1. Metropolitan’s Social Media Activities
Colorado River Water Users Association
2017 Annual Conference
Dec. 13, 2017

2. Metropolitan’s Social Media
Over the last several years Metropolitan has joined the world of social media. First by jumping on Twitter and then Facebook. Since then we have joined Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and SnapChat.

3. Social Media Growing our audiences Cost efficient outreach
Opportunities to reach diverse demographics, languages
Content calendar
1 million views
In the time that we’ve been active on social media, we have seen our followers grow. We launched our Facebook page in 2015 and now have more than 26,000 followers. We have more than 7,000 followers combined on both of our twitter accounts and on Instagram have more than 2,000 followers.
We’ve found that it’s a cost efficient way for us to share our message with a broader audience. The use of graphics and animation have proved to be successful for us, allowing us to gain a lot of impressions and engagement. For example, this simple flower power animation has been viewed more than 1 million times, reaching nearly 900,000 Facebook users. Social media has given us many opportunities to reach a diverse demographic and we have posted our content in other languages, like this tip on using a nozzle on your garden hose.
In an effort to organize our content we do maintain a content calendar that allows us to stay on top of what we post.

4. Conservation Campaigns
#TakeATurnCA and #H2Love advertising campaign included social media components across several platforms
Engaged with diverse communities:
Randy’s Donuts
L.A. Galaxy games
Community events
Our recent conservation campaigns really allowed us to engage with diverse communities on social media. We posted individual’s water pledges and attended L.A. Galaxy games where we aired Facebook Live interviews featuring conservation tips.

5. Twitter – 75th Anniversary
@mwdh2o_75years launched 2016
Live-tweeted as if it were the Depression years
Voices of men and women who worked on the Colorado River Aqueduct came alive
Last year when we celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Colorado River Aqueduct we wanted to tell the story of the men and women who worked on the aqueduct. Instead of simply writing about them we live-tweeted in their voices as if it were the Depression years. Doing this allowed us a different way of telling a story. Along the way we found ourselves engaging with family members of some of these workers.
Award winning –
recognized by PRNews

6. Flipagrams, Facebook Live & Geofilters
Social media has allowed us show off our work in creative ways including developing flipagrams, airing Facebook Live of our events and investing in geofilters, which have helped us get out our branding in messaging. We have also used social media to honor and recognize Metropolitan employees. A couple of months ago California just celebrated it’s first Water Employee Appreciation Week and we took this opportunity to gather quotes from some of our employees on the value they see in working in the water industry. And then just recently for Veterans Day we honored several of our employees who are Veterans.

7. Value of Videos
Taking a complicated issue and explaining it in less than a minute
Telling a story visually
Having fun
Besides conservation, we are able to use the video format to take a complicated issue, like California WaterFix and recycled water, and explain it in a short span of time.
We developed about a half dozen short California WaterFix explainer videos (Who, what, where, when and why) over the course of several months leading up to Metropolitan’s Board vote on whether or not to participate in the project. These videos provided a way for us to tell our story. Right now I’m going to show you three examples.

8. Gov. Jerry Brown Visits Videos, Strong graphics, photos, interactive
Days leading up to Metropolitan’s Board voting on WaterFix, Governor Jerry Brown came to meet with members of the Board and community stakeholders. We decided that a nice wrap up video showing what took place on his visit would be a good story to tell.
Videos, Strong graphics, photos, interactive

9. Construction Showing reliability Community partnership
Anything related to construction and our facilities typically do well on social media for us. Right now we are relining the Second Lower Feeder pipeline in Long Beach and Lakewood. We’re doing a combination of videos and photos to tell the story of the construction. We have targeted messages to people who are affected by the construction, but our overall message is to show our commitment to delivering reliable water and our partnership to work with the community.
Showing reliability
Community partnership

10. What’s next?
Continue to grow audiences, with a focus on Facebook and Instagram
Opportunities to strengthen awareness and engagement with LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat stories and more video
Working with member agencies to share content, cross-promote