Getting Passed a Get-Over Mentality

Creating a Social Movement #NoMoGetOver

Anyone who knows me knows that the only “movement” I am interested in…Okay, let’s start again.

I am not the social change type.  However, I have noticed an increase in behaviors that I like to describe as “Get-Over” mentality.

Let’s define this as: An opportunistic reinterpretation of societal rules in order to suit the immediate needs of an individual.  

We have all seen this.

 The guy who parks his SUV in the No Stopping zone because “he just has to run in for a second.”

The woman on line in the grocery store who refuses to meet your gaze because she knows she has WAY more than 15 items in that cart.

The co-worker who seemingly has a pediatrician who only works on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons.

On a larger scale

 The customer service line that gives you every option except the one to speak to a real person.

Or that service you canceled but not in time for them to take one more payment.

On the largest scale there are entire countries whose entire culture revolves around this concept. But let’s focus on what we can fix.

Let’s instead ponder the fact that there are people who are continuously looking to get over; to take shortcuts; to find the most convenient way to get what they want, regardless of how it affects others. What that means is people are increasingly taking less responsibility for their actions. That's not good for a social society. 

The double-parker no longer thinks about the person who may be late for work because of his sloth. 

And anyone who owns a home knows (and is probably feeling the result) of the mortgage bankers with the Get-Over Mentality who aren't  losing any sleep because you can't pay your mortgage.  

I am asking today that you stand with me against the Get-Over Mentality.  Let’s use the power of social media to point out and blow up examples whenever we see them. Raise your smartphones up in the air, and use ‘em like you just now care!

The next time you see someone double-parked just to bring their brat into school. Grab it and share it.  That over-flowing shopping cart in the 10 items or less line? Snapchat that shizz.

Let’s pledge today that we are going to stand up to the Get-Over Mentality and make people accountable for their actions.  Any time you see someone displaying Get-Over Mentality, use your social media power to share it with the world with the hashtag #NoMoGetOver. If we focus on the small-scale things, maybe the larger things will take care of itself. 

Happy hunting!

And, fade to black.

5 Social Strategic Insights to Help You Reach the Multicultural Audience

If you have yet to adopt a strategy for reaching the multicultural audience via social media, you can already consider yourself behind the 8-ball.  The latest studies prove that Hispanics, African Americans and Asians over-index for integration of social media into their daily lives.

It is not enough to have a social media strategy in place and assume the multicultural audience will adopt  the same usage habits as the general market consumer.  But the reality of the situation is that social media still has a long way to go to prove ROI.  And many clients simply don’t have the budgets to hire an entire separate agency to develop stand-alone multicultural social media strategies.

With this in mind, here are five ways you can take your existing social media strategy and evolve it to reach the multicultural audience. Let’s look at this from the traditional strategic pillars:

Target Market

The latest studies show that Hispanics, African Americans and Asians have unique habits when it comes to social media.  However the common thread running through all of these audiences is that they are somewhat exclusive.  From a targeting standpoint you can assume that Hispanics are interacting with other Hispanics, etc. When developing a hub strategy to drive audiences to certain website landing pages, promotions, offers, etc., this is a key point to keep in mind.

Communication Objective

When it comes to brands and the multicultural audience, your objective should never be to start a conversation between you and the consumer. The dialog you want is between consumers and their COI (Circle of Influence). You don’t want them going to your facebook page to comment or tweeting questions to you. You want Likes, Shares, Retweets, Repins, etc. Your objective is to be an objective conversation starter.

Product/Service Benefits

It is wise to seed benefit messages that are as specific as possible.  The multicultural audience already assumes that brands are not speaking directly to them.  When you generalize your product or service benefits—even to a specific ethnic group—that assumption still applies. Try to communicate a single-minded benefit that gets as specific as possible to the individual you are trying to reach.

Benefit Support

Social media has allowed consumers almost unlimited potential to research products. Whether it is word of mouth from a trusted influencer or the latest published data in a professional journal, it is all there with the swipe of an index finger.  Providing support for your brand benefits that are easy to access will help you get the organic promotion you will need to make it into the multicultural consideration set.

Tone and Manner

Often a throwaway in many strategies, the way in which you speak to this audience is crucial to success.  My mother actually has a phrase that captures the idea best. When it comes to connecting with the Hispanic, African American and Asian American audience…”You can pretend you know me, but don’t pretend you know ABOUT me.”  This means that your communication should be friendly and casual, but stop way short of empathetic.  Pretending you can empathize with the day-to-day lives of this consumer is bound to trip you up.  And in an age where any misstep is instantly shared and lives online forever, it’s just not worth taking the chance.

The multicultural audience is a great place to build brand advocates who will create loyal and trusted consumers for your brand.  If you don’t take advantage and take the right approach, you will miss a tremendous growth opportunity.

--And, fade to black…

White People Problems

To prove, once and for all, that this is in fact just a blog. Tonight I am simply going to point out a social media trend that will not never ever become mainstream, when it comes to the multicultural audience.  No deep insights. In fact, you don't even have to take notes tonight. (but you can).

Today (topical), I came across an article that details a social media-fueled trend that is going on in mainstream (read: general market) America.  It has to do with young girls trying to achieve something through weight-loss that they have termed, "thigh gap."  For those of you who have more interesting lives than me, and don't spend your time on social media news sites, Thigh Gap is defined as the ability to put your feet together but still have space between your thighs--meaning they don't touch.  Now, this is heresy to a Cubano-American such as myself.  However, in this society where young girls judge their personal appearance by what they see on billboards and on the pages of every fashion magazine, I can understand the horrible origins of this trend.

Thankfully, this is not a meme that will catch fire with my Latino and African-American Social-Mediaratti. And don't go gettin all Jimmy the Greek on me. I'm not saying it's because of the genetics. I'm saying, there are some issues; be they financial, health, cultural or body, that simply stay in the "white people problem" realm.

Don't believe me? Ok, well let me break it down to you the way only the #thechickensview can do.

AS A GROUP, Hispanics and African Americans will never worry about....

• The best way to manage wills, trusts and estates (financial)
• Global Warming (health)
• Who wins Survivor, The Greatest Race or The X-Factor (cultural)
• And most definitely not...who can achieve Thigh Gap

Btw, this is the most PG Thigh Gap Visual I could find.

I love the fact that I seriously don't understand why anyone would actually prefer this! But I completely respect your right to...prefer this (pervs)

And...fade to black!

Hash Tag Guilty or Hash Tag Not Guilty

Far be it from me to get political or even take a firm stance on racial issues. I'm a strategist. That means, unless you work for the Klan, if you want to hire me to improve the image of your brand, chances are I will do it.

But I feel compelled to discuss the Trayvon Martin case, because as a multicultural social media strategist, I find it fascinating that we are on the precipice of the first racially charged case that will be tried in the court of Social Media (initial caps seems appropriate here).

Just as the O.J. Simpson case ushered in the era of the TV trial, this tragic event will more than likely be remembered for its impact on social media.  This recent article from BET.com even likened the social media discussion about the case, to that of the discussions being held in barbershops around the country. For those of you who don't know, in the African-American community, news does not get more real than what you hear in the barbershop.

On Facebook, many (not only African-American) are staging a "Blackout". Black squares are popping up where once a profile picture stood to show solidarity.

To me, this is fascinating because it is the first time that we can so clearly see where the lines are drawn.  I am old enough to remember seeing the shock and awe on the faces of my co-workers at the reaction of the Black people on TV when the Simpson verdict was read. Quite frankly, none of us really expected that reaction. And no one was really prepared for it.

But this is different. As a data geek, I am amazed that we can literally count the number of people who want to see this verdict go one way or the other.  You have no idea how hard it is right now for me NOT to go into what this means from a marketing standpoint. But, even I am not that myopic and cynical (close though).

The reality is a young man is dead, and another man's life is over...no matter what the verdict or your politics. This is a tragedy for our cultures; for our country and even for the media. Because, much like with the Simpson trial, I am sure this case will start to politicize the various social media outlets.  Who knows, one day posting on Instagram might be as polarizing as attending a Rand Paul fundraiser. I certainly hope not.

And...fade to black!

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Aqui Viene Las Blogueras

My mom didn't (and doesn't) blog, but she did bake. Back then baking could be seen as kind of a form of social media. She'd bake a cake for her club meeting. Everyone who tasted it would rave about it to their friends. They would comment to each other about the possible recipes. Some would hate on her--claiming she used a mix from a box (which she did). Ultimately, she would be known around the neighborhood for her baking abilities. Why? Because she shared!But my mom couldn't hold an Easy Bake Oven lightbulb to today's Blogueras!

According to one article on latinamomtv.com, a study was conducted that found that, “Hispanic women in the U.S. are one of the fastest-growing online demographics, and more than 85 percent of Latinas visit social networks on a regular basis.” That means that Blogueras have one of the strongest voices in the multicultural social media arena. 

Do you know how many cakes my mom would have to bake to hit 85% reach??

Big brands are already recognizing this and are turning to this audience to help sell their products. But that absolutely does NOT mean that these women have sold out! On the contrary, they value their audience more than they value any product sponsorship. Blogueras know at the end of the day, it is all about their reputation. So, rest assured that any product or service that you see advertised by your favorite Latina blogger, has been vetted and has past the reputation test.



As a marketer, your best strategic approach depends on where you are in your Product Life Cycle. If you are a new brand that is in the Introductory phase than your best bet is to engage with Blogueras. Introduce your brand and offer sponsorship. However, if you are a a mature brand, than you want to deploy your social media listening tools to see who is talking about your brand. Use that information to develop a target profile of all the blogs that fit that target. Once you have that, then you can craft messaging that will organically appeal to those Blogueras. This way, you may get the mentions and endorsements you desire without having to go the traditional sponsorship route--at least at first.




And as always...that's all you're going to get for FREE! :)




And...fade to black!
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WHO'S YOUR TEST KITCHEN?

The February 2013 Pew Study infamously ignored the Asian American population in its study of Multicultural social media usage. For the few of us who study multicultural social media, the reaction was a resounding WTF!!!

But it was kind of an understanding WTF. Kind of like the WTF you might exclaim upon finding your wife in bed with Brad Pitt (I guess I should interject here and say that Brad and I are the same age, and I wasn't trying to make an ill...gross! reference).

The point is, I understand all the hype behind the Hispanic audience.  But please don't sleep on the Asian American population.  Statistically, it is the fastest growing audience.  It is the most affluent audience.  And they over index for adopting new technologies.

So here's what,  in my humble strategic opinion, if you are trying out a new social media platform, it is probably best to target the Asian American audience.  This audience will give you strong data as to why or why not they are adopting this platform.

I could go on, but the point of this post is to let you know what audience you need to target if you are looking to to get quick data on the potential of your social media platform.

And I think you have all you need to know...and fade to black.

Standing On the Corner of #Instagram and #Vine

You want to know how quickly the social media world is evolving? Up until yesterday, this blog post was supposed to be all about Vine.  As you know, Vine is the Twitter-friendly app that allows you to take and tweet 6 second video clips.

The app is (or should I say was) gaining huge popularity among the multicultural audience--which already over-indexes for Twitter usage.


But then, this announcement happened...

Facebook's Video Service for Instagram Will Compete With Twitter's Vine.

And all of a sudden my topic became the Mother Theresa's death of compelling stories.  No one???  No one remembers that she died the same day as Princess Di?  Jesus people, read a book every once in a while.  But I digress.

By the time you read this, Instagram will have the capability to offer video to its users, with some pretty interesting innovations.  You can check it out on this video from Vimeo.

But my job here is to provide some insight on how this will effect the multicultural audience.  Most will agree that the reason why Instagram has left all other photo sharing platforms in the dust is because it truly makes you feel like an artist--even if you aren't one.

The combination of great after affects and ease of sharing makes Instagram a natural for anyone with a creative nature.  Twitter on the other hand has always had that added element of compelling you to make a post feel newsworthy.  Instagram is to Twitter what graffiti is to blogging.

So, here's what, both Instagram and Twitter are popular with the multicultural audience, but to quote Will Smith in Men in Black (which I have been known to do from time to time) Instagram video is THE NEW HOTNESS!!!

For marketers, the opportunity exists in helping these new found artists share their creations with the world.  Please don't get on Instagram with your 6-10 second video for your latest chip flavor. No one gives a sh*t.  But if you want to feature the most creative video in your next chip commercial, the multicultural audience will be all over that.

For right now, pull back on that Twitter strategy, and keep your social media listening team busy downloading 8 second videos of butterflies who start flying when you touch them on the screen.  How cool is that?

And...fade to black!