Tweet, Tweet! Bus and Road Agency on Twitter

OCTA engages the public with online communications utilizing no-cost social media sites like Twitter, which has exploded in popularity.

From sOCial sunday Column of O.C. Register
As Posted by Jon Lansner on Sunday, July 19

sOCial sunday will frequently ponder how institutions — private and public, big and small — juggle social networking’s challenges and what wisdom we can derive from their ventures.

Ted Nguyen (@tednguyen) of the Orange County Transportation Authority explains why it works for his bus and road agency — in 140 characters!

• It’s free! Social media are cost-effective ways to reach an audience that’s huge.
• Conversation is already taking place, so we opt to be part of it. You can be engaged as much as you want or need to.
• By cultivating relations with followers who trust and care about you, public agencies can achieve transparency and openness.
• Be your true self – no fake accounts. I don’t hide behind the OCTA logo. I’m Ted Nguyen and share transportation tweets with the public.
• I’m not hard-selling OCTA, but sharing information about services and programs, building relationships of trust one person at a time.
• We share messages via conversations with followers and their friends. It’s e-version of word of mouth, the most-trusted form of engagement.
• People follow others who share useful or interesting information and not self-serving fluff. Twitter is more powerful as a listening tool.
• If you’re passionate about your work and life, your tweets will sing. It won’t feel like a task, but rather be an enjoyable online journey.
• Go offline and tweet-up with others and see what they’re doing.
• OCTA tweets include news of our new CEO and info links to Web site, Facebook, YouTube and other resources.
• We’re honored that businesses turn to OCTA for help in social media. We learned social networking by doing social networking.

PS: OCTA hosts next Social Media Club Orange County on July 21 at 7 p.m. at OCTA HQ in Orange. All are welcome, especially government, education, special agencies, not-for-profits, etc. for a special free session on GOV 2.0. Follow the event #SMCOC.