How Can Social Media Work for Non-Sexy Brands?

Scott:Thanks for joining me today. One of the best ways we can learn how to humanize our content to make better connections with our audience is by hearing how other people have done it. At the 2023 Content Marketing World Conference in Washington, D. C.,

John Gonzalez gave a presentation on how he learned about social media. From the sewers. Now that may sound puzzling at first, but you should know what John does. He is the senior manager of communications for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. Part of his job is handling their social media pages.

So with that in mind, let me ask you this. How often do you seek out the social media pages for public utilities in your town? And if you did, well, what would you expect? Maybe the better question is, if you were in John's position, how would you use social media? Maybe you would share work updates, city announcements, meeting summaries, you know, exciting stuff like that.

Well, John said that is how they used to approach social media.

John: Our social media strategy evolved over time. We built it really as an extension of our communications department, which was an opportunity for us to reach our customers and let them know what's happening in their area. We have a meeting coming up, we have a project coming up, we wanted them to know that we are going to be active in their community, and that the service we provide was part of their day.

daily life. But the information wasn't necessarily relevant to them. I mean, most of us don't care about when our sewer utility boards are meeting. Most of us don't care about what our electricity provider, how often they're having public meetings. They care when there's a problem. They care when, when they reach a point in their life when they realize I need something from this service.

I need customer service. I have a billing issue. And so the fact that we were putting information out didn't mean that we were relevant to our customers experience. So over time we realized that the social media space allowed us to be conversational in a way that other mediums had not provided in the past.

So we began to change with that and began to make our voice on social media much more human, much more conversational, and much more real for our customers. To demonstrate a few things. First of all, show them we were listening. Secondly, it showed them that we were relevant to the information they were most interested in.

And lastly, we wanted them to know that we would respond to them and be able to help them as best we could. Um, it doesn't always mean that customers would be happy with a construction project in their neighborhood, but they would be able to trust us to understand if something is happening, we want to do what's best.

Uh, for the, the region to serve them as best we can and we're out there and we're trying to do our work in a way that benefits them as a customer and the environment overall. That strategy took time. We have expanded how we are present across a number of channels. And really it's about having that sense of responsiveness and responsibility, uh, to be present to our customers wherever they may be.  

Scott: Now there's something he just said that's really critical. He said he realized that social media was a conversational tool. Actually the bigger point is that the regional sewer district saw it as a conversational tool. Think about how many brands use social media similar to the ways that John just described.

Basically it's just one way communications that the brand sees as important. But maybe the audience doesn't have any interest in it. More importantly, think about the brands who use social media that way because they say, Well, we're just not in a sexy industry. So social media as a social tool wouldn't really work for us.

Nobody would talk to us anyway. And this is why John's story is so important. He could have said the exact same thing about the sewers.

John: What we began to realize is that the human aspect of our work was where we started to have the most engagement, just being real and conversational with people. Prior to that, as I said, there were a lot of formal announcements, press releases, things that we would simply echo on our social channels. One of the ways we found that the personalities where we began to gain some traction was because we had a spokes drop, a mascot for our sewer utility work.

And that character had a Twitter account. And the types of interactions we were having there were much more real and authentic, conversational, humorous than our formal N. E. O. R. S. D. Twitter account. Why can't we pick up what's working in our, in our personalized mascot account and simply use that same real human tone of voice with our official N.

1. O. R. S. D. account. And that shift, it still took some time, but that shift began to demonstrate that this was a real account, this wasn't an automated feature that was just simply posting links to our content. We were having real conversations and engaging in opportunities that made the most sense. We're not going to simply operate our social media between the hours of 8 and 5 when there's someone in the office.

We have someone who's actually doing this, I mean myself, managing these accounts and keeping tabs on what's happening, so we can be conversational real time. Even if it's a 10 o'clock at night or 5 o'clock in the morning, that conversation can take place. because people are on social media at all hours of the day.

And that true presence, and that true responsiveness, and transparency in those exchanges, we're demonstrating to our customers, this is a real account I can trust.

The mascot existed in the previous context, and we used him a lot for outreach.

Scott: I love the mascot idea. I've talked to brands about doing this very thing. And it's interesting because we were just talking about how some may see the idea of having any sort of fun or conversations or, you know, really any creativity on a social media page because we're too serious or we are not a sexy brand or we're not in a very fascinating or exciting industry.

But again, John and his team made this work. I mean, you develop a mascot, align it with your brand, give it some personality, and who knows what can happen. The alternative sometimes is a social media feed that looks like A logo is talking back to the person.

I've also suggested that if you want to avoid that and look a little more human, find somebody at your company that can be the face of your organization on social media. Maybe it's X, maybe it's LinkedIn, or at least a place where their face can be there and they can still have your logo and everything like on the page, you know, like on the banner or something.

And it's clear this is the person. person who you're talking to on social media, but at least it's a human. But if you don't have anybody like that, or you don't have anybody that really wants to do that, you know, in a very formal way, the mascot might be a really good idea and you have full control over what that mascot looks like, what their personality traits are.

And at least it gives you a means, a creative means to have some conversations with your audience. For John's team, they came up with Wally water drop.

Scott: The Wally Waterdrop character really began as a scholastic character. But we began to give him a bit more of a snarky attitude at times, because we're utility. We can have some of that humor that perhaps a standard water utility or maybe a power utility might not be able to, to embrace. But we embrace the humor of our sewer work and that personality replicated well when we moved it over to our, in the ORSD account.

Now I think it's important to point out that even though they have this mascot element that helped inspire the changes they made to being more conversational with their audience, they still understand there's a time and a place for everything. Not everything has to be a joke, outside of humor, they still have to infuse a bit of humility, and obviously they have to help the people in their community.

John: We try to balance our social media with a combination of three different things. A sense of humor, a sense of humility, and a sense of humanity, and that combination is REAP does benefits, I think, in terms of building good relationships with our, with our followers and with our customers specifically. A sense of humor is critical in our work because as, as I said, as a sewer utility, we all know people talk about poop.

We talk about things with our kids. Kids ask questions, we make jokes about it. It makes us laugh. So that sense of humanness to our conversation. Uh, it's something that we want to work into our, into our social media content because it's how people talk. It's how people engage. It's what gets people to listen.

And maybe perhaps come back to us when they have a question on a topic, we can get back to them. But you have to recognize who your audience is and what your service is. Because of our service, we can use that humor and we can find a way to work it into almost any conversation, uh, where it's appropriate.

But there are serious issues, whether it be about a customer's billing issues, or a project in their neighborhood, or, um, someone is having issues paying their bill with affordability challenges. Those are very real issues where humor doesn't, doesn't make sense. But that's where the humanity comes in. Say, let me just meet you where you are.

You may be in this time of challenge, you may be struggling with something, you might be confronted with a difficult situation in your neighborhood because of construction we're working on. But we are here and want to address that with you and are going to do our best to serve you in that moment, whatever it might be.

So humor can factor in, but you have to, balance that with that sense of humanity and recognize that, that, uh, where it's appropriate, it works, but you have to be willing to, to draw that line at certain conversations.

Listening is critical for any brand, any utility, uh, certainly, who, who is in, is present in social media. We've got our, our strongest foothold in Twitter because of the way the trending topics would allow us an opportunity to see what people are talking about. Whether it's locally in the Cleveland area, or more broadly across the country, what topics are driving the conversation.

Rather than expecting customers to step out of that conversation and come join a discussion about a sewer infrastructure project, why don't we bring that sewer infrastructure relevance into the topics that people are already talking about? So we simply shifted the connection that people were making.

And doing so made our conversation relevant to what they cared about. And that was the best place to start for us. We can then draw them into a deeper conversation about our work once they realize that we have a relationship to what they care about. From that perspective, it allowed us to, to reinforce the reality that our work touches every aspect of their life, whether they know it or not.

And they rely on our service every single day. 

Scott: You know, as you hear John talk about some of the surprising things that happened once they decided to take this more audience focused, um, Conversation focused approach to social media. It's interesting to listen to because it ties into things that we've already talked about. Some of the traps that are easy to fall into when it comes to brands on social media.

The reason why some of these things are surprising is because We can default into these mindsets that say, Eh, people won't do that. Eh, people won't care. If we say this, they're not going to talk back to us. And really what happens is, is you're really never going to know unless you try some things.

Scott: And honestly, that's one of the biggest. Constance in content marketing, even with everything that's changed. And that is you have to try stuff. You have to experiment and see what works. I remember taking a course in social media marketing several years ago on Coursera,

And I remember one of the professors from Northwestern University saying, you know, one of the things you should do is spend some money, invest in trying some things, and, and developing some new ideas. And then when something works and you can put some of that stuff on autopilot, meaning you figured out what works and you keep developing things like that, not that you wouldn't refine that at any point, but you at least have some sense as to what's working, you're going to make that money back.

 And that was one of the things that was really interesting to hear John talk about was some of the stories, some of the things that happened, that they just randomly tried and were just blown away by the response they got once the public recognized the fact that they were making a genuine effort to make a meaningful connection with them.

And one of those stories, believe it or not, not only involved social media, but calling a phone number.

John: Two years ago, we ran a, a brief social media campaign on a whim, and it was really an effort to reach our customers in a new way. It was at the end of the year, and we wanted them to realize that we appreciate the connections that we've built with them on social media. We wanted to make our customers realize that we were connected with them on social media and we appreciated that connection.

So what we offered them was a phone number to call where they could hear a voicemail from myself and simply give them an acknowledgement to say thank you for following us, we appreciate that, and if you want to share a few words with our employees and let them know that you appreciate their work. I'll be sure to share it with them.

So all I did on the tweet was simply post that phone number, say give it a call, we have a message for you. We literally had more than a thousand people calling that phone number, and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of voicemails of customers simply saying, I didn't expect this, but I'm calling because somebody told me to call this number.

And one of the voice messages indicated, they used the words that, um, This account has helped to show the human side of infrastructure. And that reality is something that we believe all of our outreach efforts are meant to connect our customers too, the human side of infrastructure, and help our employees connect to the human side of the people that we are serving.

So that connection goes both ways. And the the reality is that our social media, we believe, is an extension of the larger. Commitment that we have to customer service. Meeting customers where they are. Treating them with respect and responsibility that we have. And being able to serve them in that moment.

And that connection between social and in person. Whether it be at events or public meetings. We want to be relevant and responsible and responsive to our customers. And we believe we're doing that.   

Scott: Now I think we've already made the point that what John is giving us here is an example of how you don't have to be that quote unquote exciting brand or have that exciting thing tied to your business to have something like social media work for you. But let's look a little deeper and think about why that is.

If your business has to reach people at any level, it's got to be about relationships first. I frequently talk about how Brafton, not that long ago, kind of identified our modern marketing era as the relationship era. And one of the reasons why that's true is because we have something like social media.

In that era where our audiences, whether they're B2B or B2C, involve connections and communications with people.

It's why I talk so much about communication when it comes to content today, because all of the things that are important in person to person communication are expanding into everything now, because there is so much overlap there, but also overlap in what we all know is valuable when it comes to relationships and impressions and interpretations and response and action and inspiration.

 I've seen overlap in non profit content, for profit content, crisis communication. And what we're seeing here is that even though John and his team aren't promoting something per se, like a product, he still has to focus on those types of communications and those relationships in order for this to work in a mutually beneficial way for both sides of the people involved.

In this case, it's The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, and the people they serve.

John: Yeah. I mean, we're not in sales, but we do have a service that benefits our customers. And so it's critical for us, just as a salesperson, is not going to convert someone necessarily on a cold call very often. Cold calls are tough, and you have to understand that as a utility, cold calls can come at the same cost.

Not everybody wants to hear from a utility because typically it means there's a problem. And so what we like to do is to establish a relationship and to demonstrate that we have a value that, that is worth following up on. It's worth learning more about. Uh, it, it, it's relevant and it's also interesting.

So we have to build content that's interesting. And so as you are experimenting with your channels, know who your customers are. Know where they are present so you can have the proper presence on those social platforms. Uh, there's not a one size fits all solution, but be willing to experiment and be willing to step out of what you want to do and recognize where they are and what they want, what they need and then be able to shift and demonstrate that you have a relevance, to them, to their daily lives.

People are busy, people have priorities that are not yours. And so how do you demonstrate that what is important to them has significance to the work you're providing and can demonstrate a connection to the value that they need from your product or your service?   

Scott:  You know, something else to think about is If you choose to approach your content with this very humanized, relationship focused, two way communication style , you're probably going to be surprised at the response you get once things start to work. You're probably going to be surprised at some of the reactions and maybe even reciprocation that comes out of it.

That's why you hear, you know, a lot of experts in social media talk about turning customers into fans and fans into advocates. And how those advocates can accelerate part of your marketing and part of the messages you're trying to get out there.

And one of the roadblocks to all this, especially when we talk again about things that may not be sexy or exciting, one of the roadblocks could be stereotypes. You know, maybe there's misconceptions about who's behind the scenes at the sewer district or, you know, there might even be stereotypes about the audience.

It would be very easy perhaps to say they're not gonna want to hear from us. They're not gonna want us talking to them. They don't care about what we're doing. But if you do some of the things that John's talked about and really take advantage of these social aspects of social media

and you really give people an opportunity to get to know you and maybe break some of those stereotypes on both sides, You might be surprised at what comes out of that.

John: We've had customers on, uh, not even customers, beyond customers, people who are well outside of our region. Telling us and sharing stories on social media saying now when they drive over a piece of infrastructure or they drive past a sewer treatment plant or they drive past something of a utility significance, they now think about what goes into operating that, that facility or making that system work.

We've had people say when they drive past a, a utility truck on the street, they'll say thank you to the people who are working on the, on the street now because they've never thought about that before. Until they began to interact on, with our content. So it's being able to open people's eyes to the services that are provided around them every single day that makes civilized life possible.

And our utility as a stormwater and sewer utility is often unseen and taken for granted. It's often because it's being provided to such a degree that they don't have to think about it. And so that is both a good thing and a bad thing. So our ability to make it relevant to people. Uh, gives us a sense of trust so when they do have a problem they can come to us and either, uh, hope it can be addressed or can explain where the situation is coming from.

And that relationship and that trust, uh, is paramount for us because it allows them to realize that we're there for them and we can help them in some way when they do have a need.