Patriot Rail & Ports

The most important prelude to deploying a social strategy is client research. We conducted a competitive analysis which provided direction on how to position PRAP on each social platform. We identified the strengths and weaknesses of their competitors and benchmarked those against PRAP's. We focused on dominating platforms which competitors had little presence to gain market share.

Which posts get the most engagement in the industry? When is this intended audience scrolling through social media each day? These were questions we answered through our industry research and social analytics after deploying our strategy. 

The second major piece of research is hashtags analysis. We created an extensive list of relevant industry hashtags, ensuring we had a healthy mix of low and high density hashtags to optimize PRAP's social exposure.

In order to create effective social media posts, we had to identify the target audience. If you don't know who you're hoping to reach, you're wasting time and effort. We created multiple audience profiles to aid in thoughtfully structuring the posts. 

Patriot Rail & Ports potential customers were likely not finding them on social media. They were finding them through a search engine or word of mouth. We crafted content aimed at creating awareness in the industry, among PRAP's competitors, and communicating the positive company culture, targeting potential employees. The content worked to position the company as thought leaders within the marketplace and put a face to the name.

Managing Social Media can be cumbersome. Our management process allows for content creation, post approvals, and post scheduling to be done at least one month in advance.

The PRAP team had access to a custom social media calendar within a shared document for complete visibility. This document included the posts for each day, on each platform and the associated content and vetted hashtags. Requested changes were made in real-time. Adjustments, like adding a time sensitive post profiling a new service, were made within minutes.

We managed their entire social network, including inboxes. Our team acted as an extension of PRAP. Our extensive knowledge of all services allowed for complete autonomy.

Each week, we provided PRAP with a full workup of social media analytics. This data detailed the engagement over time; total impressions, reactions, and page followers.

Our engagement strategy was centered around personifying Patriot Rail & Ports. We profiled employees and told their unique stories. People connect with people. We found that photos of people rather than equipment performed the best. Content reach and impressions were higher. People are more likely to share posts if they connect with them.

Another major piece of the engagement strategy is interacting with other accounts. If you take the social out of social media, it's just media. We identified industry hashtags and engaged daily with relevant accounts within each hashtag with the intent of receiving engagement in return. 

Each of Patriot Rail & Ports assets have their own unique story and value proposition. We featured the aspects of each location which differentiated them from their competitors. 

One of the railroads had a massive railcar storage yard that was connected to three other major railroads, which is a unique offering. We wrote a blog, profiling a customer who had an immediate need to store hundreds of railcars in this yard. It detailed how the PRAP employees worked with the customer to make a difficult task a seamless process.

These stories were present, we just brought them out of hiding.

The blogs were written with thought leadership in mind. Each piece of content was written to position Patriot Rail & Ports as leading authorities in the industry.

We interviewed the service experts at each location and crafted blogs which told the unique, deeply rooted perspective of those individuals. The blogs establish credibility and communicate the overall, authoritative knowledge the company holds within the industry.