By Alan Heymann, DC Water Chief of External Affairs
Kate Peabody, CH2M HILL, will present, “Social Media Demonstrate Their Worth for Utilities and Their Stakeholders,” which she co-authored with Alan Heymann, DC Water; Kasey Hurlbutt, CH2M HILL; and Sarah Merrill, CH2M HILL, at the joint Water Environment Federation and American Water Works Association Utility Management Conference on February 1 from 11:30 AM-12:00 PM.
Social media is used as an increasingly broad term to refer to the tools and platforms that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with one another, all from the comfort of their personal computer, smart phone, or from evolving new technologies. Social media is designed to foster two- and multi-way conversations and link people to information, resources, and other people.
A few years ago when DC Water was going through a rebranding campaign, DC Water management wanted to expand and increase how the organization interacted with its stakeholders—it serves 16 million individuals a year but only reaches about 130,000 customers with bills, a traditional mode of regular communications to customers. I was brought on as director of public affairs during that time and immediately gave my team the “go” to activate DC Water profiles on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, and have since experienced tremendous success with social media.
On an average day, I dedicate about 10 percent of my time to social media. While originally I was the main individual monitoring and responding on these channels, to ease any nervousness from management by having an experienced public affairs specialist always on call, I have since trained three members of our communications team to share in the work-load. This time is spent monitoring the conversation about DC Water, responding to comments and Tweets, sharing timely photos and information, and ensuring that the DC Water’s communication goals and key messages are clear. DC Water’s presence on social networks and our use of existing social media platforms provides a number of benefits for both DC Water and our stakeholders, including:
-Helping our communities understand the services and value we provide
-Exceptional customer service
-Helping consumers understand where their water comes from and pricing
-Engaging stakeholders in conversations about potential or ongoing projects
-Promoting conservation and social change
-Allowing DC Water to connect with the media
-Providing visible leadership in our communities
-Building an overall better brand image for DC Water
Since DC Water implemented its social media program and began promoting the use of Twitter as an effective channel for customers to report problems, e-mails to the general purpose box have decreased. In addition, social media have helped DC Water to better diagnose and fix customer problems. Before social media, an individual may have seen a clogged catch basin and just walked by it, not even bothering to find a phone number and make a call to report it. Today, someone can take a quick snapshot of the problem with a smart phone and send the photo and location to DC Water on Twitter, and I will send the information to the command service center via e-mail. At the command center, the photo helps representatives better diagnose the issue than a phone call can and speeds dispatching a service truck with the right equipment.
Overall, social media channels have enabled DC Water to reach more of our stakeholders in an engaging, two-way forum, meeting our original goals. The channels allow us to have our finger on the pulse of our stakeholders at all moments so that we know what the main concerns are, where potential problems are, and what the organization could be doing better, as well as to understand what the agency does well and how it is viewed by the community. We have also been able to streamline our customer service and problem reporting capabilities while at the same time improving customer satisfaction. For DC Water, adding social media into our integrated communications campaign was the right tactic to take at the right time, and because we have focused on “doing it right or not doing it at all,” the organization is reaping numerous benefits from its growing online community, which will continue to provide value as major capital improvement projects commence.
Alan Heymann is Chief of External Affairs for the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water). He leads a team of 11 in managing DC Water’s relationships with its customers, the media, the federal and District governments, and various other internal and external stakeholders.
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Yakir Hasit will present his paper, “An Industry Survey of Best Practices and Performance Metrics Related to the 10 Attributes,” co-authored with Fair Yeager and Mike Matichich of CH2M HILL, at the joint Water Environment Federation and American Water Works Association
Dale Jutlia will present his paper on, “Prioritizing Utility O&M Activities Improves Financial Prudence and Produces Other Benefits,” which he coauthored in conjunction with John Goodrich, at joint Water Environment Federation and American Water Works Association 
By Brian Fuerst, CH2M HILL Senior Project Manager

