Through social media electric company works to dispel myth
Post on: 2011-09-05 By: admin
The rumor about PPL's emergency crews working out of state could have started on Facebook, talk radio or a diner in Lake Ariel.
But it reached the halls of the state Capitol and PPL officials have had to address it on the Internet, with customers and in talks with policy-makers. The fast-spreading rumor has PPL dispatching its repair crews out of its service area, even to other states. It's just not true, said PPL spokesman Michael Wood.
The notion that any PPL truck or any PPL employee is working on damage anywhere else, or that we gave up crews, is false, Mr. Wood said, depicting the utility as the victim of an urban myth.
The pleas of the powerless in rural Pennsylvania, blaming PPL's mythical extra-state deployment rather than Mother Nature, reached the ears of elected officials. Mr. Wood said legislators have confronted PPL officials as they faced one of the worst weather events for the utility in 20 years.
Elected officials have heard the same rumors from their constituents and they've asked us about it, he said. We are clarifying for them that all assets are being brought to bear on this response.
To the extent possible, PPL communication staff has tried to squelch the rumor on Internet bulletin boards and social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.
The company has 415 tree trimmers at work. PPL's ranks of troublemen, linemen and electricians have been doubled to 1,400, thanks to crews imported into the PPL service area from Ohio, Indiana, New York, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas. The company has 300 workers from its other utility in Kentucky, Louisville GasElectric, at work in Pennsylvania. These are good people, many of whom we called in to stage before the storm hit, and we are glad to have them, he said.
North Haven, Conn., attorney Jeffrey M. Donofrio represents companies that have been victims of cyber smears. He said the PPL rumor has the elements of a successful smear: It is simple and memorable, takes aim on an industry that many people have a bias against, and played upon peoples' fears and emotions at a trying time.
Utilities are favorite targets of this sort of thing, not just by the public, but of politicians as well, he said. Anytime people are frustrated, they are more likely to believe a negative rumor.
The public has easy Internet access to sources both reputable and not. Blogs, social networking sites and online news comment pages offer an unlimited ability to weigh in - or make something up- on any issue, he said.
PPL should confront the public's general ignorance in what's involved in restoring power, Mr. Donofrio said, adding that the company should make it a point to explain the task better to customers.
Contact the writer: dfalchek@timesshamrock.com
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