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municipalauthorities.org | 15 be some of your greatest advocates. If you don’t have the capacity to create and distribute an internal newsletter, then get in the habit of shooting off emails here and there to share organizational wins, info about big projects and news articles about your organization and/or industry. Highlight the Data Authorities have tons of data. Frame your facts and figures with real-world context. How many leaks did your authority repair last year and how much water savings does that equate to? By investing in a large project, what are the projected cost savings over the next 10 years? Or how is that project bettering the community or environment over the next 10 years? These questions are already answered in your project plans, so use what you have and show how it fits into the larger picture. Celebrate the Milestones Organizational anniversaries are always an easy win. Share the stats and figures about what your organization looked like at the start and compare to how it’s grown or adapted. Highlight the mission and the community growth as well. Many of us provide a service that can support community growth and that can be celebrated. These types of stories can be communicated in a brief video for social media, a blog post, newsletter article and by pitching this to the media. There are so many stories to tell that align with your organization’s strategic goals, you just have to get into the habit of listening for them, asking more questions and writing them down. Use your messages as a guide. Sharing these stories builds trust within your community and among your stakeholders. One day, you may have to rely on that trust that you worked so hard to establish. S H ow W e H andled NPWA G oing V iral In September, North Penn Water Authority was presented with the Community Engagement Award for Best of Show at the PMAA Annual Conference in Hershey. We were thrilled to be recognized for our Public Relations efforts that furthered a very important message for Authorities. Back in December 2023, Anthony Bellitto, Executive Director of North Penn Water Authority, testified on behalf of PMAA in front of the House Committee in Harrisburg to share his views on the negative impacts of Act 12. A portion of his testimony was posted to X, formerly Twitter, and gained so much traction that it garnered more than 5.2 million views. This meant that a video clip of Tony had gone viral and since X is a large, international audience, we knew we needed to publicize this message closer to home . During his testimony, Tony did a phenomenal job painting a picture of what privatization of well-run authorities really is and how detrimental it is for rate payers. His ability to use metaphors throughout his testimony in an illustrative way made his message clear, relatable and memorable. To bring this video clip and message to our customers and stakeholders, we shared a screen shot of the viral post to Facebook and LinkedIn with a link to the post on X. We then wrote a press release to send to our local news outlets, our Borough and Township managers and our local Chambers of Commerce. In addition to the 5.2 million views on X, the NPWA PR team earned a media placement in our local paper that ran on the front page and details about the testimony was published in seven other news outlets throughout the state. This resulted in an additional 1.75 million people being exposed to the message through earned media. Collectively, we must help our customers understand the value of the services we provide to them. If they don’t fully understand the quality or value of the service, they can’t help us protect what we have. Not only did we see incredible results from our efforts, but we brought light to the issue of privatization in a way that was easy to understand. For those reasons, this campaign was a huge success. Anthony Bellitto, Executive Director, North Penn Water Authority testifying in front of the House Consumer Protection, Technology and Utilities Committee on December 12, 2023.