Using Social Media To Protect Christmas Deliveries

Is It Secret? Is It Safe?

I went shopping yesterday after work. Not Christmas shopping mind, I’ll deal with that later in a flurry of panic. Anyway, someone who helped me sort out a new phone told me that she’d bought every single one of her presents online and was now waiting for them all to be delivered.

I've never particularly been one for too much online shopping; I’m a fan of walking into a shop and holding onto what I’ll be buying. I also think it’s nice to get out and about, especially over the Christmas season.

FedEx, the package delivery company expects to deliver over 290 million packages in the lead up to Christmas. That’s just FedEx to clarify, it doesn't include all the other packages delivered through different means. With the vast increase in online shopping, in return, it sadly means that there is an increase in theft. Namely people stealing packages left unattended on doorsteps.

However, people in a Neighbourhood in Tulsa, USA have begun to utilise social media in order to make sure that they’re packages remain safe and sound during the build up to Christmas.

In Forest Creek, Sherry Helms who’s lived there since 1976 was warned by her postman that there had been a package theft recently when two teens stole from a doorstop. Helms commented on the event saying: ‘The kid just raked up a bunch of delivery packages and ran to the car, threw them in the car and off they went.’

Luckily, a neighbour witnessed the theft and rushed out to take down the cars licence plate. The culprits were arrested and the packages were returned. Thank the heavens, I don’t like stories where Christmas comes under jeopardy.

Once hearing about the story, Helms decided that she didn’t want anyone to become the target of another theft and so she turned to the social media site: Nextdoor. Nextdoor is a social media site where different neighbourhoods can sign up be a part of an online community which consists of their actual surrounding community. Each neighbourhood is private, so only those based in the area can see posts about their location.

Speaking about Nextdoor, Helms said: ‘If you saw something like this, wouldn't you say I'm going to get on that NextDoor site, and I'm going to know what's going on around me. I just think it brings the neighbourhood together really nice.’

Forest Creek’s Nextdoor page now has over 180 different members so that the entire area can always be updated about events and their security.

The Police have since encouraged people to be cautious with where they have their packages delivered to. Suggestions such as having them delivered to your workplace or have them dropped off with a neighbour are popular and definitely more safe than leaving them unattended outside your front door. Stay frosty folks. 

So in the lead up to Christmas (It’s just over two weeks away I can’t be the only one this excited) please make sure that you exercise caution with anything  you've ordered online to make sure that everything ends up under a tree. 

Tom Welby

Tom has just graduated from University of East London in Creative and Professional Writing. He loves writing and is currently interning as a content writer hoping to go further. His other loves include Arnold Schwarzenegger films and his dog. Follow him @TomAtSMF

Contact us on Twitter, on Facebook, or leave your comments below. To find out about social media training or management why not take a look at our website for more info http://socialmediacambridge.co.uk/.