Social media was in a stir this week as Instagram and Facebook were flooded with images of a spectacular natural phenomenon that covered the skies of Cape Town. It wouldn’t be ridiculous for residents of Cape Town to think they were under invasion from a faraway species as the bizarre UFO-shaped clouds appeared overhead. However, meteorologists explained it was in fact a type of cloud called ‘stratocumulus standing’ (or Lenticular Clouds) caused by disruption to the airflow along the surface of the earth.
An Australian cab company has unofficially been awarded the worst social media campaign of the year after its most recent Twitter campaign backfired to epic proportions. Your Taxis tweeted out to its followers asking for their #YourTaxis story, and were met with over 4,000 replies with taxi horror stories from users in the first day of the campaign alone. While the fallout from this social media ‘disaster’ continues to roll out on Twitter, it’s a good time to remind everyone to ‘think before you tweet’.
Moaning about feeling ill on Twitter could actually be beneficial to everyone. The Food Standards Agency has conducted a pilot study to pick up early indications of issues surrounding food poising and outbreaks. Tweets can help prepare hospitals and monitor general health. So next time someone is moaning about #foodpoisoning on Twitter, don’t get annoyed at the public self-pity, think about how they could be helping prevent other people get ill.
