San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District Social Media Palooza APTA Marketing and Communications Workshop 2017
The BART System Heavy rail rapid transit system in the San Francisco, Bay Area 44 years in operation Service through 4 diverse counties 45 stations, 107 miles of track, 669 rail cars Subway, elevated, and at grade tracks and stations 430,000 trips each weekday (added 100,000 in 5 yrs alone) Voter elected Board of Directors Policed by our own PD
Frequently Used Social Media Platforms @sfbart 234K followers @sfbartalert 75.8 K followers @BARTSF 30K likes/followers BARTable 2016: 365,302 views 18 videos produced 4 months 16 tracks 11,000 downloads
Other Social Media Used to archive: Twitter townhalls Viral interactions Record breaking ridership days 3.3K followers 3 live broadcast 5.8K views Group themed pictures to boards and link to them
Social Media Staffing No “Social Media Manager” it’s a shared responsibility Customer Service: 1.25 FTE 9am-5pm Customer Service Reps responding to tweets (they only respond- they don’t tweet or retweet) Communications/Media Team: All 4 spokespeople are on Twitter/Facebook frequently, 2 others on team also post & retweet as appropriate. On-call spokesperson is expected to handle social during after hour emergencies.
What we are known for Having conversations Taking on Trolls Using social to plant media pitches Getting earned media based on social, headlines include: Wow—Finally Some Honesty From the Government With its back against the wall, BART tweets like a boss BART's twitter manager drops truth-bombs, world cheers BART and the LA Metro are in a weird transit-themed haiku battle BART Mocks Trump On Twitter To Raise Awareness About Bond Measure Called the “realest social media managers in public transportation”
Contact Me Alicia Trost Communications Dept. Manager Atrost@bart.gov 510-464-6154 @AliciaTrost Connect on Linkedin