BART Moves People: A Presentation from the 12/10 HyperEvent

Posted by Analisa, Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 5:46 pm, under Social Media Events.

On December 10th, HyperArts hosted guest speakers Melissa Jordan and Jeremy Smith (a summary of Jeremy’s presentation coming soon).

Here is the presentation that Melissa gave in power point form:

Melissa Jordan co-manages the website and social media efforts of BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). She tweets, blogs, reaches out and responds to fans and followers across multiple platforms. Her blogging software of choice: Posterous. Mobile app: Foursquare. Did you know that you could be the mayor of your neighborhood BART station?

Melissa talked about the challenges of working with social media as a government agency, and the cool new things that BART is doing with an open API, their Foursquare partnerships, and her use of discretion when repeating some of the things people say about BART online. We also learned that there IS indeed BART swag, at the BART store in Lake Merritt station! Presenter Jeremy Smith says he wants to buy a miniature BART train in order to deny entry to his miniature bicycle.

An interesting question came from guest Colin Sagan of Quilted.coop, who asked Melissa a question about social identity. He wondered if Melissa, who personally tweets under the @sfBART identity on Twitter, was creating an identity for BART (inextricably linked to her own personality) or if she attempts to remain an impartial vehicle for the voices of BART patrons.

Melissa replied that she tries to keep it objective, since employees may come and go from BART but the organization’s identity or “personality” should not change along with the people who manage it online. Yes, she might share a link to the SF Symphony or a coffee shop near the 16^th St station, but that’s not a personal recommendation. Nor is it favoritism. BART supports the arts and culture and local organizations so they try to recommend fun things to do near BART stops, making riding public transportation sound appealing and convenient. But Melissa doesn’t insert her own personal life into BART’s stream. “Why would anyone care where I am going for dinner?” she asked, laughing.

Recently, Melissa recalled, there were Muni closures in San Francisco and riders were tweeting vehemently, “Why isn’t Muni on Twitter?!?!!?” She notices that for more and more people now, Twitter is their preferred method of receiving information/updates/alerts. She pointed out that Twitter can only serve BART patrons during the time she is actually there, at work, at her computer. “I don’t tweet 24 hours a day!” she adamantly asserted. BART defines the nature of their Twitter feed as strictly “human”. They are available to respond to and alert their followers whenever there is a human behind the wheel, but are not an automated alert system. Melissa does this that there might be potential in the idea of an account called “sfBARTalerts” that solely tweets automated updates on stations and train status. But for now, expect a real-live person to be behind each tweet.

Thank you, Melissa, for your wonderful presentation!

Stay tuned for a summary of Jeremy Smith’s presentation from the same event…

To find out more about the social media events at HyperArts, if you are interested in attending or speaking, visit our website.

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