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Page 2: Blogging and YouTube >> . By Tony Di Giosia
Consert Director of Marketing
For utilities that means going beyond the meter and inviting two-way communication through the use of social media. Social media is about people and the voices behind them. It’s about story-telling and the “we” not the “me.” Social media is built on content, contribution, shared interests and passions, engagement, listening and community.
. While there are endless social media opportunities for brands to engage with customers, we will focus on the three largest social media properties: .
Facebook
People and brands use Facebook to connect and reconnect with friends, family and colleagues; post and share content such as photos, videos and links; engage with current and potential customers through community building; and to keep up-to-date on information. This year, Facebook will reach one billion users. If Facebook were a country, it would be the third most populated in the world behind China and India.
Facebook provides utilities with a tool to reach customers where they spend a tremendous amount of time. People spend more than 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook with 50% of active users logging on every day. The average user creates 90 pieces of content each month and more than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums) are shared each month making users a very valuable brand ambassador (or vocal opponent) for a utility.
. Take the CPS Energy Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/CPSEnergy as an example of a utility that uses Facebook to effectively communicate with customers. Utilities can use Facebook to post all of this and more:
· Information about programs and services
· Updates on load events
· Tips on topics of interest
· Press releases and news coverage
· Customer surveys
· A schedule of customer events
As with all social media, the utility’s Facebook page must be monitored. That means responding and reacting to comments that are positive and negative. That reinforces the message that you are interested in talking with customers not at them.
Twitter
Twitter was launched as a simple way to communicate a concise real-time message in 140 characters or less. It has become the pulse of real-time global news and has empowered the masses to become citizen journalists. It has become a customer service tool, allowing brands to monitor consumer chatter and sentiments. Just how powerful is Twitter as a communications tool? There are more than 400 million users tweeting more than 250 million times daily; 500,000 new accounts are created every day; and 1.6 billion Twitter searches are conducted on a daily basis.
Consert, as an example, uses Twitter http://www.twitter.com/consertinc as a newsfeed and PR tool. With media followers on our Twitter feed we can update them on our news in real-time.
Utilities can utilize Twitter to disseminate important, useful information, such as energy saving tips, outage notifications or other relevant information, which will encourage followers to re-tweet to their followers and thus a community continues to grow. There's more: Blogging and YouTube >>
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