PBNJ Marketing Blog

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Hispanics are one of the largest growing populations in the United States. This has been pretty much public knowledge for quite awhile now. We(hispanics) are constituting a large piece of the population that are now internet savvy and computer ready with projections that these numbers are growing. It is no wonder that hispanics are turning out to be a large target market for many businesses. There is a large purchasing power that is still relatively untouched.

Social Marketing is touching every body, every ethniticity, every age, and every pocketbook. The only thing that I find that is disheartening is when you have a company(Pepsi) or even a state(AZ) for that matter, that cheapens themselves by not thinking through their strategies and proposals before making it public. Let’s not be just put some thing out there just to put out there without some form of study or at least some background checking. If you know your market, you can speak to the market.

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In an article by Christopher Heine, with ClickZ, written on March 29, 2010, Facebook seems to be in the process of changing their ‘Become a Fan’ button to the  word ‘Like’. You can read the entire article below. This is going to be a tremendous change among how you can market your brand on Facebook and how many followers will perceive it.  If I am a Fan of something, I want to follow it and keep informed of any updates.  A sports Fan follows their teams every move and game.  If I like something, that does not necessarily mean, to me, that I am want to keep up constantly abreast of it.  I simply just like it.

But, in the bigger picture, I will tend to like more things than I would become a fan of and, hence, my profile will tend to show a more deeper side of me.  I then become part of a more specific demographic and more specific targeting trends.  Hmmm… interesting!

Read on and let me know what you think.

Facebook is scaling back on the word “Fan” and ramping up usage of “Like” on brand pages. According to a confidential e-mail sent to ad agencies today, the social media site will change the “Become A Fan” button to read “Like” within the next few weeks.

When asked about the change, Annie Ta, spokesperson for the Palo Alto, CA-based company, confirmed via e-mail that the words on the button would be changed. But she wasn’t able to offer other specifics about whether “Like” would replace “Fan” in other places on Facebook. “We’re still working on some of the details, but brand Pages can still be referred to as ‘Fan’ Pages after the change,” Ta replied.

Facebook, in the note to ad agencies, said it wanted to give the agencies advance notice about the change that could affect upcoming advertising campaigns or Facebook strategy.

Part of the confidential e-mail read: “Over time, as users adapt to the language change, we recommend that you invite people to connect to your Page by saying ‘Find us on Facebook’ or ‘Like us on Facebook’. You may also choose to put more emphasis on your custom URL than you used to.”

The e-mail also explained how the new “Like” button will be differentiated from the “Like” feature already seen in user updates.

How it may affect ads was also addressed in the e-mail to ad agencies. “Users will understand the distinction through explicit social context, messaging and aesthetic differences. An Engagement ad unit, capable of making connections, will feature the ‘Like’ button and show social context above it such as, ‘John Doe and 3 of your friends like [Page Name].’ Standard ad units, not capable of making connections, will simply feature the word ‘Like’ by itself, and may show social context above it that says ‘John Doe and 3 of your friends like this ad.’”

Facebook users have been clicking the current “Like” feature nearly twice as often as the “Become A Fan” button, according to the memo. And the social site appears convinced using “Like” more often will increase engagement between consumers and brands.

The e-mail read: “‘Like’ offers a simple, consistent way for people to connect with the things they are interested in. These lighter-weight actions mean people will make more connections across the site, including with your branded Facebook Pages. We believe this will result in brands gaining more connections to pages since our research has shown that some users would be more comfortable with the term ‘Like’. The goal is to get the most user connections so that you can have ongoing conversations in the news feeds of as many users as possible.”

Scott Kleper, CTO for the San Francisco-based social marketing firm Context Optional, suggested that the change could indeed create greater engagement as Facebook intends. “Becoming a fan of a brand is perceived as a large commitment and is an important measurement metric… ‘Liking’ can be another great driver of awareness and an opportunity for users to show an additional form of affinity,” he said.

Scores of brands, such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and Skittles, have cultivated online communities on Facebook.

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 Ok, I need to disclose a personal part of me so the rest of this blog will make sense. My name is Cynthia and I am an online marketer; I’ve been in this space since 1996. I have lived through the pimentoloaf.com internet bubble, the obvious bubble burst, and the ups and downs that followed. I’m not an expert by any means but my professional career has grown around the internet.

When I moved to Costa Rica six years ago, I entered the internet stone age. I was used to paying all my bills online, doing my Christmas shopping online and even doing my job online. All of a sudden I was surrounded by paper bills, physically going and standing in lines to do my banking and pay my bills. High speed internet was not available outside of San Jose so ISDN was my best bet. Costa Rica has come a long way since then.

In the time I have lived here, doing business on the internet has evolved leaps and bounds. The banking system was the first to take the gigantic step towards gaining the confidence of the Costa Rican community, online marketplaces, blogs and now social media have followed. Businesses large and small realize that an internet presence is crucial so they are thousands of web pages are floating out there without a purpose. (Many haven’t discovered the magic of SEO yet)

My online initiatives have always been US driven buy in the last year I’ve  been turning my attention to Costa Rica. I have had the good fortune to meet many large business owners that are on board with the online initiative but not quite sure how to get it started. Their marketing firms are still green when it comes to online marketing so whatever they have done so far hasn’t produced large returns or no measurement has been achieved. Traditional media is adopting the call to action message to be .com related but those are few and far between.

With that being said, you can imagine my surprise to be going thru my google reader this am and coming across this article in Adage: Costa Rica’s Pilgrimage Goes Viral. The article spoke about Jotabequ’s online initiative to get people to do the pilgrimage to Cartago online. The idea was great, the site was interactive but why the heck did I not know about this site until 7 months after? I live in Costa Rica, I read the local papers; I am online everyday and nothing, nada until today. (By the way, congrats to Jotabequ for winning a local award for this initiative)

So this brings me to the conclusion that Costa Rica is missing the online buzz. The ideas are there but online road maps are not being laid out. Costa Rica is still stuck on traditional forms of media and ignoring the importance on advertising online, viral marketing and SEO. As veterans in this space, it is our responsibility to get this great country online and create a strong online Tico community. Educate businesses on the online potential that is slipping away day by day.

What have your experiences been doing business online in Costa Rica? What are you doing to instill confidence in within the Tico online community?

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PBNJ Marketing is proud to show off our new website and our new blog.  It’s funny we have been so busy working, upgrading, and tweaking all of our client’s website, we completely left ours along for more than a year.

But as I was sitting with a little bit of time on my hands, I decided to just update our site and add a few more things and make a little big more clearer and clean.  I hope that all of you like it.  Please let us know what you think.

Thank you,

Robert Maldonado

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