Finding love on the Internet is nothing new — one in 10 Americans have tried online dating, and one-third of U.S. married couples met online.
But professing it in a creative way? You know, not just the “OMG! I have THE BEST boyfriend/husband/wife/girlfriend ever!!!! I love him/her so much!!!” status updates? Now, that’s a little less common.
What about finding it online in a different way? We’ve all heard of online dating, but some folks are dating online without the help of a site tailored to that purpose.
To give you a break from the Facebook doting and Match.com love stories, I’ve surfed the ‘net to bring some truly awe-worthy social media love stories in honor of Valentine’s Day:
- “I Hope This Gets To You” viral video
Now if this isn’t the best example of a profession of love and social media, I don’t know what is.Back in November 2010 (eek! Doesn’t this seem like eons ago!?), L.A. director and editor Walter C. May got his roommates — a band called The Daylights — together to write and record a song for his girlfriend who’d just moved away to attend Duke University. He then filmed a music video, spending only $100 on materials.
The catch? None of his friends or her friends were allowed to tell her about it. May’s girlfriend was to discover the video on her own, through social media sharing alone.
It took his girlfriend less than a week to see the video. And apparently she loved it.
- The classic Facebook search of your own name
OK, who hasn’t looked up their own name on Facebook to see who else shares the name? I did — there’s a woman in DC with my name. We’re now Facebook friends.
But a Florida woman has a much more interesting story.
One day, a bored Kelly Hildebrandt searched her own name on the social networking site. To her surprise there was a man who shared the name — so she sent him a message. Apparently, he thought she was pretty cute. They were engaged several months later.
Unfortunately, this couple only stayed married for three years.
- Using Twitter hashtags
Laurie Davis is the author of the book Love At First Click: The Ultimate Guide to Dating Online and founder of eFlirt expert. Basically, she helps people find love online through dating sites — and regular social media sites, too. She actually met her own fiancé through Twitter.Her fiancé, Thomas Edwards, is also a dating coach. She searched the hashtag #dating, saw one of his tweets, retweeted him, met up for drinks and the rest is history.
The couple plans to wed this May.
Fun fact: For all you hopefuls when it comes to finding love on Twitter, a U.K. electronics company found via research that it takes an average of 225 tweets to successfully pick up a person.
- Brought together by music — and social media
One of my friends who avidly dates via OKCupid once said to me “when you meet guys at a bar, all you have in common with them is that you were at the same bar. But that’s not so with online dating.”The story of Dianna Hank and Noah Zitsman reminds me of what my friend said.
The two met in a Phish chat room on Turntable.fm. After being friendly with each other for a while, they realized they both were attending the same Phish concert in Vermont — why not meet up?
Meet up they did. And they did at other concerts after that. Eventually, they ended up dating.
Lane Blackmer is a self-employed former journalist. Although she’s no longer a newsie, Lane since discovered other uses for social media such as public relations, marketing, job searching, and trying to win gift cards from her favorite local businesses through contests. Lane inhabits Philadelphia, where’s it’s not always sunny…but at least there’s cheese steaks. You can follow her on Twitter at @LaneBlackmer.
