Blog, Customer, Effective, Messaging, Programs & Services, Utility Communications, Utility Marketing
Telling Your Story: Smart Grid Communications
Every now and then I get a call from a client, a colleague or a prospective client about how to effectively communicate with the general public about a highly technical topic — nuclear power, price increases, advanced digital meters, s...
Blog, Utility Marketing
Speak Up! What Do You Stand For?
Two sayings — “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything” and “an educated consumer is our best customer” — ran through my mind recently as I listened to a panel discussion at a conference organized by th...
Blog, EEC Client Services, Effective, Utility Communications
ICYMI: Regifting our Best-Read Content of 2018
The holiday season is a time for utility communicators and marketers to reflect on the year’s accomplishments, spend time catching up on reading and begin planning next year’s activities. Our holiday present to you is a respin of our b...
Blog, Crisis, Utility Communications
Gas Utility Needs Better Crisis Communications
$800 million, and sure to go higher. That’s the cost, so far, for the gas utility responsible for a series of home explosions that occurred in three suburban Boston communities in September. Crisis Communications Playbook It doesn’t ...
Blog, EEC Industry Expertise, Utility Leadership
Organizational Change? Be Prepared to Communicate Until You are Blue in the Face
I’ve always loved the saying, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” I first heard it 20 years ago, in business school. Since then, I’ve been able to personally experience the truth of that statement, and I have spoken to innumer...
Uncategorized
Time to Rev Up Your Clean Energy Communications for Customers
California’s decision to go to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045, passed late last month by the state legislature and awaiting Governor Jerry Brown’s signature, means electric utilities and electric cooperatives in the Golden Stat...
Uncategorized
Customer Communications: Reaching Customers’ Brains Through Their Hearts
“Poles and wires are boring, but people are interesting,” a utility communicator once told me. I agree completely: The best way to feed your audience, especially customers, the information you want them to know is to embed it in a co...
Blog, Effective, Utility Communications
Better Public Speaking: 6 Tips, 6 Sins and 1 Golden Rule
Does the photo look familiar? It might. I used it five years ago to illustrate this blog post on how to become a more effective public speaker. I attended several industry conferences earlier this year and found the same public speaking ...
Blog, Effective, Utility Communications
Utility Communications: How to Stay Out of the “Smart-Talk” Trap
When was the last time you did a 540°? What hill are you willing to die on? Have you ever used “architect” as a verb? Do you have enough bandwidth to growth-hack the analytics? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, yo...
Blog, Crisis, Utility Communications
Crisis Communications: What’s Brewing Inside Your Utility?
“Do you ever speak on utility crisis communications?” Barry Moline, executive director of the California Municipal Utilities Association, asked me in a recent phone call. I told him I did. He asked if I could speak on that topic at C...