Winter preparation

During a brutal winter, the City of Walla Walla’s Water Division was hit hard. Most community members had not winterized their homes, resulting in many burst residential pipes, frozen water services, and overtime hours. The City of Walla Walla had shared winterization tips for decades, but they were the same boring ones that people have ignored for decades.

I developed a strategy to help reduce costs associated with these preventable emergencies by sharing winter preparation tips in a mode conducive to social media.

• I took the tips and incorporated them in rap lyrics set to the tune of “Ice, Ice, Baby.”

• I served as producer for the video. I worked with a filmmaker in the community to shoot and edit the music video. I recruited a local rapper to record the song and found a music production student to star as the rapper. Water Distribution Division workers generously shared their dancing skills.

• I shared the winterization tips on social media channels, in the City’s email newsletter, and in City’s print newsletter.

The following year, Public Works reported nearly 80 percent fewer calls for frozen and burst pipes. The video has earned more than 70,000 views on the City’s Facebook account. Nightly news programs in the Pacific Northwest did segments on the video and shared it on their social media accounts. The effort earned a California Public Information Officers EPIC Award and a Government Social Media Conference & Expo Golden Post Award for Best Use of Humor on Social Media. More importantly, water utilities across the nation shared it with their communities. The budget for the project was $650.