This year, LATISM brought its annual conference to Chicago and I had a chance to attend. If you’re not familiar with LATISM, it stands for Latinos in Social Media and is a great organization to follow year-long. It’s official hashtag, #LATISM, gets hundreds if not thousands of hits daily on Twitter as users share any information, tips or reflections benefiting the Latino social media community.

The conference was an amazing opportunity to meet Latino bloggers and blogueras in person as three days of festivities included receptions, cafecitos, expert panel discussions and more!

Here are some of my highlights from #LATISM11:

• The importance of effective measurement. A couple of Zocalo Group’s own experts participated in panels about measuring social media successes. As marketers work to demonstrate clear ROI to clients, it seems that bloggers are determined to show their worth beyond straight numbers. The key point that came out was to make sure your metrics are relevant and customized to the particular business goals & objectives of a campaign. There is no one-size-fits-all metric.
• Creating successful blogger relationships is about customization and relevance. Panelists discussed how the best brand-blogger partnerships occur when marketers find a way to insert their brand into a blogger’s story. Anecdotally, I was really pleasantly surprised when a blogger I had pitched awhile back remembered me because I took the simple steps of reading her blog and customizing my pitch – do marketers really still send out emails that begin with, “Dear blogger,”???
• Powerful speakers. Among others, I had a chance to see the legendary Dolores Huerta speak as well as the always energetic Ramon De Leon. One point that really stuck out from Ramon’s speech was this – always be ready for your last tweet. Not to be morbid, but at a time when it’s so easy to post a negative thought, complaint or criticism, think about what kind of content you really want to be putting out there. Check out Heavy D’s last tweet – what great last words to be remembered by.

LATISM has been growing by leaps and bounds and I can’t wait to see what next year’s conference will look like. Check out the 2012 LATISM Conference in Houston! Details and super early registration are coming soon.