Online Hispanic Forum Tracking Launched By LatinClips.

During the heated election season LatinClips launches tracking of online forums or foros located within the top Hispanic portals and newsites. The service is developed and marketed by LatinClips and powered by forum-tracking specialists ForoLibre, Inc. This latest product is part of a new line-up of media monitoring services that includes retroactive searching for all of the company’s news monitoring products.

Forums or foros are virtual meeting places. Some samples include live discussions, chat rooms, messaging windows, and calendars that can be accessed by clicking on the “forum” tab available on various websites. The topics available for discussion are limitless: from the latest opinion on public policy both at a national or local level, to tips or “charlas” about parenting and children. Since visitors ‘gather’ within forums to freely express their opinions on a wide range of subjects, the data is non-prompted, non-censored and non-diluted.

The Foros tracking from LatinClips in partnership with ForoLibre will provide a unique window for users to gauge what Hispanics are saying and which issues matter most. In particular, political candidates could gauge what voters are concerned about without the filter of the media (via editorial content). The new service will analyze data from approximately 300+ foros and provide weekly summary reports in the language produced during the discussion. Translation to English of Spanish-language data also is available. Some of the Hispanic community foros that will be tracked include: Univision, Terra US, StarMedia Foros, Telemundo, Foros 123 Noticias, AOL Latino, Mi Gente.com, Hispanic Business Magazine, MSN Latino Grupos y Gente, Recurso Latino and Zonai.com.

“The ability to gather unfiltered public opinion has huge implications for PR and marketing practitioners. We’re excited to provide this service to those with a keen interest in the Hispanic community and its specific issues, concerns, cultural nuances, etc.,” said LatinClips’ CEO Christine Clavijo-Kish. “We believe in bringing to market only quality products that are innovative and valuable to Hispanic marketers. That is why our partnership with an industry pioneer such as ForoLibre was essential to this new product development and launch.”

“The spontaneous conversations held daily in hundreds of online Latin forums, provide companies with a 24/7 window into Hispanic beliefs, opinions and purchasing habits” said ForoLibre’s co-creator and Director of Online communities Cristina Mella. “We know that our partnership with an industry leader like LatinClips will allow us to reach the most savvy companies targeting the Hispanic markets.”

The company also has launched retroactive searching across its diversified monitoring products. By way of the LatinClips’ Press product, clients now can access Hispanic print news articles from 200+ weeklies and dailies across the country retroactively for up to 3 months past. The service also features an innovative online database enabling clients to save, organize, email and/or print their digitized news clips from those monitored publications. Spanish-language TV archives also are available for the last 30 days at minimum in the top markets nationally. In addition, LatinClips Online services feature retroactive searches for the last 14 days across all its monitored regions.

“Nothing weighs heavier on publicists and marketers at an agency or organizational level than finding those news articles that they should have clipped or couldn’t get through other services,” added Clavijo-Kish. “Our variety of products that search for retroactive data allow communications professionals to effectively measure the outcome of their Hispanic outreach initiatives.”