13. NES on YouTube 3.9 Free Energy Conservation Kit 3.5 Pay Your NES Bill At Local Kiosks 4.4 Tips For Saving Money On Your Electric Bill 9.3 Nashville Sounds Baseball Players Share Tips 22 Learn How To Insulate Your Attic 34 Learn How To Read Your Electric Meter % of Total Views Top Videos
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23. So easy a caveman can do it. Taking the next step...
37. Laurie Parker Nashville Electric Service Email: [email_address] Web site: www.nespower.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/nespower Facebook: www.facebook.com/NESpower YouTube: www.youtube.com/NashvilleElectric
Editor's Notes
Our birth into social media started about a year ago. Our public relations firm (McNeely Pigott & Fox) approached us formally about using social media as a way to connect with customers. Their first suggestion was to use the outlet of Facebook to share information about NES and build conservation awareness in the community”. We were on board. That idea evolved to Twitter, where MP&F showed us our customers were already talking about us. We just needed to engage them (and in some cases, clarify things for them). Then we branched out to YouTube with our own channel. The idea of creating how-to instructional videos was already on our radar. We were planning to post those to our website. It seemed like a logical choice to put them on YouTube. Spend a majority of my time day talking about our YouTube efforts and strategic planning and measurement.
Nashville Electric Service (NES), one of the12 largest public electric utilities in the nation NES does not generate any electricity. It buys all of its power from the Tennessee Valley Authority. 87 cents of every dollar goes to TVA for purchased power. We serve over 357,000 customers over a 700 square mile service area (all of Davidson County (metro Nashville) and portions of 6 surrounding counties. Have revenues of $1 billion each year.
Starting out we had no real expectations because we didn’t know any better. We quietly created an account and people found us quickly. Our # of followers grew with little to no promotion. And it became clear to us that Twitter was an important communications tool that we needed to cultivate. Our most powerful tool – best fit
1 month mark - 170 followers (no promotion at this point) Current Stats: 1,513 followers (jump after recent promotions, outages)
Crisis situation – breaking news/updates (phone scam, emergency outages) Promoting NES programs (E-bill, In-Home Evaluations, PowerWise) Directing people to www.nespower.com for more information and providing direct links (an effort to increase visits)
www.twitteranalyzer.com Normally 1 or 2 tweets a day (4 due to downtown power outage)
Original Facebook page was branded with our educational “spokesbulb” Edison. People couldn’t find us and didn’t realize who we were when they did. Re-designed and re-launched the NES Facebook page one month later. Current Stats: 398 fans
Different beast (slower growth, but steady organic growth) Facebook Insights – admin function # of fans have picked up recently due to new promotions (news release)
Fairly even (more females than males) Largest age group 25-34 14% over 55
Links to website and news stories of interest Post videos Starting discussions Really like photos
Current Stats: 1,336 views and 12 videos A few in both Spanish & English (online billing, read your meter, Sounds players) Promote on Facebook & Twitter when new video uploaded Plan to buy our own flip cam and produce more in-house at little to no cost
1 hour per day to manage all 3 accounts and monitor sites. We post information to Twitter before sending it out to media. (reference call about phone scam) We want Twitter to be the first place customers & media come for information. May not be as important now, but when a crisis hits, we will already have an established relationship & trust with customers who will come to us rather than relying on 3 rd party information that is most often incorrect.
.
Twitter – have blocked several from following us (spammers) Facebook – Comments can be deleted after the fact Fans have asked if we post both negative and positive comments. They appreciate the open style of communication
Ask for guesses from audience
Examples of actual tweets - Power Outage/Winter Storm
On Twitter
Call center problems (used Twitter to notify customers and answer their questions) Problem: The NES Customer Relations call center was experiencing network problems, which affected our customer’s ability to report an outage or conduct other business with NES customer relations representatives by telephone.
Promoting how-to instructional video on Facebook (video embedded and link to YouTube)
On Facebook – two thank you posts and one discussion Tree trimming complaint resulted in thank you
What started as an experiment (dipping our toes in the pool) has evolved to leveraging social media to improve customer relations Not just about the call center or email anymore. Social media makes us more accessible and vulnerable at the same time.
Strategic Planning: incorporating into overall communications plan Adds an additional element to our jobs, but it is another tool at our disposal. Promotions Crisis Communications When a crisis occurs we need to know what do to with regards to Twitter, etc. We can’t abandon those outlets, especially not during a crisis. We have added a social media section to our Crisis Communications Plan. Will assign Twitter duty along with the rotating media pager. Trained staff members. Policy Making – recently opened up access for employees to NES pages Currently, NES has no such policy. Microsoft – easy policy Measurement/ROI BIG QUESTION - How do we measure success? Are we being successful or wasting our time? All about engagement, etc. Are beginning to collect monthly social media reports to track our progress.
Bill stuffers Articles in our customer newsletter Links on website – Contact Us, My Environment, Ways to Save (links to YouTube Videos) Recognizable Twitter, Facebook & YouTube icons on the NESPower.com homepage (saw big jump in visits to YouTube page when we added the icon) Cross referencing – on Twitter we push people to YouTube videos, etc. Lunch & Learn session with employees Started adding URL addresses to marketing materials and conservation advertising. Word of mouth – re-tweets, etc
Moving forward – promotion specifically through social media channels / viral marketing
Added links on other materials (cross promotion)
Show jump in views on YouTube (resulted in pick up on local Fox affiliate) Video featured in 3 segments. Also, after tweet about phone scam, reporter picked up story and referred to our Twitter page.
CEO opinion piece in The Tennessean (local paper) about the discussions taking place on our social media (energy conservation)
Thinking about ways to keep the content fresh and interesting. A number of companies have had success in growing their fan base by posting trivia questions or hosting competitions via Facebook and offering giveaways. We are looking at conservation items (CFLs, conservation kits, home energy audits) and possibly gift cards or event tickets (if it is something that NES sponsors). When NES has an event (i.e. Kilowatt Ours workshop or Go Green District 18 seminar) we can create an event listing on our Facebook page and send out invitations to all of our fans. We want to add more photos to our page. Whether it be pictures of employees doing karaoke at the Heart Association Cookout, volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, or dressing up for Customer Service Week. We think it would be a great way to give fans a behind-the-scenes look at NES. We also, like to post photos from community events that NES is involved with.
Include text on upcoming conservation ads that encourage people to follow us and tweet using a certain hash tag. “Tweet using the hashtag #I Love NES and you will be entered to win a free in-home energy audit” Easy to search by hash tag to track This tactic has the potential to increase the number of @NESpower Twitter followers and would also give us an idea of how much attention people are paying to NES ads.
Example of an ad with a hashtag
Post the how-to videos that are on YouTube to www.nespower.com as well. Capture video of everyday people answering timely questions such as “What are you doing to conserve?” Considering hosting a video contest where NES customers can post videos to YouTube that show why their house needs a professional in-home energy evaluation. The person with the most persuasive and creative video would win a free in-home energy evaluation valued at $150. Recommended work could possibly be donated up to $3,500.
Monthly Reports – haven’t tied a dollar amount to social media, upcoming promotions should help us better track our advertising reach, etc. Who – demographics, habits, friends/followers What – volume of buzz, clicks, view-throughs Where – buzz by social channel Why – sentiment or shift in sentiment before, during and after social marketing program, customer satisfaction How – savings per customer (call center vs. online)
Focus Groups – next month What are other utilities doing/saying? In a crisis – listen and learn Use free tools
Leave you today with comments from some of our customers. Customer Satisfaction - Received some great feedback and social media efforts have been very well received.
![About NES ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)