Bands reach fans through Spanish-language Facebook

MIAMI (Billboard) - When Internet users in Latin America logged on to Facebook during Valentine's Day week, they found a site that needed no translation.

It was Facebook's first step toward a broad internationalization plan. Since February 11, any person from a Spanish-speaking country who visits Facebook will see the site in Spanish, while users from other countries will have the option to select Spanish as their preferred language. French and German will be introduced in the coming months.

The Spanish option highlights just how popular Facebook in particular and social networking sites in general have become in Spanish-speaking countries in the past year. MySpace has Spanish-language sites tailored for Mexico, Spain and Latin America, plus a U.S. Latino site.

But Facebook has quickly been gaining traction as well. Although the site declined to give specific numbers, it does report that there are more than 2.8 million active Facebook users in Latin America and Spain.

The Latin country with the most Facebook users is Colombia, followed by Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela and Panama.

And although the site is neither as promotional- nor as music-driven as MySpace, for many Latin American acts Facebook is the only way to reach fans in very targeted ways.

Take Colombian band Koyi K Utho, which plays industrial metal inspired by Japanese anime series "Mazinger Z." It's not the easiest type of music or look to promote in Colombia. But it is the type of profile that can generate an avid online following. Like many alternative acts in Colombia and other Latin American countries, Koyi, which formed in 1999 and is signed locally to EMI, has come to rely greatly on social network sites as an indispensable promotional and outreach tool.

"It's the only way we can communicate at no cost," said David Torres, who designs the band's site and online promotions. "Only one station plays music like Koyi's in Colombia."

You can find Koyi on MySpace, but on Facebook you will find the band's page, personal pages for each member, a label-handled "official" page and a page created by fans and street teams. MySpace, Torres said, serves a broader, more mass-appeal purpose, while Facebook allows for a more intimate, one-on-one contact with diehard fans who can be directly targeted for specific promotions and events.

Koyi's Facebook pages, Torres said, help get fans to shows, where they often buy albums. In a country where record stores have a diminished presence and there are little to no digital sales to speak of, such direct marketing becomes essential.

Now, having the site in Spanish opens up a realm of outreach possibilities that simply wasn't there before. "Our scope just becomes much bigger," Torres said. "Having it in Spanish will allow more people to come in, and now we have the option to go to other Spanish-speaking countries and find fans there as well."

Reuters/Billboard