“What we did Wednesday night, probably, in terms of educating the public, is more effective than a year’s worth of media.”

How much do you think your organization has in common with a transit agency? Probably more than you think.

Fellow Atlantic Media publication Route Fifty published an article this week on the benefits, and pitfalls, for transit agencies of blunt engagement on social media channels (h/t to author Bill Lucia). It covers BART’s social media response to a major service disruption, how they changed tactics to speak frankly with customers, and why other many other transit agencies haven’t followed suit.

It didn’t take me long to realize that you could (almost) write the exact same article for a lot of other organizations and industries. So many of us are facing the exact same problems communicating with customers and wider audiences, but aren’t necessarily looking to those other sectors for lessons on how to solve those problems.

I took a few excerpts from the article, now lightly edited to remove names and organizations, to make this point. Try to put yourself, your organization, your industry in the blanks. Does any of this sound familiar?

So many organizations are afraid to “lift the veil” on their operations:

“I think, a lot of times, a lot of [organizations] are very scared of what they put out on social media, because people might take it in the wrong way.”

But there are other reasons she avoids lengthy Twitter dialogues as well. One is that she has other press office responsibilities besides social media. Another is that she worries going round-and-round on Twitter could lead to an exchange that reflects poorly on the [organization].

Referring to prolonged Twitter conversations with customers, [one employee] later said: “I think, for us, that seems a bit risky.” Asked why she thought some [organizations] are reluctant to engage more with customers on Twitter, [another employee]…said that “part of it is just the nature of [our industry].”

Your organization needs to champion transparency:

“[One smart organization] leveled with the [customers] and said, ‘look, here’s the deal, this is what’s happening, this is what we’re up against, we’re not giving you crappy service because we hate you,’” he said. “I think [customers] appreciated the bluntness and the straightforward attitude that they got from a human being on [that organization’s] Twitter account.”

[That employee’s] tweets were not the first time officials have tried to say [this organization’s assets are] worn down….“The same stuff we were saying on Twitter is what we’ve been talking to the media about for a year or more….“What we did Wednesday night, probably, in terms of educating the public, is more effective than a year’s worth of media it seems like.”

Audiences want real conversation, not sanitized talking points:

“It’s where a lot of our customers are going, it’s where the younger generation is going,” said [one employee], assistant general manager of customer service at [organization] which serves [Anytown, USA] and other nearby areas. “If you can’t communicate with them how they want, then you’re going to be viewed as obsolete.”

[An employee], who oversees a social media team at the [organization], noted: “The old corporate communications technique where we speak, you listen, doesn’t really work.”

As he discussed the [smart organization’s] tweets by phone last week, he said he believed people were tired of “focus group” communication “that sounds like it’s been OKed by 20 bureaucrats.”

Find great talent for your communications channels of choice:

“Part of it also is just that [this smart employee] is a really good writer,” she said. “Let’s give him the credit he deserves. You have to have that ability to connect to people with words, with the right diction, and he’s got it, that’s for sure.”

Take risks, and don’t make excuses:

[Another employee], with [a similar company], doesn’t see the typical risks in social media exchanges as exceedingly high for [these organizations]. “Every once in awhile,” he acknowledged, “it really is once in a blue moon, you go: ‘darn, I really said that, that was dumb.’” But he added: “If you say something that you regret you said, you know what? It’s old news in six hours, it just goes down the stream.”

But [customers], he noted, don’t want to hear excuses. “The reality is one thing, and getting people to understand it, and maybe give you a little bit of a break, is something else.”

You could take all of these quotes and apply them to any number of organizations, even those who are paying lip service to a customer-centric approach. There are a ton of companies out there who think they’re doing it right, but really it’s mostly fluff, self-promotion, or risk reduction.

If risk-averse government agencies are getting it right in this media environment, then there’s no excuse for your organization to be behind the curve.

My advice: Try having a real conversation with your audience. In 2016, well into the era of the distributed social landscape, it’s a long overdue approach. It’s not a foolproof plan of action. It takes time and resources to do it right. But if you do get it right, you’ll see far more return on your investment than anything from your standard approach to communications.