Utilities should be tracking social media metrics to understand:
- How often people interact with their content
- How interested people are in their content
- How familiar their audience is with utility products, programs, and services
To stay on top of trends, we monitor over 150 utility social media accounts across the US and Canada and publish a monthly report for members of certain E Source subscriptions. We also publicly highlight some social successes in a quarterly blog post.
We use engagement metrics to determine the top-performing posts. This is a great way to tell if your audience cares about what your utility posts on social media and what they want to see more of.
Here are some trends from the past three months and a noteworthy social media strategy from BC Hydro.
Top trends from April, May, and June 2024
Celebration and appreciation were the buzzwords of the past few months. Utilities appreciated lineworkers and other employees who work in harsh conditions to keep services running and they offered safety tips for National Safe Digging Month. And sprinkled throughout were messages honoring lots of holidays.
Celebrate holidays big and small
Having some fun and celebrating holidays lets your utility share its brand and personality. You can create high engagement and get a positive reaction from your audience. When sharing holiday posts, consider going one step further and highlighting how your community and employees celebrate.
Many utilities accomplished this by sharing information about how they celebrate major and minor holidays, including:
- Earth Day
- Arbor Day
- Safe Digging Month
- Memorial Day
- Mother’s and Father’s Day
- Juneteenth
- Pride Month
Utilities also took the opportunity to thank employees on employee appreciation days.
Celebrating holidays shows a company’s commitment to all communities and individuals. It signals to employees, customers, and communities that the utility is a member of the community it serves, promoting a sense of belonging and fostering inclusivity.
Give thanks and gratitude to employees when restoring service
Utilities continuously use social media to communicate information about outages and emergencies. Sharing disaster and storm updates on social media platforms helps customers understand how their service can be affected and reaches customers where they are.
Utilities have also been using social media to highlight the important contributions of their employees, including small actions that can have a big impact. These posts help the public recognize the skills and dedication of utility workers.
The top-performing social media posts from Q2
There were a lot of high-performing posts from April through June 2024. Below are the top-performing utility social media posts from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube for the quarter.
Top-performing social media posts by platform
A look into BC Hydro’s trend-driven social media strategy
We talked with BC Hydro about what’s been performing well in its social media strategies. The utliity has been successful in its social media efforts, reaching 100,000 followers on Instagram in 2024 and launching a TikTok account in September 2023. BC Hydro believes that treating social media as the primary medium of its customers is the key to its success. The utility knew that content wouldn’t matter unless it engaged the audience and found ways to resonate with viewers.
BC Hydro’s main goals are to:
- Drive engagement
- Grow followers
- Post daily videos on TikTok and Instagram
The utility’s strategy focuses on producing vertical video content, staying updated on trends, and repurposing content across channels. By consistently posting ad hoc videos and “unhinged” content, BC Hydro has seen increased engagement and conversations with followers, prioritizing audience interaction and matching customers’ tone and lingo to foster growth.
The utility’s dedicated social media team attributes its achievements to a consistent strategy over the past 18 months, emphasizing the importance of video production and trend responsiveness.
