Week 16B

As a public water agency, we would use social media to disseminate information, rather than selling a product or service. Therefore the first thing that would have to be established is our internal rules for how social media is to be used and who has access to the account(s). For example, elected officials may want to use social media to promote themselves during an election, which should be forbidden. Once the rules are established I believe they should be posted on our website so customers and our elected board members understand how the district uses social media. 

Simultaneously, I would review our website to make sure it is ready to be the backbone of our up-coming social media efforts. Once the rules are in place and any updates or changes to the website have been completed, it would be then time to discuss with the public outreach group a plan that can be submitted to the Board for approval. Once a plan is approved I would set up a year’s calendar to schedule postings approved in the plan. This would probably include board items, water quality reports, and water industry campaigns, like water awareness month.

I believe that the District should have a Facebook, Twitter, and Nextdoor account. Maybe after a while add an Instagram account. I think the District should use its traditional marketing method of in bill newsletters to invite customers to engage with the District’s social media. From the beginning the District should explain what it will use social media for e.g. providing pertinent information to its customers and ask them to sign up and tell us what they would like to see in our social media posts. Hopefully we get some responses that we can consider. Either way, during the first few months or so, staff would have to report daily on our interactions on social media, which would then go to the board for twice a month updates.

I would imagine that we would limit our posts to a couple of pre-planning messages for the first couple of months. From there I would hope we would branch out and use social media to inform customers of issues, such as broken mainlines and up-coming construction projects. I think that ultimately this will be the type of messaging that the district and its customers will find value in thus growing our online presence.

As far as staff time, it’s going to be some ungodly number of man hours at first. I’ll say to get a Facebook account and a few posts on the account it will take 200-300 man hours. From there, I imagine that a few hours of work a week would be the average. That could change based upon things such as emergency conditions and hopefully a successful campaign that demands more attention!