Social media has been used to connect with friends and other services, and one demographic utilizing that aspect is Hispanic women in the United States.

According to a study by Latina Media Ventures, U.S. Hispanic women primarily use social media to maintain contact with family and friends. The study, titled "Connected Latinas: 10 Facts About Acculturated Latinas and Social Media Usage," noted 86 percent of the respondents kept in touch with friends and family through social media.

The study surveyed Hispanic women born in the U.S. or who have lived in the country for at least 10 years. In addition, the women had either a social network profile or visited a social media website in the past 30 days.

Although many Latinas wanted to connect with people, the second popular reason for visiting a social network website was for receiving exclusive offers such as coupons or discounts. This reason accumulated 82 percent of the respondents.

But friends and family are still important to Hispanic women as the third popular response was to "Follow the activities" of people they know, which represented 79 percent of responds noting "very" or "somewhat important."

Finding information was also important to Latinas in the U.S. as discovering news or current events as well as local information rounded up the top five with 79 percent, respectively.

Latina Media Ventures' Executive Marketing Director Patricia Oppenheimer told eMarketer that Hispanics' use of social media is a "digital extension" of placing a high value on community.

The Connected Latinas: 10 Facts About Acculturated Latinas and Social Media Usage study also revealed Hispanic women use social networks to learn about products and services and as a result may issue rate or review on the items.

"[Hispanic women] are not as jaded as consumers as the general market," added Oppenheimer. "They are more optimistic consumers, more trusting. They embrace celebrity endorsements. So, they are comfortable seeing a post from their friend talking about a new haircut and then seeing an ad a few posts down in their newsfeed."

Hispanic women also responded to using social media to find information on a movie, television show, support for companies, professional networking, meet new friends, and play games, to name a few.

As Latin Post noted, The Nielsen Company's The Digital Consumer reported two-thirds of overall social network users in the U.S., or 64 percent, stated they use social media websites at minimum once a day from their computer while smartphones represented 47 percent.

The Digital Consumer report added, "As an important and growing consumer segment, Hispanic digital consumers are poised to be even more influential in the coming years."

Hispanics have provided the fastest growing population segment in the U.S. and Nielsen projects this group to represent 60 percent of the U.S. population growth in the next three years.

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