Week 17

I took this class to get a better understanding of how social media works, and how public agencies, specifically water agencies, can utilize social media to enhance communication with their customers. Currently, the agency I work for does not utilize social media. However, our water wholesaler is very active on social media so we have some exposure on social media through them.

This class has made me much more aware of the philosophy associated with social media campaigns and how remedial most government social media campaigns are. I now realize the most important aspect of social media for an agency like mine is not to open social media accounts, create some content, and share and re-tweet as much as possible (which the water industry promotes as the best way to have a successful social media presence). But rather start out with a clear and defined plan and desired outcomes.

At our core, water agencies are all monopolies with defined service areas. There is no need to grow our business or to break into new market places by using social media. For my employer, I think having clearly defined goals for the use of social media, and in turn communicating that to our customers will in the end be the best way to utilize social media for both ours and our customers benefit.

Our main interests in social media are to use it to communicate during emergencies, such as a major earthquake, or situations like water main breaks and water service outages. We also want to use it to make customers aware of changes in local laws and available incentive or education programs. I think explaining to our customers the benefit to liking or following us on social media, rather than sharing or re-tweeting as much as possible will create a mutually beneficial line of communication. This is completely different from all of the water agency social media campaigns that I am familiar with. Most feeds are water industry data dumps. I don’t think your average water agency customer finds benefit to that. Through this class I learned that finding out how you can benefit your customers is a key facet of engagement in social media communication.  It’s clear to me now, that water agencies in general, are not properly prepared to engage their customers on social media

The social media platform I am most interested in utilizing at this time is Nextdoor. I feel that our agency and water agencies in general are able to get great results with very little work on Nextdoor. I think it’s the perfect “gateway” social media platform for local agencies to use to disseminate information to customers while not requiring the previously mentioned planning and engagement that other platforms need to be successful.

Going forward, I hope to bring the lessons learned in this class to the management of our district to craft an online presence that meets our needs and benefits our community.

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!

Week 16A

At this point the social media platform that works best in my opinion is Nextdoor. Its role as a community message board fits in with the types of messages water agencies try and get out. Announcement of classes, changes in local regulations, and possibly things like planned and unplanned maintenance that can affect traffic or access. It is a perfect platform for Ad Hoc messaging. No need to worry about engagement in the same way that you would with other platforms such as Facebook.

I enjoyed learning about how interconnected all of the different platforms can be, so I really didn’t have a favorite. Also, I don’t think it’s wise to pick favorites because of the speed of evolution of online communication. What may work great this year, may not next.

It’s clear to me now; if you are going to have a social media presence you really need a Facebook page, or possibly a twitter account depending on your business. Facebook’s tools allow you to focus and assess your online marketing efforts.

I think for water agencies that the Facebook and Twitter work on a daily basis, more so than something like Nextdoor or Instagram. The only reason I could see water agencies posting on a daily basis is commenting on news or political stories that affect the water industry in some way. In San Diego, the dominate player in the water industry is the San Diego County Water Authority. They are heavily involved in state politics as well as having many different high profile legal issues that they as an agency choose to use social media to keep its constituents informed or defend their actions.

15A

So I have seen these tools used to update elected officials regarding online advertising campaign.  Really they were used by staff to show that the online campaign in question is doing numbers a higher rate (better than average) that comparable campaigns. So I think that is how many government agencies use tools like this. To show that tax payer money is not being wasted on an in-effective campaign.

After looking at a Google’s demo analytics site, four of the available features stood out to me, Overview, Demographics, Behavior, and Mobile.

Getting a quick overview of data is always nice before looking into the sub-sets of data. It also would help in producing reports, such as to elected officials, regarding website performance.

The demographics information can be helpful in a few different ways. First if an agency is trying to get the attention of homeowners (very common) the age data can verify if that is the group that is responding to your advertising. Also, in general it would be nice to know what age group most visits your website.

I think that the behavior statistics probably are the most valuable in assessing the success of advertising or your website design. Understanding the how people are relating to your content is at the crux of online marketing. Using the information of frequency, new vs. returning can help you understand if the new campaign you just launched is being effective at driving the people you want to your website.

Finding out what devices your visitors are using can be used to optimize your customers’ experience. Why design (or pay to advertise) on a platform that is rarely used by your customers?

Used all together, Google’s analytics tools can be a powerful way to understanding how people are reacting to your online presence.

Week 14

I created this ad to target homeowners 25-65 years old on Facebook and Instagram. The picture shows the same house, with a large lawn, and then after the lawn has been replaced. The ad’s objective is to drive traffic to a webpage that promotes water wise landscaping programming which could include incentives, classes, or just general information on water wise landscaping.

 

I think this ad will work because it has some humor, and there is a call to action. I left out a logo, so it’s a little mysterious, I think that might make people curious and will encourage them to find out more.

13B

Social media ads should to be visual, easily consumable, and the content should cater to your target audience. Everyone I asked about ads that caught there eye on Facebook said that the only think that made them click on the ad was the image. Therefore, the image or graphics should be the part of the ad that receives the most focus when designing an ad. Aside from the image ads should contain a call to action.

Ads can be placed in different locations on a page. For example Facebook ads can be in the news feed or the right side column. Facebook has a feature called Automatic Placements, that will track the success of your ads based upon placement then will adjust your ad budget to optimize where your ads are placed. If I was placing ads of Facebook for the first time I would definitely use the Automatic Placement feature.

Water agencies use social media ads for things like contests, or for public outreach messaging. A good example is an ad being used by the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) to promote an Instagram photo contest in the month of May. Agencies would use ads like this to hopefully boost their online audience, which at this point is what most agencies are concerned with when it comes to social media.

 

I seriously doubt any public water agency would pay for sales boosting, the media (local news) would have a field day with that.

 

 

13A

Water agencies utilize social media advertising on an ad hoc basis. Water agencies use social media to inform the public about things like droughts or public outreach programs, each of which has a beginning and end. So, when looking into advertising by public agencies it helps if there is a major issue such as a drought to see how they use social media ads. Well, the drought is over and so is much of the communication being done by water agencies via social media ads.

 

Currently, for the most part water agencies are posting information, and true advertising. The San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) just launched a Instagram contest for May, Water Awareness month which appears on Twitter & Facebook.

 

I do not view water agency social media advertising as particularly effective for a couple of reasons. First, I don’t think that they reach new people in general. Most of the people who view water agency social media advertising are in government, media, or associated with the water or environmental industry. In other words people who already “get” the message.

 

The other reason, is that using social media to communicate with the public is new to public agencies and few have staff that truly knows the medium or has the time to dedicate to produce content.

 

Today, I think that traditional advertising used by water agencies is more effective because it reaches a broader audience. However, it is costly. The Metropolitan Water District (MWD) recently began a new advertising campaign that has a budget of 4.8 million. I believe that as time goes on and water agencies become more dedicated to social media advertising it will ultimately become as effective as traditional advertising. 

12B

I believe that water agencies can use coupon networks to promote programs. I’m not aware of any that are using them now, but I’m pretty sure that will change.

A few years back (before coupon networks existed) I was tasked at work to develop a car wash coupon program. The basics of the program was to negotiate with car washes that re-circulate (reuse) wash water to accept discount coupons in exchange for being promoted as water smart by local water districts. The program was never implemented partly because we felt that it would be difficult for water districts to promote a coupon program. With the advent of coupon networks that is no longer the case. 

Water districts are monopolies, and as such, having a Yelp account probably would not make much sense. However, if you were to search for my employer there are reviews on Yelp. It is something that we from time to time check in on and if a reviewer raised a legitimate issue in their review, we would take the time to see if we needed to make changes. So far, that has not happened yet, but its another way for us to assess how the public views us. 

Sent from my iPad

12A

I don’t think I’m going to be able to come up with four additional online marketing tools that water districts can use. Water districts not trying to drum up business, the primary use of social media by water districts is to push information out to constituents. Examples would include; incentives, new rules or laws, or to push a program(s) such as landscape water efficiency. In fact, many times we are telling our customers minimize the use of our product such as was the case during the latest drought. So, our social media needs are different from a business that seeks to keep and find customers.

 

The only additional online marketing tool that I know if useful for water districts is Nextdoor.  If you are unfamiliar with Nextdoor, it functions like a community bulletin board. Users can post information on a newsfeed that can be viewed only by other users in their local Nextdoor “neighborhood”.  For example, lost cats and dogs are common posts, or inquiring about police activity.  Nextdoor is organized into “neighborhoods” that are sections of cities. Water agencies are easily able to target community messages, such as announcing a meeting or event to the Nextdoor users their service territory.  It’s turned out to be a really useful tool for local water agencies.

 

Water districts do use Google apps, but not for marketing to an online audience. We may use Google Docs & Google Earth for example to help create new programs that the public can participate in, but not as a marketing tool, the Google offerings are used behind the scene to create front facing materials.  If you are in a business that collaborates with others businesses or you have multiple locations/and/or partners, Google’s apps are a great way to work together and share. 

11B

I commented on the following Blogs:

Davina Croft
Sonya McAurthur
Jordyn Getz

Week 11A

Newsletters are an important method of communication for many government agencies. For water agencies, they are used to inform the public of required reports, such as annual water quality reports, incentive programs, education programs, and keep customers up to date on any capital improvements projects.

Newsletters are a great way for a water agency to communicate to customers on current news topics in the water industry as well. A great current example is lead in water supplies. Ever since the problems in Flint Michigan, there has been increased scrutiny of the lead content in water. This has led to the state passing new laws regarding lead testing and a number of new stories about lead testing. Using a newsletter a water district could address the issue of lead in water on a local level.

Generally, water districts put out newsletters a few times a year. If, a water district is municipal its news is generally included with the rest of the city’s information and those newsletters are commonly sent out once a month.

Week 10B

I'm having a hard time coming up with labels for a government agency blog. I'm don't think that communicating with constituents using a blog is the best way for and agency to communicate. It would be more appropriate for a law making entity, such as a legislature or an agency like the EPA to have a blog. These agencies would have many different efforts going on simultaneously.
Being able to name each individual process in a blog would be crucial.

I posted on the following blogs
Andrew Sterk
Carlo Alison
Davina Croft

Week 10A

Adding human interest content to blog posts seems critical to developing an on-going relationship with customers. When thinking about this assignment I thought about the TV show “Cheers”. The show starts off with an iconic theme song that symbolized what the bar in show is all about.

Similarly, I think that people would prefer to engage in your blog if they felt like they know you as a person. Additionally, I think having some sort of personal reference makes it easier to people to respond or post on your blog. Most people find it easier to talk with people that they know rather than strangers.

Working in government, many times it is not appropriate to offer a personal touch. Many government communications must be limited to factual information and must not appear to favor any person or group.

Week 8B

I believe that some form of visuals work for every business using social media, including water districts. The nature of posting on social media is that the posts are brief; pictures really add a depth of understanding to a post. For example, if a water district were to post about a community event, it’s difficult to convey the general feel of the event. By adding a few pictures it really helps the reader to understand what the event was like.

Water districts have large amounts of infrastructure, AKA waterworks. Trying to explain waterworks in a post is pretty much impossible. Add a few pictures, and people can understand much better about what you are talking about.

San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA)

The SDCWA is a regional water wholesaler for San Diego County. They have an extensive online presence relatively speaking when compared to most water agencies. The visual social media that the SDCWA uses are Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter.

On Facebook, the SDCWA has about 8,000 followers. In general they post multiple times a day. They highlight education programs, infrastructure, and relevant news topics. On their posts, they are getting from 0-100 likes and rarely get comments, which is pretty typical for the industry as a whole.

Outside of pictures at events, news story photography, and pictures of their projects, the imagery they use is mostly stock images which tend to make their posts less engaging. Unfortunately, public agencies don’t have a budget for professional photography, but I think in some instances they could do a better job with the images they use. For example, they promote fixing leaks with stock photos of dripping faucets and showerheads. I think they could take photos showing of the leaks that they fix on their infrastructure and use those to promote fixing leaks.

They also post a few educational videos which they produce. I think the videos are well done and are effective in communicating a message to the public. Overall, I think the SDCWA does a good job with the limited resources that they have for imagery on their Facebook page

On Twitter the SDCWA has about 3,000 followers and gets about the same number of likes as their Facebook page. The use of visuals mirrors what is seen on their Facebook page.

Their YouTube channel has 250 subscribers and their different videos can get anywhere from about 20 views to over 35,000. The videos are well done and consist of educational videos, information on projects, and PSA’s. The videos that get the most views tend to be about the drought, which had captured the public’s interest at the time. I think that their YouTube channel has a lot of great information, but someone has to have the time to sit through the videos. I think that the SDCWA could post the videos on their Facebook and Twitter accounts to make them more accessible.

Their Flickr page has 11 followers. The photos they share depict the SDCWA’s public outreach events. I really liked the photos, but based on the number of followers it seems that the daily activities of government outreach staff are not that interesting. Really, I think their Flickr page is a way to share photos for the agency staff themselves rather than engaging the public.

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD)

MWD is the largest water district in the United States. The visual media sites it uses are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Like the SDCWA, MWD uses social media quite extensively compared to most water agencies.

MWD’s Facebook page has about 19,000 followers. They usually post a few times a week. The posts get anywhere from 0-100 likes and a handful of comments. MWD posts on educational events, PSA’s, and water supply information.

For an agency with the resources that MWD has, I am disappointed on the lack of visuals on their Facebook page. I think they could do a much better job collecting images from their service territory (all of southern California) to share. I did not find their page “engaging” more like a blog posting information. I do not feel their Facebook page is being used as effectively as it could be, and their visuals are sorely lacking.

Their Twitter page has about 3,300 followers and their posts get 0-100 likes. Their Twitter page has a lot more community outreach pictures than their Facebook page. It does a much better job of communicating the human element of their business than what is seen on their Facebook page.

 MWD’s YouTube page has 97 followers and a handful of videos. It’s obvious that they do not invest many resources in this platform. If it went away, no one would notice.

Their Instagram page has about 1,600 followers. MWD posts lots of community photos which seem to act as a repository rather than an effort to engage the public.

California Water Resources Control Board (State Board)

The State Board is a regulatory agency that deals with water quality, rights, and recently water supply issues within the state. The State Board has a Twitter account which has about 6,200 followers and depending on what’s going on in the state can post anywhere from a few times a week to a few time a day. They are lucky if anyone likes their posts. They do not use many visuals and when they do they are mostly infographics and maps.

I can’t think why anyone would follow this page unless they were in the water industry or the media. The information on their Twitter account does not lend itself to using a lot of visuals.  I would say that the maps and graphics they utilize are useful but hardly compelling.

Pure Water San Diego (Pure Water)

Pure Water is a City of San Diego program that aims to produce about 1/3 of the drinking water in San Diego by purifying wastewater.

Week 8

I linked an Instagram account to my business' Facebook page

https://instagram.com/socalwaterdistrict

 Visual Networks for Business

As a public agency, a few of the visual networks stand out as the most useful. Facebook serves as a kind of home base or hub for the different social media platforms. I can’t imagine a business not utilizing Facebook as part of its social media presence. It would be the first platform I would utilize.

YouTube enables public agencies to distribute educational video content to its constituents easily. Videos can keep the community informed on projects, or education programs. A water district can use YouTube to promote water awareness educational videos, such as landscape training, and explain capital improvement projects. I won’t be using YouTube as part of this class, because I have no ability to create any worthwhile content. However, if the Southern California Water District was a real agency I would definitely create a channel on YouTube.

Twitter can support an agency’s other online platforms. In addition, Twitter would be very useful in case of an emergency situation such as a large earthquake or fire. Public agencies would be able to push out up to date information via Twitter regarding hazards or in the case of water districts, water quality issues during an emergency (boil water alerts).

Instagram could be useful for an agency. The problem is creating content. Inherently, water agencies in general are pretty boring. Some of the most interesting content, such as water treatment facilities, are subject to Homeland Security regulations, very little imagery could be posted of those types of facilities. If an agency does a lot of events, or is involved in new capital improvement projects I can see how Instagram would be useful.

I view the rest of the listed visual networks as being less useful to public water agencies as part of a social media presence. I’m sure water agencies with a different customer base (large regional agencies) might be able to use Google+ but I don’t see much use in Tumblr, Pinterest, or particularly Snapchat. The temporary nature of Snapchat does not lend itself to water agency business.

Week 7B

I chose to use the scheduling tool for these posts because they each of them are items that will be relevant in the near future. It looks like rain next week so I scheduled a post reminding people of the state laws restricting irrigation during rainy periods. Also, next week is Fix a Leak Week, so I scheduled a post about that. Lastly, each week on Thursday, the US drought monitor publishes a map depicting the drought conditions across the state. People seem to have an interest in that info, so I posted a link to appear on Thursday afternoon.

I hope people will find these posts of interest because they are providing timely information.

Week 7A

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

San Diego County Water Authority

Pure Water San Diego

State of California Water Resources Control Board

State of California Department of Water Resources

Municipal Water District of Orange County

Eastern Municipal Water District

The primary reason I chose these agencies is that they are all government agencies. My “business” is a public water agency and therefore cannot promote or provide a forum for private businesses. Each of these agencies is either in the water industry or regulates water in the state of California.

I hope to gather relevant articles and content from each of these agencies to provide information to my customer base.

Water agencies would not use this feature to grow its business, rather to raise awareness in the general public about water related issues, programs, or possibly status updates on public works projects.

Week 6

The term post reach refers at anyone who has seen your post, while post engagement signifies that someone has clicked, responded, liked, etc. your post. When I think about these two terms it reminds me of the early days of the internet and chat rooms. Anyone could enter or “reach” a chat room but that did not mean that they participated in the conversation they could just “lurk”. That’s what I did for the most part in chat rooms back in the day. However, every now and again someone would say something in one of these chat rooms that would get my attention and I would participate or “engage” in the conversation.

I think the whole point of having an online presence for businesses is to engage existing and hopefully new customers. Post engagement seems critical to that goal. Meanwhile, post reach alone is better than nothing but probably means little to a successful social media campaign for a business. I cannot count how many times messaging reaches me each day on the internet. It all tends to be background noise, part of the experience of being online.

Going back to my chat room analogy, I would enter chat rooms just to have something in the background while I did other things on the computer. It would take something of real interest to get me to engage in the chat room conversation and it’s the same way today on social media. Someone (or entity) really has to post something of personal interest to get me to stop what I am doing and engage. Additionally, there is also a timeliness factor involved when trying to bridge the gap from just reaching someone to getting engagement. In general, I do not always need a product or service but when I do if your business has a relevant message and I have a good experience, I’ll likely come back.

Being able to distinguish what messages work and when they work is important for understanding how to communicate with customers via social media. Facebook Insights is a tool that can provide a business with the data to understand how their messaging is being consumed. Facebook Insights provides you with the days and times your customers are online, which is important for a business to know. Additionally, Facebook Insights provides demographic, location, and numbers for people who liked your page. Using this data a business can begin to craft timely messages for the customers who have engaged with their Facebook page. If I know that I have a following of customers who is online after work, I can focus my messaging during that timeframe. Additionally, if I find most of my customers are under 30, I’ll refine my message for that age group. By using the tools available in Facebook Insights, a business can learn to produce that timely message that catches customers’ attention and hopefully results in engagement.

Week 5B

Target Market for Southern California Water District

Water Districts are monopolies; customers do not have a choice of where they buy their water from. Therefore, water districts do not seek out new customers, they attempt to educate and influence their existing customers in order to manage a natural resource. For this exercise, an ideal customer would support a water district in supply development (capital costs) and demand management (conservation).  Both of these issues are multi-year if not multi-decade efforts. The challenge for water districts is to engage customers during these long term slow moving efforts. I hope to utilize social media to educate and influence customers to support both water supply development and conservation projects and programs.

Week 5A

Tericafe

Tericafe has a simple and eye pleasing website. They promote the fact that they are locals that have been in business for a long time. Their website really is an invitation to come into the restaurant and eat. They provide the basic information like the menu and lunch/dinner specials and highlight that they make their own noodles.

It appears their target market is locals that want to eat at some place quick and affordable but definitely not “fast food”. Their call to action is to come to their restaurant and enjoy quality food; served quick, and at affordable prices. They use pictures of their food to inspire to viewer to eat at their place. Their brand is their food.

Chilis

On Chili’s website’s homepage there are pictures of food and an invitation to start your order immediately over the internet. Scroll down and you see pictures of food that you can buy for a party or game day. They highlight the bold favor of their food and show pictures of spices and flavorings.

Chili’s website promotes their restaurant as a piece of Americana. They describe briefly describe how they started the restaurant as a dream, where people could come and hang out and eat southwestern food in a fun atmosphere. From there they use pictures from each decade starting in the 1970’s that depict Chili’s growing and evolving with the times but still being true to their roots. Obviously Chili’s is selling an idea as well as their food. Their target audience is people who want bold spicy food either at home, at a party, or at a Chili’s restaurant where you can enjoy bold food in a fun atmosphere.

The differences that stands out to me is that Chili’s is selling an image/lifestyle along with their food. They obviously target sports fans with their advertising and food selections. Tericafe on the other hand is all about the food. I didn’t find any subtleties with the Tericafe. Chili’s on the other hand was definitely selling themselves as part of the fabric of American culture.

I don’t think that Tericafe spent a lot of time thinking about who their audience is when designing their website. Chili’s obviously did. They want sports fans to know that they are a go to restaurant for a good time, and can cater your party or sporting based event. Their customers likes spicy in your face type food and eating at Chili’s is more like an event then just going out to eat.

I’m sure there are a number of people who eat at both places. They are both affordable casual dining. People probably go to Chili’s when there is a game on and you want to have appetizers and beer and get a little rowdy. The same people may go to Tericafe when they just want a quick affordable meal, without all of the atmosphere.