what happened to Greece at the Olympics doesn’t replicate here a few years later!

South Africa has put a lot on the line in the name of branding itself to the world the hard way, but are they investing money in social media channels the same way World Cup sponsors have?

Let’s now take a look at how well some brands are doing branding themselves particularly in the online side of the business.

Official FIFA sponsors and sports/soccer centric brands have invested a great deal of money in social media for this World Cup. All of the official World Cup sponsors (and many non-official sponsors too) have been busy working on the newest application that can connect fans with a global social media audience via Facebook and their mobile phones, the most engaging viral marketing campaign and the most fun and simple ways to engage audiences and get them to participate.

Here is a list of brands that are present at this edition of the World Cup (some of them long-standing sponsors): McDonald’s, Powerade, Continental, Sony Ericsson, Coca-Cola, Adidas, Visa, Budweiser, Emirates, Nike, Puma, Umbro, and many others. However, not all of these made the cut on my short list of brands worth mentioning that have done a great job branding themselves at this year’s World Cup with solid online marketing campaigns and should capitalize from social media. These top player brands include: Sony Ericsson, Visa, Adidas, Coca-Cola and Budweiser.

Sony Ericsson - One of the long-term sponsors of the World Cup.

Power of Twitter - With Twittercup, Sony has proven to keep it as simple as possible, with a smart Twitter campaign that tells us social media and sports are a natural fit. The Twittercup collects and counts fan tweets, creating a competition among attending nations. The good is that since its launch in December 2009, the Twittercup has already amassed 43,000 tweets, the bad is that I cannot seem to easily find this on Twitter only the Sony site.

Visa – They have replicated a social application format used during the Olympics that proved to be highly successful called: social media match planner.

Facebook App – Visa’s game planner application with ability to share with friends and leave match related comments, scores high in terms of fun and functionality.

Adidas – A World Cup sponsor heavy weight in so many levels, Adidas has been a sponsor of the game since 1954.

TV Soccer Celebrity Ads – Adidas is relying heavily on a big budget TV ads with soccer celebrities like: Kaka, Michael Ballack, Messi, Villa and Zidane called: Fast vs Fast featuring their F50 adizero boots and trying to spark social media conversation on Facebook. At almost 80,000 views thus far, the video count is quite low for a big player in the game known for killer creative ads.

Nevertheless, Adidas has a huge advantage for being a close and strategic partner of the cup with the match ball for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, manufactured by them and provides with boots and wear to many of the players and teams, giving them perhaps the most direct exposure and appeal to a fan.

Coca-Cola – Another brand heavy weight and present at the World Cup since 1974.

Funny UGC YouTube Video Contest – Coca-Cola has taken inspiration from Roger Milla’s 1990 corner flag dance to encourage users to upload their own unique celebrations on to YouTube, the winner of get to go to the World Cup. UGC funnies have proven to be very successful and the simplest the better, so Coke scores high here. Additionally, Coca-Cola is perhaps the largest brand on Facebook with 5.5 million fans and a huge following on Twitter, where the contest is nicely supported.

Budweiser – A well-known brand with a long standing history of success on branding and a sponsored of the World Cup since 1986.

YouTube Reality Show: Budweiser United – Budweiser held a global audition via YouTube to find 32 fans from respective World Cup countries who will live together in South Africa “Real World” style. Once the Cup kicks off Budweiser will create a YouTube reality show documenting the fans as they play out their rivalries en masse. As their team is eliminated so the house member will be kicked out. The two final fans will go to the World Cup final and the winner will present the Budweiser man of the match trophy to the best player. Facebook will play a supporting a strong supporting role.

This one can prove to be the most creative social media campaign that promises to have a lot of legs, since it uses the two strongest channels in social media to replicate a reality show that was very compelling and successful among fans altogether, and may take reality shows to a new level and platform.

What do you think?

Who is faring the best in Social Media?

How well has South Africa done preparing for this colossal event? Have they neglected social media?

Share your thoughts!