Pike: Smart utilities embrace social media

A new report from Pike Research forecasts that 57 million customers worldwide will use social media to engage with utilities in 2011. That number is expected to rise to 624 million by the end of 2017. Meanwhile, utility social media spending will increase to $317 million in 2017--up from $195 million in 2011.

Despite these forecasts, many utilities still struggle with customer engagement through social forums and are concerned about surrendering control of the message to the customer. However tentative utilities are about using social media to engage customers, customers have no intention of abandoning their social media preferences. Smart utilities will incorporate social media as a tool in their broader customer engagement toolbox going forward.

There are ways that utilities can use social channels that will benefit both the customer and the utility.

"Social media is a tricky play for utilities, as it is for other industries unaccustomed to such a transparent and uncontrolled form of communication with customers," said Pike Senior Analyst Neil Strother. "But there are ways to use the new social channels that benefit both the utility and the customer."

According to Pike Research, the most important steps in developing an effective social media strategy include training staff in best practices, becoming adept at the "Big Four" social networks (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn), adopting listening tools such as Radian6 and Jive Software, and, in many cases, deploying a mobile application that effectively leverages social media tools.

For more:
- see the report 

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