Hispanic Online Community Behavior.

Communispace announced the findings of their proprietary research on Hispanic behavior in Spanish-speaking private online communities. This original research revealed a number of trends that validate the effectiveness of using online mediums such as communities and social networks to reach Hispanic audiences. The research also offers strategic guidance for doing so more effectively.

Among the actionable findings for marketers are:

* Hispanics, regardless of age, income, primary language, gender or generation, will give willingly of their time and ideas in a private, online forum. In fact, their rate of contributions – almost six per week – indicates an above-average level of engagement compared to similar English-language communities.

* Second-generation Hispanics demonstrated lower participation rates than their less acculturated, first-generation counterparts, indicating that they may feel less comfortable communicating in Spanish-only environments than in bilingual ones. The finding suggests that marketers should strive to communicate bilingually with acculturated Hispanics, so as to more closely match their offline lives.

* Second-generation Hispanics are often less proficient at writing Spanish than at speaking it. Marketers should take this distinction into account when seeking to engage with Hispanics through predominantly written channels such as online forums.

“With the number of Hispanic Internet users in the U.S. expected to rise to nearly 21 million by 2010, it’s clear that marketers have a tremendous opportunity to grow their consumer base by successfully targeting Hispanics online,” said Katrina Lerman, research associate at Communispace and author of the study. “The problem is, most marketers have questioned if and how online venues are an effective channel for communicating with Hispanics. In conducting this research, we set out to help our clients understand if and how they can use online communities to successfully engage members of this important consumer segment, and what differences within this broad and diverse population should be considered in formulating a community strategy. Our findings offer valuable insight not only for businesses evaluating online communities, but also for marketers considering other online channels—such as social networks—as a strategy for engaging Hispanics online.”

For more information at http://www.communispace.com