Rail Europe Gains a New Global Audience Through Social Media Metrics Strategy

In a world where social media is becoming increasingly important to a company’s success, organizations are realizing that it is vitally important to have the appropriate tools to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. This is where social media metrics come into play. Social media metrics are specific tools that reveal how a social media tactic is having an impact on any given organization. Whether a company uses these measures to calculate its number of fans, or to determine the demographic of target audiences engaged with their social channels, it is these metrics which help an organization understand how a specific strategy effects the productivity of their business.

 

One organization that is making sure they’re using all the appropriate metrics to understand the effectiveness of their own social media strategy is Rail Europe. Rail Europe is the “#1 Distributor for European train tickets and rail passes” in the world. In fact, the company provides over one million travelers every year with railway tickets to experience Europe. As the company claims in its mission statement: “As trains do, we at Rail Europe continually move ahead. We strive to progress, innovate, and be outstanding in all that we do.”

Keeping this statement in mind, it comes as no surprise that Rail Europe has been quick to keep up with the times and integrate a social media strategy that has allowed them to transform their national social media customer service strategy into one that could exist on a global level. To implement this strategy, Rail Europe teamed up with Talkwalker (a trailblazing social media analytics and monitoring tool) to gather the data needed to win over new customers. One way Talkwalker used social media analytics to increase the scope of Rail Europe from national to global was through employing social data intelligence analytics to find influencers that would increase the exposure of the brand. In turn, because the company could accurately identify brand influencers from Talkwalker’s data analytics systems, Rail Europe was then able to reach out to and collaborate with these influencers/brand advocates which helped the company to communicate with a global audience.

Another social media metric tool which proved beneficial to Rail Europe’s business performance included the activity of social listening. Social listening allows brands to analyze conversations that take place on social media platforms about a specific brand. In the case of Rail Europe, the company used Talkwalker to compile data based on specific conversations revolving around international travel topics. This in turn provided Rail Europe with the appropriate tools to accurately measure their current performance and subsequently modify their brand/image based on these international conversations. In other words, Rail Europe was able to adapt their brand/image to match that of trending international topics, which then allowed the company to attract an international audience. Without a doubt, Talkwalker’s social media metric listening tool helped Rail Europe to successfully progress from a national range of communication to a global one. Talkwalker also assisted Rail Europe in creating social KPIs “based on metrics to improve reporting processes and compare performance to competitors.” Ultimately, by gaining a wider perspective on how its social media outlets were performing, Rail Europe was able to adapt its strategy to reach a global audience.

Perhaps what is most interesting to note about this campaign is that when Talkwalker was provided with the opportunity to attend the “largest online social media conference in the world,” (otherwise known as connect via Hootsuite), they collaborated with Rail Europe at the conference, in order to showcase the significance of data when it comes to connecting with customers and increasing a company’s overall business performance.

Lessons for Others

Clearly, Rail Europe teaches many valuable lessons when it comes to using social media metrics to measure business performance on social platforms. The organization has proven that it is possible to adapt and transform a social media strategy from national to global. However, Rail Europe also demonstrates that an organization must first possess the social media metric tools to get a clear view of how they are perceived by their current audience, so that they may relate and transmit an appropriate and relevant message to draw in new consumers.

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

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