The Buzzer blog – what do YOU want to see?
The Buzzer blog – what do YOU want to see?
Hi everyone!
The Buzzer blog was created eons ago (exaggeration for effect!) as an extension to the print buzzer.
It was crafted with the idea of giving you, our readers, insider knowledge into the workings of our operating companies and our system in an interactive way.
This space is also the corporate blog for TransLink providing updates, policy changes, service issues, etc.
Originally, the blog was really our only social channel. Oh my, how we’ve grown! Now we have several social channels all with varying audiences.
We know that everyone has different tastes and interests and it’s important to us that you are engaged with what we’re providing.
That being said, many things that we post about TransLink as a company will stay.
So will some other elements like Links and Tidbits, Transit in the News, polls, interviews with people, visits to places across the system along with fun “insider” series like Transit Police Academy.
Many of our shorter posts and images are posted on our Facebook and Instagram feeds.
There will be some awesome content in the next few weeks with 125 years of transit in the region AND I love transit at the end of the summer!
But right now, we’re asking YOU for YOUR opinion.
What do you want to see here? What interests you? What do you think will engage people the most on this blog?
Please keep in mind we may not be able to do everything that you can imagine! ;)
Let us know leaving a comment below or email us!
Thanks for being a part of our community here and out on the system!
Author: Adrienne Coling
While I don’t follow the blog as much as I used to, it has really helped me understand your challenges and motivations as an organization as we work to literally all move together. The ‘You Keep Us Moving’ set of posts was exactly what this blog can do that other social media platforms cannot.
In addition to day to day concerns, I and many others reading this blog are very interested in the long-term planning for transit. During the plebicite campaign, it would have been nice to have more posts that engaged the debate around the importance of transit and transit planning from the people that make it happen. You’ve had very good posts about updates to the regional transit plans or bus service optimization, and budgets to let us know what was going on. This blog was oddly avoided the debate surrounding plebicite when it was on all our minds.
Thank you for asking and for the good work.
Please keep in mind that not everyone is on Facebook and/or other social media sites.
Some more behind the scenes posts would be great, maybe about the smaller things that transit users might not notice on an everyday basis?
I agree with Mike that more behind-the-scenes posts would be great — tours of transit facilities, interviews with operators & support staff, day on the job sort of stories, etc. Transit history posts (with lots of photos!) are always fascinating too.
There are also a lot of transit vehicle enthusiasts (some might call us “nerds”) following this blog who enjoy detailed posts about current, past, & future bus/train makes/models/fleet numbers and about particular individual transit vehicles of interest especially those vehicles with new or unique features. Sometimes seeing a certain bus number pull up to your stop is like seeing an old friend! All the buses and trains kind of get their own personalities especially when they’ve had the chance to age & get broken in a bit. We like hearing about how those kinds of friends are doing. (I do, anyways. If that’s wrong, I don’t want to be right. LOL.)
Thanks for putting up this thread, Adrienne. :)
I want to see more hidden gems, and tidbits of information about the transit system and our city. I want to less of the organizational bureaucracy, and the uptightedness, and more of the fun, goofy personal stories of buzzer bloggers. I want to see guest posts from users of the transit system, more stories, and more experiences. I want to see less numbers (as in financial numbers), more emotions and exciting stuff. I want to know who robert is, who Adrienne is, who laura is, and who julia is, the people who run this blog. I want them to be more free in telling their stories, expressing their emotions, and saying what they truly feel without repercussions. This blog is at a crossroads. We can choose to move forward, together as a community, or Translink can take over this blog and establish it as their corporate marketing website.
Beyond seconding what everyone has said, I’d also like to point out that not everyone is on Facebook. The token times I’ve looked at it there has been a bunch of content that isn’t here as well. Fragmenting your audience doesn’t seem like a good thing.
I’d like to see more updates on Compass Card and Faregates and all that. It’s an interesting thing to see and I’d like to learn more!