Here are the four most surprising discoveries I made this month (note, I’m not getting into any of the facebook drama – tired of it).

 

1. Social Media Predicts Oscar Winners

Before the Oscars took place, Hootsuite analyzed millions of posts to pull together their predictions for 2018 Oscar winners.

• They compiled data from more than 25 sources, including social networks, blogs, news sites, and forums, and ended up with data in more than 50 languages.
• The research tallied positive mentions for each nominee in five categories to predict the potential winners.

And what happened?

• Social media got 3 of the top 5 awards correct: best actor, best actress, best supporting actress.
• They totally missed the boat on Best Movie (51% for Dunkirk and only 31% for The Shape of Water). They also missed best supporting actor.
• But 3 out of 5 isn’t bad. And having this info on hand next year will save me 3 hours of NOT having to watch the most boring, ponderous, self-righteous mess on TV, the Academy Awards.

Read on below for more.

 

2. How Different Subsets of the Population Use Social Media (Source:Pew Research Center)

• Pinterest remains more popular with women than men (41% vs. 16%).
• LinkedIn is for college grads and high-income households. 50% of Americans with a college degree use LinkedIn, compared to 9% of those with a high school diploma
• WhatsApp is most popular in Latin America, and with Latinos in the United States.  49% of Hispanics are WhatsApp users, compared with 14% of whites and 21% of blacks.

 

3. Millennials Get Scammed Online More Often Than Other Age Groups

• 40% of Americans in their 20s reported fraud in 2017, losing on average, $400.
• Only 18% of victims aged 70 or older lost money.
• But the older group lost more: $621 for those in their 70s and $1,092 for those 80 and up.

The Most Popular Scams:

• Phony debt collections, identity theft and impostor scams were the most reported schemes.
• Impostor scams: 1 out of every 5 people who reported a complaint was caught up in one, losing a median of $500 each.
• Travel, vacation and timeshare-plan schemes topped the list and accounted for the highest median loss, at $1,710 each.
• Mortgage foreclosure relief and debt management scams: cost people $1,200 each.
• Business and job opportunity schemes rounded out the top three with a $1,063 median loss.
• 70% of fraud cases involved contact by telephone
• Wire transfers continue to be the most-frequently reported method of payment, accounting for $333 million in losses.

 

4. The Top Startup Cities In The South

• Great info from Crunchbase shows the top ten metropolitan areas where Southern startups closed the most funding rounds.
• I would have thought Austin would be the leading city, not DC (and I didn’t even know that Washington DC is considered Southern…go figure)