A regular commentary on the practice of communicating about the transportation industry
It was a little more than a year ago that I wrote about an innovative transportation safety awareness campaign, the Driving Dead Series, that was being launched by the Illinois Department of Transportation.
It seemed strange to feature zombies in a safety campaign, but with literally millions of views in the last year, the people behind the campaign must have known what they were doing.
Continue reading “Using the Un-Dead to Save the Living: Driving Dead Series Hits Its Target”
Twitter and Facebook mostly likely get most of you team’s attention, while Instagram’s massive growth — especially with younger drivers and commuters — should probably push its way into your communication strategy.
But when was the last time you really thought about how well you are managing your email lists? Do you know your typical open rate on email newsletters or other email campaigns? Continue reading “Talking email: Social gets the headlines, email gets the eyeballs”
The fifth annual state department of transportation social media survey results were released last month at the annual meeting of TransComm, the AASHTO Subcommittee on Transportation Communications.
(Editor’s note: Full disclosure, I work at AASHTO and oversee the annual survey of state DOTs. Much of the discussion below comes from observations while reviewing raw survey data.)
The survey, started in 2009, confirms what we all probably already suspect. State DOTs are heavily invested in social media outreach both in the operations and public involvement areas. The 2014 survey confirms that not only are the state DOTs utilizing social media tools, many are doing so at a very sophisticated level.
Continue reading “Annual Survey Shows States Still Driving Toward Greater Social Media Usage”
The Illinois Department of Transportation has tackled an ambitious campaign to eliminate traffic fatalities and it doesn’t look like any other highway safety campaign I’ve ever seen.
The new Driving Dead Series will feature Michael Rooker from the TV series Walking Dead and “involves a cast of central characters living in a Zombie-filled, post-apocalyptic world,” according to an Illinois DOT new release.
The novel approach to build an online campaign focused on a specific audience of younger adults who, according to research, are more likely to get behind the wheel after drinking or drugging.
“Far too many people still mix alcohol, drugs and driving. Young people, in particular, often don’t understand that impaired driving is a crime, and a serious one — and they also are less likely to buckle up,” said Acting Transportation Secretary Erica Borggren. “These same young people ages 21-34 no longer receive news through traditional means. We’re hopeful this new series will catch their attention and give them a reason to log on or check their mobile devices. When they do, they’ll be entertained — and most importantly, they’ll receive a life-saving message.”
Continue reading “Illinois DOT Launches Innovative ‘Driving Dead’ Traffic Safety Campaign”
There is little doubt that the proliferation and variety of mobile devices is influencing the ways in which people seek and consume information.
The trends and behaviors are becoming so obvious that major media organizations like the New York Times are customizing their content based on the type of device that is used to access the information. We’re not talking about simply making content accessible across platforms, but rather altering and customizing the content itself to fit the prevalent media consumption behaviors of each type of mobile device.
For example, the Ottawa Citizen this week announced that it would publish unique content on four different media platforms – news print, online, tablet and smartphone.
Continue reading “Changing expectations: Mobile devices are shifting information preferences”
It’s cold out there and the Maryland State Highway Administration — like most highway and transportation agencies around the country — has plenty of tips and suggestions to help people travel safely during difficult weather events. But it is where and how SHA is posting its information that is rather interesting.
Maryland’s highway agency is using a combination of SoundCloud, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to tightly integrate its safety messaging. Continue reading “Brrr! Audio, video social media tools help Maryland’s SHA share the latest road information”
Social media as an accepted stand-alone public relations practice remains just a few years old, but for some reason I still find it easy to think that there is little new under the sun.
After all, if we break apart social media into their functional pieces the actual act of sharing information today is not much different from it was when the young PR industry was ruled by guys who walked newspaper newsrooms drumming up interest in their clients’ news. Continue reading “Linkedin: Quite possibly the most overlooked social media tool”
