2016 Update On Social Media Pertaining To The Water & Wastewater Market
Social media is the ultimate equalizer. It gives a voice and a platform to anyone willing to engage.
-Amy Jo Martin
There is little doubt that social media is continuing to grow and expand into areas where it wasn’t initially accepted without limitations. Social media usage for people over the age of 65 has more than TRIPLED in the past decade and continues to grow within every age demographic.
I recently had a chance to sit down with Jennifer Cisneros, Director of Marketing from Bio-Microbics (www.biomicrobics.com), to discuss some of the finer points relating to social media in the water and wastewater market specifically.
How do you see Social Media fitting into a very traditional market like water and wastewater?
It is another means of communication and connection with the industry.We have an enormous amount of thought leaders in the industry; from academics to field service experts. There are situations not talked about in a classroom setting, but in the real world and social media is used to impart real-time information beyond websites and whitepapers.
We find that we have a more educated customer when they’ve researched the systems; and already have a sense of familiarity with us, because they’ve engaged with us to learn more about our onsite systems (beyond the Do’s & Don’ts) to educate themselves of what really happens in the tank.Using social and other types of “proactive” media helps those wanting to learn more about water.
We get tagged and alerted to a lot of online articles, events and posts that deal with our industry.I find that I can quickly scan the 90+ magazines in the Water, Wastewater, & Construction industry that are talking about onsite wastewater and water recycling systems on social media faster than a search engine
What else does Social Media do?
Social media provides a way to repurpose our web content; online (paid and free) profiles, product profiles, buyer’s Guides inclusions, editorials etc… It also gives us another means to provide educational material to an audience that aren’t familiar with the company, but are in conversations about the topic on Social Media.
It’s an opportunity to engage in conversations using various hashtags (#Water, #Wastewater, #WorldWaterDay, #WWETTShow, etc.) to search topics and related posts quickly. It’s also an opportunity for Bio-Microbics to fan, follow, subscribe, and like others in the industry; whether our vendors, distributors, other industry experts, and friendly competitors!
We often espouse industry content that is not specific to us and occasionally mix those things in that we find interesting.
What are the most impactful Social Media tactics on your company’s prime directives?
It helps to share our online content with a wider audience that may not be familiar with us, but are searching for related topics and come across a post or shared post of someone they know who knew us.Social Media gets us referral traffic from online “word-of-mouth” friends of friends that do business with us.
We respond to questions, kudos, and requests for more information or our service department etc... Our staff experts become more visible through social media.Using their knowledge and responding to questions, we can get the inquiry addressed more timely and to the appropriate person than through our general email.
Online activities are trackable, whether from lead reports of online profiles, referral sources on our web analytics, or other types of reporting.
Our audience numbers can have a favorable impression on clients that are on the fence about our systems vs. others. We have more awards, technology approvals, and certifications than any other in our industry, but to see the impact our content has on social media may sway the confidence decision-makers have in us more.
Describe for me how you see the role of content in social media pertaining to the water and wastewater market?
We can turn statistics and other information into compelling, easy-to-digest infographic images that tells a whole story.It is a quick visual that people appreciate picking up while “on-the-go” or while multi-tasking.
Mobile devices are the fastest mode of accessibility to our site.Creating “dynamic” content is not only mobile friendly, but social media friendly as well.This content can then be used easily by us and our distributors help to engage, entertain, and educate better on those platforms. These platforms are continually improving their social media bite. Facebook’s “Instant Articles” feature for example includes interactive articles (video, audio, geo-tagging photos, etc.) that load instantly.
Using dynamic content, like animations and videos, can easily be shared and you can gauge the interactivity by keeping tabs of your viewership, i.e. the audience drops off at a certain point in the timeline, “likeablility” of certain posts over others, etc...We shared one of our distributors’ presentations by making a video of it (video screen capture), and posting it to Youtube.Within a week, we had nearly 150 views (his original audience was only 70 people!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcZ7oMgvdlw. We then posted the same presentation to Linkedin for another 200+ views…and 5 likes: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/distributed-alternative-public-sewer-jennifer-cisneros?trk=prof-post
Some content we create is more appropriate for us as a social media post (whether seasonal; office closures; event participation; live video streaming [Periscope]; shared links, articles, installation photos, project videos of distributors, etc…) rather than to put on our website.
Even our “blandest” technical staff can turn into really engaging storytellers through social media!However, some content may be more opinionated or “blogged” material than product related.
Other than your own efforts, are there manufacturers out there who you feel are excelling at maximizing the potential of social media?
Yes, however the styles and target audiences can vary greatly by company. So, individual company success is defined more by the different company goals.
We see a great deal of Industry Associations connecting with their members.The Water Environment Federation is a great example: https://www.facebook.com/WaterEnvironmentFederation and Environmental Protection Agency’s EPA Water Group: https://www.facebook.com/EPAWaterIsWorthIt.
We keep tabs on “industry influencers” and organizations that are actively involved.
If you could leave water and wastewater marketing professionals with advice in 5 words or less, what would you say?
From a “marketing” aspect: Adopt Some Good Practices. From a “sales” aspect: Nurture Your Sales with Content.