Tu Cuentas online research platform launches.

Tu Cuentas , which translates as “you count” and “you tell,” was founded by Larissa Acosta and Olga Bueno, two Latina entrepreneurs with deep roots in Hispanic marketing. After many years working at leading Hispanic advertising agencies, they saw an opportunity to launch a Latino targeted community that integrates Latinos’ adoption of social media with the value they place in word of mouth recommendations when making purchase decisions.

“As marketing shifts from push to engagement principles, marketers are making consumers active participants in their promotional conversations,” said Ms. Acosta. “Finding and engaging influencers who can advocate and recommend brands to others has become the new holy grail of marketing. Now that Hispanics have bridged the digital gap, brands have new opportunities to use social media in such a way that they and consumers both win. Tu Cuentas was created to capitalize on these opportunities.”

“Brands seek fresh consumer insights in a fast and cost effective manner,” said Ms. Bueno. “Our platform enables them to listen in on conversations and participate in a way that is more organic than traditional research methodologies. We manage our community in a way that rewards members for posts that provide the deepest understanding of their consumer behavior. In addition, we have established CRM benchmarks that allow us to assure clients that their questions can be answered in as short a time frame as 48 hours, in the case of a discussion forum, or 5 days or less, using an online survey.”