Drinking Water Week Photo Contest

About the Program

Category: Civic Education and Public Information (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

The Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department (WASD) is a department that operates 24-hours-a-day, year-round. It has become vital that WASD educate and engage through non-traditional methods, going beyond press releases that are not guaranteed for publication, and utilizing various Social Media platforms. While these various social media platforms accomplish timeliness, the success of the message is only as good as the audience it reaches. By cultivating a larger social media audience, the department is also able to direct the department’s message. To grow WASD’s followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as well as increase and enhance the level of citizen participation and the understanding of WASD’s programs and construction projects, the department’s Public Affairs Section initiated the inaugural Drinking Water Week Photo Contest in 2016. The contest encourages Miami-Dade County residents of all ages to submit a high-resolution photo that demonstrates how water is essential to their daily lives. During submission, participants are required to use #miamidadewater. The photo contest has a dual prong approach for its objectives and goals. By getting the public to participate, they are actively thinking about the importance of the safe drinking water that WASD provides on daily basis to nearly 2.3 million residents, as well as gaining new active followers to the department’s social media sites. The inaugural year of this photo contest took place during the infancy of the department’s launching and management of its Social Media accounts. Because of this photo contest and its promotion, WASD’s followers doubled its Twitter account alone. By having the participants submit their photos directly onto WASD’s social media accounts, their followers and friends also saw this in their feeds that would in essence be free advertising for the contest/department and could generate additional likes/follows for the department’s pages.