TierraNatal: Connecting Mexicans In North America

That is a lot of competition that it is going up against. What do they have in terms of differentiation to separate themselves from the pack?

In other words, if I am already on 2 or 3 other community sites for Hispanics/Mexicans, why should I sign up to another one that provides basically the same benefits? I know it is only directed at the Mexicans niche, would that be enough? Maybe, but I think it needs something more in today’s competitive landscape.

Jimmy
I think the fact that they are dedicated to the Mexican community is a benefit over say Mexican versions of sites such as MySpace. Having said that I’m not Mexican so I’m not exactly qualified in that respect.

You mentioned MySpace and LatinoAIM, but there’s actually MANY other Latino-oriented social networks out there, some from big names as well, such as Univision (http://mipagina.univision.com/)

As for competing with the likes of MySpace, it all depends, Jimmy. Look at Bebo in the UK. In fact, the only US-based social networking sites that have built a lot of success overseas are those who didn’t plan it (Friendster in the Phillipines, Orkut in Brazil, etc). For instance, I know at least 8 Facebook-inspired sites in the Spanish speaking market alone. It’s a freaking jungle out there…

Good idea for project. Really nice website.

That’s my point … a jungle out there with so many. Let’s hope the dedication of the site to Mexicans would be enough of a differentiation for it to be successful.

Thanks for the review and comments.

We agree that the Latino social networking market is very competitive. Our goal is not to be the most widely used Latino community. We hope to distinguish ourselves by placing the online community focus specifically on people’s connection and relationship to their hometowns and not just individual members. We believe that the collective of members will give personality to the individual town profiles and allow people to stay connected with local news, people and happenings.

Please feel free to submit any other feedback or thoughts on this post or through the site.

http://www.tierranatal.com/contact/feedback

Cheers!

“Muchas Gracias!” for the feedback and comments.

I grew up with parents nostalgic for the festivals, traditions and happenings of Jocotepec, Jalisco, Mexico — their home town. In 1999, I formed the idea of a website that would help my community stay connected across borders and in 2003 launched Jocotepec.com to accomplish just that.

Jocotepec.com has become a place where our users share “chisme” (town gossip) and personal and community news with each other.
We envision that tierranatal will accomplish the same service for every home town in Mexico.

We built tierranatal to grow online social communities in a culturally relevant and organic way, formed around each members’ “native land” and based on existing social ties– neighbors, family and friends. We give our members tools, like the town wiki, to allow them to highlight the traditions, landmarks and people that give each town its unique flavor and attitude.
This community focus, rather than people focus, is what differentiates us from most other social networking sites.

Soon, we will launch a service for Mexican owned businesses in the US and Mexico to promote their products and services to a warm audience, their hometown members around the world — effectively an online version of the targeted, offline promotions these businesses do already.

We will continue to add features that promote the towns, give our users the chance to “come home” and further differentiate us from the many existing sites that are out there.

We look forward to our continued discussion and welcome you to our “tierranatal.”

Lili

I don’t understand… are Mexicans not allowed to use facebook or myspace? Are Mexicans not allowed to become friends with Americans? Do Mexicans befriend only other Mexicans?

I don’t see a future for ethnic social networking/dating sites like tierra natal, my view is that eventually users will drift away to the major sites since it’s where their friends are.

Hola - Gracias por tus comentarios.

Sin duda alguna, como Mexicana viviendo en el exterior quiero mantenerme unida a mi comunidad y saber de los acontecimientos en mi Tierra Natal. Pero por medio de TierraNatal hay una opportunidad muy grande de que todos estemos unidos y borremos las barreras que nos separan al unirnos a una red de reporteros ciudadanos.

Esperamos que TierraNatal no solo sea de interes para los emigrantes Mexicanos en los Estados Unidos. Sino que para todos sea una nueva manera de participar en nuestra comunidades. TierraNatal es una comunidad de periodicos comunitarios escritos completamente por los ciudadanos que viven en, son de, o tienes interes en sus pueblos. Tenemos mas de 300,000 pueblos Mexicanos y los temas incluyen eventos sociales, fiestas, historias culturales, y porque no “chismes de pueblo.”

TierraNatal es una manera divertida de mantenernos informados y de participar en nuestras comunidades.

Saludos y nos vemos en TierraNatal.

Lili

Paula, I would like to clarify that TierraNatal is not only a dating/social networking site as you propose.

The members of TierraNatal’s social network are more like citizen journalist who are a key part of a “volunteer town newspaper” with the power to publish the stories, pictures and videos that are relevant to their communities. We have build a profile for every town, county, city and state of Mexico. Our focus is to empower citizen journalism so that our users will create the content that will define the character of each town and keep our users returning to get a feel for the “real Mexico.”

TierraNatal is open to all people who feel that they can contribute inside knowledge of the towns. We expect that most members will be of Mexican decent but we encourage all to participate whether they were born in, lived in, family is from, have traveled to or are interested in Mexico. We invite all to participate in an open dialogue and to highlight the stories, people and places that give each town its unique characteristics and keep all interested parties up to date on the “town buzz.”

Here are some examples of just a few of our users:
Javier - journalism student who writes about current events in his hometown - Jocotepec.
Ann and Ted - retired Canadian couple living in Lake Chapala who share their experience of living in Mexico.
Oswy - community leader living in the bay area who reports on the social events of those from his home town living in the US and his travels around the world.

We expect that the sum of these voices will resonate with our users and produce a sincere and clearer picture of the “real Mexico.” We invite you all to join our discussion and explore Mexico through the eyes of those who know it best.

Greetings –

Lili

I think it’s a terrific idea. I wish I had something like this for my home town. In fact, this would be a great resource when whether deciding to move somewhere or not, or just when planning a trip.

I guess the popularity of being featured on Techcrunch is a sign for spammers to join in as well. I’ve signed up to some of the spanish social networks and 2 days after signing up for TierraNatal I received the following:
——————
* From: amicable
* Date: 2007-08-21 06:09:40
* Subject: Hello Fernando,

Hello ,

I’m Nicholas James Abraham 17yrs old America citizen by birth.I need your help to retrieve my late dad’s deposit worth $8.3million USA dollars with a security company in Africa.

Please if you can help me email me at amicablehome@yahoo.ca

Sincerely,
Nic.

————–
Maybe Liliana and team can add a button that flags messages as SPAM.

- Fernando

Hola Fernando,

Thanks for letting us know about this. We are currently extending our flagging system to the message center; it’s currently implemented in the town forums but soon will be extended to many other areas of our community.

If you have a few minutes to spare please send me the user id or username of the person who sent you that message via a private message. My profile is http://www.tierranatal.com/profiles/view/305

Salud!

Sebastian

Liliana and I collaborated and brainstormed quite a bit about the needs of Hispanic immigrants in the United States. Many Hispanic and especially Mexican immigrants often organize and socialize in community groups referred to as hometown associations or HTAs. These HTAs have been in existence in the United States for decades and some of the more sophisticated groups have organized into federations of regional HTAs such as the Southern California Federation of Zacatecan Clubs.

The glue that binds these individuals together is their community of origin and the economic ties expressed through remittances that keep them connected to their hometowns. Some of the more mature groups such as the Zacatecans pool their financial resources and fund projects in their hometowns, raise money for scholarships and so on.

TierraNatal is a breakthrough social networking site that allows individuals and HTAs to communicate more effectively online. So it’s a Web 2.0 platform for HTAs so they don’t have to create a website of their own and it’s a one-stop site for individuals looking to connect with their fellow paisanos.

Re: can’t Mexicans use Facebook or MySpace. Those sites are designed for no one in particular and certainly not tailored to bring a geographic focus. One other point is that those sites aren’t in Spanish.