• by Lance Rios , Op-Ed Contributor, December 23, 2015

We’ve heard it time and time again: Hispanic Millennials are a driving force on social media, especially as they are early tech adopters and have a higher usage of social media than their non-Hispanic counterparts. Yet, for brands and marketers, knowing which social platforms to focus on can be a challenge, given that each platform requires its own team and resources. Most commonly, social media outreach tends to happen via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as they’re the easiest to quantify and are the platforms that marketers have had the most time to study. But, why not immediately dive into new emerging platforms to engage with Hispanic Millennials through platforms that are inherently part of their daily lives? 

The evolution of marketing in this age of social media has never sprung forward at such an accelerated pace. Brands no longer have the luxury to dedicate a large amount of time to truly understand the nuances of every platform prior to setting up their accounts or engaging with influencers on these powerful platforms. In the past three to four years, three major platforms have gained significant traction, with top influencers being Hispanic Millennials, yet brands are still hesitant to engage with them and their influencers. Vine (200 million monthly active users), Snapchat (100 million daily active users) and Periscope (10 million users), are all becoming increasingly powerful in influence for Hispanic Millennials and now is the time to dive in.

So how does a brand that doesn’t have a presence on Vine, Snapchat and Periscope enter the dialogue?

1. Find the right social media marketing agency that has activated in the past on Vine, Snapchat and Periscope with Hispanic Millennials, but also have a strong presence on these platforms themselves. A large part of knowing how to engage in the space is being as dedicated as possible as an active participant to bring forth the best strategies and tactics in a culturally relevant way. But don’t forget to think about how each platform will fit into the overarching social strategy. (Or for brands that are open to a fun challenge, go the Taco Bell route. See point 3.)

2. Get acquainted with influencers and know which platforms they dominate. A crippling mistake that many brands make is finding a social media influencer who’s strong on one platform, for example Facebook, and forcing them to be relevant on another platform, such as Vine, with little results. Content expectations across each platform vary vastly. It’s imperative to know which influencers are strong per platform and implement them appropriately to bring higher results and more organic engagement. Here’s a quick snapshot of powerful Hispanic Millennial influencers per platform:

1. Vine: Lele Pons (10M Followers, 7B Loops), David Lopez (6.1M Followers, 3B Loops), Jaime Soliz (783K Followers, 634M Loops) 
2. Snapchat: Oscar Miranda (glozemaddic) – 45,000 Followers/ 40,000 Views, Being Latino (BLSnapz) – 27,000 Followers/ 25,000 Views 
3. Periscope: Lizza Monet Morales – 5 Million Hearts

3. Dive in and experiment. Early (brand) adopters of new social platforms are highly rewarded, as brands that are slow to the game are often lost in the shuffle. To execute new initiatives on social media, brands need to give this bilingual, bicultural audience information you want them to have, in a way that they want to hear it in. For Snapchat, it’s about taking every day moments and bringing it to life with quirky drawings and giant emojis while incorporating news that matters to Hispanic Millennials. For Vine, it’s about how creative can you get with a six second video in a way that is inherently comedic in nature and not overly produced. For Periscope, this is a quick and easy way to have the audience get a true view into your brand’s activities and can be a fun way to have a true two-way dialogue with your audience. Don't be afraid to experiment, that's half the battle when it comes to social media. Taco Bell, an early Snapchat adopter since 2013, dove in and handed their account over to two millennial employees. After two years of its strong presence, their Snapchat now sees the most engagements compared to their other social media accounts.