In previous blog posts in this series, I focused on two indispensable elements for a successful utility media relations function: returning reporters’ calls, emails or texts; and making it easy for reporters to find you.You may be tempted to say, “DUH!” but I assure you, my survey of utility media relations pages and press releases led me to conclude that not enough media relations teams are performing these basic steps, which I called Media Relations 101 and Media Relations 202.Now, we turn to content. As many of my readers know, I have long believed in the power of storytelling. Among the communicators in my LinkedIn network, most call themselves storytellers (or brand storytellers). Sometimes they refer to themselves as “content creators,” but that term seems to apply more to people who produce TikTok videos.
The Science of Storytelling
Utility communicators could continue to pursue a story-based approach to much of your work on intuitive grounds — a memorable story stays with your audience longer than a fact — but for those who wish to take a more rigorous scientific approach to their work, I recently found a reference that might be helpful:
Why Inspiring Stories Make Us React: The Neuroscience of Narrative.
I met Hillary Navarro, chief communications and engagement officer at Verra, a non-profit voluntary carbon reduction firm, at a conference I covered earlier this year for one of my journalism clients. “A story well told is 261% more impactful than a story that is not well told,” she said, citing that article. Written by Paul J. Zak, a scientist and academic, it explored how people’s behavior was altered by the presence of a brain chemical called oxytocin. In a series of tests, captured on video, his lab discovered that compelling narratives cause an oxytocin release that has the power to positively influence people’s attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
For those of you who slept through freshman biology (as I did), oxytocin is a chemical messenger in your brain that has “an important role in many human behaviors and social interactions,” including building trust, according to the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic.
Navarro used to work for a Colorado electric cooperative. In an interview, she said companies who operate in the voluntary carbon market were not very good storytellers because they have not invested in that function.
We agreed that the same could be said of utility communications: With all the necessary investment in tangible physical goods like power plants, poles, pumps, transformers, wire, fuel, etc., investing in storytelling might seem frivolous. It’s not. The payoff, or consequence, will show up eventually, often at a time when it is particularly inconvenient for your utility, such as when regulators or lawmakers are considering a proposed price increase or other controversial proposals from your utility.
Communications Tip of The Month:
People and local color are the basics of a good story, whether in journalism or fiction. People and local color, not data or the utility, are the protagonists in your story. They move the story along. They perform actions. Focus your storytelling on people and local color.
I have often said that investing in communications is an act of strategic risk management for companies that provides electricity, natural gas, or water. Your business has certain foreseeable risks, such as accidents that kill or injure the public or damage their property. Price increases certainly come under that heading, as we blogged about this past summer. Or the failure of utility equipment that sparks devastating wildfires, as has been evident across the West over the last decade. And then there are the once-in-a-generation risks that are foreseeable, such as renewing your company’s franchise to do business in a given municipality. Or the billing system upgrade that goes haywire.
A cushion of customer goodwill, created or strengthened by adept utility storytelling, can come in might handy when trying to recover from adverse events. Utilities can’t start that recovery after a problem; they need to build it up before a problem hits.
Build Your Stories Around People and Local Color
People and local color are the basics of a good story, whether in journalism or fiction. Sometimes the setting is highly unusual, and sometimes it is a closer look at something you see every day.
Here’s a piece of a story I wrote to promote water-conservation for the customer newsletter of a California utility client:
Finding Good Stories
Once you start to look, you can find compelling human-interest stories within your organization that should interest the news media, such as:
- the employee who rescued a child (or a dog) from a burning building or raging flood
- the new employee who is the first person in her family to graduate from college
- employees who use their money and time to purchase and wrap Christmas presents for residents of a retirement community, or
- the employees who donated unused vacation time to support another employee who was battling a life-threatening disease and had exhausted all of her paid time off
Stories in the news media highlighting the good works of employees also can help recruit new employees: Who wouldn’t want to join an organization that employs such fine people?
Or you can highlight the actions of your customers, such as how they changed their electricity- or water-consumption habits and donated the monthly savings to a local food bank or women’s shelter.
The key to having a good story to tell is recognizing that the utility itself is not the protagonist, the entity that drives the story and around which the story revolves. People want to read about people, preferably people like themselves. Maybe they’ve overcome adversity, achieved something unusual, or have found an unusual answer to a widespread challenge? Perhaps they’re working hard to make the community better. At best, the utility is the director or narrator; the employees or customers are the actors. They move the story forward, not the utility.
There’s no shortage of powerful stories you can tell, drawing on your employees and members of your communities. The more positive stories you place in the news media, the more readers and viewers and listeners will have a positive impression of your utility. And that goodwill, or brand equity, that is created (a good thing in itself) can come in handy later if your organization has to recover from bad news or a tragedy.
Photo credits: iStock/Getty
The Value of Storytelling in Your Utility’s Annual Report
As a communications strategist and writer, I have been asked to develop real stories of people and places for the
annual reports of many utility clients. I’ve realized, along with my clients, that showcasing the people (customers) and the places (community) that a utility serves can provide a valuable tool for effective communications.
To give you an example of what I mean, please take a look at some of the sample Annual Reports listed below. Whether it is describing the journey of water from its source to a customer’s tap in a water report, or noting an employee’s accomplishments outside of their work at the electric utility, or a customer’s success in being an ambassador for a utility, these stories have helped create great value among the utility’s stakeholders.
- Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation (DEMEC)
- Central Municipal Power Agency and Services, MN
- City of Palo Alto Water Quality Report: Our Water, Our Future
Here’s what one client said about working with me on their annual report:
“John did an amazing job capturing the personality of our organization and highlighting our values in action from our stakeholders’ perspectives. His years of experience in public power and writing annual reports brought a much-needed revitalization to our content… ”
– Heather Contant, Director of Government & Community Relations,
Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation (DEMEC)