Electric Power Assns and Social Media

2. Speaker Information <ul><li>Kristie Aylett, APR </li></ul><ul><li>The KARD Group PR/Marketing </li></ul><ul><li>228-826-5650 </li></ul><ul><li>[email_address] </li></ul><ul><li>Twitter.com/KrisTK </li></ul><ul><li>Linkedin.com/in/KristieAylett </li></ul>

3. <ul><li>1999 </li></ul><ul><li>Mass media rules </li></ul><ul><li>Faxes, pagers, memos </li></ul><ul><li>“ You’ve got mail” </li></ul><ul><li>Y2K on horizon </li></ul><ul><li>Average 8 hours online/month </li></ul><ul><li>Columbine shooting </li></ul><ul><li>2009 </li></ul><ul><li>Mass media in trouble </li></ul><ul><li>Blackberrys, smart phones </li></ul><ul><li>Search engines </li></ul><ul><li>Social networking </li></ul><ul><li>Average 75 hours online/month </li></ul><ul><li>Iran’s election </li></ul>It’s a Different World

4. Have things really changed? <ul><li>Many everyday communication tactics remain effective. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>News releases </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Newsletters </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Brochures </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Special events </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Annual reports </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Magazines </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Bill inserts </li></ul></ul>

6. United Breaks Guitars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

8. Terrifying <ul><li>“ Let’s deal with this quietly and hope it goes away.” </li></ul><ul><li>Instant </li></ul><ul><ul><li>No more “magic hour” to issue statement after crisis </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Miracle on the Hudson (US Airways 1549) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>First photo uploaded to Twitter 1 minute after landing </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Citizen journalism -- amateur video, photos </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Ongoing and everywhere </li></ul><ul><ul><li>All day, every day, global </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Rumors go viral. Truth and good news doesn’t. </li></ul><ul><li>Customers now complain online vs. calling hotline. </li></ul>

9. Social Media = Electrifying

10. Customer Relationships <ul><li>Ongoing Communication </li></ul><ul><li>Direct Sales </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Blendtec’s $50 investment resulted in 43% increase in sales in 2006. Will It Blend? </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Dell Outlet has sold more than $3 million in PCs and accessories as a result of Twitter messages. </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Customer Service </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>@ComcastCares on Twitter – I’m sorry. How can I help? </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Marketing, Promotion, Contests </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Tiger Woods YouTube video </li></ul></ul></ul>

11. Media Relations <ul><li>Convergence </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Print, online, video, photos, blogs </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Newsroom layoffs </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Traditional media turn to social media sites for sources, ideas, buzz </li></ul><ul><li>Online newsrooms </li></ul><ul><li>Social Media Releases, with links to online content </li></ul><ul><li>Google News Alerts, automated monitoring </li></ul><ul><li>Help A Reporter Out (HARO) </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Free 3x daily emails of media queries </li></ul></ul>

12. Employee Relationships <ul><li>Build community </li></ul><ul><li>Share knowledge </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Intranets </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Virtual townhalls </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>E-newsletters </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Wikis </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Blogs </li></ul><ul><ul><li>More than moms and CEOs </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Yammer.com = Twitter-like service for internal communications </li></ul>

13. Research Tools <ul><li>SurveyMonkey.com </li></ul><ul><li>Technorati.com </li></ul><ul><li>Blogpulse.com (Conversation Tracker) </li></ul><ul><li>Alltop.com </li></ul><ul><li>Compete.com </li></ul>

14. Social Networking Sites <ul><li>MySpace – 65 million U.S. users, average four hours/month </li></ul><ul><li>Facebook – </li></ul><ul><ul><li>More than 300 million active users </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>More than 150 million log in daily </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Tremendous growth among older users </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Groups and pages </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Targeted advertising </li></ul></ul><ul><li>LinkedIn – business networking, 51 million strong </li></ul><ul><li>Ning – niche communities </li></ul>

15. Facebook Users by State State July 2008 July 2009 % growth Louisiana 264,600 664,180 151% Mississippi 175,360 374,680 113.7% Arkansas 295,280 535,040 81.2%

16. Twitter <ul><li>A free micro-messaging service that limits messages to 140 characters </li></ul><ul><li>Tweets can be sent and received via the Web, smartphone app, text message, etc. </li></ul><ul><li>Established March 2006 </li></ul><ul><li>Early adopters include tech, IT, bloggers </li></ul><ul><li>Breaking news, citizen journalism </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Earthquakes </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Miracle on the Hudson </li></ul></ul>

17. Some statistics <ul><li>Twitter usage is spiking </li></ul><ul><li>1374 % jump in unique visitors in one year </li></ul><ul><ul><li>February 2008 = 475,000 </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>February 2009 = 7 million </li></ul></ul><ul><li>April 2009 – Twitter enters mainstream </li></ul><ul><ul><li>@aplusk vs. @CNNBRK in race for 1 million followers </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Oprah signs up </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>New users spike but most remain inactive </li></ul></ul><ul><li>August 2009 = 23.6 million </li></ul>

18. How does Twitter compare?

19. What’s Twitter good for? <ul><li>Communicate with key publics </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Members </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Employees </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Volunteers </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Allow members to communicate easily with you </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Respond quickly to service issues </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Receive feedback on programs, activities </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Drive traffic to Web site </li></ul><ul><li>Build reputation by building relationships </li></ul>

20. Glossary of terms <ul><li>Tweet = (n) a message posted to Twitter </li></ul><ul><li>To Tweet = (v) to post a message to Twitter </li></ul><ul><li>Follow = to sign up to receive someone else’s updates </li></ul><ul><li>RT = ReTweet, to forward someone else’s tweet to your own followers </li></ul><ul><li>DM = Direct Message, a private message sent to someone who follows your updates. DM messages don’t appear on your profile or in public stream. </li></ul><ul><li>@username = How to refer to another Tweeter. A reply message begins with @ and the username. </li></ul><ul><li># = Hashtag, a symbol used to simplify monitoring or searching a conversation thread (#Ida, #energy) </li></ul>

21. Glossary of terms <ul><li>Favorites – Marking a tweet to preserve it </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Your favorites are part of your profile </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Shortening a URL address </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Bit.ly </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Tinyurl.com </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Budurl.com </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Auto-DMs = automatic message thanking new followers. Often causes negative reaction. </li></ul><ul><li>Auto-tweet = automatic updates documenting new Web content, headlines, etc. </li></ul>

22. Getting started <ul><li>Sign up online at www.Twitter.com </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Must be linked to an email account </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Limited to one account per email </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Select a username (easy to text, easy to remember) </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Create a profile </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Avatar (photo, logo, or other image) that will appear next to your tweets </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Bio (brief description of account; becomes metatag) </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Protect your account or not </li></ul><ul><ul><li>To restrict access to your updates to only users you approve. </li></ul></ul>

23. Finding other users <ul><li>“ Find people” option on main menu </li></ul><ul><li>www.search.twitter.com </li></ul><ul><li>www.twellow.com </li></ul><ul><ul><li>http://www.twellow.com/twellowhood </li></ul></ul><ul><li>www.wefollow.com </li></ul><ul><li>www.nearbytweeps.com </li></ul><ul><li>www.localtweeps.com </li></ul>

24. Finding other users <ul><li>Review profiles of users who follow the same people you do </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Lists allow users to categorize other users </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Identify hashtag that interests you and find others who follow that conversation </li></ul><ul><ul><li>http://wthashtag.com </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>#journchat </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>#energy </li></ul></ul></ul>

25. Applications abound <ul><li>Twitpic – allows users to upload a photo and tweet the link </li></ul><ul><li>Twitdoc – an app for documents. Upload, post link, print, track usage (Coupons, forms) </li></ul><ul><li>TweetBeep – alerts for Twitter mentions </li></ul><ul><li>TweetDeck – a browser to organize the conversation </li></ul><ul><li>TweetGrid – follow conversation streams </li></ul><ul><li>TweetChat – another way to follow multiple streams </li></ul><ul><li>TwitterBerry – a way to tweet from a Blackberry </li></ul>

27. Case Study: Basin Electric <ul><li>One of the largest electric generation and transmission cooperatives in the United States </li></ul><ul><li>Consumer owned by 136 member cooperative systems </li></ul><ul><li>serves 2.8 million electric consumers in nine states: Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming </li></ul><ul><li>Uses free social media channels to extend its communications messages </li></ul>

33. Getting started was scary <ul><li>“ I thought, ‘Like it or not, social media is going to impact corporations’ public relations practices.’ That scared me, because at Basin Electric, we weren’t using any social media at all. And using these tools is free of charge.” </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Mary Klecker-Green, Basin Electric supervisor of public and member communications. </li></ul></ul>

34. Social media enhances, extends traditional channels <ul><li>“ I don’t see social media replacing any of our traditional outlets, such as press releases, Basin Update and Basin Today. The survey told us we have very high readership in those areas. But social media can help get the word out in more ways – to an audience we didn’t reach before.” </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Mike Eggl, senior vice president of External Relations & Communications, </li></ul></ul>

35. That holds true for social media too.

36. Now it’s up to you <ul><li>Ignore the conversation </li></ul><ul><li>Monitor it </li></ul><ul><li>Participate and engage </li></ul><ul><li>Empower your employees, members, volunteers, etc. to become true ambassadors </li></ul><ul><li>You cannot control the conversation or stop it. </li></ul>

37. Next step? Do some research <ul><li>Identify social media users among your employees </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Form a committee? </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Ask target audiences about their use of social media </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Which sites do they visit? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>What would they want to receive from you on that site? </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Study sites, applications to find best fits </li></ul><ul><li>Develop social media policy for your organization </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Scenario: An employee blogs about work </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Identify others in your industry who use social media </li></ul><ul><ul><li>What do you like, dislike about their approach? </li></ul></ul>