Recent data from the Florida State University Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication concluded that ethnic minorities visit social networking sites more frequently that whites. Their study concluded that English Preferring Latinos were twice as likely to visit Myspace and Facebook regularly compared to whites. One of their conclusions for these statistics comes from the fact that demographically speaking ethnic minorities are younger than whites. This age gap is also part of the reason why there is a gap in social media involvement. In addition to age the researchers argue that culture and market factors also play a major role in promoting social connectivity among these groups. Ethnic minorities according to Florida State University, “tend to be drawn to collectivistic values and often look to one another to help guide decisions and opinions. In addition, ethnic minorities are more likely to leverage social networks to communicate with groups of family and friends who are geographically dispersed. Social media facilitates such collective sharing of information and communication.”
This allows great opportunity for marketers who are trying to reach ethnic minorities through social media. In doing so marketers should advise their clients to find ways in which they can utilize the strong cultural bonds that are already present within ethnic minorities. Marketers should look at what cultural motivations are driving Latinos to these social media sites. Most importantly, once they are in these sites what are they doing and what conversations are they engaging in. In the long run obtaining this knowledge will be of immense value especially to those marketers who are taking full advantage of this opportunity.
