Blogs » Off the Clock

Social media as a missing person alert

By BETH WHEELOCK Thursday, December 9, 2010 - 1:24 p.m.

When a family member goes missing, it's understandable to try any means possible to find them. In addition to contacting local police and media outlets, the Sjobergs are finding an incredible response through Facebook. My sister is guest-blogging on Off the Clock to explain how it works.

It should be also noted that he was last seen in Madison, but his family is able to search for him via social networks while they live on the East and West coasts. For some reason, I find that fascinating.

Hopefully, Joe Sjoberg just decided to take off for a while, and not tell his friends or family.

--Beth

Hello, everyone. I'm Beth's little sister, Karen.

One of my Beloit College classmates notified me last week that his younger brother, Joe, was missing. He was last seen on Tuesday, November 30 . His roommate, family and coworkers have not seen or heard from him since. Joe is 22 years old and had been living and working in Madison.

Rob (my friend) and his other brother, Pat, created a Facebook group for people interested in helping find Joe. At first, I just thought it was a support group, but over the last week, it has grown to more than 7,800 members and counting. People are adding their entire friends lists because who knows? Maybe a friend of a friend will know something.

A massive taskforce of people is calling every hotel, hospital, and airport in the state. It is believed that Joe may have traveled North, but that's the only lead I've heard of so far.

There have been tweets, Facebook posts, blogs, and small news articles about Joe. The word was even passed through some celebrities' tweets such as Jimmy Fallon and Craig Ferguson.

If you have seen or heard anything regarding Joe Sjoberg, please let the authorities know or contact Rob or Pat Sjoberg. Their info is on the following links, along with details about Joe. Please spread the word, because you never know if one of your friend's friends knows some information. Any effort will help.

"Joe is missing" flyer
Facebook Group: http://on.fb.me/joefbgroup
Joe's License Plate: http://imgur.com/AlijT.jpg
Social Media Blog Post: http://bit.ly/gCidxu
Reddit Page: http://bit.ly/RedditFindJoe
Non-Facebook info page: find.joeismissing.com
http://viewridge.komonews.com/content/local-family-awaits-news-missing-22-year-old

Thank you so much for reading this. Hopefully if I get to guest post again, it will be on a more cheerful topic!

Karen Wheelock

reader COMMENTS

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(3)

bwheelock
Dec 9, 2010 at 4:12 p.m.
Suggest removal

I wonder how much the "it could happen to me" feeling plays into it.

janesvillean
Dec 9, 2010 at 4:09 p.m.
Suggest removal

Social media can help, as in this case, getting the word out and motivating volunteers, but it's very inconsistent in who it helps. I've seen similar efforts vanish without a trace. Certainly, if you have a core group of people who can reach others to get the word out quickly, you have a better chance of making something spread virally, but you may just see it go a bump or two into the network and stop. I don't know what the real triggers are.

bwheelock
Dec 9, 2010 at 3:20 p.m.
Suggest removal

Another online article about the impact of social media on the search:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/ar...

--Beth

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