Communicating Biosolids: How to Boost Public Support by Working With the Press & Social Media

Well-executed biosolids programs are essential for a utility's future, yet many utilities do not focus on communicating these programs because of a variety of challenges we all know about - 'the ick factor' - and ones we haven't fully grasped yet, like the discoveries of PFAS in our biosolids.
This presentation will lay out the path to take to gain positive attention and support for utility biosolids programs by moving the central focus to consumer-related issues.
We will focus on how proactive communication helps utilities improve their outcomes on difficult topics then detail ways to discuss and present biosolids programs so that they earn the respect and support from the press and the public and can take on any future discoveries of emerging contaminants like PFAS.
Utilities often times have difficult media and customer relationships, especially on social media, when it comes to topics that aren't easy to explain, like biosolids programs. They tend to bunker and only put out the bare minimum when it comes to the press and the public.
As a result, when biosolids make the news, the reaction isn't informed, it's knee-jerk. If there isn't any understanding of the importance of biosolids because the utility hasn't made its importance know, then the programs are at risk from knee-jerk reactions. This presentation will talk about how to communicate biosolids programs from start to finish, focusing on their importance to not just the utility but our daily lives. It will present messaging to use that goes beyond what we've been using for years; it will focus on the consumer stories where the benefits to every customer's bottom line will help make the sale.
We will talk about the tactics to use to gain better public understanding and support, whether a utility is just getting started with a new or upgraded program or just wants to change its COMMS approach about its current one. We'll talk about the news and social media briefings and other public outreach efforts that were put together to increase understanding of biosolids programs as vital to the community's future.
We will show to conduct the communications efforts with an eye toward rapidly developing challenges, like the discoveries of PFAS and other emerging contaminants in our drinking water and our biosolids.
We will also detail how having a crisis communication plan in place for a utility's biosolids program can save it from being eliminated when controversial questions occur.
We have a great deal of experience messaging about the existence of PFAS in biosolids during a variety of media interviews and public meetings in front of packed city council chambers and school gyms.