Darryl Gates, of the
Alabama Rural Electric Association invited me to spend a day with communicators from Alabama's rural electric cooperatives, talking about the use of social media in their communications planning. Despite the freakish cold that had hit the state (it was cold even for me!), a good number of communicators showed up. I'm hoping they learned a thing or two, but I know I learned some things as well. As always, I was impressed by the graciousness and good manners that one encounters everywhere in the South, whether you're visiting a four-star hotel or a local gas station.
One of the highlights of the workshop was hearing about a total energy makeover that
Baldwin EMC conducted last year, in which they re-insulated, re-windowed and re-applianced the entire house of a lucky member. Just like the TV show Extreme House Makover, the recipients were truly needy and incredibly grateful, which makes for good social media fodder. I hope they'll be able to capture and share the experience even more thoroughly next time around.
As promised, below are the slides from the presentation:
And here are some of the resources I referenced. If anything was left out, just drop me a line via
email or on
Twitter and I'll add it to this post.
Creative Commons photo credit:
jimbowen0306
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