3 Tier Effort to Increase Social Media Engagement

Target Audience: Residents who may be intimidated by the learning curve to ride public transit for the first time (#ride101). Residents / passengers who may utilize public transit to get to special events along routes they are unfamiliar with (#getthere). Residents / passengers interested in learning about routes they may not regularly use (#ridenow).

Strategy Objective:To reach residents who may be intimidated by the learning curve to ride public transit for the first time and ease their concerns. (#ride101). To inform residents / passengers to utilize public transit to get to special events along routes they are unfamiliar with (#getthere). To inform residents / passengers about routes they may not regularly use (#ridenow). All in an effort to increase ridership.

Situation Challenge: The largest challenge for this effort was to get the message in front of the public. Up to this point regular Social Media posts were not organized and serialized. This 3 tiered effort laid a foundation of support and momentum that we capitalized on once we began coupling this with our larger MyTARC fare card campaign.

Results Impact: The result of this campaign was largely increased ridership and engagement online, and more public awareness to how to ride public transit, where public transit goes by tapping into local special events and encouraging existing passengers and the general public to expand the routes they may utilize.

Why Submit: We're submitting this entry because of the novelty of the idea and the optimistic engagement we've received from our community. Prior to the launch of the MyTARC social media campaign this was one of the most successful social media efforts we've had to date. Highlighting special events for each week and the route to get you there (#getthere) was very well received. Passengers also loved to hear interesting information about routes they travel everyday (#ridenow), and we even encourage-beyond the public-more employees from TARC to ride who had to date not done so (#ride101).