Twitter | Digital Crosstalk

Talkback

Brian and team, who work for a digital marketing agency run this Digital Crosstalk blog.
Occasionally we might blog about companies and people we work with but for the most part we'll simply be blogging about stories and events which we find interesting.

Comments Read

18th
JAN

Man arrested after airport bomb Twitter joke

Posted by Brian | Filed under air

: Image via CrunchBase

A joke comment sent by an air passenger to his Twitter account landed the sender in hot water with Anti-Terrorism police.

Paul Chambers from Doncaster tweeted the message after the town’s Robin Hood airport was forced to close a runway after heavy snowfall. Chambers was scheduled to fly from the airport the following week and vented his anger on the micro-blogging service with the comment:

“You’ve got a week and a bit to get your s*** together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high.”

Officers from South Yorkshire police were alerted to the message and Chambers was arrested later under the Terrorism Act on suspicion of conspiring to create a bomb hoax.

Chambers was questioned by police for seven hours and had his laptop, iPhone and home computer confiscated. He was released on bail pending further investigation.

There was another sting in the tale for Chambers after he was suspended from his job during the investigation and also banned from Robin Hood airport for life.

“I had to explain Twitter to them in its entirety because they’d never heard of it. I would never have thought, in a thousand years, that any of this would have happened because of a Twitter post. I’m the most mild-mannered guy you could imagine,” Chambers said.

(Photo: http://www.webuser.co.uk/)

Tags: airport, robin hood airport, twitter

Comments Read

1st
MAY

Hotels.com announce discount offer through Twitter

Posted by Brian | Filed under blogging, hotels

Twitter has been in the news recently for finally unveiling its integrated search function for all its members – something many people feel should have been available long before – but people and companies are still finding innovative ways to use the service.

Hotels.com today announced a nice little 10% discount through their EU Twitter account – intended to be only available to their Twitter followers, but rather than send a direct message to all those who follow their profile the hotel chain has made the discount code publicly available on their website.

It’s not quite as glaring a faux pas as those made by Skittles or the Telegraph – who published live Twitter feeds on their site that attracted a lot of questionable comments about their services – but it still shows that not all Twitter users are using the site to its full potential.

The 10% deal can be used on any of Hotel.com’s “Low Price Guarantee hotels” and can be used more than once per user and in conjunction with other deals, which is quite nice.

Many businesses have been using Twitter to help spread the word about their deals and offers while others have been using it to help give better customer support – something the new integrated search function will greatly help with.

The offer is valid until 17 May.