social media for economic development
TRANSCRIPT
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Northland Connection
Website Review and Agency Capabilities
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Effective Ways to Use Social Media for Economic
Development
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About Atlas Advertising• We help economic developers reach national and international prospects and site selectors
• We deliver branding, website development, GIS mapping, research, social media and creative services
• We build best-in-class products to simplify online marketing for economic development
• Our agency is led by a former economic development practitioner and has worked with 50+ ED clients in 30 states
• Our campaigns generate an average of three to ten times the response of other campaigns
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Featured Clients
• Indy Partnership• Hoosier Energy• State of Ohio• City of San Francisco• Greater Phoenix Economic Council• TREO (Tucson)
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Outline
1. A conversation about social media
2. Why social media is important
3. The Atlas Report: social media use by site selectors
4. What’s stopping us?
5. Where to start
6. Overview of social media tools
7. Who does social media well?
8. Parting thoughts
9. Questions?
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Why are you interested in social media?
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A few answers…• I want to be relevant
• I don’t want to get left behind
• Everyone’s talking about it and I know there’s something to it, I just don’t know what yet!
• I’m not sure: what’s the value?
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What is Social Media?
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Social Media is…
• Social media is contentThink of social media as another way to spread your organization’s key messages and to put yourself on the online map.
• Social media is a conversationThink of social media as another way to connect with your prospects and provide superior customer service, as well as address their concerns.
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Why Social Media is important
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Growth of Social Media (Pew Internet & American Life)
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Do you believe the hype?Here’s a look at Google search returns for “social media” over the past few years:
• 2005: 9,150,000
• 2006: 41,600,000
• 2007: 165,000,000
• 2008: 359,000,000
• 2009: 1,230,000,000
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Do you believe the hype?Here’s a look at Google search returns for “content
strategy":
• 2006: 5,930,000
• 2007: 8,340,000
• 2008: 137,000,000
• 2009: 337,000,000
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The Atlas Report: Social Media Use by Site Selectors
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What social networks or tools, if any, do you use?
71 % use LinkedIn, and just over 50% use facebook.
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How frequently do you use each?
72 % use some form of Social Media at least weekly.
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An indication of what is to come?“Young companies are all about social media. Their whole concept is open source everything. They rely on an online community. They’re building enthusiasts for their product online. I have a current client in the auto manufacturing space that loves social media. These guys are choosing their locations based on what their online community says they want.
“If you can find companies on social media, you can reach them. Big corporations not using it this way, but small guys are for sure.
“As people who live in the community find these great companies, they could connect ED with companies. Blog with your citizens about what they like and what they know about. Tips are good. Fear is how do you know you have the good information in these channels? I am just learning myself.”
-A Site Selector, early October 2009
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So, what’s stopping us?
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A few answers…• I’m not sure we have the time
• I don’t know where to start
• I don’t know how to measure my results
• What if it’s just a fad?
• What if people say horrible things about us?
• I don’t know what to say
• I’m scared of the legal repercussions
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Is it just a fad?• Facebook is bigger than most countries
• LinkedIn has 48 Million plus users worldwide, in 170 industries and 200 countries
• Companies widely engaged in social media surpass their peers in both revenue and profits
• Dell sold $3 million in computers on Twitter
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What about negative press?
Joining the conversation doesn’t create negative press. It
helps you manage that press.After much criticism for poor customer service, the direct-sell
computer company earned the rather unfortunate moniker “Dell Hell.”
(Googling the term results in a long list of links largely tied to customer
dissatisfaction.) In response to this, Dell executives worked to improve customer relations
and actively join in the conversation. Dell has even developed the property
IdeaStorm—a community driven forum in which customers are invited to
note problems, share suggestions with the company, and even assist fellow
customers. Since then, some past critics have praised the company for their
improvements and negative blog posts about the company have purportedly dropped from
49% to 22%. Read more
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How do I measure my results?“Why are we trying to measure social media like a traditional
channel anyway? Social media touches every facet of business and is more an
extension of good business ethics.” –Erik Qualman, author of
Socialnomics
Like having a phone or an email system, ROI from social
media isn’t cut and dry. There are a few ways to slice it,
though:• How many website visits were driven by SM?• How many prospects, when asked, say they
saw us on SM?• How many followers, fans and readers are
hearing our messages?• How does this measure up against the cost or
time we’re putting in?
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Where to start: effective use of social media in economic development
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Step one: identify your audience• Who are you trying to reach with social
media?
• Where are they spending their time online?
• What do they want?
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Step two: make a plan• What do you want to get out of social media?
• What will you say and how will you say it?• Taking your brand and messaging
standards into account• Considering legal concerns• Considering your goals
• Who will say it and who will own it?
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Step three: allot your resourcesLINKEDIN
Initial Set Up:
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Step three: allot your resourcesLINKEDIN
Ongoing Commitment:
* Time is weekly total
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Step three: allot your resourcesTWITTER
Initial Set Up:
Ongoing Commitment:
If you are have a blog or are updating your LinkedIn profile already, ongoing commitment for
Twitter may drop substantially.
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Step three: allot your resourcesBLOGS
Initial Set Up:
Ongoing Commitment:
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Step three: allot your resourcesIf you do all three…This:
Becomes this:
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Step four: say somethingOnce you have your plan, put it into action.
Start posting, tweeting and commenting. And expect that reaching your goals will take time and great content.
When you’re posting, consider the goals you’ve set and the audience you’ve identified. You should always be asking yourself: what is my audience getting from this content? Make sure your audience always has a reason to return.
Everything you post or tweet or re-tweet should be integrated with your overall brand and goals. Social media isn’t a stand-alone tactic: it should connect with your website, your presentations and the way you speak to your prospects on the phone. Everything should feel consistent.
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Step four: say somethingPOSTING GUIDELINES
• Be Authentic
• Keep it simple
• Think about your users
• Think like your users
"If your target audience isn't listening, it's not their fault, it's yours.”Seth Godin, Small is the New Big
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Overview of social media tools
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About LinkedIn
• “A professional network of trustedcontacts.”
• 48 Million plus users worldwide, in 170 industries and 200 countries
• Execs in all of the Fortune 500• 60% of incomes over $93,000• Segments:
• Executives: 28%• Networkers/Consultants: 30%• Late Adopters: 22%• Exploring options: 20%
• People with incomes of $200K + were seven times more likely to have 150 plus connections than lower income users.
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What is the applicability of LinkedIn to your profession?
52.6% of site selectors say LinkedIn has good application to the site selection profession.
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About Facebook
• “Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.”
• More than 300 million active users, 150 million once a day
• More than two-thirds of facebook users are outside of college
• Average user has 120 friends on the site • More than 900 million photos uploaded to the
site each month • More than 1 billion pieces of content (web
links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week
• About 70% of facebook users are outside the United States. See map: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=234513010483&ref=mf
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What is the applicability of facebook to your profession?
60% of site selectors say facebook has no/very little applicability to the site selection profession.
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About Twitter
• “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected by answering one simple question: What are you doing?”
• Usage up 1300% in 2009• Fastest growing site in the Member
Communities category at 1,382%. • Tweeters are not primarily teens or
college students as you might expect:• Largest user group on Twitter is 35-49
year olds; with nearly 3 million unique visitors, comprising almost 42 percent of the site’s audience.
• The majority of people visit Twitter.com while at work, with 62 percent ofthe audience accessing the site from work
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What is the applicability of Twitter to your profession?
63.6% of site selectors say Twitter has no/very little applicability to the site selection profession.
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About Blogs
• Blogs provide frequently updated content on a specific topic
• There are over 200,000,000 blogs online
• Blogs tend to rank high in search• Atlas blogs are hosted through
Wordpress. Wordpress currently has 7,237 available plugins for things like sidebar polls, event calendars, Twitter integration, Share It and more
• Blogs, in 2008, had 77.7 million unique visitors
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About Flickr
• Flickr is a photo sharing tool that allows you to upload, store, view, share and categorize your photos into galleries and collections
• Flickr also supports video upload• As of October 2009, it hosts more
than 4 billion images• Flickr is owned by Yahoo!• Flickr photos can be embedded on
websites and in blogs
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Social Media, Well Done
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Who does social media well?Metro Denver EDC• Outstanding blog,
mostly written by their Executive VP
• Insider tone
• Outstanding use of Twitter – 2,700 followers
• Tweeting 4-6 times a day
www.metrodenver.org/blog
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What you can learn from Metro Denver
• You can grow your sphere of influence by using social media
• Your executive should be involved
• Your blog should be open and honest
• Use a tone that is personal and connects you to your stakeholders
• Take a leadership role in getting information out about your community
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Who does social media well?Kansas City Area Development Council• 122-member LinkedIn group
for investor partnerswww.thinkkc.com/blog
Boston World Partnerships• Frequently updated blog• Concise posts• Integration of
MassChallenge startup competition Twitter account on blog
www.bostonworldpartnerships.com/blog
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Today’s opportunities
• Social media is content. It’s another channel for promoting your community, your organization and your expertise
• Content is still king: the more of it you have, and the better it’s displayed, the better your organization will do online
• Be strategic about your content: the better you plan, the better you’ll do
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Parting thoughts…• Effective use of social media in economic
development means:
• Understanding your audience
• Planning ahead
• Allotting appropriate resources
• Saying something worthwhile
”[Online] you don’t have a captive audience. You have a multi-tasking, distracted, ready-to-leave-your-site-at-any-time audience who has very specific goals in mind. If your content doesn’t meet those goals, and quickly, they will leave. Period.” –Kristina Halvorson, Content Strategy
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To view our presentations:
Join our LinkedIn Group: Next Gen Economic Development
Marketers(Once you sign up, you will need to be
approved)
We look forward to having you!
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Questions? Comments?
Contact information:
2601 Blake Street, Suite 301Denver, CO 80205
Contact: Gigi Griffist: 303.292.3300 x 223
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