How can railways make best use of social networking?

If the message you're trying to send is going to be 'asking for money', which all marketing essentially is, but depending on the cause and what you want to do, then direct letters to key influencers and supporters probably would be the best approach - take the example of the Vulcan to the Sky trust with XH558 - they are constantly sending marketing emails to sponsor parts of the plane and raise cash.

I think the angle that railways need to use is different - they want long-term customers. Attracting them when they are younger, attracting kids and their parents I'm sure is the ultimate goal to increase return visits, purchases in the shop, meals in the restaurants / cafes, etc. The marketing approach, and this would apply to social channels, or general, needs to be 'come and see us, we're here, its a great day out, etc, etc' - rather than 'we need support, give us any money you can'. Theres so many charity ads, good cause tv commericals, people in high streets with clipboards fighting over the majority of people's disposable income - deciding how they spend that can be quite tricky - but selling heritage lines as great days out for the family, posters with happy smiley families, relevant tweets and Facebook posts would tap into an area of marketing without requiring much spend. Measuring the response is easily accomplished in the form of competitions, offer codes for admission, or things like free slice of cake in the cafe.How many times have you bought something to get the freebie? I'm sure we've all done it Tesco when its buy one get one free on something you wouldn't normally buy.

 

In media getting the information out there is important, however people choose what they read and where. Which is why you need either scattergun your media... Or be very certain your selected media goes right to your target audience.

A bit like having a wife, a mother and a lover, you keep something's separate.

I have no one from the forum, the preservation industry etc etc in my Facebook and twitter, nor anyone from work.
i keep complete dividing lines here betweeen personal, hobby and social lives.
For that reason I get almost zero twitter / Facebook info for my hobby and not so many texts either.

Work has no input on my social life, people from within the hobby have no access to my friends etc.. but if twitter or Facebook was the sole medium for promoting a hobby event, I would miss it.

I doubt I am alone in doing this.

I would say both Richards and tbirdfrank are both correct, to me it, depends on the target audience. However service management best practice suggests there should be one central information point, but it doesn't say there can't be multiple methods of advertising.. Just that it should ultimately guide the recipient to that information point for further details and that information point should be maintained and current and be the focal point to providing that service.

If someone wants to get a message out there, it needs to be in the recipients language, if you start talking technical about driving an 8f to a girl in her 20's thinking of buying her dad a footplate ride she won't get it. If you just stated " steam train driving" with a link to a website...you'd find a wider audience to that particular recipient with a channel to buying that service.

 

The GWSR is also working on a Facebook page - Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Official site | Facebook
Let us know what you think of it and any ways we can improve it.
Thanks

 

And there's also the oldest social network of them all -- word of mouth. Very recently I told some friends about the SVR gala, and showed them a few photos I'd taken during the day (little more than snapshots; you're not missing much) and there were several comments suggesting an interest in coming to see the place for themselves. Admittedly the photo they liked most was of Bittern, but more permanent SVR fixtures also piqued interest, Arley station most of all. Word of mouth is powerful stuff -- though that applies equally to negative word of mouth -- and shouldn't be neglected.

On another point, perhaps one reason some organisations are reluctant to make use of social networks is that they inevitably result in some loss of "corporate control". A railway has the power to decide what does and does not appear on its website -- but if its Twitter feed includes something silly/evasive/unhelpful, and if that then gets picked up, it can be all over the place in no time -- probably along with caustic comments by the dozen, drowning out the "official line". Some may suggest that this is a good thing; some may not; but it's very different from the traditional "top-down" newsletter/website approach.