With the raise of social media everything became closer – we can read the thoughts of the biggest stars, we can even send messages to them and have a slight hope that our idol might see it or even answer our question with the whole world watching how lucky we got. The same principle applied to railway companies. Historically railways were always somehow mysterious, powerful and most significantly, unreachable. Well, now for the first time and with the help of social media we can see the people behind the companies.

Today social media is shaping the face of the companies. Some Airport train services recognise the power of social media and put in a lot of effort to build the ‘social’ brand. Others, however, have left it to the natural development, which can lead to very unpredictable results.

In the Social Media Part 1 article we had a glimpse on how Airport trains are using twitter. In this article we will look at the two very different but somehow similar social networking sites facebook and LinkedIn.

To recognise the benefits of those two networking sites, one must understand the differences. To put it simply, facebook is your friend you go to see on weekends, while LinkedIn is more of your work buddy. Or, speaking in business language, facebook is Business to Consumer and LinkedIn – Business to Business communication.

We know that you, our reader, are someone who likes clarity, so we put the differences and similarities of those sites in two lists.

So now we know the functions of the two sites, lets have a look how the Airport trains around the globe have mastered the social networking.

My favorite is Gautrain, the future airport rail link in Johannesburg, South Africa. “24 trains. 15 minutes between OR Tambo International Airport and Sandton. Peak hour trains every 12 minutes. Tight security on trains and stations through access control, over 650 CCTV cameras and visible policing,” this is the Gautrain message to facebook users. It seems that Gautrain have found the key to unlock the power of Social Media. They write about benefits that the project will bring to the community, post pictures from construction and videos about the project. It even has the best picture award; and people love it.

“After having been in Gauteng in June/July 2009, the Gautrain is the most remarkable construction I have ever seen, and when complete will go down in history as an amazing engineering achievement, I look forward to seeing it complete in 2011 on my return to this great Nation,” writes one fan of the Gautrain.

For comparison, let’s have a look at the Delhi Metro facebook page: I don’t think I should point out what is obviously wrong with this page.

Here are some other airport rail links on facebook:

Canada Line: After working so hard to prepare the public for the opening, Canada Line stopped updating their facebook page with the post ‘its open, lets celebrate!’ Well, the celebration is over guys, go back to work!	Flytoget: One mistake (beyond that they actually don’t update the page) is forgetting that in the times of global communication one cannot afford to put off possible international customers by writing posts in the national language. Maybe that’s why they don’t have that many followers.

The same remark goes to Arlanda Express, but at least they update the page once in a while.

To explain, ‘Page’ is usually created by the representative of the company and can serve as an official media source to deliver your message to the customer. ‘Groups’ are usually formed by fans (or not) and can reflect if the brand is loved or hated among the customers (and if you are not careful you might end up having a group like Stansted Express…).

As you can see, usually, the official page gets the most followers and can be the driving force behind the ‘social’ brand while the groups are a great way promoting the idea of a rail link to airport among the citizens. You cannot control the information flow on the Social Media, but the one thing you can do is to influence in which direction it goes.

But let’s see how LinkedIn is doing:

LinkedIn has over 50 million members in over 200 countries and territories around the world and 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees.

One can create various groups on LinkedIn, like Dubai Metro that has 277 followers or Delhi Metro Rail Corporation with 4 followers. The groups are good to share news about the project, post discussions and look for employees. Of course, just to create a group is not enough – like with any other media, the content must be interesting and updated constantly.

To help the professionals of Airport Expresses around the Globe, airrail NEWS also created a group on LinkedIn – airrail LINKS. We are inviting all our readers on LinkedIn to join the group and raise the questions, post comments and meet other air-rail professionals.

And if you are interested in how social media can help your marketing and reputation, please register for our conference ‘Customer growth and retention strategies on Airport Rail Links’ that will take place in Edinburgh, 18 March 2010.

Milda Manomaityte
Editor
airrail NEWS

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