Electric Co-op Today

Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series about electric cooperatives’ engagement with members ages 55 and over.

This little quail is glad its owners follow their electric co-op on Facebook. (Photo By Ed VanHoose)

“Liking” your electric cooperative on Facebook is literally for the birds. Just ask Rusty and Lee Ann Birch, members of Shelby Electric Cooperative.

The couple follows the Shelbyville, Ill.-based co-op on Facebook and has the Facebook app on their smart phone. That was how they learned about a planned outage and were able to save a clutch of about 100 baby quail by rigging up a temporary heating system in their backyard hatchery.

“Having the information on the planned outage as early as we did, I am sure saved the quail,” said Lee Ann, 54.

More people like the Birchs, as well as sixty- and seventy-something users, are logging on to their co-op’s Facebook pages, according to findings from the upcoming Touchstone Energy® Cooperatives’ 2011 National Survey on the Cooperative Difference.

Some electric co-ops are seeking to capitalize on Facebook’s increasing popularity with the 55- and-over crowd, a development that’s likely here to stay.

It’s a good move considering “social media is becoming more and more of how things are done,” said Touchstone Energy’s Jason McGrade, senior web development and social media specialist.

Kootenai Electric Co-op, Hayden, Idaho, is recruiting members to form a committee to help it learn what information members would find valuable on Facebook or other social media, said Erika Neff, communications coordinator.

Neff is hoping that members from several age groups, including senior citizens, join to get different viewpoints. “We don’t want people to hide our messages; we don’t want overkill,” she said. “We want our Facebook page to be successful.”

Reaching multi-generational audiences through Facebook was part of the thinking behind Co-opVille, a classroom game designed by Rick Petty, director of communications and member services at Logan County Electric Co-op, Bellefontaine, Ohio.

While trying to figure out the best way to electrify an Ethiopian village, students can post their work on Facebook and encourage “young parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles to ‘like’ or comment on their projects,” said Petty.

Some of Facebook’s biggest fans are women, ages 45 and over, something else that co-ops are also noticing. For example, at Carteret-Craven Electric Co-op, Newport, N.C., there are three times as many women as men on Facebook among members ages 45-54. And for the 55 and up crowd, there are also three times as many women as men.

Touchstone Energy’s McGrade acknowledged the trend this way: “It’s moms and grandmothers trying to stay in touch with their kids and grandchildren.”

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Tags: Local Initiatives, National Survey of the Cooperative Difference, Social Media