social media campaign proposal for citibike
TRANSCRIPT
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Social Media Campaign Proposal for CitiBike
New York University
Public Relations and Corporate Communications
Ruochen Cheng
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Introduction
Citi Bike is a privately owned bike-sharing system that operates in New York
City. It aims to provide both New Yorkers and global visitors with an optional
transportation vehicle for traveling around the city.
As of November 2014, there are 332 stations and more than 6,000 bikes in NYC.
The program is expected to expand into Queens and deeper into Manhattan and Brooklyn
by 2015.1 It recently received an influx of cash as ownership of Alta was transferred to
Bikeshare Holdings. Citibank also pledged more money to the program. While damage
from Hurricane Sandy held up expansion plans in 2012, more than 14 million trips have
been taken since the program launched less than a year and a half ago. Currently, there
are more than 120,000 New Yorkers with annual memberships2 (Appendix 11).
With the influx of cash from Bikeshare Holdings, more neighborhoods are going
to have bike docks. This increases the number of potential yearly memberships for Citi
Bike. By fostering a strong community on social media, Citi Bike will encourage more
people to sign up for its program. Additionally, tourists visiting NYC will want to use Citi
Bike because they will view it as a quintessentially New York mode of transport and
purchase day passes, which are more profitable for Citi Bike than the annual
subscriptions (Appendix 1a).
1 “New Leader Will Drive Expansion of Citi Bike”. Accessed November 26, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/nyregion/citi-bike-to-expand-as-new-york-city-reaches-deal-with-private-company.html?_r=1 2 V, Matt. "New Leader Will Drive Expansion of Citi Bike." The New York Times. October 28, 2014. Accessed November 23, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/nyregion/citi-bike-to-expand-as-new-york-city-reaches-deal-with-private-company.html?_r=0.
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As Citi Bike grows, its social media footprint must as well. This paper serves as a
recommendation for the growth of Citi Bike through social media. As a service with
hundreds of points of interaction, social media is instrumental to the company’s business
plan. In this paper, we will outline specific social media strategies and tactics to help Citi
Bike achieve growth in 2015.
SWOT Analysis
As with any company, Citi Bike has strengths and opportunities that set it apart from its
competition, but it also has areas where it can improve. Here is a SWOT analysis
capturing our findings.
Strengths
1. Citi Bike is an alternative transportation method especially in congested areas and
places where subway trains are limited
2. Citi Bike is considered a green/environmentally friendly transportation option
3. Citi Bike is the only Point A to Point B bike-sharing system in New York
4. Citi Bike has docking stations conveniently located near frequented areas and
tourist attractions
5. Citi Bike is incredibly convenient and easy to use. Once a person signs up for the
bike-sharing program, all he/she will need to do is insert the key chain at any
docking station to get a bike, a process that takes approximately 10 seconds
6. Citi Bike is the largest bike-sharing system in the United States3
3 Goodyear, Sarah. "New York's Citi Bike Announces Major Changes." CityLab. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2014. <http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/10/new-yorks-citi-bike-announces-major-changes/382083/>.
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Weaknesses
1. There is a decline in bike use during the winter months so the company’s success
is seasonal
2. Bike riding in New York has a reputation of being unsafe
3. People think the 30-minute time limit that Citi Bike gives riders, per ride, is too
short
4. Docking stations can experience technical problems and there is no on-site
representative who can offer assistance
5. Bikes are considered clunky and heavy, some see biking as an arduous task
6. Citi Bike doesn’t have two-way interaction on social media so it’s missing the
opportunity to engage and influence its online community
Opportunities
1. Recent expansion to Upper Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn opens up new
neighborhoods full of potential riders/customers
2. High promotional value due to its “green” efforts and the healthy mode of
transport the company provides, especially in a time when people are conscious
about their health, exercise routine and the environment
3. Its mobile app is a great way for people to get in the habit of using Citi Bike to
plan trips, get directions and get the most out of their travels
4. Citi Bike is quite popular in the city and celebrities have been known to use Citi
Bike while they’re in New York. So, Citi Bike can leverage its popularity to get
sponsorships/partnerships with other companies (Appendix 12)
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Threats
1. Bike shops and other bike rental companies are cheaper and have face-to-face
interaction/assistance with customers, which Citi Bike lacks. Also, these
companies provide helmets and unlimited rental times for less money too
2. People would rather take other transportation options such as Uber, since they feel
it is safer, more reliable and more tech savvy
3. New York is a popular city, home to celebrities, artists and a vast entrepreneurial
landscape. But Citi Bike is not at the forefront of people’s minds when thinking
about New York
Competitor and Industry Analysis
Citi Bike is the only bike-share program in New York. However, businesses like
BikeNRoll offer hourly and daily bike rentals to tourists. This business model does not
appeal to locals because users must return the bikes to the station from which they rented.
It is not useful for travelling from point A to point B. But since BikeNRoll attracts
tourists, a subset of Citi Bike’s target audience, BikeNRoll does pose somewhat of a
threat, albeit not a direct one, but a threat nonetheless.
Industry wise, bike shares are popular in other major cities in the United States as
well as Canada. In Chicago, Divvy Bikes serves as the official bike share company. By
looking at the company’s social media and online channels, we found that its pricing
structure is slightly cheaper than Citi Bike (Appendix 1a). Divvy Bikes also offers
incentives to users such as discounts for local businesses and student membership
pricing. It is also growing and plans to add 175 stations in 2015. Right now, the program
covers more than 85 square miles.
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One issue with Divvy Bikes is that the app is not compatible with iOS8. Even
with these complaints, Divvy Bikes still has a 78 percent positive sentiment according to
Sysomos (Appendix 2b). However, if an application is part of the business plan, it should
be readily available to the majority of the consumer base.
Another similar program is Capital Bikeshare in Washington, D.C. The metro
serves as a commuter rail, but it limits the ease of mobility to only areas within the
immediate city. Capital Bikeshare hopes to encourage more people to ride in the city.
Capital Bikeshare is less expensive than Citi Bike and costs $75 for an annual plan
(Appendix 1a). Users are even able to pay in monthly installments, which is appealing to
people who do not have the means to pay a large sum of money up front. Capital
Bikeshare is available throughout D.C. and biking is seen as a safer means of
transportation in some areas of the city.
Monitoring and Tracking of Conversations: Identification of keywords and trending
topics, description
Most of the monitoring and tracking of conversations we did on Citi Bike was
done on Twitter since that is the company’s most popular social media platform. After
searching the hashtag, #CitiBike, on Twitter, monitoring the Citi Bike Twitter handle and
typing keywords and tags such as “bike,” “bicycle,” “transportation” and “New York
City,” we were able to evaluate how the company engages on social media. We also
examined data from Sysomos and were also able to determine the demographic of those
who talk about Citi Bike on Twitter (Appendix 2a).
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On Twitter, we found that people are talking mostly about the recent news
regarding the company’s new expansion plans and new CEO. Majority of the
conversations around this topic are positive. Overall, many people seem excited to hear
that Citi Bike will soon be catering to the area in which they reside (Appendix 2ai).
There are also several people complaining on Twitter. Many state that there are
never any bikes in their area when they need one. People are also complaining about the
mechanics of the bikes and how they are built. They are also frustrated with how hard it
is to dock the bikes.
The audience that is engaging in these conversations on Twitter seems to be living
in New York City and/or living in another major city. There were also a few tourists
participating in the conversations. The majority of the people seem to range in age from
20-40 (Appendix 2aiii).
One thing that particularly stood out is that Citi Bike is not engaged with its
audience. There are no tweets in response to people’s complaints and the voice of Citi
Bike is only found on its own Twitter handle. There is a strong need and recommendation
for two-way engagement in this area.
We also suggest that Citi Bike uses Twitter and Instagram as its main social
platforms. When compared to Citi Bike’s other social media platforms, Twitter had the
most number of followers and was the most popular among the other Citi Bike platforms.
We also noticed that the people who are mentioning Citi Bike on social media are
communicating through pictures. This is why we suggest that Citi Bike continues to
encourage customer engagement on Instagram. A social media contest on Twitter and/or
Instagram would greatly benefit the company.
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Finally, Citi Bike has the opportunity to leverage influencers in these social media
initiatives. We found several accounts of influencers on Twitter through Sysomos
(Appendix 2aii).
Goals: Measure and increase sign ups
The goal of this social media plan is to increase the number of Citi Bike users by
raising awareness about the company and its recent expansion in New York. We will
measure our success over the next year based on the percentage increase of Instagram and
Twitter followers and positive sentiment. We will also measure the overall success of the
program by an increase in daily and annual Citi Bike users. With Citi Bike expanding into
new neighborhoods, it is important to notify residents of the new Citi Bike accessible
neighborhoods and encourage them to join.
Objectives: Engage with influencers and users to strengthen Citi Bike’s social media
presence and increase membership rate.
We aim to increase Citi Bike’s social media presence through:
- Twitter: increase followers by 30 percent (21k to 30k)
- Instagram: increase followers by 35 percent (3,320 to 5k).
We will also observe Sysomos to monitor for the below objectives:
- Elevated share of voice in conversations regarding biking in New York
- Increase in favorable content (sentiment)
- Increase in relationship with influencers and brand advocates
Building and engaging a community on social media will increase Citi Bike’s
positive sentiment, which will then increase sign ups. People want to be a part of a
community, an exclusive club they feel relevant in, and Citi Bike can be that club. As Citi
Bike expands, it is important to have a direct line to consumers, that being social media,
to answer questions and field suggestions.
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Audience Profiles
Citi Bike has two audience segments: New Yorkers and tourists. The first
segment includes students who attend school in the city, full-time or part-time employees
who work in the city and residents of the city. The two audience segments have slightly
different uses and needs for Citi Bike. In general, Citi Bike customers are 18-45 years old,
middle class New Yorkers who may study, live and work in Manhattan, Brooklyn,
Queens, and the Bronx 4 (Appendix 9).
Usage by Audience Segment
1. Residents are likely to use Citi Bike as an alternative to taking the subway and
walking. Due to the high expense and lack of parking, very few New Yorkers own
cars. Citi Bike makes it easier to get around. It is important for the docking stations
to be working properly and stocked with bikes. Residents will not want to waste time
with technical issues or empty docking stations.
2. More and more New Yorkers are changing their lifestyle, being healthy and “going
green.” Thus, compared to cars, taxis, and the subway, Citi Bike is a significantly
greener and healthier form of transportation. Citi Bike can be part of a New Yorkers’
healthy and green lifestyle.
3. College students are likely to use Citi Bike in their daily routines. College students
are mainly concerned with convenience and price. Regarding price, college students
want student discounts. MTA does not offer discounts for students so Citi Bike could
offer student discounts to get sign ups or start accepting student ID/money cards.
4 "NYC Bike Share." Accessed November 23, 2014. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/bike-share-outreach-report.pdf.
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4. Commuters expect convenience and an environmentally friendly experience with
Citi Bike. Community-based stations and office-based stations are favorable for
them too. Also, a stable supply of bikes in these stations is another essential factor
for them to choose Citi Bike since they are on a tight time schedule. Citi Bike needs
to be reliable in order to be a daily form of transportation. Citi Bike also has
partnerships with many companies, which gives employees special offers when
using Citi Bike. As a result, it is a convenient and cheap choice for these working
individuals to choose Citi Bike.
5. Tourists are a target audience as well. Citi Bike has many stations located near top
tourist attractions throughout New York. Tourists are concerned with finding nearby
stations, reasonable short-term prices and convenience while sightseeing. The Citi
Bike app is a useful application for tourists, but Citi Bike should use social media as
a quick, reliable and accurate customer service platform to meet tourists’ needs.
Channel Strategy and Purpose:
Twitter is an important channel for Citi Bike. Users can easily tweet questions and
concerns to the @CitiBike handle. Citi Bike must promptly answer tweets from users.
There is currently no two-way engagement. They also should proactively engage
influencers. Using Sysomos, we have identified key influencers on Twitter who often
tweet about cycling and Citi Bike (Appendix 2aii). These influencers vary from news
sources to individuals.
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Instragam is a great visual platform for Citi Bike. The Citi Bike bicycle is an
attractive blue that photographs nicely among the New York landscape. To increase
engagement with the Instagram community, Citi Bike should encourage users to post
with the hashtag #CitiBike. There are many posts about Citi Bike on Instagram
(Appendix 13), but the company can better leverage this audience and channel. People
are posting things that are helping the brand and promoting the company. It seems that
the company is unaware that this is being done since there is no engagement from Citi
Bike on users’ posts (Appendix 13).
A main recommendation is for the company to have Instagram users enter a
competition where each entry could be linked to a promotion or giveaway to reward users
for promoting their use of Citi Bike and using the hashtag #CitiBike. This is a great
platform where Citi Bike has the opportunity to host a contest such as this. It would also
create content that could be used in future advertisements and marketing materials.
Message / Content Strategy
There are several messages that Citi Bike wants its audience to know. We have
determined three of the most important messages that are designed for the target audience
of Citi Bike and align with our project and social media efforts. These messages target
young to middle-aged, savvy, and innovative people who we have observed and
discovered are the company’s main audience. Our three messages are that Citi Bike is:
convenient and reliable, environmentally friendly and a trendy transportation alternative
for New Yorkers and tourists.
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Convenient and reliable: Citi Bike is a convenient and reliable mode of transportation for
New Yorkers and tourists alike. There are thousands of bikes at hundreds of stations in
the city that are open 24 hours a day, 365 days in the year. Subway riders can now avoid
the hassle that comes with limited subway trains, delays, and crowded, borderline
uncomfortable, train situations. People who drive in the city or take cabs can now avoid
congested areas and hefty fares. And, if the thousands of easily accessible bikes are not
enough, the company is installing 6,000 Citi Bikes at hundreds of new stations by 2017.
Environmentally friendly: Citi Bike is also an environmentally friendly alternative mode
of transport in a city that needs greener initiatives. The American Lung Association’s
15th annual air quality report gave Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx an F grade for
ozone/particle levels.5 To protect New York, Citi Bike offers New Yorkers a way to use
an environmentally friendly mode of transportation that can take them from Point A to
Point B without a guilty conscience.
Trendy transportation: Another main message that we are trying to send to people is that
Citi Bike is the trendy and “hot” way of transportation for New Yorkers. Even celebrities
have been known to use Citi Bike. Since many New Yorkers are concerned about
appearance and status, showcasing Citi Bike as a popular trend, especially on social
media and through our Instagram efforts, will help send this message. Also, in our
research, we noticed several tourists tweeted about their first Citi Bike experience while
visiting New York. We want to send this message that Citi Bike is a staple in New York
City and is something that all New Yorkers are familiar with. It should be an attraction
5 American Lung Association. "State of the Air 2014." (2014): n. pag. Web. <http://www.stateoftheair.org/2014/assets/ALA-SOTA-2014-Full.pdf>.
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for tourists, while also aiding them with the service of transportation. By sending the
message that Citi Bike is trendy, we help build a connection with the people of New York
knowing that Citi Bike represents them and is a brand with which they can identify. It
shows that Citi Bike is unique to them and their city, further driving home our trendy
New York message.
Engagement Strategy
In order to raise awareness of Citi Bike and increase sign ups, there needs to be an
increase in audience engagement. This can be accomplished through paid media, owned
media and earned media.
Tactics:
1. Paid media:
• Place advertisements on Gothamist.com, the New York Times, etc.
(particularly those news channels which Sysomos detected as Citi Bike
influencers)
• Search engine optimization on Google, Yahoo, etc.
• Display sponsored content and events on Twitter and Instagram
2. Owned Media:
• Interact with Citi Bike consumers on the company's Twitter and Instagram
pages
• Retweet tweets and feature fan’s Instagram photos that used the hashtag
#CitiBike
• Upload photos to Instagram and promote bike routes on Instagram
• Share news on Citi Bike’s expansion
• Feature weekly posts and stories on Citi Bike blog
• Encourage users and other people to retweet tweets
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• Host Twitter chats with Citi Bike fans, influencers or celebrities who endorse
the company
3. Earned Media:
• Host an Instagram contest for annual membership. Encourage followers to
post photos of themselves riding their Citi Bike
• Establish relationships with bloggers such as travelers, bike riders and
previously mentioned influencers
• Sponsor bike marathons in conjunction with Bike New York. Send press
releases and pitch letters to reporters to attract media coverage of the event
and sponsorship
Timeline/Program Kickoff
We suggest starting this entire social media plan and initiative at the beginning of
spring when more people are guaranteed to be out enjoying the nice weather and wanting
to ride a Citi Bike.
There is an opportunity to create an event that will ultimately be a prank on April
Fool’s Day in order to attract more attention to the company and to spark conversation on
social media. This will be the kick-off of the strategies presented in this entire document
proposal.
The plan is to partner with one of the company’s existing partners, City Seats.
This company makes fun and creative bike-seat covers to provide a cleaner ride.
The logistics and details of the prank event are:
• Create whoopee cushion seat covers for the bikes
• Place these seat covers on select bikes at the most popular stations
(Appendix 6 and 7)
• Be sure to have at least three Citi Bike employees at each station where
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the prank will take place
• Employees will capture (photo, video, etc.) the customer’s reaction when
he/she sits down on the bike. This will be used in social media efforts,
depending upon if customers provide consent.
• After the prank, an employee at the station will go up to the customer and
wish them a ‘Happy April Fool’s Day’ and give them a card they can use
that day for one free 30-minute ride.
• The card with the free ride credit will read, “Warm weather is right around
the corner and Citi Bike wants to help you celebrate your travels with a
. Share your Citi Bike moments with us on Twitter and Instagram.”
The hope is that this unique idea will get people to start talking about it on social
media and it sets the tone that Citi Bike is looking to engage with its customers. The free
ride will also attract people and help show the company’s dedication and efforts, in turn
causing positive sentiment.
Measurement Strategy
The social media measurement process of Citi Bike uses both business metrics for
executives and metrics for community managers. Business executives and community
managers expect different indicators that reveal overall program success. Community
managers expect to see how the public relations activities lead to changes in interaction
on social media platforms. Thus, they want to know engagement data showing changes in
the number of clicks, views, shares, fans, followers, tweets and re-tweets, etc.
However, increases in these indicators do not directly equal reaching the higher-
level business goals, which are what business executives are concerned about. So, the
measurement should also have business metrics which tie directly back to higher-level
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business goals.6 In the case of Citi Bike, the metrics must show how the needle moves
toward increases in revenue and a more reputable business in the public eye. Therefore,
the measurement requires both quantitative data and qualitative data, revealing changes in
sign-ups, reputation of the organization and sentiment towards Citi Bike.
Admittedly, the increase in followers, fans and interactions on social media
platforms do not necessarily lead to more sign-ups and more profit for the company.
However, they do reflect a rise in awareness about Citi Bike with an increase in positive
perception and relationships, especially the relationships with social media influencers,
and elevated levels of conversations between the organization and social media users,
which can eventually lead to more sign-ups and profit. In general, the followers are
people who have an interest in Citi Bike, so they are likely to be customers or potential
users. Accordingly, it can be assumed that more social media followers can lead to more
sign-ups. The measurement metrics should thus evaluate and prove this connection.
The measurement of the program evaluates all three phases7 of the initiative,
demonstrating both qualitative and quantitative data to reveal the success of the program.
1. Phase One: Inform
The measurement of this phase does not focus on the actual results of the initiative,
but on its efforts.
1) The number of times Citi Bike tweets and posts on Twitter and Instagram
2) The update frequency
2. Phase Two: Inspire
6 Breakenridge, D. K. (2012): New Practice #8: The Master of the Metrics in Social Media and Public Relations: Eight New Practices for the PR Professional, pg. 121
7 Breakenridge, D. K. (2012): New Practice #8: The Master of the Metrics in Social Media and Public Relations: Eight New Practices for the PR Professional, pg. 126 - 129
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This phase includes interactions between Citi Bike and social media users. This
measurement strategy shows how social media users respond to the PR initiative.
1) Measuring Owned Media
A. Websites:
The number of clicks and views before and after the initiative
B. Twitter & Instagram pages:
- The number of followers before and after the initiative
- Number of comments received
- Number of favorites/likes, tweets/posts and retweets/shares
- Number of tweets, retweets, comments and likes by influencers and
company advocates
- Number of comments received
2) Measuring Earned Media
A. Content Analysis:
- The changes of favorable content before, during and after the initiative
B. Source Strength:
- Number of influencers among followers
- Number of tweets, retweets, comments and likes by influencers and
company advocates
3) Measuring Paid Media
A. Gothamist.com, the New York Times, etc.:
- Number of clicks on placed advertisements
B. Search engine optimization:
- Measurement of search engine traffic: direct traffic, referral traffic and
search traffic
C. Sponsored content and events:
- Number of clicks, likes, shares and new followers associated with
recent sponsored content
3. Phase Three: Engagement
The measurement of this highest level of interaction evaluates valuable business
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outcomes.
1) Sign-ups
- The number of sign-ups before, during and after the execution of our
tactics
- The relationship between the number of followers and the number of
sign-ups. Measuring this by creating a linear table with Social Media
Followers as x-axis and Number of Sign-ups as y-axis
2) Satisfaction
- Sentiment about Citi Bike before, during and after implementing
tactics
- Sentiment about key words associated with Citi Bike before, during
and after the initiative
- Sentiment about competitors before, during and after the initiative
Conclusion
In conclusion, social media is an integral part of the success of Citi Bike. If Citi
Bike does not utilize social media and increase its two-way engagement, Citi Bike will
not be successful. As a bike-sharing program that has limited face-to-face interaction with
its customers, social media serves as the point person.
It is critical that social media be taken seriously by Citi Bike executives. It will
serve as the backbone of its interactions and have the ability to increase sign ups if done
correctly. If Citi Bike follows our social media plan and uses our suggestions, we forecast
a significant improvement in brand health and an increase in riders in 2015 as a result of
active social media engagement.