Using social media to reach potential new train users?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

I want to reach people all across the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) area - and beyond - so I'm posting in "across the West"

Scenario ... encouraging more people to use the train.  Classic CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) (Community Rail Partnership) stuff.
Issue ... getting to the people who don't use rail at present, and / or aren't the typical supported of user groups

It's very much an issue on the TransWilts at the moment, and especially in Melksham where station information is much improved but we have the hurdle of getting people to the station in the first place. Which means they need to know that here's a station.

Large amounts of work have been done in the area already, but the message needs re-enforcing and repeating for many months, with new messages added as the leisure season comes along and further improvements in station access are made.

Just one of the stands that I (personally in this case) have been experimenting with is Facebook ... written up (longish article) here:

http://www.wellho.net/mouth/4239_Facebook-marketing-early-experiences.html

I wrote ...

That was posted yesterday morning, and it's good to see the feedback - and the number of "likes" and "shares" which mean that people have see enough to note the content, or are recommending the post to their friends to read.I have no prior experience of promoting in this way - so I don't know if I've got a super result there, or a pathetic one that's been useful only as a learning curve.

and

This is a work in progress / sharing my experiences post in the hope that it gives others food for thought, and gives people the opportunity to ask me questions and make suggestions.

This thread is open and I would be very welcoming indeed of feedback from other groups (rail or not) on the effectiveness of Facebook for you, how it comers, what we should look out for, etc