Social Media. You can be for it or against it, but it’s safe to say that it is here to stay. Start-ups keep inventing new types and forms, and companies keep inventing new and creative uses for these applications. The total number of social applications is ever-growing and moving into ever more new areas, both professionally and personally. I first wrote about the professional and commercial use of social channels in Logistics in this post in 2011, where I mentioned Con-way’s Tweetload using Twitter to tweet available loads to truck drivers.
More Companies Are Using Social Media for Business
Many new channels/applications have emerged since then. A few examples you’ve probably heard of are Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, Snapchat, Quora, and ScoopIt. Next to consumers, most are mainly being used by B2C companies for marketing purposes and web care. There is, however, an increasing number of companies using social channels for other purposes, like recruiting or communicating information like ETA or shipment status that is normally sent by e-mail or even texting. Other companies use platforms like Yammer or MangoApps as internal enterprise social networks to increase collaboration and engagement.
Finding New Hires on Tinder
One that I found very original was the use of Tinder by Dutch Web Company DotControl. Tinder? Yes, Tinder. Wikipedia describes it as follows:
Using Facebook profiles, Tinder gathers users’ basic information and analyzes users’ social graph to match potential candidates who are most likely to be compatible based on geographical location, number of mutual friends and common interests. Based on the results of potential candidates, the app allows the user to anonymously like or pass them by swiping or tapping. If two users like each other then it results in a “match” and Tinder introduces the two users and opens a chat.
DotControl used this dating app to show a vacancy for a front end designer instead of a profile picture and targeted it to (indicated it wanted to date) Tinder users between the ages of 28 and 35 living within 25 km of Rotterdam, where they are based. Next to exposure in several media outlets for the campaign’s originality, it got them dozens of serious candidates.
YO! Your Package Has Arrived
Another great example is one of the new services for the app YO. Yo? Yes, YO! Yo is usually associated with rap music and is a word that can (for example) be used to get somebodies attention, although several rap artists seem to use it randomly :). When I Googled it, I found that it actually originated in 1940 in Philadelphia’s Italian community. Who would have thought? Its use exploded in the ’90s through shows like Yo! MTV Raps.
Recently a new startup launched an app called YO, which has secured 1.5 million dollars in seed funding months after it launched. The main and unique feature of YO is its utter simplicity. You can use it to send a YO message from one person to the other. Recently functionality has been added to let users receive YO’s as reminders (ranging from when your egg is boiled to if there is a missile strike near your city in Israel) or as messages from websites or companies. Amongst the first companies that jumped on the YO train! You can use the app to alert you of the arrival of your FedEx package. YO! Your package has arrived. Hahahaha, I love that. Parcel companies and thinking out of the box. A great combination. 🙂
If you want to send me a YO, then look for LOGISTICSMATTER. I always YO back at ya!
