Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The New Profile of America

The countdown to the 2010 Census has begun. As of March 15th, we will be receiving the forms. The U.S. Census bureau has been leading a multi-faceted communication campaign, encouraging publics to participate and educating them about the importance of being represented. The census results will inform budget allocation on public programs. It will alert the business world to emerging forces among consumer groups. It will make all of us appreciate the richness in U.S. population’s diversity. 

The 2010 Census has a lot of bearings particularly for the Hispanic population. Experts are predicting that Hispanics will emerge as the largest minority group at 50 million - surely a force to be reckoned with. The bureau is making significant efforts to capture demographic information accurately and to reach as wide of a population as possible.

To this end, they’re mailing Spanish forms to highly populated Hispanic areas – without requiring special requests from citizens. They’re partnering with Univision and Telemundo for Spanish public service message broadcasting. Finally, they are present in every key social media channel, with relevant videos, photos and stories to Hispanic (and other) populations. You can follow the U.S. Census on Twitter, on Facebook, on Flickr and on YouTube.

 These efforts are on target to reach the Hispanic population online. As I wrote before in my post about online Hispanic adults, they are young, tech-savvy and eager to spread the word. What will need to happen next is that Latino community-based organizations (CBOs) will need to weave these online hubs into their communications. The referrals to social media sources when engaging crowds offline and online will inform Hispanic online advocates and empower them to educate and recruit their community members.  

Posted via web from dotwom's posterous

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