Latinos as Social Media Experts

The other day, I was reading an interesting article in the Huffington Post about how well Latinos (Spanish-speakers residing in Latin America) and Hispanics (residents of the US) use social media. The article talks about a new book on this topic by Joe Kutchera entitled, Latino Link: Building Brands Online with Hispanic Communities and Content.

According to Kutchera, who has interviewed marketing executives from Ford, Best Buy and other companies, the Latino/Hispanic culture tends to be much more social and less individualistic than other cultures such as that in the states.  The article goes on to cite someone who mentions that Hispanics and Latinos are the fastest growing group on the Internet and will command $1.3 trillion in purchasing power by 2014.

How can Latin Americans take advantage of the understanding of social media and develop new digital innovations? Just as the chinese market has generated numerous home-grown startups that understand the nuances of that local market, I believe the same opportunity certainly exists in Latin America (albeit, taking different size markets into account).

Recently, Simon Olson, a partner at FIR Capital Partners in Brazil, during a recent talk at Standford University, spoke precisely about the available opportunities within that market.  Please click on his name (above) and subscribe to his blog as he’s certainly someone to follow.

In the video below, Simon also mentions how Brazilians, great social media adopters, are working to relay that into innovative startups that leverage social media.In Brazil, the growth in number and quality of startups is incredible.  This should make other countries in Latin America sit up and take notice as Chile, Argentina and Mexico have.

Below is the video from Simon’s talk. It’s excellent and eye-opening for investors unaware of the opportunities in Brazil.