CHICAGO — Aug. 14, 2013 — ComEd became the most “liked” utility on Facebook the week of Aug. 12, reaching a new record of more than 50,000 “likes” on its Facebook page.

ComEd attributes reaching this milestone to two initiatives: 1) a concerted effort to provide customers with more online tools to report outages and get outage information and 2) the Coolest Summer Ever promotion.

ComEd recently has increased its efforts to use social media like Facebook as a means to provide outage reporting and information, solicit feedback about programs the utility offers, and share seasonal energy efficiency tips. Tools like the “Report an Outage” Facebook application continue to draw more and more customers to the utility’s page. Plus, customers now have access to online tools such as an interactive outage map (ComEd.com/Map), two-way text messaging for outage reporting, and a mobile app that can be used to report outages and manage customer accounts.

Additionally, ComEd’s “Coolest Summer Ever,” an 11-week social media promotion, is in full-swing, featuring once-in-a-lifetime prizes such as feeding a giraffe at the Brookfield Zoo, throwing out the first pitch at Cubs game or camping out at the Morton Arboretum. Running until September 1, the Coolest Summer Ever offers visitors to ComEd’s Facebook page a chance to win backstage-access experiences at top cultural and civic institutions in northern Illinois, 30 of which are also among ComEd’s community partners.

“It’s exciting to see more and more of our customers engaging us through what used to be non-traditional channels like Facebook,” said Kevin Brookins, senior vice president of Strategy and Administration for ComEd. “Through the Coolest Summer Ever promotion, we’ve been able to use Facebook to raise awareness about energy efficiency and other programs we offer to our customers.”

To participate in the Coolest Summer Ever promotion, participants can submit an entry every day for each week’s prize by clicking the Coolest Summer Ever link on ComEd’s Facebook page. Entrants will be eligible to receive one of the remaining weekly prizes by answering trivia questions about that week’s prize or about energy efficiency and other programs offered to ComEd customers.

Last year’s Coolest Summer Ever promotion helped to increase ComEd’s Facebook followers by more than 1,000 percent—from 1,700 to more than 32,000—over 10 weeks.