When Jennifer Bigham started cobbling together her study on Chilliwack's bus system, she just wanted to convince the city that local transit sucked for commuters like her. If there's any justice in the world, she'll get a job with either the city, or a cutting-edge PR firm.

Four months after she began her campaign, the 26-year-old full-time waitress has been invited to consult with city staff over routing and service levels. Her success at making her voice heard has been nothing less than astounding. It also provides some key lessons to other would-be rabble-rousers.

Lesson 1: you need to be dedicated enough to spend hundreds of your own hours working towards what may be a hopeless cause.

Lesson 1a: the majority of those hours shouldn't just be spent calling and swearing at local politicians, holding signs by the side of the road, or even writing letters to the editor (although, please, send us your mail). Your time would be better spent collecting data to show that others also think change is needed. The importance of this can be seen in the city's welcoming response to Bigham's survey and--although more acrimoniously--in the public support of Bill Van der Zalm's anti-HST petition.

Lesson 2: Facebook rules. The solid work Bigham has done--pro bono!--is not the only reason Chilliwack city hall is now consulting her on possible transit changes. Just as important has been her use of social media, and her public relations skills.

Indeed, Bigham has shown the skills that Vancouver's PR companies look for when they hire talent. (I would never advocate for such a job; I'm still trying to recover from a three-month stint with a PR agency last year. But that's another column.)

At the start of her study, Bigham contacted local media outlets, and got her voice on the radio and her face in local papers. Part of this had to do with the fact that, in conducting a study, she was actually doing something, rather than just bemoaning the fact that the transit system here sucks. But another aspect was her use of social media, including Facebook and Twitter.

Recruiting participants in her study with the use of such tools may be statistically dubious, but in a digital age, it is another way to attract attention and build a community of people to push for more transit funding, or at least changes.

More importantly, she has paired social and traditional media strategies. When she released her study, or met with city hall, she sent out a press release to local media. Those press releases turned into phone calls and news stories, which she then linked to through her Facebook and Twitter account to be read by her readers and followers. That synergy--and I use that term extremely reluctantly--is very rare in cities smaller than Vancouver and has helped fuel her campaign.

Lesson 3: Don't join a committee.

Whether Bigham ever gets an expanded local transit system remains to be seen. And if more people do start taking the bus, there will doubtlessly be many people lining up to take credit.

The city already has a transportation advisory committee, which boasts representatives from the school district, ICBC and B.C. Transit. Its chair, Diane Janzen, told me the dedicated committee members will be "doing some thinking" this fall about what can be done to improve local bus routes.

But if Chilliwack even rejigs its bus routes and, gasp, tries something different, I know who I'll be crediting for the changes. And it won't be a collection of professionals who, let's face it, probably don't use the bus for their day-to-day commuting. Rather, I'll be crediting the waitress fed up with riding her bike.