Hispanicize Acquires Stake in Being Latino to Create Influential Latino Social Media Community Platform

#BeLatino hashtag launched as Twitter hashtag for Latino issues and conversations

Social media content and blogger marketing platform Hispanicize has acquired a significant stake in Being Latino, one of the nation’s leading Hispanic community and social media platforms and publisher of the online magazine Being Latino.  The acquisition immediately combines the communities and resources of these influential and innovative Latino social media entities.

“With this stake in Being Latino combined with our Latina Mom Bloggers network and our national conference Hispanicize 2012, our platform now features 360-degree digital solutions for Latino social media initiatives and allows us to build economies of scale that benefit our growing client roster,” said Hispanicize CEO Cristy Clavijo-Kish.  “We’re extremely honored to have Lance Rios and the Being Latino team join our growing family of companies. Together our group exemplifies the kind of social media leaders, thinkers, bloggers and entrepreneurs that will help us continue building market share and driving solutions.

Founded in 2009 by Rios, Being Latino and its 145 sister Facebook fan pages represent more than 150,000 fans combined on Facebook alone.  The community platform also counts on a growing following through the Being Latino Online Magazine as well as through other social media platforms including YouTube and Twitter.

“This is a great fit for Being Latino and Hispanicize due to the mutual commitment for building a positive, progressive platform for Latinos to engage online,” said Rios, who remains Being Latino’s CEO and now is a Hispanicize partner. “Through Hispanicize we will be able to expand our platform’s scope while also accelerating revenue growth.”

As part of the acquisition, the companies also announced the creation of a new Twitter hashtag, #BeLatino, that will be utilized through the Being Latino, Hispanicize and Latina Mom Blogger platforms for cultural discussions and to unify Latino voices online for virtually any topic.  The Hispanicize hashtag #Hispz will focus strictly on Latino and multicultural digital culture, social media and technology.

A tangible benefit of the joint expansion will be its impact on Hispanicize’s community partnership programs such as the “Latino Social Media for Social Good” – a national initiative with Univision Network. With an aim to support non-profit organizations achieve their communications and fundraising goals via social media training- the Being Latino community will play a central role in driving discussion and support.

“Our non-profit partners need support to help deliver their services, messages and resources for Hispanic and multicultural communities. We will continue extending our network to enable them to strengthen their outreach,” added Clavijo-Kish.  “On the flip side, we continue dedicated to supporting new and established bloggers extend their audience, reach, and revenue opportunities with ongoing brand and marketing opportunities.”