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chapter five
Case Examples
Introduction and uses them accordingly. Twitter is best for immediate
customer communication and service updates. Facebook is
The survey results provided an excellent overview of the use of better suited for affinity relationships, brand building, and
social media among transit agencies, including goals, benefits, creating community. YouTube allows BART to tell stories
challenges, and resource requirements. Following a review of and to illustrate concepts that cannot easily be conveyed
the survey results, six agencies were selected as case example with the written word. BART uses its blog for what it calls
sites. The case examples are intended to explore issues raised "medium-format" communications that are too long to be
in the survey in more depth and to provide additional details summarized in a Facebook or Twitter post. LinkedIn is used
on successful practices, challenges, and lessons learned. They for job listings, but otherwise is not part of BART's social
represent transit agencies of different sizes in different parts media strategy. BART also uses its social media channels
of the United States and Canada, both early adopters of and to push users to the agency's website, which BART considers
newcomers to social media, and agencies using different social the primary source of "serious nuts and bolts information,"
media strategies. The six participants are: including service updates, fare information, and public meeting
notices.
· Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)--San Francisco,
California
· Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART)--Dallas, Texas Agency Considerations
· Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority
(LANTA)--Allentown, Pennsylvania In the survey, BART indicated that communications with
· Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)-- current riders and providing general service information were
New York, New York the agency's most important goals and that social media were
· Mountain Line--Morgantown, West Virginia "very effective" in achieving those goals. Also important for
· TransLink--Vancouver, British Columbia. BART is the ability to bypass traditional media outlets and
to communicate directly with customers. Another priority for
Interviews were conducted by telephone with one or BART is to make the agency "more approachable." Agency
more representatives from each agency and are summarized research has shown that when BART carried its first passen-
here. In some cases, information is also presented from the gers in the 1970s, locals considered the project a marvel of
agency's survey responses. The introduction to each case technology. But after decades of familiarity, residents have
example includes a basic description of the system, with data come to treat BART as a utility. The agency is working to
taken from fiscal year (FY) 2009 National Transit Database change this perception and to reposition itself as a regional
reports or another official source. mobility partner.
Overall, BART estimates that social media account for
only about 6% of the impressions generated through electronic
Bay Area Rapid Transit
media. For this reason, BART has worked to create as many
channels of communication as possible.
BART provides heavy-rail transit service in the greater San
FranciscoOakland metropolitan area, serving 93 square
Customers expect to interact with BART in the social
miles with a population of 834,000. In 2009, BART provided
space, so employees work to find the balance between cus-
114.7 million unlinked passenger trips.
tomer expectations and resource limitations. Live Twitter
updates are available during regular business hours and the
Social Media Overview occasional special event or emergency. Train status and other
alerts are available through the agency's official update
Agency staff reports that BART uses the following social channels at all times; BART does not rely on social media for
media platforms: agency blog (see Figure 9), Facebook, these core services. When marketing staffers sign off from
Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, and Foursquare. The Twitter, they provide followers with direct links to these auto-
agency sees different advantages for each of these channels mated updates. Thanks to these clearly defined boundaries,
