Maybe I should change the name of this site to PingSerendipity. Yes, two blogs in a row are about those weird little coincidences in life.
A little set up first:
To promote the PingWi-Fi brand, I started a thing a few years ago where I send out little blurbs called HisTweets on Twitter. The HisTweets are little factoids on “this day in history” with a little PingFlava added, and usually a side order of YouTube video regarding that event in history.
Here are a few examples of some historically significant HisTweets we sent, and the accompanying links.
- Histweet> This day, 1940, 200 people died in a dance-hall fire in Natchez, Miss. Natchez Fire
- Happy Queen Mum Day! Queen Elizabeth II is 87. Queen Mum Is Fun … #GirlsWantToHaveFun montage.
- Histweet> This day, 1902, financier Cecil #Rhodes left $10M for scholarships at Oxford. Here’s a recipient. Favorite Rhodes Scholar
We also do dedications from time to time for celebrity birthdays or milestones in Rock ‘n’ Roll. Here are a few tweet examples, from our last PingFloyd Day to commemorate Pink Floyd, of course:
- PingFLOYD Day concludes with the second coolest concert idea ever – Live at Pompeii Floyd Among The Ruins #PinkFloyd #PingWiFi
- Sweet acoustic version of our favorite Gilmour/Floyd as PingFLOYD Day continues on the ping … Wish You Were Here #unplugged
- Time to get your Floyd on … PingFloyd Day continues to honor Mr. Gilmour’s BDay! More Floyd
- David Gilmour of Pink Floyd is 67, so, we bring you PingFLOYD Day! Rock on you crazy diamonds! Crazy Diamond #PinkFloyd #SXSW
What does any of this have to do with Wi-Fi? Well not much. Like I was saying it is a brand building strategy with social media. And of course on seemingly rare occasions — those day when we do write about Wi-Fi — there is usually some music or entertainment involved. So … “works for me.”
All that being said. Here was the most recent Serendipity ping thing. As I tweeted the events of the day, on April 21, it was the birthdate of the infamous Red Baron of Germany. You probably know, he was Baron von Richthofen, and he was a deadly flying ace, credited with winning 80 air battles in WWI.
As I was tweeting — but before I mentioned the flying ace — I received an e-mail. I had a new follower on Twitter, totally, absolutely unrelated to anything I was doing at the time.
I am a curious sort so I opened the e-mail and looked at the profile of the new follower. It was some travel writer/tech guru from Germany. I had never heard of his hometown before — Kiel — but it caught my eye. (My ex once sold makeup in retail, and one of the brands was Kiehl’s.) So, like I said, it caught my eye.
The HisTweets continued … Then I had this idea. A few days ago on the Web, I had seen that there was also a German flying ace (WWII) named Pingel … Rolf Pingel.
So, in the Red Baron tweet, I also fired off about Rolf Pingel, with a link to his Wikipedia information. (I think it is cool, even though we American Pingels fought on the winning side in WWI …)
Histweet> This day, 1918, Baron von Richthofen, German “Red Baron,” killed in WW I. But Rolf Pingel lived on – Uncle Rolfie
Here’s the punchline. Guess where flying Ace Rolf Pingel was born.
Kiel Germany. (Had you heard of Kiel Germany before?)
Originally, I discovered Uncle Rolfie a while back, doing the old Google search of “Pingel.” Interesting … in WWII, the Germans issued collectors cards for the flying aces, almost like our baseball cards.
Anyone want to trade a 1945 Rolf Pingel rookie card?
Man I like this kinda stuff. And, if you do too and want more PingTweets, do follow: Ping On Twitter
Know what I sayin?
