financial services

State Farm Launches Latino Facebook Page

Facebook-Statefarm-Latino

State Farm has launched a new social networking page for Latinos on Facebook, while Allstate is beefing up its presence in Major League Soccer in hopes of appealing to Hispanic fans.

State Farm claims to be the first national insurance company to create a bilingual page for Latinos. The page includes a mix of Spanish and English-language posts. To inaugurate this page, State Farm Latino will focus its online community engagement efforts around the upcoming 2011 Latin Billboard Awards in Miami on April 28, for which it is a title sponsor.

Facebook users are invited to converse about the nominees, presenters and performers. This site will also encourage music fans to visit Telemundo.com, where one can register to win a trip and tickets to attend the show. Facebook users who "like" the new page can also participate in Tu Música via a State Farm Latino application to win three music downloads.

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One event publicized on the page already was a State Farm-sponsored appearance by Latin singer and composer Gustavo Galindo, who spent the day teaching students about teen driver safety at DeWitt High School in New York. This was the first "Celebrity Music Teacher for a Day," a multi-city program created by State Farm in conjunction with the Latin Billboard Award concert series.

The Facebook page is in response to the increasing number of Hispanics (13.5 million to date) as a key reason for launching the dedicated page on the social site. who use Facebook on a daily basis, says Tim Van Hoof, State Farm director of marketing. Roughly 52% of Hispanics are social media users, he says.

At Allstate, the insurer is focusing on soccer to reach Latinos. The company is now the presenting sponsor of Sueño MLS -- a grassroots tryout program in search of the best undiscovered Hispanic soccer talent in the U.S. who will compete for a chance to train with MLS players.

Allstate and MLS will host open goalkeeper tryouts in April in MLS cities Dallas, Chicago and Philadelphia. The top performing goalkeepers in the regional tryouts will compete at the Sueño MLS National Finals in Dallas for the Allstate "Buenas Manos" award. The winning goalkeeper will be announced live on Univision's national sports program "Republica Deportiva" and will then train with his local MLS club through the team's development program.

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