GovernmentHow One Social Media Campaign Increased TransLink’s Brand Sentiment
The transit authority uses social listening to gain customer insights, engage with transit users, and even improve rider behavior Request a demo.
- 1,385%increase in social engagement
- 5%improvement in brand sentiment
- 7.5%increase in ridership
What they did
Every day, more than 500,000 people in British Columbia board a TransLink bus, ferry, or train for a safe, on-time commute. Recognized as one of the most innovative transportation companies in the world, TransLink uses social media to stay in constant contact with riders, the community, and stakeholders in government and regional planning entities.
Since 2013, TransLink has used social media to listen, learn, build partnerships, create awareness, and improve customer experiences. Here’s a look behind the scenes of this strategy.
Let's do this
Products used in this study
Using social listening to gain customer insights and spot new opportunities
In 2018, TransLink began using an integration between Hootsuite and social media intelligence platform Talkwalker to monitor, categorize, and analyze conversations about TransLink on social media. The three-person social media team uses this data to make the rider experience better, change people’s perceptions, and give people more transit options.
Social listening makes it possible to understand, respond to, and build upon what riders need. This capability amplifies riders’ stories and voices during policy negotiations and even legislation creation—and it also led to one of the most creative, impactful, and loved marketing campaigns that TransLink has ever run.Improving engagement with rich content and customer polls
Improving engagement with rich content and customer polls
To make it easier for their customer information teams to create attractive and engaging posts, TransLink set up a central content library of approved content they can use. As a result, teams are creating more image-rich tweets and interactive polls—and so far, this rich content has yielded an impressive 1,385 percent increase in social engagement.
Social listening also illuminated an opportunity to run an innovative campaign. As TransLink’s social media and digital content manager Robert Willis reports, when Visa approached TransLink as a partner to promote awareness around the transit line’s credit card and payment features functions, the TransLink team asked, “How do we make this fun and engaging?”
Launching a social campaign that improved brand sentiment—and rider etiquette
The Seth Rogen campaign helped TransLink improve brand sentiment, boost positive sentiment, and lower negative sentiment.
The story behind these stats is that rider etiquette also improved following the campaign, as reported by transit users on social media. With approximately 10 percent of TransLink’s communication inflow on social media being about rider etiquette, these changes demonstrate that a campaign that began on social media ended up having tangible results in the daily lives of TransLink’s users.
The results
With a powerful social listening platform in place and a just-wrapped social media campaign that made a measurable difference in the lives of its riders, TransLink is positioned to continue discovering new opportunities to connect with its audience—and to act on those opportunities.
Put social media to work in every corner of your business
Trusted by 22+ million users in 175+ countries for managing social media.
When some people complain, others come to defend us. That gives me a sense of pride in what we do. It shows that we have touched someone to the extent that they have taken time out of their days to do this.
Related Case Studies
Mapfre creates a united social media strategy to deliver a consistent brand voice across channels
Read the full storyFinancial Services
How the British Museum Increased Social Media Engagement by 126%
Read the full storyHospitality & Tourism
How SYKES Latin America used Hootsuite to reduce hiring costs and attract high-quality candidates on social
Read the full storyAgency