Meet Franky Ponce
Whether you live in NYC or not, you're likely familiar with the NYC Ferry's fresh and fun social media content — we spoke with Franky Ponce to learn more about what goes into crafting social campaigns, his favorite Dash Hudson feature and more.
Tell us a bit about yourself:
Originally on the agency side, I’ve been working in social media for 7 years. After a few years at PR firms, I started as a Jr. Community Manager at an ad agency and worked my way up to a Content Strategist. I’ve always been a creative at heart, and it felt natural to me to pair that with my love of writing and pop culture, which led me to social. I moved to New York in 2019 and helped start a boutique social-first ad agency, which is where I solidified my love of the industry and really honed in on my skills as a social media creator, strategist and manager. I’ve worked on strategy and social media management for brands across many industries including LEGO, NVIDIA, Belif, Davines, Retro Fitness, Jameela Jamil, GLAAD and more.
How does your team determine how you want to sound in short-form video content?
The beauty of NYC Ferry is we don’t adhere to one specific audience. We want our content to be as diverse as our riders, so we embrace the idea that every piece of content may have a unique tone of voice. Most of the time we’ll assess a TikTok trend, sound or video concept and create the tone of voice around what makes sense for that specific style piece of content — while, of course, ensuring our key values are baked into it. Ultimately, the underlying theme of all video content is that we are a professional, safety-first, relevant, reliable, personable and diverse commuter transit system. From there, we have fun.
What are your biggest social media manager ‘don’ts’?
Don’t go against your instincts. Having trust that you know the brand you’re creating for and being confident in your decision-making for them — both creatively and strategically — is so important. Also, don’t be so hard on yourself if your content flops — that’s where you learn the most valuable lessons. It’s a hard ‘don’t’ to live by, but it’s always important to normalize that not every piece of content will be successful. We’re social media managers, not magicians. You just have to keep moving forward and adapt as you go.
What social campaign are you most proud of from your time with the NYC Ferry?
This is so hard to choose! I think our ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ release campaign with Taylor Swift and Spotify in 2023 may still take the cake. It was one of the first times we were recognized on such a mainstream level, and it brought together many components of our marketing ecosystem: social media, onboard activation and a ferry boat interior wrap/advertising domination. It was one of the first times our social media success directly led to a fully developed “experience,” and the partnership solely came about from the hard work we put into social for the year leading up to it. It really proved that our social presence is a strategic arm that can translate into real, lucrative initiatives — which we’ve been able to keep building on since.
"Don’t go against your instincts. Having trust that you know the brand you’re creating for and being confident in your decision-making for them — both creatively and strategically — is so important. Also, don’t be so hard on yourself if your content flops — that’s where you learn the most valuable lessons."
Franky Ponce
Senior Creative Strategist & Social Media Manager at NYC Ferry
What strategies do you use to increase engagement?
We’re real-time creators, which has been a major key to increasing engagement. We hop on trends fast and know how to insert ourselves into virtually any pop culture happenings. I’m also a firm hashtag supporter — I’ve seen it bring new audiences to us and lead to major discoverability. The ‘collab’ feature on Instagram has also been an amazing tool to help us partner with other brands at all levels and increase our reach tremendously.
How do you connect and build influencer relationships?
We tend to let it happen naturally for the most part. A lot of times influencer relationships are just rider relationships, where a prominent person on social media is already a fan of NYC Ferry, and we work with them to ensure any messaging and adoration for our system they are putting out there is accurate and tied even closer to us.
What are your thoughts on the future of AI in social media?
Like many social media management tools, I think AI social media tools can be great for creative use in the social media space. I embrace how brands like iStock and Adobe incorporate it, helping creatives generate pieces that would’ve taken hours to create. We just have to be diligent in ensuring that it is used transparently and safely. Ultimately, I believe it can’t, and shouldn’t, replace the human touch — it should just be a tool to help social media creators do their jobs more effectively.
What is your favorite Dash Hudson feature?
The Social Entertainment Overview in Social Media Analytics and Monitoring is the GOAT. It’s so useful to have a space that quantifies and interprets data across all platforms simultaneously for a bird’s eye view. It’s been instrumental in helping us understand and assess our landscape. I also love the ‘Trending sounds’ tab on the TikTok Management and Measurement feature. In my experience, most social analytics platforms don’t actually help you create content; they help you assess content. I love that Dash Hudson breaks that tradition and provides inspiration for the other side of the funnel — that tab certainly helps get the creative juices flowing.
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