She began her auto repair business in Fort Myers (Florida) in 1995 and today she is the 2013 Distinguished Entrepreneur of Southwest Florida.
That's right..."she"..."auto mechanic." Get over it.
Pam Oakes, owner and founder of Pam's Motor City Tire & Auto Center was named Southwest Florida's Distinguished Entrepreneur for 2013 to wild cheers and applause at a gala and banquet May 22 on the campus of Florida Gulf Coast University.
In its second year, recognition of the Southwest Florida region's most distinguished entrepreneur is a project of FGCU's Small Business Development Center and highlights the initiatives and accomplishments of entrepreneurs big and small in this corner of the Sunshine State.
This just in: teens like loud music, growing their hair, rebeling against authority.
They also like Facebook (but not quite as much as they used to), like Twitter (a bit more than they used to) and no matter what you say or do parents are still, OMG you guys, like, really lame(ah).
All this according to the Pew Center for the Perfectly Obvious. No, wait, that's not right. The Pew Center's Internet & American Life Project surveyed teens - for the first time since 2006 - and discovered, among other things. the vast majority (77 percent) use Facebook. Duh. But also that Twitter is used more now than ever by teens, up 8 percent to a total 24 percent. Kewl.
"Teen social media users do not express a high level of concern about third-parties (such as businesses or advertisers) accessing their data; just 9% say they are “very” concerned," says the report
Amid all the clamr and dithr surrounding Yahoo's purchase of Tumblr came the more sobr news that Flickr is getting biggr...and has, actually, been getting bettr.
While Tumblrs all over the world were freaking out, many jumping to WordPress according to some reports...from WordPress, wondrinig what would become of Tumblr's "cool" Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been quietly reviving Flickr for some time now.
And yesterday, while Mayer was promising to keep Tumblr cool and Tumblr CEO David Karp was running to the bank, Flickr announced it is growing brightr: a full terabyte of photo storage for all usrs that is mobile as well.
It's widely reported the Yahoo acquisition of Tumblr is all but a done deal; Pinterest goes even more commercial with big brands; and an insightful voice says mobile messaging is the future, not necessarily social networks - necessarily.
Tumblr will become part of Yahooland.
Rumored for quite a while, now, plenty of reports suggest the Yahoo board of directors approved a $1.1 billion purchase of popular social blogging site, Tumblr.
You might as well get used to it: advertising in the social streams is only going to increase.
After all, we have to figure out some way to pay for the services and platforms that consume so much of users' time these days. Since the very beginning of widely distributed communication tools we've either paid outright and directly for the content or publishers sold advertising to pay for the content. Heck it could be argued the Dead Sea Scrolls were really an early form of "native advertising."
Only seems logical to expect the very non-traditional social media is going to embrace the very traditional way of paying the freight through advertising.
It's become (kinda) like Christmas in May, this annual Google I/O conference...at least for techies and, well, just about anyone who ever goes onto the InterWebzes...for just about anything.
Let's face it, it's pretty difficult in this ether-connected world not to interact or benefit from Google's many dimensions and products and services and, well, ubiquity. So, when the Googlers get together each year to unveil groovy new stuff it deserves attention.
Perhaps the most far-reaching package unwrapping on May 15th, at least for social media mavens, was the roll out of the "new" look Google+. Yea...it's cool.
One will notice, first, it's new "card" design looks pretty much like Google Now and, well, okay, Pinterest. It's clean, easy to read, very slick. New users will find it particularly easy since it also kinda looks like the "new" Facebook. Whatev.
But even more importantly, the new redesign is going to make it easier and much more swift to use Goo+ consistently as one moves from device to device. The redesign will roll out to mobile devices in the days and weeks to come.
To be an effective communicator the InterWebzez of 2013 one must think of oneself as a publisher.
Sure, you can have a beautiful website filled with interesting design, bright colors, shiny objects, pretty and, even, compelling pictures. But without a story to tell, a narrative to convey and places to share that narrative your bright, shiny website is little more than just another billboard on the information superhighway.
To run an effective website you really need to use to tell your story, lay out your narrative, compel friends and followers along the social channels to join you in the narrative, become a part of a community. Be a publisher
Want more recommedations for related content when viewing a site on your mobile device? GooglePlus just launched your answer.
TechCrunch reported May 13 Google has launched, through the Goo+ platform, a content recommendation feature which will link related content to any at which you happen to be staring on your mobile device.
Say, for example, you're checking out a restaurant...if the restaurant has linked its content, say a link to a wonderful review, through its Google+ presence (Google+ publisher account) you will see that link once you've finished looking over the page. The related content might also be comments and reviews from others on Google+.
The 2013 Distinguished Entrepreneur of Southwest Florida will be: a jewelry designer and maker, a distributor and marketer of Stevia products; a large auto repair shop or an industrial sized turbine maintenance company.
This year's four finalists include:
- Mark Loren, owner of Mark Loren Designs, Ft. Myers. FL.
- Ben Fleischer, owner of Pyure Brands, Naples, FL.
- Pamela Oakes, owner of Pam’s Motor City Automotive, Ft. Myers, FL.
- David Branton, owner of Turbine Generator Maintenance, Inc., Cape Coral, FL.
The elegant banquet at which the winner will be named is set for May 22 at Florida Gulf Coast University's Cohen Center. Tickets are available here. The keynote speaker for the banquet will be Jerry Ross, Executive Director of the National Entrepreneur Center in Orlando. Known to be a dynamic and entertaining presenter
Mashable reports, using figures gleaned from Nielsen, Google+ users are now spending nearly 7 minutes per month "on the site."
At least in March...and that time is a significant jump from the reported 3.3 minutes spent "on the site" in March 2012.
So, to paraphrase Carl the Groundskeeper, "they got that goin' for 'em." But "time spent on the site" of Google+ doesn't come anywhere near accurately measuring the value of Goo+ as a social network.
