3. TABLE OF CONTENTS
04 Preamble
06 Context
08 Key Insights
17 Results
21 Best Practices
Site Selection Tools - Web 1.0
Social Media Tools - Web 2.0
Mobile Applications
Elsewhere In North America
57 Planning Points
60 Final Thoughts
62 Methodology
63 Frequently Asked Questions
64 About Intelegia
65 About The Authors
66 Bibliography
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4. PREAMBLE
Why in the world should economic development
agencies bother about social media when they execute
their investment attraction and retention strategy?
Over the last four years, we have monitored
on an ongoing basis the use of social media in
economic development to blog about the best
practices in the field. We have also conducted Think about it.
interviews with agencies’ communications and
marketing executives. We have trained hundreds • Twitter is the most popular social media tool
of economic development officers (EDOs) in among the agencies in Canada and in the
Canada and in the United States. To conclude, United States. 85% of agencies are using
we have performed an annual benchmark which the micro-blogging site, followed by LinkedIn
translates in the Intelegia’s Online Marketing Index. which is used by 85% of Canadian agencies
and by 80% of American agencies.
EDOs are now split in three categories: a) Early
adopters (i.e., EDOs that have solid engagement • Between 2011 and 2012, the addition of a
strategies on various platforms), b) Late comers mobile site went from 10% to 25% for
(i.e. EDOs still attempting to engage their audience Canadian agencies.
on a selected amount of applications) and c)
Status quo agencies (EDOs that are applying classic • American agencies consider Facebook as a
marketing tools and approaches). If every agency valuable tool, since 80% of them have a
in the first two categories is now embracing the Facebook Page..
applications, then they are not equal in their
expertise and best practices.
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5. PREAMBLE
Some CEOs are knowledgeable of how social the 12 factors influencing site selectors, “Existing base of skilled talent to select the best employees.
media come into play with investors and site relationships with economic development officials” As a result, agencies must consider how they
selectors to raise the awareness of their region and “News stories about community” were can use their existing social media infrastructure
and brand, to identify prospects and secure ranked in the top 6 replies. 1 With this being to attract and keep qualified talent. Competing
investment and inspire trust. Kudos to Paul Kent said, agencies must understand that social with neighboring cities or regions for skilled
in Halifax, Bruce Lanzenby in Ottawa, Stuart Rogel media applications do accelerate the process workers means agencies must formulate a digital
in Tampa Bay and Barry Broome in Phoenix for of these two factors. Linkedin as the primary marketing strategy to reach and convince
embracing social media; however, they still do tool to connect, share and engage for business individuals that their respective location is the
not represent the majority. Could one reason be purposes and Twitter as the number one social best choice to work and live. This entails clearly
that EDOs often have a hard time understanding media tool used by traditional media outlets to illustrating the key location factors to individuals
how they can isolate the role and value of social monitor news confirms the shifts in communicating looking for employment and at the same time,
marketing in their investment attraction successes? and conducting research via the web. engaging companies interested in investing in
the region.
This year, Atlas Advertising, an American advertising We have witnessed that a few agencies have
agency specializing in economic development gone a step further in using social media. With
and site selection, published “High Performance the priority of attracting skilled talent, these
Economic Development: How Technology and agencies have decided to use their social media
Outcome-Based Metrics Will Save Economic tools and online presence to promote talent
Development Investment and Promotion As We attraction initiatives. Cities will be unable to
Know It” report and uncovered that amongst attract and retain companies without a sufficient
What we aspire to do with this report is to showcase how leading
economic development agencies in Canada and in the United States
are using social media in their marketing mix and what they were able
to accomplish. It is our hope that more EDOs will realize the value of
implementing a digital marketing strategy for their investment
attraction and business retention needs.
Isabelle Poirier
Founder of Intelegia
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7. CONTEXT
Both groups of agencies in Canada do not operate With the help from selected economic development
in a vacuum and must contend for investment professionals via their insights regarding the
dollars in large and innovative cities in the importance of strong branding, readers of this
United States. report will have an understanding of:
Understanding the dynamics at play when How branding is essential to break through the
attempting to promote a region for investment clutter in the digital space to connect with key
attraction and business retention on a larger decision makers with regards to investment
scale, Intelegia decided to examine how 41* opportunities.
agencies from large cities (based on population)
were using digital marketing applications to The need to have a branding strategy to reinforce
convince potential investors and site selectors the benefits of investing in a specific location
that their city is the only location to invest in. especially when neighboring jurisdictions can
easily claim and communicate the same
Although this benchmark report evaluates benefits.
the basic use of a variety of digital marketing
tools by the agencies, close attention was paid The input in the form of comments from the
to how the cities are able to illustrate their chosen economic development professionals
respective brands. are mentioned throughout this report.
* 41 agencies were reviewed for the 40 metropolitan statistical areas since the
metropolitan statistical area of Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA is comprised
of two economic development agencies: San Bernardino Economic Development
Agency and Riverside Office of Economic Development.
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8. KEY INSIGHTS
To complement
Intelegia’s benchmark exercise for this report,
the co-authors had the opportunity to interview the representatives at
some of the top ranked agencies from Canada and United States to gain
further insights into their approach of using digital marketing tools.
Top ranked agencies have taken a risk of using social media to strategically
brand their city for economic development initiatives and it has paid off.
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9. KEY INSIGHTS
Greater Halifax Partnership
Benefit: Viral Branding Effect
Greater Halifax Partnership has been able to foreign direct investment location with a strong From a talent retention point of view, the agency
enhance its community’s capacity to attract and brand. In addition, the tools are great avenues to leveraged its social media tools by promoting a
expand foreign direct investment by making their collect information on potential investors. Potential UPS Canada job fair in July 2012. This effort assisted
investment attraction content easily accessible investors enter their contact information (i.e., in UPS Canada recruiting the right personnel and
and shareable. The accessibility of investment phone number and email address) to gain further ultimately played an instrumental role in selecting
attraction materials (i.e., Why Halifax investment information. These leads are then logged by the Halifax as a location to open an office as a part of
video on iTunes, YouTube, website and Facebook agency’s team, contacted and promptly provided the company’s Atlantic Canada expansion plans.
page, four sector podcasts on Libsyn, iTunes, and with additional customized information. In 2011-12, UPS Canada is looking to fill over 100 positions
an ebrochure tool) enables partners and online Greater Halifax Partnership received 237 requests in Halifax.
communities to share and embed content for their for information (most electronically). As a result of
own trade missions, location and expansion activities. those requests, the agency identified 12 business
development leads with the potential for 2,263
Such tools enable the agency to build an online new jobs. Four leads were closed and 419 jobs
network of champions promoting Halifax as a were created.
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10. KEY INSIGHTS
Hamilton Economic
Development
Benefit: Earned Media and the Viral Effect
Via their YouTube Channel, Hamilton Economic Development unveiled in August Using the local press outlet, the agency was able to leverage the exposure to
2012, “Wake Up From Your Commuting Nightmare”, an animated short designed brand the city of Hamilton as the location to do business without the hassles
to market and brand Hamilton as a viable live/work choice to those on of commuting from and to Toronto. Within a day, the CBC Hamilton story got
the endless commute to Toronto. Without any form of advertisements, picked up by “Daily Brew”, a Yahoo Canada News daily blog. The video has
the animated film got noticed by the local television station, CBC Hamilton, been viewed 5,400 times on YouTube in three months.
which is very selective when it comes to picking up feeds from news sources.
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11. KEY INSIGHTS
World Business Chicago
Benefit: Brand Awareness
In October 2012, World Business Chicago (WBC) Prior to, during and after the event, WBC utilized Twitter and Facebook. In addition, WBC engaged
co-hosted the inaugural Chicago After Hours talent Twitter via @WorldBizChicago and #AftrHrs to influencers at the UofI. WBC also interacted with the
recruiting event at the University of Illinois’ College of showcase the city. By providing hashtags, handles Mayor’s Office in order to engage additional
Engineering in Urbana (UofI), a landmark event that and content ideas to all of the companies in audiences. The panel discussion was streamed live
brought Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and 39 of the attendance, the organization was able to create a via the Mayor’s Office and the University of Illinois
city’s tech companies to the campus to accelerate social dialogue that raised brand awareness for websites.
the momentum and buzz about Chicago. Chicago and its burgeoning tech community on
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12. KEY INSIGHTS
London Economic
Development Corporation
Benefit: Workforce and Company Retention
To support labour retention strategy specifically for technology
sector in London, Ontario, London Economic Development
Corporation launched the digital marketing campaign in April
2012. The campaign is composed of a website, www.london-
techjobs.ca and a Twitter account, @LdnTechJobs to efficiently
engage with agency’s target audience rather than using traditional
newspaper advertisements.
Since the launch of the campaign, the agency has successfully
retained a handful of IT and ICT companies that were struggling
to grow in London. The case of Digital Extremes, a digital
interactive game development company founded in London
can be highlighted as a success story for the agency. The company
selected to stay and grow in London based on several cost
competitive advantages and with the agency’s efforts to
attract talent. The company closed their Toronto office and
decided to expand and invest in London.
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13. KEY INSIGHTS
Edmonton Economic
Development Corporation
Benefit: Workforce Attraction
In July 2012, Edmonton Economic Development Corporation Some of the results from the campaign include:
launched a labour attraction initiative that was support by a • 1,130 job applications were received;
digital marketing presence in the form of the website (www. • Opportunityawaits.com received 25,032 visitors
opportunityawaits.com), Facebook page and Twitter account. (June 28, 2012 - October 1, 2012);
Although the collection of tools are used to provide relevant • Opportunityawaits.com received 21,030 unique visitors
and current content to job seekers, the agency aimed to inform (June 28, 2012 - October 1, 2012);
its target audience (located in Seattle, Washington) by • 1,274 social media referrals to opportunityawaits.com.
demystifying any misconceptions about Northern Alberta
with short brand messaging.
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14. KEY INSIGHTS
Tampa Bay Partnership
Benefit: Defining Brand Attributes
Front Row Tampa Bay was an initiative by Tampa Bay Partnership in which the In post-convention research that measured perceptions about the Tampa
agency hosted a live streaming webcast during the 2012 Republican National Bay regional brand on 27 key attributes, it was discovered that all 27
Convention. With 17 hours of video content, the agency’s primary objectives attributes registered an increase from the pre to the post-convention
were to promote the local business environment for investment attraction and research, 15 of which saw significant improvement and there were no
to increase the positive perceptions of the eight county Tampa Bay region in decreases.
the key economic development measures by those attending the convention.
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15. KEY INSIGHTS
Greater Phoenix
Economic Council
Benefit: Defining Brand Message Reinforcement
To bring awareness to an initiative that dispute the United States International To continue their efforts, the Greater Phoenix Economic Council pushed
Trade Commission’s tariffs of 24 percent or more on Chinese-made solar content through the channels featured statements from CEO, Barry Broome,
cells and panels, Greater Phoenix Economic Council utilized their blog; Twitter stressing how the commission’s decision could hamper the investment
and YouTube to disseminate their message of opposition to the tariffs. On climate for the solar industry in Phoenix.
July 26th, 2012, the agency released a letter of protest and posted the link to
the document on their blog. To push the news about the letter, a tweet was
sent out and two news sources pick up the news to serve as the basis of the
own respective tweets.
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16. KEY INSIGHTS
Success doesn’t
always come easy for the top-ranked agencies.
They all have their own ongoing challenges to overcome in an attempt to be perfect.
Greater Halifax Edmonton Economic London Economic
Partnership Development Corporation Development Corporation
Within the successful marketing team at Greater The Edmonton Economic Development Corporation With their sector specific approach to social media
Halifax Partnership, representatives face ongoing faces three main challenges in the form of i) for investment attraction, London Economic
challenges in the form of i) ensuring that there is knowing whether the content that they are sharing Development Corporation is faced with time management
enough relevant content on the selected social timely and relevant information with their target challenges. In order to reach established social
networks, ii) investing the right amount of time to audience, ii) reinforce to assigned individuals marketing objectives, the agency has to ensure
build an audience and relationships, iii) be comfortable the importance of sharing relevant content and that the right amount of time is spent executing
with the fact that not everything is going to be iii) how to best allocate its limited resources strategies. To overcome this challenge, the agency
positive and iv) finding a role for new tools in the to ensure success on their chosen social hired a social media coordinator.
current strategy. media tools.
Tampa Bay Partnership
Hamilton Economic World Business Chicago The major challenge that Tampa Bay Partnership
Development The main challenge that World Business Chicago
has to contend with is how to efficiently and
must deal as it continues marketing Tampa Bay via
social media is attempting to define their audience
Hamilton Economic Development still tackles
effectively engage with an array of different to properly engage with relevant content.
challenges pertaining to resource allocation for
audiences on social media. Even though the
their social media strategy in particularly human
agency is connecting and supplying content with
resources and information technology. The agency’s
representatives expressed the need to have a
existing and potential economic development Greater Phoenix
sufficient amount of personnel to contribute to
stakeholders, being relevant to other audience
members on Twitter remains a hurdle to improving
Economic Council
the agency’s social media efforts and getting Greater Phoenix Economic Council is assessing how
the social media strategy.
personnel to use iPads to encourage accessing to allocate more resources to the marketing team to
and sharing information “on the go”. ensure that their social media presence is maturing.
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17. RESULTS
3
Invest Ottawa
CEO, Bruce Lazenby,
active Twitter user
1
Greater Halifax Partnership
CEO Paul Kent’s posts on
SmartCity Blog
CANADA
2
1
4 Hamilton Economic
1 Development
3 YouTube clip, “Wake Up From
Your Commuting Nightmare”
2
Edmonton Economic 1
Development Corporation 5
Facebook Timeline:
Providing relevant content
5
London Economic
Development Corporation
4
Regina Regional YouTube clip, “Today Tonight in
Opporunities Commission London Canada”
Twitter: High engagement
levels with followers
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17
18. RESULTS
Hamilton Economic Greater Halifax Edmonton Economic Invest Ottawa
Development Partnership Development Corporation
84 84 73 72
Regina Regional London Economic Canada’s Technology Sherbrooke Innopole
Opportunities Commision Development Corporation Triangle
70 62 60 55
Calgary Economic Montreal Saskatoon Regional Economic Economic Development
Development International Devleopment Authority Winnipeg Inc.
49 46 40 39
Niagara Economic Quebec International VancouverEconomicCommission City of Barrie
Development Corporation Development Corporation
38 36 35 34
Greater Toronto City of Oshawa Greater Victoria Windsor and Essex County
Marketing Alliance Development Agency Development Commission
33 31 29 29
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19. RESULTS
USA 4 1
1
New York City Economic
Development Corporation
Tumblr blog: a news outlet for up
to the minute developments in
the city
5
2
3
4 World Business Chicago
Twitter: Getting economic data
out in 140 characters or less
5
Greater Phoenix
Economic Council
3
CEO, Barry Broome, sharing Tampa Bay Partnership
and engaging on Facebook
CEO, Stuart Rogel,
active Twitter user
2
Greater Houston
Partnership
Mobile application of
the website
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20. RESULTS
New York City Economic Greater Houston Tampa Bay World Business
Development Corporation Partnership Partnership Chicago
92 64 62 61
Greater Phoenix Economic Alliance of Invest Atlanta Detroit Economic
Economic Council Greater Baltimore Growth Corporation
59 51 49 47
Los Angeles Economic San Diego Regional Economic Minneapolis Saint-Paul Regional Boston Redevelopment
Development Corporation Development Corporation EconomicDevelopmentPartnership Authority
44 43 42 40
The Beacon Council Select Greater Enterprise Seattle Riverside Office of Economic
Development / San Bernardino
/
Philadelphia Economic Development Agency
36 35 32 28 11
Dallas Office of San Francisco Center for St. Louis Development Greater Washington
Economic Development Economic Development Corporation Initiative
28 23 23 10
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21. BEST PRACTICES
SITE SELECTION
TOOLS //
WEB 1.0
Economic development agenices that have a digital marketing strategy have an obligation to provide site selectors with meaningful intelligence to make
sound decisions. In order to do so, agencies need to understand what site selectors are looking for and how to package the information. Utilizing a compilation
of Web 1.0 tools, agencies can efficiently communicate what their region can offer to potential investors. Agencies that fail to have a clear and structured
approach to furnishing data that site selectors need to access easily run the risk of making it difficult to “get the ball rolling” in terms of facilitating
attracting investors.
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22. BEST PRACTICES
Minneapolis-Saint Paul
Regional Economic Development Partnership
Benefit: Appearance of Link To Site Selection Section On Index Page
As seen in Figure 1, a tab dedicated to site selection professionals is
present on the index page of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Regional Economic
Development Partnership website.
Site selectors that choose to click on the tab can quickly access tools and
data regarding:
• Major Industries & Companies
• Workforce
• Location & Transportation
• Maps
• Utilities
• Business Incentives
• Search Properties
• Innovation
Economic development agencies that fail to place their site selection portion
of their website “upfront and center” run the risk of not facilitating the primary
steps in attempting to attract investment, that is to provide information efficiently
fig. 1 online to key decision makers.
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23. BEST PRACTICES
Greater Halifax Partnership
Appearance of Contact Person Name for Site
Selection Inquiry
A section for site selectors on an agency’s website should not only include
relevant data and information tool but it should be able to offer site selectors
the ability to connect with representatives that are responsible for investment
attraction activities. Figure 2 is a screenshot of the “Site Selection Services”
page on the Greater Halifax Partnership website.
Located on the right-hand side of the page is information on the agency’s
point of contact, Nancy Philips, Director of Business Development. Along
with her photo, the agency supplies three avenues to contact Nancy Philips:
• Via the phone
• Via email
• Via an inquiry form
Putting the contact information for the individual responsible for investment
attraction and business retention on the same page with site selection data
will make life easier for site selectors.
fig. 2
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24. BEST PRACTICES
New York City Economic
Development Corporation
Age of Information for Site Selectors and Potential Investors
The ability to provide current information regarding a region is a very
powerful marketing strategy that economic development agencies can
take advantage of if they select to do so. Not only is an agency furnishing
updated data to potential investors but the information available on the
website can serve as a communications tool to show how well the region
is doing periodically.
Via its “Resources” section, the New York City Economic Development
Corporation (NYCEDC) allows site selectors and potential investors to read
a “wealth of statistics, economic data and analyses on New York City”. As
seen in Figure 3, the city’s Economic Snapshots reports are available on a
monthly basis.
Within each issue of the monthly report, the agency gives readers a look at
the different aspects that plays a role in the New York City economy (i.e.,
private employment, hotel occupancy rates and office vacancy rates).
Providing current data to site selectors about a region will aid in their
decision making process in terms of putting a location on their short list
fig. 3 of potential places for their clients to invest.
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25. BEST PRACTICES
World Business Chicago
Available Real Estate Database
Possessing an “easy-to-use” tool on an agency’s website to locate available real estate in a region can contribute to efforts to engage site selectors and
potential investors. Rather than visiting countless amount s of possible sites in person, some selectors prefer to begin their search online thanks to tools that
agencies supply.
World Business Chicago offers a site selector mapping tool that gives
individuals the capability to find available real estate in Chicago based on 15
amenities such as:
• Available Industrial Space
• Available Office / R&D Space
• Industrial Corridors
• Planned Manufacturing Districts (PMD)
In addition, the online tool permits individuals to filter results based on four
mappable incentive programs such as:
• Tax Increment Financing (TIF)
• TIFWorks Program
• Enterprise Zone
• New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC)
Figure 4 is a satellite view of the map that was generated by the agency’s
site selection mapping tool for available industrial space that would qualify
for the TIF Works Program for a company of 25 – 100 employees.
fig. 4 Having an “easy to use” database of available real estate on an agency’s
website facilitate some of the “on the ground” work that site selectors would
like to avoid. Providing “time saving” intelligence can help in attracting site
selectors to consider a region.
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26. BEST PRACTICES
Hamilton Economic Development
Search Engine Optimization on Google
Economic development agencies that depend on Google to be found by site selectors must have a coherent search engine marketing strategy in hopes to
be ranked on the first of results. Some agencies may select to have their indexed blog posts act like landing pages to push individuals to their site selection
section. There are a few agencies that rely on organic search results to capture the attention of information seekers.
Based on search queries with Google conducted on September 25th, 2012,
links leading to the Hamilton Economic Development website (i.e.,
investinhamiliton.ca and were found utilizing the following keywords:
• Hamilton + “Economic Development”
• Hamilton + “investment attraction”
• Hamilton + “invest in”
• Hamilton + “incentive”
Figures 5 to 8 illustrate the results that were found using the keywords listed
above.
To improve an agency’s organic search engine rankings, it is important that
the city’s name appear on webpages along with selected keywords that may
come to mind from a site selector’s point of view.
fig. 5-8
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27. BEST PRACTICES
SOCIAL MEDIA
TOOLS //
WEB 2.0
BLOGS Agencies that decide to have a blog as a part of the social media strategy have the ability to execute an efficient content marketing
plan. Only through an established content strategy that takes in account original content which can contribute to a convincing argument to investors why to
invest in their respective metropolitan areas. The ideal content strategy should take into account insights from representatives of the agency and not solely
copy from press releases and external links to other articles.
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28. BEST PRACTICES
Boston Redevelopment Authority
Use of Tags
Boston Redevelopment Authority’s blog breaks the mold of a traditional
blog layout. Readers are given an index page of post titles along associated
images. To easily browse through the site, the agency offers tags on the
top of page where readers can click on to access relevant content for
their needs.
Figure 9 is a screen capture of the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s posts
that are labeled with the tag, “Business News”.
To help individuals find information quicker on the agency’s blog, consider
creating tags that best reflects the content and the city’s brand.
fig. 9
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29. BEST PRACTICES
New York City Economic
Development Corporation
Content Strategy
The content strategy that is executed for the New York City Economic
Development Corporation’s blog is based upon curating unique content that
represents the city’s brand in terms of economic development initiatives.
Figure 10 is a post that was published on September 18th, 2012 highlighting
the agency’s visit to the South by Southwest (SXSW) annual event.
Readers of the post were able to obtain insights regarding:
• The evolution of NYC’s diverse tech sector
• The city’s booming innovation hub and game-changing
government investments
• The rapid startup growth over the past few years
and tech talent recruiting challenge
Adhering to a content strategy for blogging purposes will aid in keeping the
marketing tool sustainable and reinforce brand messaging.
fig. 10
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30. BEST PRACTICES
SOCIAL MEDIA
TOOLS //
WEB 2.0
FACEBOOK In February 2012, the social media giant introduced, Facebook Timeline. The new feature is composed of several changes
from an administrator and fans point of view. Agencies that use Facebook as the core of their digital market plan must deal with the specific modifications
that entail selecting an appropriate cover photo to brand the region and pinned posts to their timeline. 2
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31. BEST PRACTICES
Greater Phoenix Partnership
Facebook Timeline Pins
Using the Facebook Timeline function, Greater Phoenix Partnership is able to document their accomplishments since their inception. Figure 11 and Figure 12
are the images that agency has pinned to their timeline. Figure 11 is a pin from 1995 documenting GPEC ranking in Top 10 Economic Development Organizations in
the World by Site Selection Magazine and Figure 12 announcing the location of DHL to Greater Phoenix marks GPEC’s 300th company that was located in
Phoenix in 2002.
Both pins can be very effective and efficient in communicating to potential investors and site selectors that Phoenix has a proven track record in terms of
attracting businesses to invest.
fig. 11 fig. 12
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32. BEST PRACTICES
Greater Phoenix
Economic Council
“The Social CEO”
Figure 13 is a screen capture of a post from Greater Phoenix Economic
Council’s CEO, Barry Broome Facebook Timeline. In the post, Broome shared
a link to a radio interview which he conducted with a local station on the
subject of the city’s growth compared to Las Vegas. The posted link led to 5
comments from the CEO’s friends and Broome himself making a statement
about how cities brand themselves.
Considering that there are few economic development officers that are on
and utilising Facebook for professional purposes, Broome can be highlighted
as a “Social CEO” for investment attraction.
fig. 13
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33. BEST PRACTICES
SOCIAL MEDIA
TOOLS //
WEB 2.0
TWITTER The simple design of Twitter allows users to push information to followers. The microblogging platform acts as an efficient one-
way broadcasting tool for some economic development agencies; however, some have yet to discover the possibilities of engaging regional’s stakeholders
and how tweets can contribute the reinforcement of branding initiatives. Moving forward, agencies should consider executing business-to-business Twitter
engagement strategies to prompt a more dynamic use of the social media application. 3
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34. BEST PRACTICES
London Economic
Development Corporation
Engagement with Stakeholders
Figure 14 is a discussion on Twitter that took place on July 31st, 2012 between
the London Economic Development Corporation and Hudson Boat Works.
The engagement seen in the screencapture highlights how London Economic
Development Corporation is a great supporter of investors in the region
via retweeting an article regarding Hudson Boat Works. The exchange was
rather timely since the investor, Hudson Boat Works’ product (i.e. ribless racing
boats) was being used in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England.
Constant engagement with economic stakeholders on Twitter illustrates an
agency’s commitment to actively play a role in the growth of existing businesses
and potential investors in the region.
fig. 14
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35. BEST PRACTICES
New York City Economic
Development Corporation
Use of Hashtags
With consistent use of hashtags, a city or region can either build or reinforce To show how viral a hashtag can get on Twitter, Figure 16 is a screen capture
their brand or a specific economic development initiative. Figure 15 illustrates of a Twitter search query for “#nytech” conducted on September 13th, 2012.
three tweets from New York City Economic Development Corporation’s
(NYCEDC) Twitter feed with three hashtags to focus on. Agencies must allow themselves to create hashtags for initiatives that will be
easy to remember and properly brand their region.
1) #LatAm2NYC - LatAm to NYC, the inaugural Latin American-focused
program of NYCEDC’s World to NYC initiative, promotes trade and
investment between New York City and Latin America
2) #Bronx – NYCEDC is attempting to position and brand the Bronx as
a location for business incubators
3) #nytech – Branding for the New York City tech industry.
fig. 15 fig. 16
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36. BEST PRACTICES
To understand the role of place branding,
it is important to understand what a brand is and is not.
In my experience, too many communities believe a brand is simply a logo and tagline.
In reality, a brand is a promise. It sets an expectation of the experience an investor or resident will
have if they choose to become part of your community. To be effective, the promise must be relevant,
competitive and authentic. Branding is ensuring that promise is kept across as many touch points as
possible and over time.
Edward Burghard
CEO, The Burghard Group
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37. BEST PRACTICES
SOCIAL MEDIA
TOOLS //
WEB 2.0
YOUTUBE The video sharing platform is one of the most dynamic tools that marketers can use to promote a product or a service. Agencies
that choose to utilize YouTube to sell their region for business and investment retention and attraction purposes must abide by the following key elements
to ensure a solid presence on the platform.
• The ability to be found via the search function
• The ability to provide current content
• A solid channel that contains a variety of videos that profiles a region
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38. BEST PRACTICES
The Beacon Council
Search Engine Optimization
The Beacon Council, the Miami-Dade County’s official economic development
partnership dedicated to “bringing new, job-generating investments to the
community” has been pretty effective in appearing on the first page of
results of YouTube. For the following queries, the organization’s videos were
easily found (as of August 30th, 2012):
• Name of city + keyword, “invest” + United States
• Name of city + keyword, “economic development” +
United States
• Name of city + keyword, “investment” + United States
Figure 17 provides a screenshot of the results for Miami + keyword,
“economic development” + United States
To avoid being behind a set of cluttered results, agencies should attempt to be
consistent with keywords when uploading content to the video sharing platform.
fig. 17
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39. BEST PRACTICES
London Economic
Development Corporation
Brand Reinforcement
Figure 18 is a screenshot of London Economic Development Corporation’s
“Today Tonight in London Canada” video on YouTube.
Released in June 2012, the clip is able to reinforce the city’s brand identify
as being a diverse location when it comes to working in different sectors during
the day and by night, a pretty cool place to live with a dynamic night life. From
an investment and talent attraction perspective, this video is quite powerful in
terms of conveying reasons to select London, Ontario to “invest, work and play”.
With a solid branding and content strategy, agencies can create powerful YouTube
clips that can vividly illustrate the key benefits of a region for investment and
talent attraction.
fig. 18
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40. BEST PRACTICES
SOCIAL MEDIA
TOOLS //
WEB 2.0
LINKEDIN Via the business social network, agencies are supplied with a variety of marketing avenues that can play key role in a city’s
investment attraction framework. From a complete professional profile to customized tabs from an agency’s company profile, activity on LinkedIn will aid
in engaging decision makers when it comes to considering possible regions to invest in. Agencies that fail to have a solid presence on LinkedIn will make it
difficult to execute an integrated digital media strategy for any economic development initiatives.
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41. BEST PRACTICES
San Diego Regional Economic
Development Corporation
Company Updates
Figure 19 is a portion of the San Diego Regional Economic Development
Corporation LinkedIn Company profile where the agency’s updates are
stored.
These updates are automatically sent out to appear in the follower’s news
feed. As a result, the agency’s push marketing strategy to site selectors
and potential investors is supported with the efforts on LinkedIn using
the company update feature.
fig. 19
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42. BEST PRACTICES
Greater Halifax Partnership //
Montreal International
Use of “Service” Tab
Along with the default company profile that economic development ii) Montreal International
agencies have selected to post on LinkedIn, two benchmarked agencies To reach out to a bilingual audience, Montreal International has provided descriptions
have supplemented their profiles with additional promotional with adding a of services in French and English. Figure 21 is the agency’s page on LinkedIn
customized “Services” tab. promoting its “Sélection de site (Données et conseil) / Site Selection (Data
and consulting)” service.
i) Greater Halifax Partnership
Figure 20 presents the content that is available underneath the “Services” Agencies that fail to recognize the LinkedIn’s features to post content on
tab. By browsing through the list of services, clients can learn more about their corporate profile on a systematic basis are missing the opportunities
how the agency can facilitate the investment attraction process and read to reach and engage with their targeted audience as a part of their digital
existing recommendations. marketing strategy.
fig. 20 fig. 21
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43. BEST PRACTICES
SOCIAL MEDIA
TOOLS //
WEB 2.0
SLIDESHARE Known as the YouTube for presentations and other documents, Slideshare can be used to publish and share information
regarding a region for economic development initiatives. In addition, having a presence on Slideshare can reinforce an agency’s search engine optimization
strategy for Google.
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44. BEST PRACTICES
Greater Halifax Partnership
Offering Strategic Intelligence
Via Greater Halifax Partnership’s Slideshare account, economic development
stakeholders can access a great amount of strategic intelligence. By reading
the information that is stored in the presentations placed on the platform,
site selectors and potential investors can align their objectives with the strategic
goals of the agency. Figure 22 is a screen capture of the presentations on
the Greater Halifax Partnership’s Slideshare account page.
fig. 22
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45. BEST PRACTICES
Sherbrooke Innopole
Sharing After Events
Based on the number of files that are uploaded to the Sherbrooke Innopole
account, the agency is doing a great job of posting presentations after
industry events. Figure 23 is a screen capture of the agency’s account
with 53 presentations.
As a component of a content marketing strategy, agencies should be
proactive in sharing updated information on other platforms beside their
website. Sharing platforms such as Slideshare maybe an outlet where site
selectors will continue their search for decision making data. Slideshare
provides a pretty powerful dashboard with analytics with data that can be
used to target individuals who are reading the agency’s documents.
fig. 23
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46. BEST PRACTICES
MOBILE
APPLICATIONS //
Gartner, the leading information technology research and advisory company, expects that companies will shift their marketing budgets to mobile channels
and experiment with cutting-edge apps to capture marketing and sales opportunities. 4 While economic development agencies do not have the big budgets
as large brands do, it is important for agencies to understand that the shift is happening. The shift of placing content on platforms where decision-makers
can access it via smartphones and tablets should lead agencies to think about what tools and functionalities they can offer in a mobile environment. It may
not be sufficient enough to place all existing content on the agency’s website onto a platform that just formats data for smartphones. 5
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47. BEST PRACTICES
Greater Houston Partnership
Via its mobile application, Greater Houston Partnership offers an easy way to navigate through an
abundance of site selection related information. As seen in Figure 24, the menu is straightforward and
provides a list of all key economic development contacts at the agency.
fig. 24
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