Web 2.0, Social Media, Advocacy and Being Latino: My Panel at the LISTA 3rd Annual Tech Latino Legislative Briefing

This afternoon from 1-3pm I will be presenting a Workshop at LISTA's third Annual Tech Latino Legislative Briefing.  My fellow panelists include Lance Rios, President and CEO of Being Latino and Raul Danny Vargas, President and CEO of VarCom.  The topic of our panel is Web 2.0, Social Media, Advocacy and Being Latino.  More on the panel below:

The Latino culture is all about family, friends, and close communities. Latinos that make the United States their home as well as those who are second or third generation Latinos maintain that strong sense of socialization.While the media sings the praises of Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites, LISTA is concerned with what web 2.0 tools can do for people in the non-profit community in order to develop a strategy for their outreach, advocacy and recruitment of volunteers.LISTA has always set up partnership of like-minded organizations who share our preoccupation.

See the full agenda.

Keys to Twitter: Second in a Series of Trainings on New Media

In May of this year, I hosted a two hour training on New Media.  Many of the folks who attended that session asked me to do a series of trainings, including a session on Twitter.

Based on popular demand, on Monday the 28th of June I will be hosting a two hour training.  The topic for this month's session will be Twitter.  

Per the participants request, this is the second in a series of trainings on new media.  I am hoping to schedule at least one training per month.  If you have participated in any one of my trainings, you will save $20 on the cost of enrollment. 

Click here to RSVP.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

How to Grow and Mobilize Your Social Media Followers: My Bridge Conference Presentation

I've been invited to do a presentation at the Bridge conference next month.  The presentation title is, "How to Grow and Mobilize Your Social Media Followers."  I am sitting on a panel with three other great women.  It promises to be a fantastic event. 

Today I was in the middle of organizing my slides for our upcoming discussion when it dawned on me... I should go out into the social media universe and ask my friends, followers and readers for their advice.  What are your thoughts?  

What do you find particularly useful when working on growing and mobilizing your Social Media followers?  What have you seen others do that you think has been the most effective/helpful?  What are some of the worst examples that you have seen?  What about the best examples?  Thanks in advance for any thoughts that you care to share!  

Further details on our Bridge conference session below.  I hope that you will join us!  Looking forward to seeing you there!

Presentation Title:          How to Grow and Mobilize Your Social Media Followers

Presentation Description:

So, you’re tweeting and have fans.  But you wish you had larger growth or engagement on your social media sites. Are there tools, techniques, or strategies you should be employing? This panel of online marketing experts will share what’s working for their organizations and audiences. And you’ll hear valuable findings from a new study – Nonprofit Social Media Benchmarks Study – that will help you create your own social media benchmarks and strategy. 

Attendee will learn:

1.  Best practices for what to do and NOT to do to grow your social media base

2.  How to engage corporations and other organizations to help you

3.  How to target Latinos and other special audiences in the social media world

Speakers Name/Title:   Amy Ganderson, Digital Marketing Manager, The Nature Conservancy

Email: aganderson@tnc.org

Speakers Name/Title:   Kety Esquivel, Executive Director and CEO, Latinos in Social Media

Email: kety.esquivel@gmail.com

Speakers Name/Title:    Arielle Holland, Consultant, M+R Strategic Services

Email: aholland@mrss.com

Speakers Name/Title:  Catherine Algeri, Senior Account Executive, InfoGroup Nonprofit (Moderator)

Email:  Catherine.Algeri@tdmc.com


Tuesday, July 27, 2:00-3:15 (75 minutes)

Is There Anybody Out There? Latino Digital Natives and Beyond

Are we out there?  Are we online?  Are we producing content?  Are we consuming content?  Are we influenced by the content that exists online?  What about the digital divide?  

These are some of the questions that folks in the private, non-profit and government sector have been asking themselves about the Latino community.  Over the next few days and weeks, I hope to provide some answers.

Let me start with this.  

#1- Hispanics are not a monolithic community.  

Just like we are not monolithic in our defining of ourselves, i.e., some of us call ourselves Latinos, others Hispanos, Chicanos, Mexicanos, Tejanos, Boricuas, Chapinos (you get the point).  So too we are a diverse community online with different levels of proficiency and acculturation.  We too have digital natives in our midst and phenomenal technologists that have been paving the way in the world of technology since the nineties, before social media was social media and before the term Web 2.0 was ever imagined let alone coined.

It is important for anyone interested in the aforementioned questions to take stock of the current state of reality and not just dismiss the Latino community online, based on the belief that there is this digital divide that keeps all Latinos out of the technology game.  

Let me be clear.  The digital divide exists and it is still affecting the Latino community in a devastating way.  However, that should not be collapsed with the understanding that the divide is present for all Hispanics.  For as my coming blog posts will show, there are many of us in fact thriving and innovating online inspired by the possibilities created in this new digital world.

Truth is the beginning of every good thing, both in heaven and on earth; and he who would be blessed and happy should be from the first a partaker of truth, for then he can be trusted.  -Plato

Join Me for Three Sessions at SXSW 2010

In a few hours I am heading to one of the biggest technology conferences of the year - SXSW Interactive.  I was invited to speak at the conference last year and after my presentation was truly overwhelmed with the number of panels offered in the remaining days I spent in Austin, Texas.  So this year, I am prepared.  I anticipate drinking a lot of water, sleeping as much as I can (as I crash at one of my good friends homes) and squeezing in as many panels and quality time with thought leaders in the interactive field as humanly possible.  Are you going to be there?  If so, let's meet up!  If you are on twitter, tweet me.  My handle is @KetyE.

I am speaking/participating in three sessions this year.  The first is a panel organized by Jeffrey Bowman (a partner at Ogilvy & Mather's Consulting Practice) which is happening at the Blacks in Technology Meetup at the Carver Museum http://bit.ly/9gcu6E.  It is open to both badge holders and locals without badges alike.  My fellow panelists include musician and 'new media pioneer' Ryan Leslie; the founder of the digital strategic consulting firm Everywhere James Andrews; and blogger and social media maven Nichelle Stephens.  

The second session is happening at the conference itself.  It is a part of the Interactive Future 15 Greater Good Series.  The topic, "Is Technology the Great Equalizer?" http://bit.ly/bvFiYI.  Its on Sunday, March 14 at 3:30 PM in room 9ABC at the convention center.  This session is only for participants of SXSW (only open to folks with SXSWi badges). 

The third session is happening at the first ever Latinos in Technology Meetup at SXSW which I have organized with the help of Julie Diaz-Asper, Marisa Treviño, Deanne Cuellar, Maribel Lackey, Manuel Delgado, Fernando Labastida, Rob Garcia, Romeo and Armando Arayo.  It is also on Sunday at 6pm.  It is a panel at the Carver Museum http://bit.ly/9ffSbO which will be followed by a salsa social/networking event. Both badge holders and locals without badges are welcome. Dancing is not required, but encouraged.  RSVP here: http://bit.ly/9ffSbO.

If you are in Austin, Texas on these days, I hope to see you at one if not all three of these events!