Social Media Marketing Relate Update Educate Social media marketing is the factor that is redefining marketing in the 21st century. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Four Square, you name it. It’s everywhere. In my 10-15 minutes this morning, I will show you three ways that you can use social media to expand your relationship with your transit customers. Remember these three words...relate, update and educate. Selena Barlow Transit Marketing Consultant

RELATE

RELATE: Social media is all about people relating to each other and in your case relating to your customers…having a conversation with them. And Facebook is the place that the most people “relate.” [SLIDE] About 8.5 million people use Facebook....it is one of every 5 page views on the internet. For a transit system it provides a mechanism to relate to and interact with their customers that we’ve never had before. But the key to using Facebook effectively is the word interactive. Facebook needs to be a two-way conversation with your riders…a place to give them timely information, but also an opportunity for them to give you feedback and you to respond.

So Facebook to relate. How many of you have facebook pages for your transit agencies? First you set up a personal page. And then from there you can set up a company page. [SLIDE] You can post updates, photos and even videos. Then invite your customers to join you there with on-board posters, the facebook symbol in your ads or a link from your website. It’s really pretty easy. Let’s face it, if the average preteen can set up and maintain a facebook page, you can! And it’s FREE.

And sure you’re going to get some negative feedback on your facebook page. People are going to tell you what they don’t like about you as well as what they do like. But that gives you the chance to response and correct misperceptions or the chance to fix things that actually need fixing.

UPDATE

300 million registered users now More than 300 million registered users now UPDATE: [SLIDE] When it comes to keeping your customers updated, Twitter, with more than 300 million registered users, is the primo tool. Bus running late on Rt. 4…send a tweet. Schedule change going into effect tomorrow – tweet a timely reminder. Twitter is a mico-blog site that allows you to send messages of up to 140 characters. Passengers who “follow” you on Twitter can have these messages come directly to their cell phone. So if you tweet that Rt. 4 is running 30 minutes late because of an accident and I’m waiting at the bus stop for Rt. 4, I know it’s safe to go for a cup of coffee. And my stress level goes way down. Access with mobile phones

[SLIDE] Here is an example of some tweets for Mountain Line [SLIDE] Here is an example of some tweets for Mountain Line. They were much more interesting this winter when they were dealing with severe weather.

You can also provide updates by letting riders sign up on your website to receive email or text alerts. But then you have to capture the email or cell phone numbers and administer sending the alerts. When you use Twitter, they take care of all the administration. And it’s FREE.

EDUCATE EDUCATE: The third way that social media can help you market transit is by educating people about how transit works and what it has to offer. Using public transit takes some learning and the fear of looking stupid is often a barrier that keeps people from trying it. Google Transit is one great way to accellerate the learning curve for transit by letting people plan their trips using a familiar trip planner.

On-line videos – like those on YouTube – are a great education tool On-line videos – like those on YouTube – are a great education tool. To give you an idea of how popular on-line videos are , YouTube is the second most used search engine…second only to Google. And has over half a billion users worldwide…maybe a few less in your town.

Making On-Line Videos FREE FREE talent <$200 You get the gist. And you don’t need expensive production equipment. [SLIDE] A little digital camera or camcorder will take videos that are just fine for posting on line. You can edit your movies with Windows Movie Maker – something that’s free as part of windows. And your friends and coworkers can provide free talent. FREE talent <$200

Relate Update Educate

Where to learn more… blog.hubspot.com mashable.com socialmediagovernance.com The New Rules of Marketing & PR David Meerman Scott Facebook Group - How to: Your Guide to Social Media Befriend a teenager… There are lots of resources for learning more…and believe me with social media everyday is a learning experience. So rememeber, use social media to RELATE, UPDATE and EDUCATE.   And have fun.

Social Media Marketing Relate Update Educate Selena Barlow Transit Marketing Consultant