Co-op News
Is YouTube Your Tube?
Co-op communicators are finding new ways to reach consumer-members with useful information that could help them save money on utility bills even as they make their homes more comfortable.
Greg Brooks and Savannah Chandler of Walton Electric Membership Corp. shoot an energy conservation video. (Photo By: Walton EMC)
New Internet services and affordable video technology have many co-ops devoting more of their marketing and communications resources to video production projects they can handle with the co-op’s existing staff.
“We want our video projects to match all of our other marketing and communications projects,” said Greg Brooks, communications coordinator for Walton Electric Membership Corp., based in Monroe, Ga.
Brooks has developed a dedicated co-op channel on the social networking website YouTube, which matches the co-op’s own Internet website. The channel features short do-it-yourself videos including many low-cost energy efficiency and conservation projects.
“Short videos lasting about one minute seem to have the most appeal,” said Brooks, adding that viewership of the co-op’s YouTube channel is approaching 30,000 hits.
Brooks joined K.D. Graham, a senior public relations/communications specialist at Jackson Electric Membership Corp., Jefferson, Ga., as a co-presenter of an April webinar titled “Making YouTube Your Tube.” The Cooperative Communicators Association has booked them for a repeat performance July 27.
“There’s a lot of interest in the topic right now because co-ops have got to stay connected to their membership, and that takes teamwork involving the entire staff,” said Graham.
With 176,000 consumer-members in suburban Atlanta, Jackson EMC is incorporating social media such as YouTube into its communications strategy to reach members considered heavy Internet users, Graham said. “Our strategy is to save them time and make it easier for us to reach them where they are spending their time.”
Tags: Co-op News, Consumer Outreach, Efficiency and Conservation