Offline the Latin culture is very warm and social – this seems to be translating online. According to Comscore and Analytics 2.0 the number of people creating profiles on social networks has increased by 103% from Jan 07 – Jan 08. The study included Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico.

Some interesting figures:
• Orkut - 12.9 million (up 27% from 10.1 million in ‘07)
• Sonico - 7.3 million (Sonico launched during the second half of ‘07)
• hi5 - 4.2 million (up 72% from 2.2 million in Jan. ‘07)
• MySpace - around 3 million (13 million users in all markets analyzed)
• Facebook - 2.2 million (up 4,152% from the Jan. ‘07 count of 52,000)

Says Ramiro Prudencio, Managing Director at Burson-Marsteller:

“The growth of social networks in Latin America is extremely important for those of us who manage brands and issues. People are engaged, sharing information and shaping public opinion – especially younger internet users – through these networks. If practitioners and clients think they will drive successful and effective communications programs through traditional media alone, they will be missing a tremendous opportunity. Moreover, there is an opportunity to quickly apply what we’ve learned from working in the US and Europe over the past couple of years as social networks have taken off, and offer clients unique insight as to how things are likely to trend in Latin America.”

NBC News is getting into the education business, the digital education business to be exact, reports the New York Times. In conjunction with the New York Film Academy, NBC News is offering a four-week, eight-week and one-year digital journalism program for interested students. According to the Times, “a crying need for digital technologies” is one of many driving forces behind the new venture.

Although the article cites references regarding push-back in the academic world, specifically the fact that having “digital” tools doesn’t necessarily equate to journalism success, I believe NBC News and the NY Film Academy should be applauded for their endeavor. As a recent graduate and digital native, I know the impetus of understanding and applying digital in today’s world. Part of my job as Global Digital Coordinator is not only tracking current online trends but also evaluating these trends in terms of relevancy for our worldwide clients and Digital team.

Digital is all around us, ranging from websites to mobile phones; from broadcast TV to radio; from blog posts to blog comments…however the question remains: “What do I do with it?” Although the obvious answer (”a lot”) may appear simple, there should be a significant amount of thought and planning before one engages within this medium.

This idea of digital as omnipresent, and more importantly, actionable is present in Burson-Marsteller’s training program, Digital in Action, already in its six month throughout the company. Similar to the actions of NBC News and the New York Film Academy, an organization that values continuous learning and training via solid strategies, best practices and tools around new technology/communication channels serves as the ultimate destination for knowledge sharing, for company, employee and student.

Do you see value in the partnership between NBC News and the New York Film Academy?

I’m behind on my writing. A nasty cold, a couple of speaking engagements, and some urgent client work have made it tough to find time to blog. I spoke a week or so ago at the Airports Council International Media Relations conference at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. The conference was very interesting – it was an assembled group of communications professionals from major airports across the country. I have rarely given much thought to the unique challenges of managing an airport’s reputation, so this conference was a real eye-opener. The presenters before me did a great job of talking about the implications of user-generated content. Think about it – a routine arrest for drunk or disorderly conduct can be captured via a mobile phone, shared with the media, and then blown out of proportion on a slow news day.

This got me thinking about our personal responsibility when it comes to creating content online. People seem to think if they capture an image or incident that there are no restrictions on how it is shared. I am starting to disagree. I think we all have a personal obligation to make sure that any content we create is used in context, and that all parties are treated fairly. In the examples I saw from the airport conference, reporters were getting their hands on assets created by the flying public, and were then running stories with little fact checking and making assumptions that were completely false. This puts an unfair burden on the airport communications professional to set the record straight, and more importantly it can create fear and anxiety in air travelers. Given as much as I travel the last thing I want or need is more anxious people in airports.

We know that people are unintentionally creating news reports, and we also know the media are running stories based on this content. If we are all journalists now, don’t we all have an obligation to ensuring that the stories we create or contribute to are true, in perspective, and helpful to the general public? It is almost though, in some cases, the tables are turned and the citizen journalists have to uphold a higher standard or reporting. I know I plan to – I travel with an iPhone, a BlackBerry with camera, and a digital camera with video capability. They’ll remain in my pocket the next time I’m dashing from gate to gate.

Equally as interesting as the conference was the time I got to spend with the DFW Int’l Airport public affairs / communications team. Ken Capps, VP of Public Affairs at DFW hosted a dinner at the awesome restaurant in the Grand Hyatt at the airport. He had many great stories about running comms at an airport, and I greatly appreciated his insights and hospitality. More importantly, I appreciated his commitment to transparency in digital communications, and was excited to hear about his plans to push the digital envelope in the next iteration of the DFW website. He has a great team that I got to spend some time with – Megan Bozarth who is the marketing manager, and Cynthia Cooper, a marketing specialist. They are working together on DFW’s web presence and are very committed to providing a great experience for air travelers. Brian Murnahan spoke about the challenges of media relations for an airport, and Sarah McDaniel-Langhorst also had an interesting perspective about working in a comms role for an airport. I always assumed the mentality was along the lines of “get them in, get them out,” but Ken and his team are truly committed to creating a pleasant experience throughout the entire airport. That can’t be an easy task – this is an airport that is bigger than all of Manhattan! I’m quite jealous of my colleagues James Florez who is Managing Director of our Dallas office, and Kent Pingel who is day to day project manager on our work for DFW, in that they get to work with this awesome team every day.

This morning, our Worldwide President and CEO, Mark Penn, announced the launch of a new Facebook application around his bestselling book, Microtrends. For the 70+ million users on Facebook, the Microtrends application presents an awesome opportunity to engage, interact and learn from your friends’ various niche interests. As Mark put it, “If you’ve read the book or heard me talk about Microtrends, you know that 1% of society can make or break a business, win an election or launch a social movement. But let’s get down to what’s really important: Which 1% are you?”

The application is in the form of a short quiz which allows you to discover which “Microtrend” you align with. Are you a Caffeine Crazy? High School Mogul? Numbers Junkie? 30-Winker? (I am!) What about your friends? Do they fall into similar or different groups? Take the quiz and find out.

As Erin has previously posted about the era of open and personal communication, Microtrends enables relevant microtargeting - the chance to offer different stakeholders messages and products that emotionally moves them. For Public Relations practitioners or Marketing professionals, the age of mass media and mass messaging is dead. Microtrends, and more specifically, this application represents a new and exciting way for us to listen to our clients, friends and family.

A special “Thank You” goes out to everyone who worked on the first iteration of the application: Zach Ambrose, David Brooks, Ryan Coogan, Matt Hersh, Dan Lazar, Stacey Lazar, Robyn Pearlstein and Kinney Zalesne (co-author of Microtrends). I’m really excited to see how the application plays out, particularly within the dynamic social ecosystem of Facebook.