• by Lee Vann , Columnist, June 24, 2010

In my previous post I challenged marketers to engage with Hispanics through social media. Since that time, many marketers have done just that, but what is most interesting to me is how Hispanic online publishers have suddenly planted flags on Facebook.

If you can't beat them, join them

According to comScore Media Metrics, Facebook is now the fourth-most-popular website among Hispanics and growing. Facebook reaches close to 10.55 million Hispanics per month, nearly 45% of all online Hispanics. This massive Hispanic audience coupled with Facebook's free social media platform represents the best place to build a community of online Hispanics. Instead of building and maintaining social networks of their own, it seems that Hispanic publishers have figured out that it makes more sense to build communities on Facebook.

Incremental revenue for Hispanic publishers and for Facebook

Facebook is quickly becoming an important referrer of Internet traffic. By building large, engaged communities there, Hispanic publishers can generate incremental traffic to their websites which, in turn, will boost revenues. As these communities become more significant, look for Hispanic online publishers to monetize them directly by integrating advertisers into their Facebook pages. Although good for Hispanic publishers, at the end of the day this trend is best for Facebook. As Hispanic publishers build communities on Facebook, it gets more registered users and more monetizable advertising inventory at no cost.

The race for Facebook fans is on and Telemundo is winning

In general, Hispanic publishers have created several Facebook pages focused on key topic areas and push content through them on a frequent basis. Some publishers have gone as far as proactively promoting their Facebook presence by integrating Facebook Connect on their own websites. The following is a quick rundown of the current Hispanic publisher landscape on Facebook*.

Telemundo - 138,000 Facebook fans**

Telemundo has built a strong base of Facebook fans by creating individual Facebook pages for its popular shows. Currently Facebook is not integrated on Telemundo's websites, but according Peter Blacker, senior VP of digital media, it has actively promoted its Facebook presence on air.

Univision - 92,000 Facebook fans

Thanks in large part to the FIFA World Cup, Univision.com has quickly amassed a significant audience on Facebook. The Univision.com home page prominently features a call to action to log in through Facebook Connect, and World Cup games streamed by Univision.com include an nifty Facebook integration where fans can interact with each other. In addition to a soccer-specific Facebook page, Univision has a handful of Facebook pages focused on various topics such as film, news and music.

The rest of the pack

Currently, there is a large gap between Telemundo and Univision and other Hispanic online publishers on Facebook. Here is where the rest of the pack currently stands:

• Terra -  6,300 fans

• AOL Latino - 1,700 fans

• Batanga - 630 fans

• MSN Latino - 207 fans

At the end of the day, the Facebook phenomenon is simply too powerful to ignore. Hispanic publishers will continue to build and maintain communities there, and those that are able to proactively engage with and monetize these communities will succeed.

I think this is exactly how Facebook wrote it up.

*Technically this should be "likers" but I just can't get comfortable with that

**My analysis was very informal and I may have missed a few Facebook pages, I only analyzed pages that were readily accessible through Facebook search or the "Favorite pages" section. If you have a favorite Facebook page from a Hispanic publisher, please let me know!