Trainline uses its social media channels to promote charities during coronavirus
Howard Lake | 1 May 2020 | News
Train and coach app Trainline is putting its social media channels to extra use during the coronavirus period by highlighting the work of charities.
With rail and coach journeys at minimal levels during the coronavirus lockdown period, Trainline’s social team don’t have as many passenger enquiries or updates to handle. But it does still have an audience of users, skilled staff and a clear desire to make the most of this opportunity.
So the company has started highlighting a different charity each day on its Twitter (53,600+ followers) and Facebook (295,000 followers) accounts.
This was a great message to ping into my inbox today. Thanks @thetrainline #charities #support #charityheros pic.twitter.com/dTO92qbJJ4
— Emma-Louise Singh (@emmalouiserob) April 30, 2020
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National Emergency Trust Coronavirus appeal
It started this approach on 9 April when it announced that it was supporting the National Emergency Trust’s Coronavirus Appeal.
While helping our customers remains top of our list, we're doing what we can to support national efforts to tackle coronavirus by donating to #NETCoronavirusAppeal.
Find out more: https://t.co/T9gqBBWSfX pic.twitter.com/LKeKfsifof
— trainline (@thetrainline) April 9, 2020
On 24 April it followed this up by a whole thread on the appeal and some of the organisations that were benefiting from it:
Tilehouse Counselling, Hertfordshire, have used a grant of £566.75 to purchase telephone headsets to facilitate remote professional counselling support
— trainline (@thetrainline) April 24, 2020
It isn’t just announcing charity names and sums awarded: it is explaining some of the issues tackled by these charities and faced by their service users:
Many service users are migrants with no access to welfare benefits and with insecure immigration status.
— trainline (@thetrainline) April 24, 2020
Individual charities
This week they stepped up their activity by highlighting individual charities, and inviting nominations from their users of other charities that they might profile.
Devon and Somerset Air Ambulance
Trainline operates nationally and in Europe, so it is attempting to profile charities operating in different parts of the UK. First up was Devon and Somerset Air Ambulance.
To the life savers zipping through the clouds and their network on the ground making sure people can get to critical care fast. Thank you. #charityspotlight, a thread… pic.twitter.com/1MaERsygnM
— trainline (@thetrainline) April 28, 2020
Each charity is the subject of a thread of messages, covering a range of different issues, and calls to action.
Like many other charities, their fundraising has been seriously affected by COVID-19.
— trainline (@thetrainline) April 28, 2020
Trainline is even highlighting fundraising events:
It’s not dampened their spirits though, and instead, they’ve moved their annual fundraising Coast to Coast challenge online. You can support them and stay active by joining in, here are the details – https://t.co/ZgitCrXOkh
— trainline (@thetrainline) April 28, 2020
They even signed off by inviting followers to tag other critical care charities across the UK with details of where they are based “so our followers know how to support them”.
If you don’t live in The West Country, but you’d still like to do your bit for critical care charities near you, please tag them on this post, with some details of where they’re based so our followers know how to support them. #C2CVirtualChallenge #DSAA55Miles #DSAA11Milles
— trainline (@thetrainline) April 28, 2020
St Martin’s
The next charity to feature in Trainline’s charity spotlight is St Martins, the Norfolk homelessness charity.
To the charities and their volunteers making sure homeless people are supported through thick and thin. Thank you.#charityspotlight, a thread… pic.twitter.com/Ol6xZHf9jo
— trainline (@thetrainline) April 30, 2020
Again, they published a whole thread on the work of St Martins, concluding with a request that followers tag other homelessness charities near them to highlight their work.
If you don’t live in Norfolk, but you’d still like to do your bit for the homeless charities near you, please tag them on this post, with some details of where they’re based so our followers know where to go. #morethanahome #wewillgetthroughthis
— trainline (@thetrainline) April 30, 2020
Here is the coverage on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/trainline.uk/posts/2943288775754256?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARCVyjLAh4xFq_5pSWBcI7vmAkFiIoCO2CKMTR8vO8ql4ZEZ6DHU_I4Df4s4n8PsK5QNb3QVwsuhvsysYiTfzKoKTDKfNlSeaH8CRsQEe8dLRCFzK8jOnvmrFNQmRfMRoZHcMBRN6ee15cGYNrHBcLQ2IgT9jjkcTAscvGAgzc8n5hE1KW-1qoeVhrDe71f_X2OANMnnULuzWyDpgIuinxaMYqwHFHCv0wmW1I0UUCMYP2jSlwf_EJZDvkxpam-zWEu00mqDLf5TlzLYwbMldGT_5wSROZ9Ky0vurntpaPybF9QNcPxBxu5dGG9g9Vwd7GV9Z3w3JhuYSLBRy9tfFlNsEw&__tn__=-R
Why this is significant
Plenty of companies use their social channels to promote their charity partnerships, but this is the first example we’ve spotted of a company setting out to highlight a range of charities to make the most of its limited. This stands out because Trainline is:
- dedicating a thread to each charity
- raising the issues that a charity deals with
- promoting one of the charity’s fundraising events
- linking to specific areas or information on the charity’s site, not just its front page
- inviting their followers to share and highlight other related charities in their area.
It’s a model that could of course easily be replicated by many other companies who find they don’t have quite the variety of social media updates that they normally do, but still have an audience.
Indeed, given Trainline is one of the many companies that is taking part in the Posters for the People initiative of sharing artwork with positive messaging, perhaps some of those brands will emulate Trainline’s approach.
To the train drivers up at 4am, shuttling hospital workers to and from their shifts… Your nocturnal life helps others save lives.
Thank you. pic.twitter.com/0f44JCDEQi
— trainline (@thetrainline) April 23, 2020
More good corporate news
If you need some another example of a company making creative and positive use of its resources during coronavirus lockdown, here’s Boots:
Coronavirus lockdown: Boots offers safe space for domestic abuse victims: https://t.co/6loVooo4wb
— Howard Lake (@howardlake) May 1, 2020
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.