1 Connecting directly: Currents and Social Media American Gas Association 4-4-2014
Where are our customers getting their information? 2
They re no longer getting it primarily from traditional outlets like they did in the past 3
State of the News Media: Network 4 News Since 1980, the three evening newscasts have lost 52.6% of their audience In 2012, 15.6 million Americans were watching the three evening newscasts
Local Newspaper Staffing 5 Employment of full-time professional editorial staff, which peaked at 56,900 in 1989, had fallen by 29% by the end of 2011. When figures for 2012 are compiled, the newsroom workforce probably will be below 40,000.
Where have they gone? 6
Online activity continues to grow 7
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9 Taking Control of the News Cycle It s your story, and no one can tell it better than you Local broadcast media have 480 hours of content to fill FEED THE BEAST! Sustain a positive drumbeat of PG&E s progress Utility stories (good and bad) can be complex and difficult to explain requires creative thinking and new approaches
10 Currents www.pgecurrents.com
Currents: Why We Started It 11 To tell our story and to detail our safety progress A Short History: Sept. 2010: San Bruno accident Feb. 2011: NTSB hearings in DC Feb. 2011: Currents launches 2012: 700 pieces of content (stories, videos, infographics) posted 2013: Unique visitors (+32.5% over 2012); page views (+19.7% over 2012) Jan. 2014: Best month ever with 98,000 visitors
The Evolution of Currents 12 2011-2013: From simply defending ourselves to a full-service news site More videos, more graphics Integrated with Corporate Relations Content Strategy and Channel Management (CSCM) created 2014 and Beyond: Currents content more widely used: newsletters, other PG&E websites, employee intranet, direct links to key stakeholders and reporters Leverage talent of full staff to get more content
Currents Across All Platforms 13 Besides Currents website, our content appears: On PG&E s Facebook page On PG&E s Twitter feed On PG&E s YouTube channel On PG&E@Work (employee intranet) In One PG&E (employee newsletter) In regional external newsletters On specialty websites such as pgeseeourprogess In direct links to stakeholders In pitches to reporters On some third-party websites
Why is Currents (Externally) Successful? 14 Immediacy: News is posted as it happens. Stories on live events show up the day of the event. Accuracy: Former journalists on staff. More than 40 years experience at large California dailies, Associated Press Accessibility: NTUJ (No Typical Utility Jargon). Written in AP style. Not in first person. Storytelling variety: Text, photos, videos, graphics
Why is Currents (Internally) Successful? Positioned as the go-to source to communicate stories within the enterprise Coverage from throughout system Stories have a want-to-read, not a have-to-read tone. We make PG&E and its employees look good. People like to see themselves. Many employees on the site, not just company leaders. 15
Social Media 16
PG&E Social Media Footprint 17 PG&E s social media footprint includes Facebook, multiple Twitter handles, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram Social Media Property Followers / Fans Facebook 14,962 Twitter (includes local handles) 26,822 YouTube 800,000+ views LinkedIn 32,453 Instagram 304
Social Media and Currents Tell PG&E s Story 18 How do we use social media and Currents to tell PG&E s story? What makes these tools different and so successful?
Integrated Approach Leverages Content Across All Channels 19 Location: Both teams work in Corporate Communications, have daily meetings, sit in proximity Content: Currents generates text, pictures and video that is repurposed on our social media channels Resources: Writing staff, technical team, designers and videographers are cross-trained to support social media and Currents Relationships: Both teams have built deep relationships with lines of business Immediacy: A POV can be generated and dispatched in under 30 minutes
PG&E CIO Karen Austin Becomes LinkedIn Influencer in March 2014 20 Joins 500 Other Thought Leaders With Debut of Monthly Blog Jack Welch, Richard Branson among other Influencers Immediate Impact: 6,553 followers 281 liked her post Generated 51 comments
Examples 21
Example Gnomes 22 San Francisco Chronicle published a story about the wooden Gnomes on PG&E poles in Oakland PG&E s policy of keeping the poles clean was communicated however, wasn t presented in the best context Outpouring of negative feedback via Twitter (100s of Tweets) and Facebook
Example Gnomes 23
Example Gnomes 24 From our brand structure, this story touched on being local, and was a reactive story about safety The social media team issued a Tweet using #savethegnomes along with a Facebook post (buying time) Currents team sprung into action to develop a story, leverage historical content and broker a meeting with the artist
25 Quantitative RESULTS Gnomes 51 likes, 41 comments and 12 shares 45 retweets of PG&E s messages Multiple retweets from media Currents piece received 1,349 page views with an average time of 3:49 spent on the site!
26 Qualitative RESULTS Gnomes Chronicle ran a positive follow-up story National news outlets such as CNN, NPR and Huffington Post all ran positive stories National coverage of PG&E s brand tenants local and safety Resident permits for Gnomes
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Social Media Presence 28
2014 NSDM & #IWillcall811 29
Debbie Felix Corporate Relations debbie.felix@pge.com 30