What a gig
Sign up now to be the Tri-Met Tweeter.
Part of the job description: "Monitor and engage with TriMet's online community in social media (including but not limited to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Foursquare). Participate in public conversations, answer direct questions and address problems quickly as they arise. Escalate potential crisis issues to appropriate people in the agency."
You can just see some of the "escalator" e-mail messages in the first week:
"I think we are running out of money!"
"Public very ornery about blowing money on trains."
"What to say on Facebook about dead body found on WES? Should we reveal that it had been there for two months and nobody noticed?"
"Might have been a bad idea to give each bus driver a Kindle."
| Posted at 3:02 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (10)
I'd be better as a woofer!
Posted by Starbuck | December 14, 2010 3:29 PM
"Carries pager and serves as on-call resource for urgent website updates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."
Yoinks.
Posted by Christian | December 14, 2010 4:13 PM
You never know when you might have to Tweet: "Just filed Chapter 9 bankruptcy petition #unfinishedbridge"
Posted by Jack Bog | December 14, 2010 4:22 PM
Diane, TriMet's tweeter and PR liason, had better be careful about name-calling if anyone disagrees with TriMet's positions.
At a TriMet Board meeting she was calling people that spoke with concerns about Milwaukie Light Rail and other budgetary matters as being "Teabaggers". Nice to have public employees that can typecast and then take the time to tell them how wrong they are, and on taxpayer's dollars.
It's wrong, and it needs to be stopped. Shut the PR machines down and we could replace the Sellwood Bridge on the savings.
Posted by lw | December 14, 2010 4:44 PM
Come on Jack, just how feasible is a Ch. 9 bankruptcy?
Posted by Nick theoldurbanist | December 14, 2010 4:49 PM
As lw mentioned, a lot of cash could be saved by killing the PR machines.
Posted by Max | December 14, 2010 5:58 PM
"You never know when you might have to Tweet: "Just filed Chapter 9 bankruptcy petition #unfinishedbridge"
Or
"Clackamas County secedes from TriMet"
"Washington County follows"
"Clark County bans Tri-Met"
"Sam Adams takes over TriMet and Metro"
"Multnomah County wants third world status"
Posted by Ben | December 14, 2010 6:18 PM
"Hey guess who just found $720M!"
@earlb
"Sam loves Earl and Homer"
@samadams
Posted by Steve | December 14, 2010 7:44 PM
Participate in public conversations, answer direct questions and address problems quickly as they arise. Escalate potential crisis issues to appropriate people in the agency.
If this is really the job title...give me ten minutes with the new TriMet Twitterista and I'll demonstrate that he/she is useless and fails to perform the basic duties of the job.
I guess I should ask the question that a friend of mine asked a TriMet representative at a Union Station open house, how to get from Union Station to a location that could not be accomplished by riding MAX. The rep tried to tell us how to ride MAX...and then after WE pointed out that MAX was several miles away from the destination she just shrugged and gave up. (Never mind, there was a direct bus route right to the destination...and she was standing within eyeshot of a TriMet schedule kiosk with access to TriMet system maps and virtually every bus schedule.)
Posted by Erik H. | December 14, 2010 9:27 PM
I'm not going to count on vast improvements, but it seems to me that TriMet needs all the channels for public interaction that it can get.
I think Twitter is worth using to engage readers, spread information and get story ideas. So does Jack! I'm probably a minority here, but I got no problem with my government wanting to do the same.
Posted by Michael, Portland Afoot | December 15, 2010 5:32 PM