Social media, the undiscovered country

What would E. H. Talbott, Railway Age’s first editor, think of social media? I’m sure that at the very least, he’d be skeptical at first. Social media like Facebook and Twitter, like the title of the final Star Trek movie with the full original cast (William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, etc.), is still regarded by many as “the undiscovered country,” though the railroads are beginning to sit up and take notice.

This 155-year-old trade magazine has ventured into the new world of social media. You can now find Railway Age on Facebook at “Railway Age Magazine” (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Railway-Age-Magazine/195651450464437?ref=ts) and follow us on Twitter as “RailwayAge” (http://twitter.com/railwayage). In addition to our website, www.railwayage.com, and using an RSS feed to receive breaking news as we post it, you can now get our news stories throughout the day on your iPhone or iPad or Blackberry, or whatever personal digital device you happen to be using. By the way, don’t forget to “friend” us.

“Friend” Railway Age? Where I come from, “friend” is a noun, not a verb, but I guess that’s part of a new language I’m going to have to get used to. When I’m working on my laptop on a business trip, I’m “officing.” One thing I can’t bring myself to do is use some of those texting shortcuts—which include a total disregard for proper punctuation and capitalization—that people like my 17-year-old niece take for granted, like “how r u? im ok. whats up? nothing lol!” It reminds me of Newspeak from “1984,” which I read in high school.

(If you’d like to delve further into how language is “evolving,” see “The Complete Newspeak Dictionary from George Orwell’s 1984” at www.newspeakdictionary.com.)

Be assured that, fundamentally, little has changed. Railway Age, and our sister trade magazines Railway Track & Structures and International Railway Journal, are and always will be controlled-circulation publications, distributed by Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corp. to professionals within, or affiliated with, the railway industry, personally requested by close to 100% of subscribers. For the foreseeable future, our monthly print edition will be our foundation.

And so, we venture into the undiscovered country. Railway Age has had a website for 15 years. I remember that when we launched it, we weren’t sure where it would take us. Fifteen years later, we’re posting industry news as it breaks, and distributing a digital edition that’s now configured for the iPad. Very soon, we’ll offer a Simmons-Boardman Rail Group “app.” That’s an “application,” an icon on your desktop or iWhatever that you can click on to get to our websites, k?

The railroads, and a growing number of suppliers, have Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. What benefit can social media bring to the rail industry?

First, let’s establish that social media (or social networking) is being used by an exponentially growing number of people around the world to communicate, and to get information. According to Time magazine, about 600 million people were active Facebook users as of January 2011. For passenger rail, which serves the general public, social media makes sense. It can be used for communicating with customers—providing schedules and delay alerts, marketing, etc.

Freight rail is also finding it useful, but in a different way. BNSF, for example, is using Twitter to support an online forum on supply chains—very useful for its customers (see http://twitter.com/americainmotion). But, why the general public? Norfolk Southern, for example, doesn’t provide electricity to consumers. It delivers coal to utilities that generate electricity by burning coal. So why are NS and other Class I’s, and the AAR, on Facebook and Twitter, if they don’t directly serve consumers?

Consider that the freight rail industry has long been considered a “stealth industry” the public largely knows little about. We in the industry know that freight rail is environmentally friendly and cost-effective. We know that our workforce demographic has been aging, and that we need to bring new talent on board and retain it. We realize we need public support if we’re going to stave off harmful regulations and retain the ability to maintain infrastructure, invest in capital improvements, and grow market share. How can we reach a broader, newer audience? One way is by adding Facebook and Twitter to our repertoire of communications media.

I’ll bet that tomorrow’s railroaders—the people in high school and college today—will use social media to research career opportunities. It’s Railway Age’s job as a trade publication to help make their experience more meaningful.

So, we’re now “tweeting” news to our “followers.” You won’t get a tweet from me saying my train is running late, or I’m having lunch at my favorite Italian restaurant around the corner from our offices, because few people really care about that stuff. What you will get is the same useful information Railway Age has been providing for 155 years. The difference is that you can get it many different ways, from just about anywhere.