Week 3B

The five organizations I chose analyze are all based here in San Diego County. I work in local government, so I included a couple of government agencies on my list. I decided to look at each organization through the lens of Chapter 1 of Likable Media. So each, of these organizations would be one of the attendees at the “cocktail party” and I formed my opinion using that analogy.

San Diego County Water Authority (CWA)

URL: sdcwa.org

Social Media on Website:

Twitter - Last post February 11^th. On twitter CWA posts links to relevant water stories as well as information on programs and member agencies.

Facebook- Last post February 11^th. CWA posts legislative updates, stories about water history, information on programs and their member agencies.

YouTube – Last post 10 months ago. The CWA has numerous videos posted on their channel. Topics range from water supply information, history, water conservation, and educational landscape training videos.

The CWA invests pretty heavily in social media for a government agency, especially for one that is not a municipality. Their YouTube videos are high quality and educational. Their Twitter and Facebook posts are similar. The CWA is pushing a lot of water industry information mixed with local news, politics, and government programs every day. To me it is a bit much. I think at the cocktail party the CWA would be an interesting guy, but would want to talk too much about what interests him.

City of Vista

URL: Cityofvista.com

Social Media on Website:

Twitter – Last post February 10^th. City makes announcements of projects and events. Uses Twitter to alert area residents of issues, such as road closures and unplanned maintenance that can affect residents.

Facebook – Last post February 7^th, City highlights projects that are in progress or recently completed as well as community events. Also, citizens can post there comments or complaints on the City’s page.

YouTube- Last post over a year ago. Not much happening on the City’s YouTube channel. Just one video “Welcome to the City of Vista”.

Instagram- Last post February 10^th. City posts pictures of projects and events as well as interesting viewpoints like aerial shots of the City.

The City of Vista uses their social media platforms, with the exception of YouTube, extensively. Their twitter feed mirrors their Facebook, except on twitter they advise followers of things like road work and bussing issues. I found it easy to catch up with what is going on around Vista by visiting their Facebook/Twitter sites. Their Instagram provided some interesting photos, but nothing really exciting. I feel like the City’s social media goal is to keep their residents informed of the goings on around the City. There was very little political type of information. At the cocktail party I see the City as someone who keeps tabs on their neighbors, but doesn’t have a lot to say about anything outside their own neighborhood.

Project Design Consultants (PDC)

URL: projectdesign.com

Social Media on Website:

Twitter – Last post February 8^th. PDC tweets out information/updates on their projects, local government news, and re-tweets local government, local politicians, and community news.

Facebook Last Post February 8^th. PDC post the same info they do on Twitter, just with more detail.

LinkedIn – Last post 1month ago. Looks like PDC uses its LinkedIn account primarily for recruiting new employees.

PDC appears to use social media primarily for recruiting new employees. A large percentage of their posts deal with recruitment. Outside that they post about land use projects that they are or will be involved with. Unless I was looking for a job, I really can’t see a reason to visit their social media sites. I see PDC as the boring engineer at the party who might be able to get you a job.

Hunter Industries

URL: hunterindustries.com

Social Media on Website:

Twitter – Last post February 2^nd. Hunter uses Twitter to highlight its outreach and training as well as its products.

Facebook- Last post February 11^th. Hunter uses its Facebook page to highlight its manufacturing, employees, and outreach activities.

YouTube – Last post February 8^th. Hunter uses YouTube to highlight its product line as well as how to videos for the use and maintenance of their irrigation products.

Hunter uses its social media to promote and explain its irrigation products. I felt like their social media posts had two objectives, one to promote themselves and their products, but also to help their sales reps or irrigation contractors. I know if I was selling their products I would find their social media posts helpful. Nothing really exciting or novel going on, but it seems like they have a plan with what they are doing with their posts. If Hunter was at the party he would be the shrewd salesman who would be able to steer social conversations to sales pitches.

Mother Earth Brewery

URL: motherearthbrewco.com

Social Media on Website:

Twitter – Last post February 3^rd. On Twitter, Mother Earth documents outreach events, brewery operations, and get togethers at their taproom.

Facebook – Last post February 11^th. Mother Earth announces new beers, and documents their brewing processes on their Facebook.

Instagram – Last post February 6^th. Their Instagram page has lots of brewery related videos and pictures as well as some videos submitted by the public that contain their products.

Mother Earth’s social media posts mostly revolve around them producing beer and promoting beer related events in San Diego, and recently Idaho (guess they just opened a brewery there). It was easy for me to get a snapshot of what was going on in their world by visiting their social media pages. Not a whole lot of two way interaction going on but Mother Earth’s postings did give me the sense of being part of their “community”. Well let’s face it, if you are having a party, it would be nice to have the brewery show up and I think everyone at the party would find them fun and interesting.

I thought that with the exception of the consulting firm PDC, each one of these organizations were making good use of their social media platforms. In my one visit to PDC’s social media sites I learned all I was going to. I could see myself in the future visiting all of the others because there was information on each of their social media sites that I found interesting. Each definitely had their own unique take on what they wanted to do with their social media messaging. The CWA wants to keep the community informed of all of their programs, political views, and water industry news. Meanwhile, the City of Vista wants you tom know the pothole has been fixed by your house.