They’re lazy, sexist, and seemingly incompetent at everything except for bowling and sliding down a dinosaur’s tail…but can they ever sell addictive, life-shortening products to kids. Yabba-dabba-do!
Yes, this is a real commercial from 1960. Apparently, in the Flintstones' first season on ABC, the original sponsor was Winston Cigarettes. I realize that some of you might’ve already seen this, even if it’s now repressed in your subconscious, but in case you haven’t, it’s worth the twisted laugh. You can click here to watch the video if it didn't load above. And, remember, if you have too much to drink at your next work party, and take a drag of a cigarette from ‘that friend you know who smokes’… you can just say that Fred Flintstone made you do it. ~ p
Money can buy happiness
How much money would it take for you to be happy? While I don’t need money to be happy, I know how much money I’d be happy with, and it’s somewhere in the 7-to-9-digit range. Unrealistic? Likely. Unnecessary? Apparently. As reported in a recent study, which measured the links between happiness and money, the threshold for happiness is…drum roll, please: $75,000. The study found that when people made more money, they did not experience more day-to-day happiness. But, not surprisingly, when someone moved from a salary paying $100,000 to $200,000, they realized an improved sense of success. Huh. Call me old-fashioned…but you’d still find me doing my best white boy happy dance if I ever won the lottery. ~ p
Google has instantly changed Search
The growing customer need to get what we want instantly has been shown time and again in the growing trend of Nowism. This afternoon, in a way that only Google can, that trend was officially taken to the next level…
So…why is this a good thing? Google says, “Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure to help you get better search results, faster. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type.” Google also promises that ‘Instant will provide even Faster Searches, Smarter Predictions and Instant Results. Before Google Instant, the typical searcher took more than 9 seconds to enter a search term, and we saw many examples of searches that took 30-90 seconds to type. Using Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search. If everyone uses Google Instant globally, we estimate this will save more than 3.5 billion seconds a day. That’s 11 hours saved every second.’ I’d like to add that…it looks cool. Watch the video. Lastly, what does this mean for rankings and Search Engine Optimization? Well, for starters, we are no longer limited to ranking just words…we can now rank letters, too. That sound you heard was the buzz of 10 million nerds giggling with excitement. Make that 10 million and 1. ~ p
Are you on the Hotlist?
Through ‘check-ins’, the iPhone app also shows whether or not your friends are actually there, and the male-female ratio at a given spot. To top it off, you can read Yelp reviews and Twitter posts to help make your meeting-spot decisions. ~ p
Less textbook...more Facebook?
Does Social Media activity with kids go up or go down when they go back to school? You would think and hope, for those parents out there, that it goes down. Less free time to play on their Blackberries and iPhones. More time learning and studying in the classroom. Some schools have tried to ban phones all together, without much success. My sister, Kelly, is a grade 8 teacher, and she is one of the best. I say this broad-sweeping statement because a) she is my sister, and b) she wins every award and teaching-related competition you can imagine, or not imagine, because I honestly didn’t know any existed before she started winning them. Anyway, in her classroom, nearly every kid has a phone. They are texting, facebooking, tweeting, and bbming, all the time. She, of course, takes their phones away if they are caught, much like my teacher would confiscate the notes that I passed to girls. All that being said, kids are kids and, well, they’re generally sneakier and smarter than us. If they want to text, they will find a way. And with all of their friends surrounding them, their social networking peer pressure is a lot higher. Interestingly enough, my sister has also decided to start a Facebook page, with the approval of her Principal, for the kids to keep up on class assignments. As she says, that’s where they are as soon as they leave the classroom every day. The lesson here is that whether you’re a big global brand, or a grade 8-teacher, you need to be where the people are to keep them engaged. The next step? Teaching kids how to use their devices and social networking tools in school to help them later in life...even though it might be the first course where the students are tutoring the teacher. Regardless, this school in the U.K. has already started. Without changing the curriculum, here are 100 other inspiring ways to use social media in the classroom.
Twitter will surpass Facebook
Twitter recently hit 145 million followers. Even though it's reported that only 30% of those accounts are active, I think we can all collectively put our wings together and chirp, ‘Wow. That’s impressive’. For one, they don’t even have a revenue stream. Unless they plan to register as a religious organization, which probably wouldn’t be too far fetched for most followers, their service and business is currently unsustainable. The impressive part is that it doesn’t seem to make a difference. They continue grow and gain popularity anyway. Secondly, they’ve directly gone up against Facebook at their own game, and though they might not be winning, they’re certainly not losing either. This makes me wonder…'How far is up for Twitter? Once their money machine starts, will they ever surpass Facebook’s revenues? Will they get more registered accounts?’ The smartest answer in the room is, ‘probably not, but who the hell knows’. The smartest answer, however, is not always the right one. That’s why I say ‘yes’ to all the above. You read correctly. Twitter will surpass Facebook. Now before you call me names that I need earmuffs for, let me explain. You see, it comes down to this: Twitter is simple. Facebook is not. Twitter has one, single function. Facebook has too many to count. As we continue to move into a more mobile world, less will win over more every time. If you look at the growth numbers for Twitter, you can see the upward trend of people signing up and engaging with the service via mobile is taking over. Adding 300,000 new users each day, Twitter grew by 40% over the last four months. But the golden nugget is that Mobile usage has gone up 62% over the same four months, and 16% of all new Twitter users are starting out on mobile devices as opposed to web signups (this number is up from just 5% earlier this year). If you Tweet from your mobile device, it’s not hard to see why. It’s simple, fast, single-focused, and it’s a low level of time commitment. With the introduction of new devices like the iPad that give us fast and instant faster and more instant, these numbers are not going into a tailspin in the foreseeable future. Facebook, on the other hand, is busy trying to take over the world, offering everything to everyone. And as much as we all like the idea of having the world in our mobile hands…Facebook is currently just slowing us down. ~ p
Welcome to the portereport
I'm Porter. I spend hours each day reading, sharing and commenting on Social Media, Tech, Trends, the NBA, and other topics that I think are interesting. You'll find this site to give you cool things to talk about at the coffee machine, or when hanging out with your friends. I hope you enjoy the reports. ~ p
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