A funny video, but thought provoking words about SOPA. Lots of LOL’ing in my tweet chat with @ines today.

Social Media Marketing Miami : Social Media Strategy Miami : Miami Web : Miami Blogs

View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.

As an active blogger on my bilingual inspirational blog, Mi Caminar, I have become a part of a community of Latina & Latino Bloggers from different groups like Latism, Latina Bloggers Connect, Latina Lifestyle Bloggers, Blogs by Latinas and many, many other awesome individual bloggers. I’m lucky to have been able to attend several blogging conferences in the past years to meet many of these people in real life.

This website, Blanca Stella.com,  is a combination of my social media consulting and sharing of  the local social media community activities in South Florida. It has enriched my life by meeting many people who I now consider my true friends.  And shortly, my dear friend, Maria De Los Angeles (@vicequeenmaria)  will be launching a project called Heart Camp, which is completely aligned with who I am. I can’t wait to see that evolve and look forward in actively participating with Maria’s new venture. So, go and like Heart Camp on Facebook and follow on Twitter and the hashtag #heartcamp.

When I first started blogging, I never imagined how one little post alone in the cyber world, would evolve into so much. I haven’t gotten to the point of making a business on Mi Caminar, but hopefully, one day I will publish my book!  As a result of all this effort and late night stays on my computer, I have been able to start a business and have meaningful work in social media.

And now, the connection with community has impulsed me into being a Director of a non-profit whose mission is to empower and educate the Latino community. Please follow our Latism South Florida Facebook Page and Twitter @latism_sfl for updates on events we will be having in South Florida.  You can also follow  Latism National on Facebook which has over 123,000 likes!

Just like these mom bloggers, I hope to make a small difference in this world. It is still evolving and for the first time in my life, I know that I am exactly where I want to be.  This is empowering! I believe power is the freedom to be yourself and to contribute something valuable to society, no matter how small or how big.  When I first started blogging, I made the intention to always follow my heart.  And by doing so, I have made many real connections….which  is what social media is really all about!

Thank you to Ana Flores of Latina Bloggers Connect, who shared this link and kudos to Yvonne Condes from MomsLA who is part of one of the awesome communities I am involved with and who has created a website of over 100 bloggers in LA. Wow! That’s an accomplishment! The orginal post is on NBC Los Angeles, and includes a very informative study from emarketer about Mom Bloggers.

Social Media Marketing Miami : Social Media Strategy Miami : Miami Web : Miami Blogs

Thrilled to receive best inspirational blogger award by Latism.org, the largest Hispanic online voice!
You can read more about the conference on my blogpost recap on MiCaminar.com

Johnson and Johnson, one of the main sponsors of the conference interviewed several of us on how we use social media for social good.

This is Johnson and Johnson’s recap video about using social media for social good from Latism:

Social Media Marketing Miami : Social Media Strategy Miami : Miami Web : Miami Blogs

What a cool and innovative idea for a restaurant! Found this link shared by Jeremiah Owyang on Google +1 today.

Social Media Marketing Miami : Social Media Strategy Miami : Miami Web : Miami Blogs

Russell Sparkman Presents Content Is Marketing Gold from Fusionspark Media, Inc. on Vimeo.

Content Marketing is King..or shall we say Queen. The more you produce content in your niche the more that Google will know what you are about. Not only that, but you position yourself in the market on an expertise, hopefully one you are passionate about. After all, if you are a sole operator, creating quality content takes time.

I myself do not have time to update even on a weekly basis on this blog because I have a bilingual inspirational blog, Mi Caminar and most recently since I am traveling in Colombia and sharing my knowledge about wordpress and social media, I recently launched a Spanish social media blog, as they say in Español : redes sociales. I know it’s kind of crazy, but I do love blogging and sharing my knowledge and passion of communicating via this platform. It’s a bug that I can’t get rid of.

Social Media is about sharing your content. So even if it is not direct marketing, the fact that you have taken the time to produce something of value and if someone ends up finding it on the search engines or on a shared link on Twitter or Facebook is indirect marketing.  And if it helps a person in resolving an issue or serving their need, then they will reach out to you organically. That is the best kind of marketing and why I love this concept of content marketing.

Social Media Marketing Miami : Social Media Strategy Miami : Miami Web : Miami Blogs

This isn’t a regular post about Social Media, but wanted to share it and ask your opinion about what Obama is doing to change the economy.
Here’s the link so you can share with your friends:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/share/wall-street-video-share

Social Media Marketing Miami : Social Media Strategy Miami : Miami Web : Miami Blogs

A few weeks ago, I was a guest of General Motors to attend the National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference titled: Un Nuevo Amanecer: A New Day for Our Story in Orlando. There were over 50 panels empowering and educating Latino journalists to gain insights on how to use technology, social media and start a new business.

Some of the panels I attended were:
“Getting Your Story Between the Covers”, a great discussion about how to get a schedule going to finish your book, marketing your book with several known published authors like Sandra Guzman, author of The New Latina Bible, Juan Gonzalez, columnist and investigative reporter of the New York Daily News. He has written several books: The Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Collapse; Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America and roll Down your Window: Stories of a Forgotten Amerca.

The Keynote lunch sponsored by Pepsico featured Veronica Villafañe, editor of Media Moves, Monica Lozano, CEO of Impremedia, Isaac Lee, president of News, Univision and Eduardo Zavala, President, ZGS Group. The panel discussion was about the impact and grown of Spanish Language news media and their future plans for expansion.

Newsrooms are 30 percent smaller than they were 10 years ago. Latinos represent 36 of the population and only 4.54 percent of America’s newsrooms. This conference’s focus on educating in the new technologies was evident by the hunger of many Latino journalists and reporters to embrace social media. Because Social Media is my work, I take it for granted sometimes that everyone has embraced it. Journalists are doing the work of three people today and many find it difficult to find the time to get more involved in social media. But the message was loud and clear: dive in or you miss the boat.

I want to personally thank the team from General Motors for their top of the line hospitality:

• Nina Price, Communications Manager
• Gloria Tostado, Community Relations Manager,  South Central Region
• Stephanie Camargo, Community Relations Manager, South East Florida
• Alma Guajardo-Crossley, Director Diversity Initiatives ( I had an inspiring interview with Alma and will be posted on MiCaminar.com shortly.)

I was given a Chevy Equinox to test drive for a week, including my fun convoy with Maria de los Angeles who drove a Chevy Tahoe. I was really impressed by the smooth drive and comfort of this car. I give it a thumbs up and since coincidently I am in the market for a car, it is one I definitely would consider. Check out our video with some clips of our drive from Miami to Orlando and a tour of the new Chevy Volt.

Disclosure: General Motors paid for my hotel and conference to NAHJ. All opinions are my own and I voluntarily did the video reviewing the Chevy Equinox which I thoroughly enjoyed driving.

Social Media Marketing Miami : Social Media Strategy Miami : Miami Web : Miami Blogs

I am going to be moderating a panel at She Con , a blogging conference, on Friday with two friends:

• Maria de Los Angeles, who has been blogging for over five years at Sex And The Beach and a big part of the local social media community.
• Jeannette Kaplun, of  Todo Bebe and a TV host on Viva La Familia on Univision.

The topic is going to be Diversity In Social Media.  While preparing for this topic, I found this presentation by Jason Buss of  Talent HQ.(http://www.talenthq.com/2011/03/social-media-diversity-recruiting/)   Not only does he present some good stats about Social Media, but gives a breakdown on the large amount of diversity  groups on Linked In and Facebook. (See Slides 15 and 16).

I am very involved in Latism, Latinos In Social Media,  which is the largest non-profit  Hispanic Social Media organization online. I will also be one of the directors for the South Florida Chapter which will be launching within the next month. Latism’s mission is:

• To represent, influence and engage the voice of Latino(a)s in all social media platforms.
• To educate and provide learning opportunities to those involved with LATISMTo foster leadership among its members.
• To actively seek and create social media related jobs in order to ensure that Hispanic social media professionals play a proactive role in this new workforce.
• To provide a common platform of support and networking
• To help promote and grow members’ businesses, helping social media professional members to acquire better positions and improve their businesses by finding and channeling business, funding, networking and/or speaking opportunities.
• To cultivate talent at every stage in the pipe-line: ensuring that people are able to get into the pipe-line & learn the basics, mentoring and working with those mid-pipeline and promoting emerging talent & experts.
• To encourage new members to blog and master their own social media space.

When I first dived into blogging three years ago, Latism didn’t even exist. Latism started out because of a tweet that Latism’s founder, Ana Roca Castro, sent out saying, “Donde esta mi gente?” (Or something to that effect) which translates to:  ”Where are the Latino’s here?”  I will be writing more about how I got started with Latism on a later post when the chapter is launched.

Now, going back to the topic of diversity in Social Media, I never imagined that I would be so involved in the online Latino community.  Because I grew up in Miami, where speaking Spanish is more of the norm, I didn’t really experience some of the discrimination that many Latinos do in other states.  After having conversations with many on Latism’s huge Twitter party Thursday nights, I realized I was in a bubble here in Miami. And now, I am very excited to know all the diverse Latino groups and learn about their issues.

So you see,  this topic of diversity hits home, because I am a Latina even though I never labeled myself as this growing up in Miami. I am of Colombian heritage and first generation gringa Colombiana.  Besides all the wonderful Latinos I have met online, my universe is expanding all because of Social Media and the little blog I started on the side almost two years ago, Mi Caminar, which is now fully bilingual. This is besides the wonderful local tech and social media community I have met here. ( I tweet on @miamishines and @micaminar).

Mi Caminar, which translates to My Walk, started in Spanish to connect with my Colombian roots with cousins who live in Colombia. But now it has grown to a bigger family, my Latism family, my Latina Blogger Connect Hermanas, my  Latina Lifestyle Bloggers, all of whom I connect on a regular basis on Twitter with respective hashtags, #latism, #latinabloggers #llblog and in  Facebook groups where hundreds of bloggers form even deeper bonds.

Some other sources regarding diversity in Social Media I will be referencing at the conference  and will be doing a recap post after the conference:

Great post with statistics by ethnic groups:  Social Media Diversity Problem

Incredible resources on this post by Wayne Sutton, who I met at Blogalicious and has been passionate about raising awareness to the Black and African American community in Social Media :  Conversation About The Lack of Diversity .

Diversity in disabilities through a dear friend and blogger, Laurita Tellado, who is tireless in her spreading the message of Spina Bifida Awareness on her blog, Holdin Out For A Hero.

A post by Jay Baer called Blinded By The White. He  mentions that when he went to SXSW the majority of people were white and between 25-39 years old, and  went to SXSW and says: “I’m actually an old fart in social media circles.” I don’t know how old Jay is, but I guess I am also in that old fart category, maybe nearing ancient.  But who cares, because of Social Media, I am a reborn enthusiastic blogger ready to take on the world.;)

Update: I met Debra Kronowitz today at Women’s Empowerment. She is a PR professional and gave me this link which actually has higher statistics than Latinos for certain uses in Social Media :

Mobile Access 2010: Pew Internet Study: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Mobile-Access-2010/Summary-of-Findings.aspx

By the way, if any of you reading this are recruiters, like ahem..Jason Buss, I can connect you with hundreds of talented people in the Social Media  Latino community who are always looking for new clients or work, including myself.

If you have any thoughts on Social Media diversity, please speak up and share, and if it is before this Friday, I will mention it at the panel. Thanks.

Social Media Marketing Miami : Social Media Strategy Miami : Miami Web : Miami Blogs

Hope you can join us!

Social Media Marketing Miami : Social Media Strategy Miami : Miami Web : Miami Blogs

I recently guest lectured at Alex De Carvalho’s Social Media class for the students of Communications with Maria De Los Angeles (@vicequeenmaria). I talked about how I began blogging and my evolution in this exciting field to now working full time in it. What I love to share is how getting out there in the community and taking the online connections offline took everything I am doing to the next level. It makes a makes a huge difference to go out there and make it real. I am constantly online with people that do not live in Miami.  Building the relationships motivates me to travel and want to network, learn and grow more in my business.
I also took my son Cristian, who is an avid Flickr user. He loves to take pictures of exotic cars. In less than two years, he has built a following of almost 1000 connections, moderates a half a dozen groups, and is the administrator for some. Besides that, he has joined over 300 groups in the exotic car niche.

He is a high school student and hasn’t had time for his blog, but recently he has had requests from exotic car owners for pictures he has taken. So who knows, maybe now he can start a photography business on the side. Recently, he has asked me to show him more blogging techniques to take his blog to the next level.

Social Media Marketing Miami : Social Media Strategy Miami : Miami Web : Miami Blogs