More and more utilities are using social media to communicate with customers, and the Wall Street Journal has taken notice, as it published a report this week on how social media is "empowering utilities."
Utilities are using Twitter and Facebook for daily communications and marketing, and YouTube and Flickr for projects and consumer information. The article reports that the most common use, as we already know in the industry, is during power outages.
Hurricane Sandy last year led customers to send more than 90,000 tweets to PSE&G, based in Newark, N.J. As the crisis took hold, the company says, it assigned 22 staff members to read and send tweets 15 hours a day, responding to customer queries, posting safety information and giving updates on power restoration. By the time service was back to normal, says Jenn Kramer, who oversees social media for Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., PEG +1.41% the utility's parent, the company had posted 9,000 tweets, and the number of followers for its three Twitter accounts had jumped to a total of 57,845 from 14,787 before the storm... (The Wall Street Journal)
