Posts Tagged ‘Social Networking’

 

What Were You Doing A Year Ago From Today?

Monday, January 30th, 2012

What were you doing a year ago from today?  That’s the question that Timehop wants to help you answer.

Given the fact that social media has been around for a few years, it’s likely that you’ve documented many of the major events in your life through one or several platforms.  Timehop, co-founded in 2011 by Jonathan Wegener and Benny Wong in New York City, will send you an email each day to remind you where you were and what you were doing one year ago from that day.

The service is very well designed, and it’s extremely simple to link your Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Instagram accounts.

The Timehop group will tell you that “content gains value with time.”  After a few days of receiving your emails, you begin to appreciate this statement.

Facebook has also begun to take the route of consolidating your social media past to help you reminisce, but looking back at your history on the Timeline all at once doesn’t seem to have the same impact as seeing it one day at a time.  You’ll instantly find yourself back in the place where you took an Instagram photo a year ago, or you’ll re-live the emotion of a moment that you chose to share with your followers.

Not only can this process be eye-opening, but it can also help you to become more effective with your social media efforts.  You might be embarrassed to see what you shared a year ago, but it can also remind you of how far you’ve come.  As many users have noted, you can’t help but share things just so you’ll be able to be reminded of them next year.

Timehop just received $1.1 million in funding from the founders of Foursquare and others, so it’s likely that the service is here to stay.

So, have you used Timehop yet?  If so, what are your thoughts?

Drink, Drive, Go to Jail, AND Get Tweeted

Monday, December 12th, 2011

If you’ve ever had the opportunity to participate in a ride along with one of your local police officers, it was no doubt a memorable experience.  For those that aren’t used to that type of work, even a routine traffic stop can be exciting to witness.  However, if you don’t have the courage to sit in the passenger seat while one of your city’s finest serves and protects, Twitter may have provided the next best thing.

Dubbing it a “tweet along”, the Arlington, TX Police Department allowed their followers to have a peek of what a Friday night looks like for its officers.

The Chief of Police himself, Dr. Theron Bowman, rode in the passenger seat with one of the department’s DWI Task Force members and tweeted updates and pictures of the night’s activities.  The purpose was to not only give their followers a fun experience on Twitter, but to also educate people about the dangers of drinking and driving.

The event didn’t disappoint, and Chief Bowman took time to respond to as many questions as he could.  In his opinion, the night would have been successful even if just one person decided not to drink and drive because of the tweet along.

If there’s one thing that Twitter is best for, it’s keeping up with events minute by minute as they happen.  When a hashtag is established, as it was by the Arlington Police twitter feed, it allows everyone following along to post their thoughts or questions in a way that is almost like a chat room.  The result is that ideas spread with a speed that simply can’t be matched by traditional PR methods.

We can only hope that other police departments around the country take notice of how the Arlington Police Department conducted this event.  It was a brilliant way to gain publicity, and perhaps several lives were saved, as well.