Electric Co-op Today

Facebook is not a foreign language to co-op consumer-members. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

A new survey finds electric co-op members are taking to social media, especially Facebook. (Photo By: Michael W. Kahn)

For the first time, the Touchstone Energy® Cooperatives “2009 National Survey on the Cooperative Difference” took a deep look at how members use social media. And, boy, do they use it.

“Fully 43 percent of members who are online are participating in social networking,” said Tom Laing, director of market research at TSE Services. The figure is highest for members ages 18-34, with 69 percent taking part. In the 35-44 age group, the figure is 55 percent. And even for the 65 and older crowd, one-in-five take part.

For all age groups, Facebook is the most popular site. So should your co-op be there?

“We asked members who are social networkers whether or not they thought it was appropriate for businesses to communicate with them over social networks, and it was about half and half,” Laing said.

He urged co-ops to think carefully about what they post.

“Find things that are going to be of direct benefit to the member and communicate those to them,” Laing said. “It ought to be information that’s directly relevant to the member, like information on discounts in their area, outage updates. We also found members would be responsive to appeals to conserve, which we see being very effective at Delaware Electric Cooperative.”

The 2009 survey also shattered the myth that consumer-members are technical luddites. Four out of five members own a computer. Fewer than 12 percent use dial-up Internet access, with nearly one-third using DSL and nearly a quarter relying on broadband cable.

“The digital divide,” Laing said, “seems to have closed.”

Registered members of cooperative.com can access the survey here.

Tags: Survey on the Cooperative Difference, Touchstone Energy, Trends Reports and Analyses