1. Customers want to know about rates, construction projects, conservation, online bill pay, and more.
2. Facebook now has over 300 million users. Your customers are on there. See #1.
3. You can easily post news and other information about your utility. See #1.
4. You’ll give your customers somewhere to go when they are tired of playing Farmville.
5. Your kids will think you are pretty cool.

So you can see, Facebook can be a real plus.

For a more serious article about utilities and social media, read Kate Rowland’s article called The Power of Twitter and Facebook for utilities.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Beth Blackwell-Hardiman, Bob Freudenthal

(615) 896-9022

bethblackwell@taud.org

Webb Creek Utility District Wins Regional Competition for Best Discharge Water in the Region

Alcoa – The Tennessee Association of Utility Districts (TAUD) held its first ever “Best Testing Discharge Water Contest” for wastewater treatment plants at the Alcoa Service Center on Wednesday, March 3, 2010.  This contest was held in conjunction with the annual Best Tasting Water Contest.  Webb Creek Utility District won the Region 2 competition for the best discharge water.

TAUD Region Two consists of: Blount, Cocke, Grainger, Hamblen, Jefferson, Knox, Loudon, and Sevier counties.

Eight different utilities from Region Two submitted samples of their discharge water for competition.  The utilities that entered the contest were: the City of Alcoa, First Utility District of Knox County, Hallsdale Powell Utility District, Johnson Bible College, City of Pigeon Forge, South Blount Utility District, Webb Creek Utility District and West Knox Utility District.

Brian Boyd, National Weather Service; Steve Roberts, TDEC; Mary Short, USDA; Tracy Tramel, SRW and Associates; and Nathan Babelay, McGill and Associates participated as judges for the contest.  The discharge water samples were judged on their clarity, bouquet (scent/odor) turbidity and pH levels.

The Tennessee Association of Utility Districts is the oldest rural water association in the nation and serves as the Tennessee chapter of the National Rural Water Association.  TAUD serves as a source of training, technical assistance, and acts as a legislative liaison to the over 420 water, wastewater, and natural gas utility members within the state.  For more information please visit our website at www.taud.org or contact Beth Blackwell-Hardiman at 615-896-9022.

“Our goal is to assist  rural water systems in the state of Georgia with a simple to update website,” said Theron Hatch, President of Cirq Media Solutions and the developer of the utiliCIRQ product.

Are you interested in learning more about the utiliCIRQ web solution for your utility? Please contact us at (888) 335-7222 to learn more.

Paintsville has over 8000 customers of a combination of water, gas, and wastewater throughout most of Johnson County and several surrounding counties.

Webb Creek Utility District serves over 700 water and wasterwater customers in the northern part of Gatlinburg, TN. This area is a rapidly growing tourist area. In fact, many of WCUD customers live away from the area, some even overseas. Paying bills is sometimes tough because of the location of some of the account holders. After seeing a demonstration of the utiliCIRQ solution at the TAUD conference in Gatlinburg in the summer, Janice Carver, the office manager for WCUD, saw a great solution. She could update her website and create a solution to getting her bills paid easier for her customers.

Cirq Media developed an easy to update website and also installed an online payment system that lets WCUD accept eChecks, credit cards, and bank drafts, even recurring billing.  Now WCUD can take credit card or eCheck orders over the phone or direct their customers to the www.wcud.org website for a secure online bill pay area.

They also wanted to make it easy for their customers to get general information and easier for WCUD to make updates to the website. That is where utiliCIRQ separates itself from competitors. The WCUD solution included the following:

• a new website with update ability from within HB&TS
• wcud.org email accounts (also includes a shared calendar and document storage solution)
• online secure bill pay
• virtual terminal for managing credit card, bankdraft, and eCheck payments
• a newsletter section to provide current info to customers
• off-site hosting and backup
• annual support

These items are all part of a typical utiliCIRQ Utility Web Solution package. However, we customize each one for your utility. Give us a call to schedule a demo.

They wanted to make it easy for their customers to get information and easier for HB&TS employees to make updates to the site. That is where utiliCIRQ separates itself from competitors. The HB&TS solution included the following:

• a new logo
• a new website with update ability from within HB&TS
• hbtsud.com email accounts (they were using bellsouth.net)
• a news update section to provide current info to customers
• off-site hosting and backup
• annual support

These items are all part of a typical utiliCIRQ Utility Web Solution package. However, we customize each one for your utility. Give us a call to schedule a demo.

Cirq Media’s utiliCIRQ Solution for Utilities meets the needs of utilities of all flavors by providing a cost-effective and easy to update custom website package.  For more info, contact us at 615-719-7839.