Meeting Hispanics Where They Are: Online and on Mobile

Posted by Miriam De Dios Woodward on November 20, 2017

Google recently surveyed more than 4,500 U.S. Hispanics ages 18-64 about their preferences related to online sources, digital ads and search. The study found U.S. Hispanics use online sources at a higher rate (54 percent) than the general population (46 percent) throughout the purchase journey. It also found:

• Hispanic consumers tend to favor online sources over family, radio and TV.
• 79 percent of those surveyed said they use search engines on a daily basis.
• 68 percent of the respondents who use search engines at least monthly do so on their mobile devices.
• More than half of respondents who use online sources use their smartphones specifically to gather information before making a purchase.

How can credit unions and other organizations dedicated to serving the underserved Hispanic community meet them where they already are – online and on mobile? Below are a few examples of online and mobile resources being tapped by organizations to do just that.

Crowdfunding
According to Pew Research, 16 percent of Hispanics have contributed to a crowdsourced fundraising project. Since it launched in 2010, do-it-yourself crowdfunding website GoFundMe has raised more than $4 billion for personal causes from more than 40 million donors. When a licensed clinical social worker was struggling to afford providing low-cost mental health treatment to uninsured Spanish-speaking individuals in Louisville, Ky., for example, she turned to GoFundMe. She is currently well on her way to reaching her $5,000 goal to enable to her to continue providing therapy.

Putting a twist on the GoFundMe model, PayPal just launched Money Pools, a service that lets people create pages to fundraise for a specific item or effort among family and friends. Could this become a digital tanda? Although the service is too new to have data on usage rates, the focus on family and friends could resonate among many within the Hispanic community.

Social Media Influencers
One way for an organization to increase its reach within a certain segment of the population is to connect with those who have influence inside that segment. Consider starting with the top 25 Hispanic influencers on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. If your credit union has, for example, an important message to share with Hispanic members about helping children save for college, you could simply share with your social media followers. Or, you could try to get it in front of Jorge Narvaez, whose parenting-focused YouTube channel has more than 600,000 subscribers.

Instagram Stories.
After just one year in market, Instagram Stories has more than 200 million users – 50 million more users than Snapchat. At this rate, nearly half of all Instagram users will be using Stories by the end of 2018. A large portion of Instagram users, 38 percent, are Hispanic. In August, Instagram declared that JBalvin, an all-Spanish language music star, is the most-viewed Instagram Stories content provider in the U.S.. Brands interested in connecting with Instagram users, and with Hispanic Instagram users specifically, should consider mastering Instagram Stories. Here’s a how-to guide to get you started.

Connecting with Hispanic consumers online requires not only understanding where they are, but also how they want to be connected with. Google’s study found that including culturally relevant content – food, family and traditions – resonates with U.S. Hispanics online. Consider incorporating content that Hispanic members care about or that which is unique to the Hispanic experience. While not as important as culture, language also matters. For some U.S. Hispanic consumers, Spanish and bilingual content are signals you want to engage with them.

Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash