Transitioning Social Media To A Key Component Of Your Public Relations Strategy

As the utilities sector enters a new era, customer engagement is not just encouraged; it is expected. In 2018, social media has become a crucial part of digital communications strategies, making customers more informed and engaged than ever before. According to We Are Social, the number of social media users worldwide in 2018 is 3.196 billion.

We live in a communications era changing by the minute. Social media is about people and the voices behind it. It can be one of the most cost-effective, real-time communication tools in a utility’s toolkit. Customers go to all different sources to get information of interest to them. The key is to tailor how you connect with your customers, understanding what kind of information they want from you, and the context in which they want it.

Utilities definitely face some challenges where social media is concerned. Audiences historically do not engage with utilities in the same way as other brands. They are often motivated to engage for a complaint or query. According to the J.D. Power 2018 Utility Digital Experience Study,^SM utilities are among the lowest-performing industry groups when it comes to delivering distinct digital customer experiences.

Whether keeping followers updated about environmental projects and infrastructure investments or linking to news stories regarding national water needs, American Water is using social media as a means to communicate with customers. With 69 percent of the public using some type of social media, there’s a tremendous opportunity for utilities to engage their customers in new ways.

Providing effective customer communications to over 15 million people in 46 states is a constant challenge for American Water. Customers don’t compare their water utility communication to other water companies. They want an experience similar to what they get from companies like Amazon. American Water not only challenged itself to understand the type of information its customers want, but also how they want it.

American Water had been on Twitter and Facebook since 2011, and the steady stream of posts and tweets varied in frequency and topics to be “all things to all audiences.” In 2016. American Water tweeted 126 times, but looked for the right time to further expand and integrate our use of social media.  The company saw an opportunity to provide our audiences more by expanding how we used this important tool. We refined our content strategy to focus on educating and further engaging our customers.

In May 2017, American Water shifted the social media strategy to focus on a new customer education campaign. This allowed the company to accomplish several goals:

• More purposeful coordination with overall public relations strategy
• Development of unique social media campaigns
• Devote more time and resources to social media
• Strengthen customer engagement

Social media was integrated as a vital means to promote and engage American Water’s new customer education campaign — We Keep Life Flowing^®.  The company developed new social media graphics for specific topics, as well as unique social media kits completely focused on their customer education campaign themes. All of the components are aligned throughout the organization and help with customer awareness and recognition of the company.

For American Water, this past year provided a great opportunity for the company to revisit how we used social media to inform our customers.  The strategy provided a new way of thinking in how the company approached integrating social media into its unique customer education campaigns. 

Overall, the company’s emphasis on social media has seen positive effects throughout all of their social media platforms.  For example, impressions on Twitter have increased 74 percent between 2016 and 2018.  The positive impact is still being felt in Q1 2018:

• Over 313K Twitter impressions: 23 percent increase over previous quarter
• Over 267K LinkedIn impressions: 31 percent increase over previous quarter

One piece of information American Water continues to learn from their research is that there is no single, best way to reach customers. The company needs to use every channel they can to try to reach them — on the outside and inside of their bill envelopes, on websites, social media, on the side of the road where crews are working, even on company vehicles.

American Water wants their customers to know they are working for them, helping to improve the systems and striving to earn and keep their trust as their water services provider.

Joseph Szafran is the External Communications Manager for American Water, the nation’s largest publicly traded water and wastewater utility company.  In this role, he is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations and implementing the overall PR strategy for the company.