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You
might
think
it
a
"crappy"
job
tweeting
about
sewage
and
stormwater,
but
the
"can-doo-doo"
attitude
of
one
Baldwin
Wallace
University
alumnus
is
resulting
in
ingenious
tweets
on
what
happens
once
you
flush.
John Gonzalez '00, communications manager for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD), has earned notoriety and quite a following on social media by being relevant, witty and sharp with puns and jokes.
"Relevance definitely matters. How can we be relevant to the conversation," said Gonzalez in an interview with News 5 Cleveland.
Gonzalez started with NEORSD in 2000 as an intern while studying English at BW.
"I wasn't completely sure where my English major would lead me once I declared it ... But my passion for writing and creativity led me from there to writing and editing for The Exponent [BW's student newspaper], which led me to a Career Center email invitation to apply for a communications internship with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District," he said.
In
another
news
feature
on
the
now
Twitter
sensation,
FreshWater
Cleveland
noted
that
in
a
single
25-day
period,
NEORSD
sent
out
400
tweets
which
made
a
whopping
1.2
million
impressions.
"Social media needs to be engaging, educational, or entertaining," Gonzalez told FreshWater. "We've found a niche focusing more on the entertainment value."
The NEORSD Twitter account has managed to tie sewage and stormwater to hot topics such as the Super Bowl, "Game of Thrones" and the live-action "The Lion King" movie.
Gonzalez also noted that NEORSD is a "faceless entity" in many ways; therefore, people do not tend to recognize the impact of the organization.
He told the Water Environment Federation's "Words on Water" podcast that the fun and creative approach to social media is part of a broader NEORSD communication strategy to creatively "educate, entertain, and engage" with customers.
To see what else Gonzalez is doing and what new poop jokes are being tossed around, follow the NEORSD Twitter account.
