All posts tagged social media

  • March 1, 2011

    The Multifaceted Ricardo Guerrero

    TropicalGringo and Ricardo GuerreroToday, I had the pleasure of meeting Ricardo Guerrero during his brief visit to Bogota, Colombia.  We’ll be seeing more of each other during South by Southwest (SxSW) next week, but it was great meeting in person.  We had an enjoyable breakfast and, afterwards, as I smoked my stogie and annoyed him with my cigar smoke, he talked about how he got into Social Media.  After creating a radio show in Texas and working at that for a while, among other things, he started working for Dell Computer.  Then, in 2007 after a visit to SxSW, he got introduced to Twiiter and found a way to use it to sell refurbished PCs for Dell Outlet. Now that’s digital innovation.

    Ricardo has a new company called Stwittergy which is developing a tool to help businesses better use Twitter to achieve business objectives.  He also has his own agency aptly named Social Media Dynamo.  Nevertheless, he’s not completely disconnected from his Latin American roots and is working with colleague and friend Fernando LaBastida in setting up the first Americas IT Forum the day before SxSW (next week) in Austin.

    I was able to record a small portion of our chat and here it is:

    No Comments / Case Studies, English /

  • January 11, 2011

    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.

    3 Comments / English, General /

  • January 7, 2011

    The Promise of Social Media

    Life IncI just read an article in Mashable written by Douglas Rushkoff, author of Life Inc.: How Corporatism Conquered the World, and How We Can Take It Back. He has a problem with the way that marketing and corporations seem to want to take over something that he says has the potential to “generate the biggest change in how culture and commerce operate since the inventing of the printing press.”

    Them there is pretty big words and it’s great validation of my own beliefs.  Specifically, I just feel that all the talk about social media and these new digital tools at our disposal have so much more potential beyond the becoming the province of sharp marketers.  Within a business context, I see much opportunity for, what I call, digital innovation.  Nevertheless, I like Rushkoff’s broader interest in seeing social media as offering the potential to connect with peers without the oversight of “controlling interests.”

    No Comments / English, General /

  • January 7, 2011

    La Promesa de Medios Sociales

    Life IncAcabo de leer un articulo en Mashable por Douglas Rushkoff, autor de Life Inc.: How Corporatism Conquered the World, and How We Can Take It Back. El no esta de acuerdo con la forma en que las personas de mercadeo y corporaciones quieren dominar algo que el dice que tiene el potencial de generar el cambio mas grande en como la cultura y el comercio opera desde la era de la invención de la imprenta.

    Me encanta este tipo de validacion ya que yo tambien pienso que el potencial de estas nueveas herramientas digitales va mucho mas alla que solo una forma mas de hacer mercadeo (tiene utilidad para mercadeo pero tambien para mucho mas).  Dentro del contexto de negocios, veo mucha oportunidad por lo que yo llamo innovación digital. Sin embargo, me gusta la perspectiva de Rushkoff en cuanto cuando ve a los medios sociales con el potencial de conectarnos con nuestros pares sin el permiso de “intereses controladores.”

    1 Comment / Español, General /
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