Am I too old for Facebook?

So it’s no secret — I’m well into my 50s. I learned the basics using pencils with portable erasers that were the size of small Volkswagens. Eventually I graduated to relying on secretaries who used carbon paper. These same secretarial resources also made my thoughtful presentations come to life using some low-cost overhead projections. Then life got fancy and we all started using slides! The fax machine really changed the whole mindset though — I was suddenly able to “do my own faxes” (well, usually). Read full post...

The Whopper Sacrifice

Did you hear about Burger King’s recent “Whopper Sacrifice” Facebook promotion? The promotion attempted to get Facebook users to “sacrifice” ten friends in exchange for a coupon for a free Whopper.

Facebook didn’t like the promotion and Burger King had to take it down after one week, but only after 234,000 friendships had ended.

Here’s what happened. Burger King launched the “Whopper Sacrifice” micro-site, where Facebook users could install the Whopper Sacrifice Application. The application allowed you to delete 10 friends in exchange for a coupon for a free Whopper. According to statistics, over 89,000 Facebook members added the application. To add an interesting twist, the friend’s profile photo was set on fire through animation once you chose to delete him or her.

Are we seeing a brand-new way to use Facebook? Will others try similar stunts?

Facebook

In the last couple of years, Facebook has gone from a college photo-sharing site to a business-networking platform for self-promotion, advertising and multimedia interaction.

Official numbers from Facebook indicate that they have 222 million users and are growing at the astounding rate of about five million new users a week. The surprise here isn’t their growth rate, but that baby boomers are the fastest growing demographic for the site.Read full post...

Image courtesy TVGuide.

According to Nielsen, nearly 37.8 million U.S. viewers tuned in between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. to watch inauguration events on a total of 17 broadcast and cable networks.

This is the most viewers on an inauguration day since Ronald Reagan’s in 1981 (41.8 million viewers).

Read full post...