The Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting is one of the most interesting gathering of transportation experts. Each year more than 11,000 people who work in, around and on transportation programs visit Washington DC for a nearly week-long exploration of all things transportation.
Of course, my interest points toward communications and this year specifically I enjoyed hearing from the winners of TRB’s sixth annual “Communicating with John and Jane Q Public” contest sponsored by the planning and environmental group. This year’s competition focused on efforts to engage the public in discussions about transportation finance and related policies.
What particularly struck me this year was that of the nine projects to earn recognition – five honorable mentions and four winners – almost all used some kind of gamification tool in their outreach programs. And, conversely, not one of the winners made social media the central core and focus of their campaigns.
On the surface, this might seem strange. After all, we see entire conferences dedicated to social media subjects like emerging tools, measurement, staffing, legal issues and archiving data.
But I think these winning projects are examples of how we can effectively execute in a post-social media world. Honoring these outreach campaigns for their overall approach and results – regardless of their social media usage – recognizes that there has been significant and widespread adoption of social media tools as standard content distribution channels.
It is no longer new or innovative to use Twitter to build an audience.Facebook is not the stand-alone, shiny new tool that rests by itself in our tool boxes. Social media are not the end of the line solutions to all our challenges.
As each of these campaigns shows, social media work best when they are implemented as part of an overall strategy that is complementary to other strategies and tactics – like mobile-accessible web pages, snappy writing, great visuals, solid messages and targeted audiences.
Oh, and did I mention gamification? It is an excellent way of engaging transportation communities because generally complicated tasks – such as balancing a state budget, or prioritizing community transportation values – are broken down into basic game rules. Game participants are asked to wrestle with the same limitations as their elected or appointed public representatives. The engagement and insight that comes from the game play is excellent input into public involvement plans and long-term visioning projects.
Here then are the 2012 TRB Communicating with John and Jane Q Public winners. Congratulations and continued success to each organization and the communities they serve.
Winners
Transportation Priorities: How Would You Invest?
Metropolitan Transportation Commission, San Francisco Bay Area
Be the City’s Budget Czar for a Day
San Francisco County Transportation Authority
Talking Trade-offs – Prioritizing Investments on Minnesota’s State Highways
Minnesota Department of Transportation
Regional Parking Initiative
Metropolitan Transportation Commission, San Francisco Bay Area
Honorable Mention
GreenCityStreets.com
Vienna Transportation Strategies
Legislative Briefing Documents
Florida Department of Transportation
Terminus: Transportation Planning in Game Form
Atlanta Regional Commission
Fast Forward. Move the Economy. Find a Solution with Transit
Indian Nations Council of Governments, Tulsa
Communicating Long-term Transportation Funding Issues
Texas A&M Transportation Institute
Good post. I am going through many of these issues as
well..