I dare say that some of the people who are reading this will have followed a social media link to access routeone. How many of us spend time of an evening scrolling through other people’s adverts and also promote their own business through social media? There is only one person who will shout about your operation, and that is you!
This is not aimed at large operators that have marketing, brand and media specialists. I am talking to small businesses like ours. You do not need anything fancy to promote your company. You just need your smartphone or your laptop, and for your drivers to send you photos of your fleet while they are out and about.
We regularly post updates about our business, advertise vacancies, and promote the best bits about what we do. Those posts generate excellent reach. The last one we put up, about a recent contract award, received over 25,000 views and has attracted several applicants for driving jobs.
We don’t do tour work or sell holidays, but following a conversation with a fellow operator about putting TV screens in its new coach, it became apparent that most of that business’s elderly clients now watch things on their smartphones or tablets when travelling. These ‘silver surfers’ clearly use technology and no doubt have social media accounts for family purposes – so why not promote your holidays and trips to them?
As we try to attract younger people into our industry, it is my opinion that we need to use social media as an effective marketing tool to get their attention. Let’s promote the sector’s best bits and the opportunities and benefits that come from working in it.
Many a time, we ask school leavers what they know about the coach and bus industry. Most of the time, that is met with a blank, vacant look and they go back to staring at their smartphones. If we can promote the industry on the screens of these younger people, then maybe we will attract them to consider our sector as a future career choice.
What about cost – surely social media advertising costs a fortune, doesn’t it? We do not pay a penny for it. I post updates from my smartphone personally. Drivers send me photos of the fleet while they are out and about, and we go from there.
Sure, you can pay to promote posts to target audiences, but on the whole it is free, so why would you not want to make the most of it?
Obviously, risk and reward is in play. Having an active social media presence will attract a small amount of negative press and keyboard warriors. But personally, I welcome their negativity, because on the whole it is a very small proportion of people, and ultimately, they rarely have a valid point. With a bit of gentle satire, you can kill them with kindness.
Just something for you all to think about…
