“Be Counted, Represent”: Voto Latino and MALDEF Uses Online Media to Promote the 2010 Census to Young Latinos

This year, the government is really stressing the American population to fill out the 2010 Census which I think is important considering today’s economic shift. According to the website, the information the census collects helps to determine how more than $400 billion dollars of federal funding each year is spent on infrastructure and services like hospitals,  job training centers, schools, senior centers, bridges, tunnels and other-public works projects as well as emergency services. This will help increase employment and reboot the economy with a more confident consumer market.

There are lots of campaigns right now encouraging people to fill out these forms, particularly within the Hispanic population. There was one campaign, however, that really caught my interest.

Campaign organizers Voto Latino and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund have come up with a campaign called “Be Counted, Represent” where they’re encouraging the Hispanic youth group to promote the importance of taking the census. The campaign organizers are relying on this tech loving group for this campaign by rewarding those who use text messaging and social media to share contact information and network within their social circle with downloadable music and concert tickets. They can even receive free music downloads by answering some census quizzes by downloading an application on to their smartphone, which I believe is under development for the Apple app store.

With the use of mobile and social media technology, their campaign can be reached in almost every medium. Right now you can become a Facebook fan of Voto Latino and be involved in discussions; Vimeo and Youtube are another set of outlets that uses online video to spread the campaign and then there’s the podcasts from Itunes that you can freely download and listen to. Isn’t technology great! and Voto Latino is one of those Latino based groups that are really using it to capture their target group, the young Latinos here in the United States.

Related articles

• MALDEF and Voto Latino Build Momentum for 2010 Census, Launching an Interactive, Multimedia Campaign Targeting Los Angeles Latinos (eon.businesswire.com)
• Census campaign targets tech-savvy Hispanic youth (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Local Leaders to Urge Latino Community to Participate in 2010 Census (eon.businesswire.com)
• NALEO Urges Greater Census Media Outreach to Avoid Undercount (eon.businesswire.com)