A huge part of customer communication is meeting your audience where they are. The fact of the matter is, social media is becoming one of the places where people spend most of their time – the average person spends 2 hours and 22 minutes each day on social media across major platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

This is an opportunity for Water Utilities to connect with their customers and educate them in a channel that they’re already frequenting. 

Keep it simple

Social media is made for bite-sized pieces of content – there’s a reason Twitter has a character limit. You should be using social as a way to link to and promote to your longer-form content – think news articles and website posts – but don’t be afraid to create content specifically for social as well.

There’s great opportunities to condense a narrative down to a short, tweet-able message that can serve as a quick reminder to customers scrolling through their feeds to help them understand what you do and why you do it. The important thing about these made-for-social pieces of content, whether words or graphics, is to keep them succinct, make sure they’re easy to understand, and ensure that they represent your utility’s mission.

Don’t be afraid to engage

Social media is one of the first places people turn to for up-to-date news, and for access to direct interactions with brands that are serving them. 

If you’re utilizing different social media for different purposes (for example – if Twitter is your go-to place to report breaks and outages), make sure those distinctions are clear in your bios, and that you’re actively responding to customers who may have questions about updates or changes. Set expectations so that your followers know what to expect and how to reach you.

Stay consistent

A month-long content calendar doesn’t just apply to your website content. Use it to make sure you have consistency across your social channels, both in promoting your website content and complementing that strategy with made-for-social exclusive posts. You should be posting with regular frequency, and keeping a strong cadence across your channels. For example – a new blog post is an easy social post. Get in the habit of immediately promoting that on various channels once it’s published, and followers will know where to go to stay up to date on your system’s content and news. 

Keep ahead of the curve

Always be monitoring social trends and looking for new features and ways to engage customers in innovative ways. For example, the “story” feature on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook is set to surpass feeds as the primary sharing point between friends, according to research. Use this knowledge to stay relevant and meet your customers where they are by posting stories and engaging them as a part of their day-to-day social media flow. 

Ultimately, social media comes down to providing transparency and a simple touchpoint where your customers are already spending a significant part of their day. Using social media opportunities to communicate your value will have a strong impact on your relationship with customers.

Kelly Smith

×

Kelly Smith