Having an event? Consider using Facebook Live by Jared Dovers, WordSouth

If your utility is taking the time to host an event for the public, you should make sure as many of your customers attend as possible. In today’s world, schedules are busy and it can be difficult to get hundreds of people to your office for a Customer Appreciation Day or an Earth Day celebration.

But, many of your customers have access to Facebook even when they can’t be somewhere in person. Facebook Live is a video streaming service that is free, simple to use, and can be an effective way to make sure your event gets noticed.

As I’m writing this article, I just watched a meeting of one of our electric utility clients in South Alabama. Our company always attends this meeting, and this year we decided to let others join through Facebook Live. After setting up an iPad equipped with the free Facebook Pages app, we had a live stream of the meeting running in moments. Those of us who couldn’t make the meeting were able to watch it, as well as all the others who have liked this utility’s Facebook page.

It’s almost magical to think about. A few years ago, an experienced film crew would have had to be hired to set up for a live broadcast. The expense would have been tremendous and people would have had to go to a certain network on television or to your website to see the stream. Now, we can easily tune in through our phones and computers, and you can broadcast for free using devices everyone has in their pocket.

Facebook provides some tips for making sure you get the most out of your next event by using Facebook Live:

1. Tell people ahead of time when you’re going to broadcast. Let people know when the stream will start and what’s going to be happening.

2. Write a great description for your stream. You get to put text to the post before it goes out, so be sure your statement will grab your customers’ attention.

3. Ask your customers to follow your utility page so they can receive notifications of when you go live. Customers will see a large grey "follow" button on the stream. Tell people to hit that button during your broadcast so they’ll know in the future when you’re doing this again. This helps you build a relationship that will be useful the next time you have to broadcast an emergency message.

We hope every utility reading this is already using Facebook and other social media platforms to engage with their customers. Facebook Live provides another, completely free way to make sure that those you serve hear your message and know the great work you are doing.

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Jared Dovers is the Chief Operating Officer of WordSouth — A Content Marketing Company, serving electric and telecommunications providers since 1996. Jared can be reached at jared@wordsouth.com.


JARED DOVERS
Chief Operating Officer
Vice President, Electric Utility Communications
WordSouth.com
256-638-5394