1. A Day In The Life Steve Gladstone Director
Digital Marketing and Content

2. About MDOT MTA
The Maryland Transit Administration is a division of the Maryland Department of Transportation and one of the largest multi-modal transit systems in the country, centralized around Baltimore City
Operate local bus service, commuter bus, light rail, metro subway, commuter train (MARC), and a comprehensive paratransit system
Also manage locally operated transit systems (LOTS) across Maryland’s 23 counties, Baltimore City, and city of Annapolis

3. About MDOT MTA
The Maryland Transit Administration is a division of the Maryland Department of Transportation and one of the largest multi-modal transit systems in the country
Operate local bus service, commuter bus, light rail, metro subway, commuter train (MARC), and a comprehensive paratransit system
Also manage locally operated transit systems (LOTS) across Maryland’s 23 counties, Baltimore City, and city of Annapolis
Serve almost 400,000 weekly across all modes, 50%+ on local bus service alone

4. Digital Presence Facebook and Twitter: the big two
LinkedIn and Instagram: desire to grow both platforms in 2018
YouTube: for storage/archival purposes
Tried others, but they ultimately don’t make sense for us
FB has over 43,000 likes and followers, Twitter has 34,000 followers.
Each platform has a different purpose and audience. Facebook is mainly local service riders: bus, metro, and light rail. Twitter is bar far MARC train and Commuter Bus riders
Goal is to have 2-3 posts per day on FB and Twitter, but flexibility to have more or less. This doesn’t include alerts and advisories that get tweeted out.

5. The Players
Office of Communications & Marketing (OCM) – regular content updates
Operations Control Center (OCC) – alerts, advisories, and diversion information
MARC and Commuter Bus – alerts, advisories, and timely news not covered by OCM
OCM has three people contributing to social media, with myself overseeing; OCC has 2-3 people responsible for posting advisory info; MARC and Commuter Bus have one person posting advisories. No one at MTA is solely responsible for social media, believe it or not.
Twitter is our platform for posting alerts and advisories in a timely fashion, hence why OCC and MARC/Commuter Bus have access to post updates there. As can be seen, MARC train might have 30+ advisories on a really bad day. For example, in late January, there was a disabled freight train on one line and a broken signal on another line, creating major problems for our morning rail commuters. We do not post those kind of constant advisory updates on Facebook or any other platform.

6. The Day
Content – what do we have to post if we haven’t scheduled anything?
Our day is similar to everyone else’s day. What do we post? Where does the content come from? Do we have a story on hand? When it comes to content outside of advisories such as a bus diversions or train delays, we try to focus on content that our riders need to be aware of, content they might enjoy (such as events), and our own employees. We love our team and want to support and show them off whenever we can.
Key piece to the day is determining what content to boost. Boosting content is critical for reach and, thus, engagement. Without boosting, our average reach per post is roughly 3-4,000 people, but with boosting we’ll hit from 10-30,000 people in a single day. That’s crucial when we need to get the word out about service changes, upcoming public workshops, or long term system closures. More on that in a few.
Focus on system changes, public meetings, local events, new programs, special occasions (holidays), recruitment, and our own employees
Have at least one boosted post per day

7. Analysis: Why ROI Matters
Social Daily Summary – look at reach, engagement, boost performance, and comments on our main social media platforms
Monthly Digital Report – compile all digital metrics for website and social media content to determine what works and “why” it works
Once you know what to boost, you then have to figure out how to boost it. Reach is our ability to convey our message. In this chart, we didn’t start regular paid promotion of content until June 2017 with the launch of our redesigned bus network, BaltimoreLink. As you can see, average reach per post prior to that was less than half of other months the rest of the year (January was an exception due to snowstorms).
When I put together summaries each day and month, I look at what we spend and what the effect was. I pay attention to the time of day, the type of content, what kind of image is used, if it was a video how long did people watch, what our targeted geographic audience is, how do differing intro lengths affect video views, etc. All these variables matter when it comes to ROI. In order for us to be as efficient as possible, we have to figure out what does and doesn’t work, and that’s where Facebook and Twitter insights come into play.

8. Analysis: Why ROI Matters
Twitter analytics and Facebook Insights are the ROI compass. Even though we only boost Facebook posts, seeing how things perform on Twitter also helps. What we’ve done since last summer and continue to do is test spending levels and times for posting, as well as what content to post when. The results have allowed us to spend less and achieve similar results. Last summer we would spend $ / day on boosting with an organic reach of 1-2,000 people per post; these days we spend $35-85 / day on boosting and have an organic reach of 3-4,000 people per post- due to audience growth and the timing/targeting of post content. Just remember that as your audience grows, the most effective way to reach them will change, hence why analysis and revision must happen on a regular basis.

9. Analysis: Why ROI Matters
Here’s an example of applying analysis to everyday content. MDOT MTA will shoot video like most everyone here. But the chart shows few people are sticking around. Why? Are videos too long? Do people not like the content? Do they need more puppies? We wanted to get to the bottom of this.
Facebook put out some video recommendations and part of that related to phone orientation and aspect ratios. Most of us think 1920x1080 is a great video resolution- 1080p HD. That’s what people use for YouTube. However, Facebook finds that almost no one will turn their phone horizontally to consume content, preferring the one-handed scroll. As such, that beautiful 16x9 video will look really small and skinny in the Facebook feed. When you change the aspect ratio, Facebook displays more of the video. This will bring at least a 3-9% bump in video views. Depending on your content, it can be very worthwhile to render something in multiple ratios or shoot it vertically to begin with.

10. When ROI Meets Crisis
On February 8, MDOT MTA shut down its entire metro subway network for emergency repairs beginning the very next day (Feb 9).
Communication Blitz Begins: around 10:30pm, a press release, Facebook post, and tweet go out near simultaneously. By 10:40pm, every news outlet has retweeted even though the late night news cycle was missed.
By February 9 at 5am, over 30,000 targeted people around our system have seen, retweeted, and shared the message. Total budget spent: $35.
What about a more extreme example? Almost two weeks ago, MDOT MTA announced the shutdown of its entire metro system for emergency repairs with less than 8 hours until commuters would start riding to work in the morning. We needed some serious communication to folks. Thanks in part to our audience building efforts and targeting experiments, we were able to effectively reach our riders on social media. News and radio played a major role as well, as did our website enotifications, but the levels of reach and engagement- especially in getting word to the press in the first place- over such a short timeframe shows analysis allows us to better target and inform riders.

11. When ROI Meets Crisis
February 11 around 2:40pm: MDOT MTA announces the entire metro subway system will remain closed for up to four weeks, through March 11, for emergency repairs.
Simultaneously, a bus bridge is announced to carry people between all metro stations beginning Monday, February 12.
By February 12 at 4:00am, over 200,000 people have been reached through social media. Total budget spent: $85
As the weekend rolls on, the announcement is made that the metro shutdown will last for up to four weeks. However, a bus bridge will be provided to riders free of charge to get them between subway stations. Thankfully the Eagles had already won the Super Bowl, so we were able to begin pushing content on Facebook and Twitter about the shutdown and bus bridge without having to compete with NFL-related messages. Targeted boosting takes place and riders are reached en masse. It’s worth noting that these were some of the most shared posts in MDOT MTA history and that only one post has ever reached more people or had more engagement than that one on February 11 at 2:40pm.

12. When ROI Meets Crisis
Week of February 12: MDOT MTA addresses bus bridge and other issues riders have across the network. New maps are created to guide riders to the appropriate locations. Tweets and posts go out every single day reiterating bus bridge information and other alternative transit options via our local bus services.
Things gradually return to “normal.” By that first Friday, our social media audience has returned to complaining about regular bus service and MARC train delays instead of metro and bus bridge issues.

13. When ROI Meets Crisis In total for the first week…. 27 tweets
119,000+ impressions on Twitter
13 posts
323,000+ people reached
32,207 post engagements
Over 3,000 shares
Budget spent: ~$500
Of that $500 spent, the majority came in the second half of the week when we wanted to continue reaching large portions of our ridership. Two weeks after the initial announcement, we still field questions daily regarding shuttle locations, times, pass replenishment, etc. So when we come back to that first question of “what do I post?” the answer invariably lies in what the customer needs to be aware of and what the best method of reaching them is.

14. At the end of the day…
Our job is to make sure our customers can get to the places they need to go and to communicate anything that might prevent them from doing that in a timely fashion. The day begins and ends with that. As the world moves to an increasingly digital lifestyle, we have the tools to raise awareness in an instant. Maximize that gift and use it responsibly. Learning how to best reach your riders is paramount to public transit. Because if they don’t know, they can’t go. And once you’ve done that…. focus on the puppies and happy trees 
Your moment of social media zen :)