Social Media's role in Travel and Transport

Yesterday (Thursday 25 June, 2009), saw Newcastle play host to a one day conference titled Where do you Think You're Going...? Digital Transport for a Digital Britain. Orange Bus Creative/ Technical Director Mike Parker was one of the many varied speakers at the event, talking about User Generated Content, Social Media and it's affect on the travel/ transport sectors.

The event was organised by Newcastle University's Transport Operations Research Group, in conjuction with Imperial College London. The venue for the day was an old engine (train) room up at Hoults Yard. Which turned out to be an excellent space for such an event, not the usual hotel space, or pristine conference auditorium. This I think lent itself well to a relaxed informal day, where the talks were fast paced and inclusive. A special thanks should go to Hannah Bryan (@hannahbryan), and all the team who crafted a fantasticly well organised event in a mere 3 weeks.

My talk centered around 5 key components, relating social media to transport, travel and how we manage that relationship.

Where

Where we travel. More and more social media and our online activities are affecting where we travel. Social networking sites organised around travel hubs such as TripAdvisor are often first point of call for planning where we are going, and what we'll do when we get there. As many as 72% of UK young professionals claim to be influenced by consumer based travel/ destiantion reviews (EyeforTravel Research).

How

What modes of transport do we use? Can social media and the wisdom of the crowd make a difference to how we travel? Sites based around connecting users, such as MyLifts.com which allows users to connect with others around the basic premise of sharing cars for journeys. This is directly affecting how many cars are on our roads as well as when people are on the roads.

Other sites of interest were aggregated feeds of tweets, that take user generated traffic and travel reports and disseminate them on mass, often before other more traditional media outlets have had a chance to update (typically the radios traffic reports).

Then there's user generated information on the location of speed camera's. Clearly affecting peoples driving behaviour around these key points.

When

A really great site that mashes up crime data, bar locations, and user submitted data is Development Seeds Stumble Safely project. Which aims to help you get from bar to bar safely in the Washington DC area, a very admirable and worthwhile activity. You can see on their maps crime data based on day time, evening, or night. Effectivley altering your routing depending on "when" (what time) of the day it is.

Who

Simple activities like connecting with friends through sites such as facebook can lead to new travel plans. Further than that, and using a facebook page about a transport authority MerseyTravel, a UK PTE, to illustrate the importance of monitoring, and being part of the conversation. How does social media affect who we travel with? Do recomendations/ condemnation of a brand or it's activities influence who we choose to travel with. I'd say without a doubt. We've already seen the importance of consumer reviews/ recommendations on peoples travel decisions.

Manage, Particiapte, Connect

Finally the talk finished with an overview of how organisations, users and all those involved can manage, particiapte and connect with social meda, and the communities that spring up around them. A matrix of factors was presented which highlighted significant areas of interest and opportunites to engage.

So an organisation such as Merseytravel could use what was a complaint about fares, as an opportunity to show the community that they care. They can and should monitor conversations to discover their customers needs, or to spot potential crisis that often show up earlier within social media networks, than within mainstream consciousness.

All in all social media has a great role to play in shaping the future of transport, and I for one look forward to being involved.