A new event-focused startup may make social media history by enabling people miles away from a social, entertainment or newsworthy event to “be there” in real time.
YeHive, the brainchild of former Mississippi State University graduate Brad Fuller and Camgian Microsystems Corporation CEO Gary Butler, allows social media users to create an event themselves or search for one created by others, without being limited to people they like or follow. YeHive blends features from other social media sites with its own unique characteristics, focusing not on people but on events. Anything from a music festival, a crowd-pulling sporting event or a birthday party can be captured as an event by the platform.
Being there when you’re miles away
As Co-founder Brad Fuller put it, “If you’re having a birthday party, your grandmother in Seattle can see what’s happening throughout the party even though she can’t travel to be there in person.”
Intrepid social media managers will be intrigued by the site’s new mobile app, which allows attendees at an event to post about it instantly and watch their content scroll along the event’s time line.
Anyone else who wanted to be there but couldn’t make it can eavesdrop simply by looking at the real-time postings.
Over 40 software developers teamed together to build the platform, which is designed to ease at least some of the strain for community managers and content managers via an integral profanity filter.
The site’s homepage will collate and update the top 20 national events as reflected by the number of users checking in. Courtesy of Google Maps, there’s also an “events near me” feature which lets users tune in to local happenings.
A new media phenomenon in the making?
Fuller and the site’s co-founder, Gary Butler, came up with the idea for YeHive during brainstorming sessions over the summer. If it profits users as well as the founders hope, it may yet alter the way breaking news gets disseminated. There’s no reason why YeHive users shouldn’t post about an event if they’re there while it happens. With enough users looking at the posted photos and comments, breaking news could soon have a significant new audience.
Additional features are in the pipeline, with private event creation scheduled to come on-stream by Christmas.
Tellingly, the company’s motto is “Be there.”