As part of a new campaign, one U.S. federal agency is using social media to "name and shame" drivers who tweet, text and snap behind the wheel.
In the U.S., there's a federal agency called the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). And it has a Twitter account (@NHTSAgov).
If you look at its recent Twitter activity, readers will see that for the past few weeks it's essentially been calling people out — by name, in public — about their driving habits. You could call it public shaming.
It's not yet known exactly how the NHTSA is finding drivers, but it's unlikely they're using any particularly sophisticated tracking technology. Rather, it seems that they're doing simple Twitter keyword searches, looking for keywords.
In some cases, they find people who have voiced their support for distracted driving awareness — in which case the NHTSA gives them kudos.
But in most of the cases, they're naming and shaming people who have publicly admitted to — and in some cases, bragged about — texting or tweeting or using Snapchat while driving.
All of those tweets drew responses from the NHTSA's Twitter account for different reasons — but again, the novel thing here is the one-on-one interaction with people who never expected to be engaged by a federal agency.
Of course, monitoring social media for conversations about distracted driving takes resources. But any individual or organization can set up a saved Twitter search for relevant keywords, monitor it regularly, and interact in this very same way.
And by filtering by location, local or regional law enforcement (or other agencies) could engage with just the people in their community.
Twitter shares climbed 64 cents, or 3.7%, to $17.73 U.S. by noon Tuesday, in the basement of a 52-week trading range of $13.91 to $52.54 U.S.
