Meet The Speaker: Ike Pigott, Communications Strategist, Alabama Power

Meet the Speaker: One of our Rock Star Presenters at the Upcoming Social Media for Utilities Conference in Chicago

Ike Pigott, Communications Strategist, Alabama Power

Q: Name, title, company?
A: Ike Pigott, Communications Specialist, Alabama Power

Q: Family, hometown, where you live?
A: Married with two children, living in suburban Birmingham.

Q: What is your Utility experience?
A: Nearly nine years with Alabama Power, in a variety of communications roles.

Q: What do you like to do when you’re not working? Hobbies?
A: Avid reader, focusing on economics and organizations.

Q: Notable achievements?
A: Former broadcaster with an Emmy for writing. Former Kung Fu instructor.

Q: Where do you see Social Media in utilities in two years?
A: There will still be new adopters, but the trend toward personalized information will make it a challenge to be everywhere. More reliance on BOTS.

Q: What is your biggest challenge?
A: Trying to be seen as something other than “That Twitter Guy,” and earning buy-in for the next things coming down the line.

Q: What did you do prior to working in your utility?
A: 16 years of broadcast news, and another 4.5 doing public affairs and disaster communications for the American Red Cross.

Q: Who are a couple of your role models (and why)?
A: Michael Crichton had an amazing gift for making the wonderful and fanciful more accessible, through fiction and non-fiction. Same for Isaac Asimov, who was prolific and had interests across the map, but never lost his heart for teaching.

Q: What is one of your big goals?
A: To figure out how to break the chicken-and-egg stranglehold on the relationship between Employee engagement and External advocacy.

Q: What is the biggest misconception you run into in your role?
A: Twitter Boy!