Company Use of Social Networking Sites

Just something I thought of on the digression on the SWT Lymington thread (I refuse to give that name another mention!) about Twitter, and thought I would start a new thread for it rather than drag another way off course.

I was wondering what peoples thoughts are on companies (namely in our case, rail) using social networking sites to pass on information?

There are the likes of London Midland who actively use Twitter to provide information on disruption and it seems a quick and relatively easy way of getting information to the public while in a way also giving a personal service.

I am "signed up" to the NRE Disruption Facebook page and whilst I am sure there are those who would say they can't run trains so how can they have time for Facebook etc etc, I have to say I have found the service extremely useful on occasion. Mostly when out on the move, my phone is only a WAP service so I can't get much info from the NR site. The feed to my Facebook provides me with a quick and easy way to get updates on disruptions without having to wade through a load of stuff that isn't relevant and by going to their page directly just get an update of the network and any problems.

It was also good to see that in the recent disruption in Scotland (a time where the Facebook page really came into its own for me as I was stuck in the middle of it) that whilst people were posting questions, NR actually were responding to them (although most disruption info I think is probably automated, someone does actually monitor it)...+1 service for sure

Those companies who actually use Twitter (LM, Chiltern, Northern - they actually follow me too!, FCC etc.) and talk to their customers gain no end of positive feedback from it.. fire off a tweet and you'll get a near immediate response viewable by the whole world, compared to sending an email and having to wait for days it's brilliant.

But why should they be forced to sign up to twitter to get that information?

Surely this should be freely available to everyone regardless of whether they are able to spend money on a smart phone and data plan?

Isn't it called "station managers"?

j0hn0 said:

But why should they be forced to sign up to twitter to get that information?

Surely this should be freely available to everyone regardless of whether they are able to spend money on a smart phone and data plan?

Isn't it called "station managers"?

Click to expand...

Twitter will reach all those people who have yet to set out though which a station master cannot do. It comes down to effort really. Social networking is negligible in terms of effort compared to the benefits it reaps.
If I see LM disruption and that my (hypothetical) ticket for today will be valid tomorrow then I'll stay at home and get a cuppa while deciding whether to get a refund or travel the next day.

Keeping people away from the station will make the station manager's life slightly easier and enables him/her to give a better service to those who are at the station already

In general I like the idea of companies using social networks (I refuse to join twitter though) as it gives people more information which makes the station less stressful. However, there should not be any special deals available only through social networking which cannot be obtained at a station.

The Fact Compiler is keeping a list of those railway companies who use Twitter:

http://twitter.com/#!/TheFactCompiler/tocs-that-do-twitter/members

I think Twitter is a great and wonderful tool, last night when there was disruption due to a trespasser on the Hertford Loop there was practically no service at all for well over a hour.

Twitter would have helped as it would have kept the passengers affected aware of what was happening, obviously it would have depended on someone actually providing the tweets but it would have been one way to get the information out and be shown to actually doing something.

Twitter is great for updates on the railway.

And you don't need a smart phone - I have tweets texted to me!

I always have the operators I'm using texting me updates when I'm out.

I wonder what percentage of the rail travelling public subscribe to Twitter.

Unofficial, or semi-official, but this guy http://twitter.com/#!/amonkster who works for c2c provides an excellent service, well beyond office hours, and giving a level of detail (that is useful to passengers) that to my knowledge is quite unmatched by the official company accounts of other operators.
e.g. one from tonight
http://twitter.com/#!/AMonkster/status/76324117460160512

Mojo said:

The Fact Compiler is keeping a list of those railway companies who use Twitter:

http://twitter.com/#!/TheFactCompiler/tocs-that-do-twitter/members

Click to expand...

Sorry, Mojo, when I first saw this post, I thought you said The Fat Controller!
I must not speed scan too much.

Why do the Americans call this "TWIDDA" ?

I quite like Virgin's Facebook page as they post interesting stuff on there and they have staff on there that will respond to anything during certain hours.

Facebook Page

They answer all questions, including one rather odd one about how much alcohol passengers receive in First Class.