It happened again. Your so-called friends just posted a picture of you partying at homecoming. It was taken several hours after the game, your hair is messy, one of your eyes is closed and there is some unidentifiable stain on your favorite shirt. Sure, the picture is hilarious, but what will future employers think?
This year, a team of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville speech communication seniors is spreading the word about Bonfyre, a new social media app. They want their fellow Cougars to never worry about those embarrassing photos and regrettable social media posts.
Bonfyre is a social media company based in St. Louis with offices in Chicago and New York City. It was founded by two Washington University in St. Louis graduates who recognized the challenges and limitations of social media when it came to group organization and user privacy.
“Bonfyre has always been focused on building a smarter platform to capture and share life’s moments with the people that matter,” remarked Ray Gobberg, Bonfyre co-founder.
Essentially, the app organizes people around events and experiences where the user can post content and media to specific groups and no one else. The user can start a group, or Bonfyre, specifically for a specific circle such as peers from a class or colleagues at work. The user then posts content related to only those groups that only those in the group can view.
This means grandma and others in her group only get to see the wholesome, homecoming pictures that you give her. Meanwhile, your friends get to see the rough, Denny’s at 3 a.m., don’t-look-at-me-I’m-hideous photos.
The company launched a year ago this month at the DEMO tech conference as a check-in app for local college students. From there, the app was tweaked and reworked into its current form. Relying solely on word-of-mouth advertising, Bonfyre has found early success.
While the app has dramatically changed from its original version, it still maintains ties with its early market—college students. Bonfyre already has ties to SIUE by employing many of its alumni. This year, Bonfyre is eager to share the app with the student body.
Bonfyre has teamed up with seniors from the SIUE Department of Speech Communication in the College of Arts and Sciences to help draft a public relations campaign targeted at the University in spring 2014.
Alexa Hillery, SIUE student body president and copywriter for Ignite PR, the student team working with Bonfyre, said several big things are planned.
“Bonfyre is known most often as a party app, and we intend to take full advantage of that,” Hillery said.
The team plans to lead training sessions for SIUE event planners and faculty to share ideas on how to effectively use the app at SIUE events and in the classroom. They also plan to host contests, distribute prizes and pass out free stuff at University events to encourage students to download the free app.
Hopefully after this year, students will know more about Bonfyre and begin to use the app daily. Most importantly by using Bonfyre to keep their personal, professional and school lives separate, students will stop shocking grandma and giving the wrong impression to employers, and might finally be able to run a successful campaign for New York City’s next mayor without the unnecessary faux pas.
For more information, contact Taylor Zimmerman at (615) 290-4347 or tzimmerman92@gmail.com.