Today's Featured Instagram: @MTAHarlemLine

Great photos of the Metro North Harlem Line.  

The MTA Railroad Map.  

Metro-North Railroad has encountered a difficult year in safety; one accident on the New Haven Line in Fairfield this May, and another this week on the Hudson Line Sunday.

Commuter trains are still statistically safer than highways, and also more fuel efficient:  a rail car uses 2812 BTU per passenger mile, whereas a passenger vehicle will use 3538 BTU's (source: US Dept of Energy).  Recently, I discovered the public Instagram account of Emily, who rides the Harlem Line, and takes great pictures along the way. (The Harlem Line is east of the Hudson Line [map], which recently experienced the accident). I asked some questions about her experience using Metro North, and here's what she said.

Boost Your Local Endeavor with Social Media.

Let's say that you have a local endeavor.  There are a couple rules for what kinds of projects we are willing to work on.  There are a few fair regulations:

• Small Endeavor Booster.  Must be a locally owned and operated business.  In other words, Starbucks and Walmart need not apply, whereas Willoughby's or something similar is acceptable.  This is for local businesses only; no unwieldy chains or corporations, please.
• Share and share alike.  You can use the materials for your own volition, to promote your business on your own channels as well.  Blog posts are automatically tweeted by @nhvorg which has over 400 authentic local followers, and only follows verified local people.  
• In it to win it (for everyone).  Videos are produced by StereoMedia, our in-house video production company.  Stereomedia pairs up local artists with local businesses such as yours to get them work and to bring you more business.  

Nhv.Org received over 1500+ views this week.  99% of our viewers are in the United States, most likely in the downtown New Haven area, due to the fact that we don't conventionally "search engine optimize" and only employ the use of social media, word of mouth and sidewalk chalk to spread awareness of our existence.

And it's working great!

People come to this site, looking for new and interesting information online that they would otherwise not know about.  We want to make New Haven look cool and interesting to the outside world, and our Business Booster program is no exception.  All organic traffic!

We use high-powered photo/video equipment and software.

Browse this site for details!

You Have Access.

• Boost Your Local Endeavor With Social Media Marketing
  Make videos with the StereoMedia team!
• Post Pictures to Nhv.Org Using Instagram
  Any picture with #Nhv appears instantly!
• Post Info/Links to Nhv.Org Using Twitter
  Any tweet on Twitter with #Nhv appears instantly
• Post Events to the Calendar Using Google Calendar
  Any event on the calendar is tweeted via @nhvorg!
• Become A Contributing Author
  Write about the things you care about to increase public awareness.

New Insta-Feature.

This site is now integrating a new feature.  It now picks up any photo posted to Instagram with the hashtag #Nhv.  So if you are using Instagram, and you see something which is classic New Haven, it's easy to post directly to this site by using the hashtag #Nhv, because the picture is then presented automatically.  It's also a great way for local people to see what's going on in New Haven instantly.

You can find this feature now on the bottom left margin.  It will soon also be implemented into the mobile version of the site as well.

Features

Accessibility

• You can access the website in a format specially designed for your mobile phone.  [link]
• You can post text and photos simply by just tweeting #nhv (tweeting is like texting in public). 
• You can post your calendar events by following a few instructions. 

The website is formatted in Google Blogger, which is calibrated for iOs tablets, android OS smartphones, desktop computers.

It crowdsources information using the following tactics:

• Twitter embed list of #Nhv Tweets appear automatically
• Google calendar events can also be shared by the community to post

The idea stems from the concept of a community message board. 

It utilizes tags and excellent search features, which are characteristic of Google technology.  

This is the Twitter screen which allows me to embed the widget for #Nhv:

Post a Photo To The Site.

You can put a photo on this website with great ease, using Twitter.  Here is how:

If you tweet anything with the hash tag "#Nhv" your image should appear in the column to the left, in chronological order to when it was posted, compared to everything else.

Only editors and people with posting permissions can upload photos to "the wall."  You can get access by proving that you are a good writer who understands facts and information well.

Also want to mention that Greenwell at 44 Crown is actually Greenwell Coffee & Tea.
And the tea is also quite good.