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Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, most organizations and employers are now aware about the benefits of using online strategies to build awareness amongst college students. No where is this more notable than in targeting Hispanic college students. A new study shared by eMarketer shows that close to 40 million Hispanics will be online by the year 2014 – that translates into approximately 70% of Hispanics. According to the report:

The majority of online Hispanics are native born and speak English proficiently, but they still take notice when marketers’ Spanish-language efforts are lacking. Additionally, data shows that the Hispanic market is more receptive to online advertising than non-Hispanics.

Taken together with other reports that show Hispanics making significant increases using social media and mobile internet usage means employers should be making online strategies a big part of their college recruiting strategies.

Intern Bridge shares a great post regarding employer engagement on campus penned by Sara Gonzalez at Amway. For employers looking for a starting point or ‘blueprint’ of either starting or revamping their college recruiting efforts – here’s a great place to start.  As I shared via the post’s comments section, I think the atmosphere on college campuses has certainly changed. College recruits need to be seen more as consumers not only looking for the right opportunity – but the right fit. While career fairs serve a purpose, they’re only part of a larger college recruitment strategy which allows an organization to be actively engaged with a campus. Yet, many organizations are still using traditional recruiting approaches to reach a new generation of students. Students are also much savvier, multicultural, and engaged given the rise of technology.  Unlike the days when I was looking for my “first job,” It’s easy to spot an organization that is “not walking the talk” from what they say on campus and what they do within their industry using social media, Google, and networking resources. This is what today’s college student is following as a strategy to find the right employer – so it indeed takes more than attending a college career fair.

Here are a couple more thoughts regarding the Hispanic PR and Social Media Conference. The first is from the HispanicPR Blog summarizing some of the trends and issues coming out of the conference – including numbers on the incredible number of sharing that has resulted from the event. The second comes from Bixal recognizing how the Hispanic Scholarship Fund is leveraging online marketing to reach Hispanic college students through its partnership with the AdCouncil. The lessons keep coming.

I’ve had this on-going love/hate relationship with Internet Explorer. Like many others, I use IE because it’s just the de-facto internet browser used by PC users. Lately, I’ve just had it with using IE. I always seem to have to deal with loads of pop-ups, security issues, patches, and the occasional virus – always when I least need to have these troubles. Of course, this doesn’t include unexpected fatal errors that close down ALL my tabs and windows from time to time – grrr. So I’ve committed myself to changing and begin using Mozilla Firefox. There are tons of people everywhere on the internet that rave about Firefox and how it’s better than IE. Namely, it’s an open-source browser. This means it’s supported by a community of developers and programmers that are always trying to make Firefox better. Since there’s a community that cares about the product, getting technical support is as easy as Googling for the answer. Another great benefit is all the neat and productive plug-ins or add-ons a user can use. You can literally customize your browser to meet YOUR needs and not be forced to use a canned browser. Of course, there are still those that will forever pick IE over Firefox.

So what does this have to do with my blog? Well, I got to thinking about how much college recruiting is very much a comparison between these two browsers. On the one hand, you have traditional college recruiting (the old guard) that still believes college recruiting should be done a certain way. Same old strategies – same old approaches. On the other hand, you have those that advocate a different approach – one that incorporates more technology, social media, and other non-traditional approaches. We should be more like Firefox shouldn’t we? Listening to the whole community, customizing the strategies, and sharing the information. This approach is what really makes the difference in creating change and making things better.

Louis Pagan over at Latino Rebranded shares an excellent post regarding the Hispanic Cyber Study put out by AOL. The statistics are eye opening and again can be applied to employers looking to leverage information on Hispanics, particularly Hispanic college students, and their online activities. A key observation:

They spend over 24 hours online per week, half of that time connected via mobile device.  They are highly innovative, thus are early adapters.

Employers need to consider how this social media trend can benefit their campus recruitment efforts given that Hispanics are incredibly active in using this technology.

Poder360 recently had a great article discussing the latest Hispanic technological and internet-related trends. While there has been substantial progress in this regard among Hispanics, there is still a sizeable technological access gap that exists between Hispanics and other groups -  known by many as the “digital divide.” While these statistics are both positive and negative, one can safely say they’re trending upward. In many ways, the advent of technology aligns nicely with Hispanic cultural traits. Take for instance social media.

Hispanics are incredibly communal. They enjoy being in groups: networking, sharing, talking, debating – anything that provides personal interaction. This cultural characteristic is also very evident on social media sites where Hispanics have formed any number of groups and networks to achieve the same but mediated interaction. Blogs such as Latino Rebranded, The Latino Edge, and others do a great job of discussing and blogging about how social media is impacting Hispanic cultural interactions. Jump on Twitter and search #latism, #latino, and #Hispanic,. Browse  Twitteros - and check out the results there. Marketers, advertisers, entrepreneurs, and especially recruiters are and should be taking note that the digital divide is certainly closing – mostly with help of Hispanic cultural bridges.

An article in the New York Times today reports that from 2003 to 2008, 61 percent of black applicants and 46 percent of Mexican-American applicants were denied acceptance at all of the law schools to which they applied, compared with 34 percent of white applicants. While there are a number of issues, challenges, and cultural factors associated with these statistics, it again reminds us of how these trends have long-term implications in a variety of settings.

Particularly within the legal profession, a lack of racial and/or ethnic diversity in this important area of our society can potentially chip away the confidence people have in justice and equality in our courts. While there is a variety of research in this regard, certainly more needs to be done in a broader context to address the ethnic and racial composition of our legal industry (including federal and state courts).  The legal industry is no different than what is occurring in most other work environments.

If you are interested in how social media is impacting recruiting – especially how it can be applied to college recruiting – watch the live stream graciously provided by ERE.com. Sessions are certain to provide some great insights to how social media continues to change the recruiting landscape. The sessions and tweets will be archived for later viewing. If you’d like to follow the discussion on Twitter use the #socialrecruiting hashtag. Enjoy!

Red Recruiter writes about the Death of Sourcing in a post today. Great insights that are applicable to college recruiting as well. Check it out.

Chris Brogan is what you would call a “guru” of social media and its applications to numerous industries and situations. I just recently have begun to follow his blog and have learned a tremendous amount – not about things like Facebook or Twitter – but how new technology can change everything. A recent post on his blog discusses “frameworks” and how social media can indeed change business thinking and, ultimately, the way business is done. It got me thinking about new models, particularly in regards to recruiting and college recruiting models. The recruiting industry is still grappling with how social media tools can be used most effectively. But as Chris argues:

When thinking about social media tools and how you’re looking to implement them in organizations, be sure to understand the frame of what you’re doing. Read more…