The document discusses the Orange County Sanitation District's use of social media to communicate directly with the public. Their goals were to control their own narrative, provide truthful information, and engage where conversations were happening online. Examples showed how they responded quickly on social media to shape coverage of important issues in their favor. They were able to connect with residents and clear up misconceptions with a minimal budget and use of free social media platforms.
1. DESCRIPTIVE LETTER
- SOCIAL MEDIA
1. PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY
Orange County is sandwiched in-between the Los Angeles Media Market
(#2 in the nation) and the San Diego Media Market (anywhere from #22 to
#26). We have one regional paper, The Orange County Register that covers
us. The Los Angeles Times rarely covers us unless it is a sensational story.
Up until a few months ago, they didn’t even have a Orange County Bureau
after disbanding it in the late 90s or early 00s. Additionally, we have local
community papers run mostly by the Orange County Register.
As have all of the newspaper organizations, our newspapers were hit hard
by the recession and changes in technology. The reporters are younger,
less experienced and stretched thin. The stories tend to be sensational,
“gottcha,” or frankly “yellow.”
A few of the headlines in that past year have been, “54% of the sewer district
workers cracked the $100K Club,” “Sanitation District secretly votes on pay
raises,” “Stealth support? Special districts swallow $183 million in taxes,” and
Gobs of money guarantee good credit rating for sewer district.” All the
headlines being sensational, tangential to reality, and severely distorted.
What do you do when your media is outlets are struggling to survive and the
truth ends up being the victim? You use social media to turn the tide.
.
2. INTENDED GOALS OR OUTCOMES
The goals were simple:
• Tell our own story
• Educate, illuminate and substantiate the truth
• Be relevant – participate in the conversation where the dialogue
is happening
The reasons were obvious:
• More Americans get their news from the Internet than from
newspapers of radio
• Be relevant – participate in the conversation where the dialogue
is happening
• 75 % get news via email or updates on social media sites
• Response times have changed dramatically
20 years ago – you had 24 hours to respond
2. 10 years ago – you had 4 hours to respond
2010 – you had 4 minutes
Today – many argue that you need to be in front of the
story or ready to tell your story within minutes
• According to Facebook in our service area of 2.5 million people,
1,255,040 of those have a Facebook account
That number grew by 201,200 from July 2011 to February
2012
• During the past year, the Orange County Register changed their
comment section to Facebook
3. DOCUMENTATION OF ACHIEVEMENT
The attached presentation outlines a few of our big successes this year.
Example 1: Grand Jury Report
The Orange county Grand Jury released a report on transparency within
special districts. We knew the report would be released but we did not know
when. We were ready and as soon as it was released, we issued a statement
through Facebook, our website, Twitter, Posterous and other social media
sites.
Result: The paper did not come out with the story until 24 hours later. We
had taken the wind out of their sails by agreeing with the Grand Jury and
issuing examples through social media on all the ways we were transparent.
The story died quickly. The local newspaper columnist told us we had killed
their story before they even had time to write it.
Example 2: Publication on photo in Fountain Valley Living
We have some very talented employees that outside hobbies include
photography. We posted a few of those photos on Facebook. A local news
magazine saw the photo and asked to post it in their monthly magazine. The
magazine goes to every resident and business in the city (approx. 65,000)
Result:
The magazine ran the photo on a full page on the first page of the magazine.
They added the words “Steel Beauty.” They took a photo of a sewage
treatment plant and got people to see it in a completely different light. The
full-page ad would have cost us almost $4,000.
3. Example 3: Successful community relations
A tragic accident involving a 18 year old girl occurred near one of our
construction sites. The construction was not the cause of the accident
however, residents lashed out at the Sanitation District as a cause. They
portrayed the District as a non-feeling government entity.
We responded to their concerns with an honest, factual and caring message
through Facebook where the conversations were occurring. Most importantly,
we put a real person’s name on it.
Result:
The conversation quickly turned when they knew we cared. Then, they were
willing to listen. We were able to respond quickly and with empathy and the
story ended quickly. The neighborhood had already talked about contacting
the Los Angles television news stations. If those calls were made, the story
would have escalated quickly. Our response allowed us to respond with the
community and many of our employees participated in community fundraising
events to help with the young girl’s medical care.
Please see the attachment for more examples. You can also visit our
website at www.ocsewers.com, www.facebook.com/OCsanitationdistrict,
Twitter @OCSD_PIO, Posterous at http://ocsewers.posterous.com/,
http://storify.com/ocsd_pio, www.youtube.com/2OCSD, LinkedIn and
Google+.
View slide presentations on our Social Media program at
http://www.slideshare.net/smorgan/social-media-presentation-8536424,
http://prezi.com/cltfobhff79d/capio-presentation/
4. BUDGET AND OUTSIDE RESOURCES
Budget: $300
Constant Contact e-newsletter = $24 per month
Prezi, Slide Share, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Posterous, Storify,
Google+ = $0