The practical economic development professional needs to understand and make use of social media channels. This presentation was part of a webinar conducted by Mark James of ED Solutions, inc. The rebroadcast of the 90 minute webinar is available through Mark's site- www.solutionsED.com/edmarketplace

1. Social Media for the Practical Economic Development Professional Mark J James, CEcD ED Solutions, Inc. mark.james@solutionsED.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/edsolutions http://twitter.com/EcoDev

2. 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc. 2 Dean- dean@whittakerassociates.com Eric- ecanada@blanecanada.com

3. 3 3 Professional Learning Lab Affiliates

4. 1. Viewer Window 2. Control Panel 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc. 4

6. Web redesign strategies and advisory services

7. Contact management solutions

8. A variety of other technology solutions for the profession

9. Training services to the economic development profession.

10. Web Metrics and data subscriptions through affiliated firm- www.developmentresults.com. ED Solutions, Inc. is among the most respected firms providing web site strategies to the economic development profession. ED Solutions, Inc. has worked on over 200 web projects in 30 US states, Canada and the UK. 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc.

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13. 8 5 Ways Social Media has changed economic development Even less control about what’s being said about our place. The “democratization of information” Exponentially enhanced our marketing reach. Able to create communities within and between our communities We can now crowd source ideas/initiatives Social CRM and Social SEO Audiences 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc.

15. Sherwin-Williams Co., Georgia

16. Trione & Gordon/ONCOR Intl., Texas

17. Colliers International, Toronto CANADA

18. Little & Associates Architects, North Carolina

19. Palm Inc – Sunnyvale, California

20. Visa – San Francisco, California

21. Foote Consulting Group – Glendale, ArizonaSource: Atlas Advertising

22. What social networks or tools, if any, do you use? 71 % use LinkedIn, and just over 50% use facebook. Source: Atlas Advertising

23. How frequently do you use each? 72 % use some form of Social Media at least weekly. Source: Atlas Advertising

24. What is the applicability of Twitter to your profession? 63.6% say Twitter has no/very little applicability to the site selection profession. Source: Atlas Advertising

25. What is the applicability of LinkedIn to your profession? 52.6% say LinkedIn has good application to the site selection profession. Source: Atlas Advertising

26. What is the applicability of LinkedIn to your profession? “I have used it along with Hoovers to check who is LinkedIn and contact people for business meetings.” “I think it has good application. I have gotten proposals through this tool.” “Pretty low rated.” “It’s okay.” “I already have the contacts I need in my email – how is this different?” “Not much” “Good for seeking independent information.” “Good for finding contacts, and to keep in touch with peers.” “More of a business site” Useful networking tool Don’t know yet. Source: Atlas Advertising

27. 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc. 15 What does all this say to the practical economic development professional? Just say no

28. 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc. 16 What does all this say to the practical economic development professional?

29. 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc. 17 What does all this say to the practical economic development professional? Depending on organization, a reasonable inclusion of SOME social media applications

30. The Practical ED’r Starts with a Social Media Strategy 18 Consider- Objectives Identify your audience-key leaders, stakeholders, etc. What calls to action will you use? Identify some benchmarks Keyword/SEO analysis How Will You Measure Success? Visits Followers Return on conversation? (Last) Best Tools for You

31. Some Typical ED Goals Brand awareness Program/practitionercredibility Drive traffic to web Create community Connect resources Lead development

32. Case Studies- Strategy 20 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc. What’s missing from these?

33. 21 Social Listening 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc.

34. Social Listening …community …existing employers …State/Province …prospective employers/ targets 22 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc. About your

35. -Google Alerts -Hootsuite (or Tweetdeck) -LinkedIn 23 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc. Social Listening How?

36. 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. 24 What’s Your Strategy?

37. 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc. 25 Social Media Integration

38. Websites have a crucial new role Old view: Destination New view: Content Engine Source: Mark W. Schaefer Slideshare- http://www.slideshare.net/Rialta/social-media-best-practices-for-economic-development

39. 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. 27 Indypartnership.com addthis.com or sharethis.com

40. Check this out… 28 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc. 2-28-11

41. Check this out… 29 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc. 2-28-11

42. 30 SEO & SMO Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites. Methods of SMO include adding RSS feeds, social news buttons, blogging, and incorporating third-party community functionalities like images and videos. Social media optimization is related to search engine marketing, but differs in several ways, primarily the focus on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO.

43. 31 6 Deeper Dive Facebook LinkedIn Flickr Slideshare YouTube Twitter 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc.

44. Using Facebook – WHY? 500 million active users 50% of active users log on EVERYDAY >5 Billion Pieces of Content >1.5 Local Business Have Pages It’s International – 70% of FB users are OUTSIDE the US INFORM-INFLUENCE-ENGAGE 32

45. 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. 33 Nearly one in four page views in US

46. Using Facebook – Start Smart 34 Who’s Your Target Audience? Prospects Existing Business Investors Find Your Voice Business Community Stakeholder Post Current Relevant Content Use Applications to Pull Your SM together Push traffic to your website Engage your community Create “Super Fans”

47. Best Practice- Hudson River Valley EDC 35 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc. Source: intelegia- slideshare

48. 36 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc. Best Practice- Richmond Jobs Net

49. Beginning to see third party apps 37 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc.

50. Using FacebookAnalytics and Advertising Insights – Detailed real-time demographics Advertising – VERY targeted pay-per-click schedules Link other Fan Pages - Favorites 38

51. 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc. 39 http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/04/23/facebook-overhauls-page-and-app-insights-adds-domain-analytics-features-and-an-api/

52. Facebook – The Good News Business and Community Use is Growing Exponentially You can separate your personal from your professional persona It matters in SEO 40

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54. Using LinkedIn Favorite SoMe tool of choice by SSC’s/Businesses Increasing number of toolsets for b2b and b2c It matters in SEO 42

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56. 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. 44 Don’t forget Keywording…

57. Building profiles Education and expertise Clients you have worked with Full contact information Link/address to Twitter page Link to your website Slideshare “Slidespace” Membership groups (groups joined) Upcoming and past events Upcoming sales trips (as events) 45

58. Building your contact list and your connections Inventory contacts associated with past deals Inventory industry specific contacts As a team, set territories Import lists into Outlook Import contacts from Outlook into LinkedIn Write a personalized invitation – keep it simple. Send invitations to those you know well en masse Work your 1st degree connections to gain introductions to others on your list 46

59. More LinkedIn Tips Build new GROUPS and connect with GROUPS Participate in DISCUSSIONS Build a Company Profile for your organization FOLLOW Companies – Existing and Prospects Ask for RECOMMENDATIONS and INTRODUCTIONS Remember – this in NOT your online Roladex. It’s your opportunity to inform, influence and ENGAGE your network. (and their friends) 47

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61. 49 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. www.waynealliance.org

62. 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. 50 “Maps, maps, my project for a map!” Mark M. SweeneySenior PrincipalMcCallum Sweeney Consulting

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64. Facebook/Flickr-Project 365 52 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc.

65. 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc. 53 We moderate uploads As a community builder As a resource for free pictures – our Terms of Use allows us to use submitted photos in City promotional materials. In return, we give credit to photographer

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70. Where Does Twitter “Fit In” Link sharing, not trite sharing Offer twitter feeds to chamber members Search twitter to see if existing companies in your community are tweeting Start conversations on Twitter- e.g., does anyone know which skills their employees need and aren’t found in X. Celebrate newsworthy events

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72. OK, so let’s admit this…

73. A Word About Followers Its not how many, its who Look for people to follow who have more followers than they are following Beware of ‘someone’ with very little followers and lots of people they are following. This = spam Check this out- http://twittercounter.com

74. Create a Custom Background 62 2009 © ED Solutions, Inc. 62

75. 63 How… http://www.ehow.com/how_4613303_twitter-background.html Step 1 Create a Twitter account. If you haven’t gotten around to signing up for Twitter yet, what are you waiting for? Go to twitter.com and sign up for an account. If you need a little more help, read How to Set Up a New Twitter Account in the resources below. Step 2 Decide what type of image you want to portray. Part of the difficulty in setting the correct background is deciding what you want your Twitter page design to say about you. Many folks take any image or graphic and upload it to their Twitter account without much thought. Take some time to come up with something that speaks of your style, taste and personality. Step 3 Consider the screen real estate. The important information to be viewed on Twitter occurs in the center of the page. No matter how many images or sayings you have on your background, the center of the screen belongs to Twitter. Therefore you have to create a background that gives Twitter center stage. Step 4 Go large. Larger images and/or graphics reduce the necessity for tiling an image. It gives the appearance of one large background specifically made for Twitter. Try starting with an image as large as 1600 x 1200.

76. 64 How… Step 5 Remember that all screen resolutions are not the same. The smaller the screen resolution, the lower the likelihood of your image will have to repeat. In other words, if you elect to use an image that has a flower located to the extreme left of the screen, on a lower resolution screen (800 x 600 for instance), the flower displays once. A screen with a resolution of say 2048 x 1536, the flower will display tiled on the screen several times. Step 6 Think about using a border. When creating an image, remember that a small portion of the top of the screen is dedicated to the Twitter logo and user navigation. It’s a little easier on the eyes if the design included a boarder over which the Twitter logo and navigation could sit without having to fight against a busy background. Step 7 Upload your image to Twitter. Once you’ve played around with the image, upload it to Twitter to see how it looks. Log onto your account. Click “Design” found under the “Settings” tab. Once on the design screen click “change background image.” Once you upload your image, check it out to see if you like it. If you don’t you can change it or use one of the Twitter default images until you come up with something you like.

77. Top 21 Twitter Apps. Twitpic 1,236,828 Tweetdeck 285,864 Digsby 233,472 Twittercounter 212,200 Twitterfeed 149,812 Twitterholic 147,164 Twhirl 143,333 Twitturly 88,793 Twtpoll 74,154 10 Retweetist 60,051 Tweepler 51,304 Hellotxt 45,754 Twitdom 45,411 Tweetscan 44,463 Tweetburner 41,754 Tweetvisor 31,621 Twittervision 30,708 Twitterfall 29,592 Monitter 25,433 Twibs 17,168 Twistori 16,229 Twitbin 14,986 http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/19/the-top-20-twitter-applications/ 65

78. Consider a profile on…

79. www.tinytwitter.com 67

80. 68 Why is 120 the New 140? Retweets! RT@ecodev....

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82. Source: YouTube

84. Industry specific presentations

85. Expansion or relocation announcements

86. Policy announcements

87. Company or stakeholder profiles

88. Annual accomplishmentsIdentify a low cost production partner or invest $2,500 to $5,000 in the tools 71

89. Upload all of your videos to YouTube, and embed Produce or record videos Check format, file size, and length. Offer multiple formats (e.g., mov, mpeg, mp4) Include meta data, keywords, etc. in video titles Use one video per URL Enable comments Autoshare with various social media networks Embed them in your website Send to partners to embed in their websites 72

90. Establish a YouTube channel for your community A place for all of your community’s videos Can include multiple organizations in your community, such as economic development, tourism, workforce, and more Develop a profile Invite others to subscribe Subscribe to other channels Solicit comments 73

91. http://www.youtube.com/user/NCDeptofCommerce 74 74

92. Get your video indexed-http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2010/03/videos-indexed-by-google/ 75 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. Put a video on your page : I mean a real video, hosted on your site, not on Youtube or DailyMotion. You need a .flv file (or .mpg, .avi, .mp4) and a video plugin that supports this kind of video formats. Jing is perfect to record onscreen action and make nice video tutorials. Create a thumbnail of your video : that’s the thumbnail that Google will display on its search results page, so making a good quality thumbnail out of your video is an important step. Personally, I’ve found that 160×120 gif or jpg works well for that purpose….and they actually don’t need to be extracted from your video. Any image pertinent to the content of your video will make the trick. Create a video sitemap : Video sitemaps are XML files similar to usual sitemaps but using a different syntax. See an example below. Submit your video sitemap to Google : Video sitemaps can be submitted in Google Webmaster Tools exactly as a standard sitemap. If you had not yet registered your site in Google Webmaster Tool, that’s the perfect occasion to do it now.

93. Using YouTube to drive traffic- http://www.blastmedia.com/blog/2010/02/7-ways-to-get-website-traffic-from-youtube/ 76 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc.

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95. 2011 © ED Solutions, Inc. 78 A Wonderful Social Media Report Card!

96. Social Media Metrics Not mature yet- things like; Return on Conversation Followers Impressions There are a few things which you can and should do Monitor what’s being said about your community Measure the numbers Regularly go back to the strategy

97. Social Media Metrics Some interesting metric tools- Compete.com Google Alerts Xinureturns.com Bit.ly search.twitter.com Twittercounter.com

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99. twittercounter

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105. Wrap up 88 Social media extends the reach and influence of you and your organization. It allows you to reach and connect with people/companies in much deeper ways than has been possible with traditional ‘marketing’. By cutting through the confusion on focusing on the right tactics, you can save time. It can be done for low or no cost (other than the currency of time).

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107. Read These… http://www.socializedpr.com 90

108. And These… 91 http://www.copyblogger.com/grow-business-twitter/ http://123socialmedia.com/business-blog/ http://www.scribd.com/doc/3283966/The-Essential-Guide-to-Social-Media#document_metadata http://www.scribd.com/doc/3483043/Social-Media-A-Simple-Visual-Story

109. 92 mark.james@solutionsED.com Thanks for your attention! 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc.