Making the business case for social media in Transit Presented by: Brandy Jones, APR External Affairs Manager, SORTA @mrsbrandyjones Hi, I’m Brandy Jones, External Affairs Manager with the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority in Cincinnati In this role I am responsible for PR, web management, social meeting and community engagement

Social media is changing the world your customers & employees are always connected, sharing & aware I suspect, most if not all of you are responsible in some way for the creation or monitoring of your agencies So you are certainly aware of the need and importance of your agency having a presence on social media. Quite simply put: Your riders are on social media –those who want to engage with you – you should too! But, this also creates a challenge if you don’t have the necessary buy-in, budget and tools to be successful. I’d like to quickly share some tips to help you successfully make the business case for investing in social media

Benefits Enhances brand awareness Social listening Two-way communication Engages fans & advocates Helps mitigate & avoid PR crisis Informs, educates and entertains customers The benefits social media brings to your agency when done correctly are plenty. Here’s a few: MEASURABLE

Costs of doing business Monitoring & Analysis Content creation Promotions & budget Staff engagement Senior management commitment There’s also some costs involved in both time and budget Social media is less expensive than traditional marketing efforts, compared to billboards, TV and radio spots – but it’s NOT FREE But, you do get more bang for your buck and are able to target specific demographics

For best results measure ROI… For most businesses, it comes down to $$$ What is the return on investment? It’s our job to set clear and realistic goals, tie these to strategic plans and initiatives and measure them! This is one of your biggest selling points Be sure to track conversion rates and clicks back to your website, campaigns and ect. – you can do this FREE through google analytics

Tie your content into your strategic goals: Example: Metro needed to hire 25 operator quickly. Created campaign with testimonials from current drivers, video and included a link to the hiring page. This earned us (conversions or clicks to our website) – a direct and measurable result of our social media activity

Measure: Reach/exposure Engagements Audience Conversion rates You can easily measure the following Facebook and Twitter offer free analytics Many companies like Meltwater, Synthesio and others that allow you to measure: Sentiment/tone of posts Identify influencers An recommend best times to post and content ideas based on your audience’s interactions

Narrate your agency’s story Media look to social media for agency news and responses on trending topics Links to news releases & articles about Metro Info about special events, promotions and projects Amplify organizational news and agency’s strategic goals Another selling point, is that you get to narrate your own story. Have a new campaign, fare media or Metro’s case – trying to educate the community about your current budget challenges? Don’t depend on the media or people to just somehow get to your website – bring it to them. Twitter is the social webs news breaker: 9 out of 10 people on Twitter use it to get news (Source: Twitter)

Social listening Listen…Analyze…Improve Customer service: Listen to what customers are saying about our brand; use feedback to improve. Media relations: Monitor reporters content, see what they’re talking about and how you fit into the story.

Your customers are online sharing their experiences, good, bad or indifferent. Whether you’re there or not. At Metro we utilized social listening when we begun to receive service complaints We

So you have a

Potential results: Develop loyal fan base on social media Increase ridership by changing perception Support organizational goals Social becomes a critical part of communication/ marketing efforts

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