Online Social Media Panels: Understand and Respond to Issues in Real-Time

Many utilities conduct ongoing customer research, using surveys, phone calls, and focus groups to learn more about what customers want and how favorable they feel about a utility’s response, services or product offerings. But today more than ever, people’s online lives – particularly their social media activity – is an expression of their thoughts and the issues they care about. To date, many utilities have used social media to communicate with their customers, and some are also looking at how customers rate their social media interactions with them. In addition to these methods, there is a great opportunity to capture customer conversations and understand how they differ between various types of customers, supplementing traditional research and feedback with a real-time and real-world measure of enthusiasm. Online social media panels draw from the activity of communities online and help organizations understand and track how and when perceptions are formed.

Leaders in their field, Dana Yeganian and Luke Partridge of Global Strategy Group will present on online social media panels at Conferences Connect’s Social Media for Utilities conference, May 8-9, 2017 in Chicago. Their presentation will provide:

An overview of how these panels work

How they can be used to ascertain additional information about sentiment and perceptions among customers and opinion elites

Examples of how they can be used by utility companies to understand and respond to issues in real-time

As SVP of Communications at Global Strategy Group, Dana Yeganian has more than 20 years of experience at the intersection of policy and communications, working on campaigns, in government, agency and corporate settings, and providing counsel to elected officials and executives. At GSG, she co-leads the firm’s energy and utilities practice, which works with clients including Con Edison, the New York Independent System Operator, Eversource Energy, Utilidata, Power Options and Connecticut Water. Her energy experience also includes leading client engagements with Duke Energy and Ameren Missouri and serving as an in-house media spokesperson on environmental, regulatory, and policy issues at Progress Energy. Ms. Yeganian also worked in the press and policy offices for North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt.

As Manager at Global Strategy Group, Luke Partridge specializes in online research, digital advertising, social and website analytics, and the development of monitoring and measurement systems. Since joining GSG, he has provided his skills for a number of clients including Utilidata, The Corix Group of Companies, The Rockefeller Foundation, Airbnb, CONCACAF, and Pershing Square Capital Management. Mr. Partridge’s industry expertise spans the energy and utilities, healthcare, financial, and nonprofit sectors. Originally from England, heis a graduate of St Hilda’s College at the University of Oxford, where he served as Vice President of the undergraduate body and editor of the Guardian Student Media award winning Oxymoron.