How water utilities and others in the public-works sector can use Twitter to communicate effectively

1. Twitter 101 for Water Utilities
Brian Gongol
Nebraska Rural Water Conference
March 18, 2014

2. Twitter is the best free tool
currently available for public outreach

3. 1. It's Free

4. 2. It's Easy
Short messages mean there's
no getting discouraged

5. 3. It's Widely Used in Journalism

6. 4. It's Built for Speed
Especially for smartphones

7. 5. It's Easy to Learn
If you can send a text,
you can send a Tweet

8. 6. It Emphasizes Interaction
Engaged water customers
beat disinterested ones

9. What does it look like in action?

10. Emergency Announcements

11. Factoids

12. Justifying Rates and Fees

13. Community Engagement

14. Public Notice/Sunshine Laws

15. For the Record

16. Job Listings and RFQs

17. Do social media sites really matter?
73% of adults who use the Internet
use at least one form of social media
Pew Internet Project, December 2013
http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/12/30/social-media-update-2013/

18. Who's really on Twitter?
Sports fanatics
Journalists
Politicians

19. Who's really on Twitter?
Sports fanatics
Journalists
Politicians
2 of 3 are key audiences
for water utilities

20. Why Twitter before Facebook?
Short messages
discourage long
rants

21. Why Twitter before Facebook?
140-character limit
requires less
commitment
Less commitment
means more follow-through

22. Why Twitter before Facebook?
Twitter was built for
mobile first
Facebook has (with
difficulty) adapted to
mobile second

23. The big picture
Demographics matter
If we want more
respect, we have to
earn it with the young
Why do you think we
have legal marijuana and
gay marriage?
Demographics.
Where are young
people? Twitter.

24. It's OK to have some fun, too

25. Until something better comes along
Free
Immediate
Direct
Reliable
Universally accessible
Built for remote use
Easy to learn