Social media and Jessica Elizabeth Lloyd
For the social media non-believers: social media could help save this woman’s life. Ever since 27-year-old Jessica Elizabeth Lloyd, of Belleville, Ontario, went missing on January 28, 2010, forums on various social media sites have been brimming with information and supportive comments for and from her family and friends. City police have even monitoring the facebook page called FIND Jessica Elizabeth Lloyd, something they were compelled to start on the weekend when the group snowballed by gaining a thousand new members every hour. I was in the newsroom that morning, anchoring and reporting on the case, and I watched the facebook group grow minute by minute.
Besides the facebook site, there are a surprising number of others in support of Jessica. It amazes me that in their desperation, her supporters have made such excellent use of the Internet as a tool that just might help them find the missing woman.
Supporters have been posting comments on blogs like this one, Digg’ing and tweet’ing news articles via social bookmarking to spread the word, created an ad on Kijiji in the lost-and-found classified ads section and contributing to forums like Web Sleuths.
Despite these valiant efforts and dozens of tips, police are not reporting any progress in finding Jessica.
Remember that Crimestoppers has now made it even easier to help them fight crime without giving away any identifying details about yourself. You can always call 1-888-222-TIPS (in Ontario) but now you can also text your tips via cell phone. Here’s how you do it: Crimestoppers needs to know which geographic area you’re from so they can put two and two together when you text them your tip. So they ask you to preface your text with the keyword/code QCS (which stands for Quinte Crimestoppers) and then write your tip. Then send it to the number 274637.
Please do this if you know anything you think might help find Jessica Lloyd. The sooner the better. Thanks.
