Our Online Marketing Specialist, Javier Flores, recently conducted several focus groups on Hispanic high school students ranging from freshmen to seniors. To keep one gender from influencing another we split the groups up into an all male and an all female group, given that Latin men are known for being machistas (Exaggerated pride in masculinity) when there are females around.

Our objective for the focus groups was to understand the answer to this question, que es social media to you? This topic opened additional topics around social media, such as civil rights, culture and family. The male students were more receptive to the topics compared to the female students.

We started by asking students what social media meant to them. The majority of the students stated that it is a way to communicate with their amigos and familia. The Hispanic culture is very family oriented and as result parents are very influential in their children’s life. Most of the students from the focus groups were born in either Mexico or in the U.S. but they all seem to speak Spanglish at school. At home most students speak both languages and in some cases it depends on which parent they are speaking too if they speak English or Spanish.

Which social networks appeal to the students? MySpace and mun2 (a national Cable TV station aimed at young Latinos in the United States) were the top two social networks among the Hispanic students. The name mun2 is pronounced “moon dos” which is written “mundos” in Spanish meaning “worlds” in English. MySpace is appealing to them because you can customize your page, express your individuality and embrace your culture. mun2 is focused on the Latino entertainment industry, where you can discuss with your friends about novelas (Latin soap operas), music videos or check out what your favorite artist is doing. It’s similar to MTV but with a focus on the Hispanic market.

There are two very unpopular social sites among Hispanic students, and they are rather surprising … Facebook and Twitter. They find Facebook boring and state that only older people use it. Twitter does not interest them because you can’t interact directly with your friends. The most prominent emerging social site for Hispanics is QuePasa, now with 15 million users, followed by MTVtr3s and MySpace Latino.

Here are some stats on social sites used by Hispanics:

YouTube.com, 15 million monthly Hispanic visitors

MySpace.com, 8.8 million monthly Hispanic visitors

Facebook.com, 6.2 million monthly Hispanic visitors

Twitter.com, 3.0 million monthly Hispanic visitors

Univision.com, 1.9 million monthly Hispanic visitors

Statistic Reference: Hispanic Online Marketing