If your water utility doesn’t already have a social media presence, should you? The answer is absolutely yes. And, yes, a social media post from a water utility can go viral! In this session, we’ll talk about best practices for optimal social media engagement. Customers need to hear from water utilities not only when their bill is due, but also when there are opportunities for education and well-being. At Louisville Water, we keep our customers in the know about healthy hydration, community partnerships, areas where our crews are working and other infrastructure projects. Keeping a constant flow of information via social media makes communicating good news and not so good news a little easier. If our crews are working a main break and customers are out of service, many of them will head straight to social media looking for information, even before looking on our website. Having a “social first” mentality to communicate with them is proactive and transparent, two practices our customers have responded positively to based on focus groups and feedback. It is also important to keep up to date with social media trends. There’s always a connection, even if it doesn’t seem apparent. What does #NationalPizzaDay have to do with your water utility? Everything. No water, no pizza crust. Participating in these national trending hashtags helps to remind our customers the value that water has in our lives, something that we often but shouldn’t take for granted. We’ll also discuss the best content platforms for water utilities based on the five generations represented in today’s workplace (Traditionalists/Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Gen Z).