The Facebook website was launched on February 4, 2004, founded by Mark Zuckerberg and other associates. As of April 2016, Facebook was the most popular social networking site in the world, based on the number of active user accounts. Facebook has traveled from sordid beginnings through various growing pains to boast more than a billion active users worldwide and 214 million users in the United States. One can easily see why businesses have an interest in participation. Facebook is where people are and where business communication will also be. So how do businesses use Facebook?
Commercial and retail businesses obviously use Facebook to advertise their products and services. But how can water utility and other utility services use Facebook when advertisement is not needed to make a sale? Facebook has numerous free features that may help.Visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/create to see the types of free business pages that you can create. If you are on Facebook you may have ‘liked’ a page from the local baker or guitar shop. Why not create a water utility page for ‘Your Town Water’ to update your audience? Facebook could be used for:
- Public service announcements,
- Boil water advisories (supplemental in addition to required reporting),
- Meet the staff and manager posts,
- Updates about construction projects, and
- Event calendars.
Social media is simply another super common communication channel for connecting with your customer and providing excellent customer service. Also if you prefer to receive all negative posts privately so you can deal with issues privately you can control that with your permission settings. Facebook may not be for you, but it has become a mainstay of customer relations for many businesses and is worth serious consideration.
* adapted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook.
