Curtis “Bob” Burns is an unlikely social media guru. He’s middle-aged, lives in Ohio and works remotely for the TSA. Yes, that TSA, the Transportation Security Administration, which, at one time, was better known for awkward pat-downs than positive buzz. “And Kimmel joked that we used more hashtags than a 13-year-old girl.” His hashtag game rapidly grew in sophistication, and the account has swelled to 681,000 followers, which is why Burns is speaking this afternoon at South by Southwest, where he’ll give marketers some of his Instagram tips. Seized ammo photos combined with humorous captions is his go-to combo, and that marketing mix landed his brand at No. “The conversation before Instagram was, ‘The TSA missed this pocketknife. “The conversation has changed to, ‘My gosh, did you see what the TSA found?’ It’s pretty common to read in our comments people saying they didn’t used to like the TSA, but now they do.” And what advice does he have for Instagram marketers? “It might take three days for the right content to come in. “They got great content,” he said. We are available 365 days a year.” But when it comes to social marketing, Instagram is where it’s at with the TSA, and it’s still gaining steam.
Curtis “Bob” Burns is an unlikely social media guru. He’s middle-aged, lives in Ohio and works remotely for the TSA. Yes, that TSA, the Transportation Security Administration, which, at one time, was better known for awkward pat-downs than positive buzz.
Burns became the TSA’s social media lead in 2008, but it wasn’t until about three years ago that he really found his marketing sweet spot. That’s when he launched the TSA’s Instagram account, which grew to 235,000 followers by 2015 thanks to the public’s pornlike fascination with images of confiscated weaponry. Jimmy Kimmel no doubt helped raise awareness of the account by making a couple late-night jokes in 2013.
“We were still pretty new to it, so we were using a lot of hashtags,” Burns recalled. “And Kimmel joked that we used more hashtags than a 13-year-old girl.”
His hashtag game rapidly grew in sophistication, and the account has swelled to 681,000 followers, which is why Burns is speaking this afternoon at South by Southwest, where he’ll give marketers some of his Instagram tips. Seized ammo photos combined with humorous captions is his go-to combo, and that marketing mix landed his brand at No. 4 on Rolling Stone’s list of best…
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