May 16th, 2012

In one of my college classes, my professor asked a student to pick five people at random. I was chosen as one of the five. We stood up in front of the class and my professor asked, “Which ethnic group isn’t represented by these students?”  One of the students raised their hand and said, “There are no Hispanics in this group.” I shook my head in annoyance and said, “No, I’m Puerto Rican!” Which was followed by, “Oh I’m sorry, you don’t look Hispanic.”

May 15th, 2012

This past weekend my brother was in town visiting and the moment he walked into any store or bar he exclaimed, “Oh! I gotta check-in on Foursqaure! There might be deals!”  According to an Empathica survey, one in three consumers recently followed through with a recommendation made via social media. Foursquare is a valuable app that dealers can use to drive traffic to their dealership, offer an incentive to frequent your spot, and make recommendations.

Not familiar with Foursquare? Simply put Foursquare allows users to:

May 9th, 2012

It’s a dangerous fact that using a cellphone behind the wheel is extremely dangerous.  But many teenagers and other young drivers still gamble at the odds by talking or texting on a cell phone or mobile device while driving. Those are the findings of a recent nationally representative survey of drivers 16 to 21 years old by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.  Motor-vehicle crashes are the No. 1 cause of death for teenagers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. And 11% of teenage drivers who died in crashes in 2010 were distracted.  According to this survey young drivers are engaging in behavior that causes them to take their eyes and minds off the road, creating risks for themselves and others.  

May 7th, 2012

Late last year, a 2.5 million dollar lawsuit was won against Lithia Motors Inc. for sending unwanted text messages to customers without giving them the option to opt out of the text messages. According to AutoNews.com, Lithia was hit with a class-action lawsuit for broadcasting to 57,800 consumer cell phones text messages that failed to adequately allow the recipients to opt out of future texts. A second Lithia broadcast text went to 48,000 of the previous recipients, 6,190 of whom said that they tried to opt out but were unable to.