Monthly Archive for November, 2009

YouTube: Nova Scotia On The Map For Investment Attraction

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 30, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development, Investment Attraction and Web 2.0 Strategy
. 3 Comments

Here is another indication that the use of YouTube as a part of an economic development 2.0 strategy is being adopted by different organizations around the world.

Nova Scotia Business Inc. is a private sector-led business development agency for the maritime province located on the east coast of Canada. Along with a Twitter feed and a Facebook Fan Page, the agency has a YouTube channel with the following powerful video titled, “Nova Scotia Gets It!!”

There are four main themes that Nova Scotia Business Inc. highlights during the video:

  • Access to talented and available labour in the province
  • Competitive operating costs for companies which are located in the province
  • Providing a gateway to the North American continent
  • Quality of life in the province of Nova Scotia

For each theme, the agency provides a testimonial from representatives of companies that have invested in Nova Scotia and words from Stephen Lund, President and CEO of Nova Scotia Business Inc.

From a creative standpoint, the video uses headlines from news publications to show that companies are investing in Nova Scotia from different sectors.

Have you began using YouTube for your business attraction efforts for your province, state or country? Have you seen any returns as of yet? Tell us!!!

Web 2.0 For E-Government?

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 27, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith and Web 2.0 Strategy
. 1 Comment

Many of the posts on Tools For Thought discuss the use of Web 2.0 applications for economic development initiatives.   Thanks to my colleague, Edouardine Gombe, I would like to provide you with an example of how a social media tool can be utilized in an e-government context.

Villes 2.0 : ces villes qui tweetent! presents the city of San Francisco’s initiative of using Twitter to compliment their customer service requests or complaints call centre.  Introduced in June 2009, SF311 had over 4,600 followers as November 20th, 2009.  Figure 1 illustrates the SF311 page.

Figure 1: SF311 Twitter Page

The city of San Francisco is not alone in terms of offering 311 services via Twitter.  In November 2008, Mayor  Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City unveiled the 311NYC Twitter page as seen in Figure 2.

Figure 2: 311NYC Twitter Page

Have you seen other practical uses of social networking tools for e-government?  If so, tell us!

Investment Attraction Via YouTube: Greater Rochester, NY

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 25, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development, Investment Attraction and Web 2.0 Strategy
. 0 Comments

Thanks to the post, “What Is Available On YouTube For Site Selectors?“, a reader pointed us to the following YouTube clip for the Greater Rochester, New York Area.  The promotional clip is specifically dedicated for investment attraction purposes.

In this 2 minutes and 10 seconds clip, Greater Rochester Enterprise does an excellent and efficient job at selling its territory to companies looking to expand their operations in the northeastern part of the United States.  The key selling point that is communicated throughout the clip is that investors can find all of the main locational factors (used in deciding where to invest) in one place, in Greater Rochester.  The following factors are highlighted in video:

  • Selecting Rochester as a place to live
  • The region breaking ground in green technology
  • Training opportunities thanks to 18 colleges and universities
  • The quality of life in the region
  • The city’s Intellectual Density Quotient
  • The ability to export from the region

The clip shown above should serve as a model for economic development agencies seeking to produce a YouTube video clip as a part of their economic development 2.0 strategy.  Not only is the clip short and concise but it is visually effective by keeping the viewer’s attention on the key points of Greater Rochester Enterprise’s argument.

Competitive Intelligence Research With LinkedIn - Who’s Hiring?

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 23, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Web 2.0 Search
. 1 Comment

Without a doubt, social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn has afforded competitive intelligence researchers alternative sources to gather data about their industry and other firms.  LinkedIn, the Facebook for business people, offers two outlets of information that are worth keeping in mind when analysing competitors: 1) Jobs and 2) Companies.  This post will focus on the Jobs section of the web 2.0 resource.

Similar to other job search sites like Monster or CareerBuilder, the Job section of LinkedIn provides individuals to find employment opportunities.  Figure 1 presents a look at the search interface for jobs.

Figure 1: Job Search Interface on LinkedIn

To use the section in a competitive intelligence context, it is recommended to use the “Advanced Job Search” interface as seen in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Advanced Job Search Interface On LinkedIn

To competitive intelligence researchers and analysts, job opportunities at competing firms can provide valuable insights.  Job openings can indicate anything from a shift in the strategic outlook for a firm to a sign of expansion of operations.

Case example: As a competitor in the software industry, you have the responsibility to investigate if there are any job opportunities for an executive at Dell Computers that may signify a change in strategy or organizational structure.

Solution: Using the “Advanced Job Search” page as seen in Figure 3:

  1. Select “Executive” in the “Job Experience” field
  2. Enter “Dell” in the “Company” field

Figure 3: Query For Job Opportunities At Dell Computers At An Executive Level

Results for the query appear in Figure 4 in which the first hit, “Director of Software Engineering” is the most relevant for the initial purpose for the search.

Figure 4: Results For Job Search At Dell

It is interesting to see that the first job posting listed on the page is exclusively available on LinkedIn as indicated by the blue star.

The end result of the search process is illustrated below in Figure 5 where a lengthy job description is provided.

Figure 5: Job Description For Director of Software Engineering At Dell

Looking at the job description, the following strategic details can be collected about the position:

  • The Director of Software Engineering will be responsible for leading the team that designs and/or develops Dell’s SaaS (Software as a Service) products for the Large Enterprise business unit
  • The executive will work closely with Sales & Product Management groups to set direction for multiple software products
  • The individual will set application technology development direction and strategies

LinkedIn is available at www.linkedin.com

What role has social networks played in your competitive intelligence research practices?  What have been your greatest challenges? Tell us!!!

Search For Breaking News With Yahoo

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 20, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith and Economic Intelligence
. 0 Comments

Here is a tip for those who can not get enough breaking news especially if it is related to economic development.

Yahoo now provides breaking news content in the form of videos, photographs and tweets.  Figure 1 illustrates the result’s page for the search query, “Obama”.

Figure 1: Yahoo Search Query For “Obama” With Latest News Tabs
Please Click On Image To Enlarge

You will notice that on the top of the page, Yahoo provides four tabs (highlighted in green) with the labels, “News”, “Photos”, “Videos” and “Twitter”.  Clicking on the “Twitter” tabs allows access to the tweets shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Results From Twitter For The Query, “Obama”
Please Click On Image To Enlarge

It is important to note that these tabs will only appear for breaking news stories. A test with the keywords “foreign direct investment” will just provide you with results as seen in Figure 3:

Figure 1: Yahoo Search Query For “Foreign Direct Investment” With No Latest News Tabs
Please Click On Image To Enlarge

Yahoo is available at www.yahoo.com

The Importance Of YouTube In An Economic Development 2.0 Strategy

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 19, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development and Web 2.0 Strategy
. 0 Comments

As a short follow up to the post, ‘What Is Available On YouTube For Site Selectors?“,  ComScore,  a source of digital marketing intelligence, saw an increase in the use of YouTube as a search engine.   In October 2009, 3.7 Billion search queries were conducted on YouTube.  This translates into an 31% increase over the past twelve months.

What does this mean for economic development professionals?

It is time to think about placing any form of promotional videos for your region on the Web 2.0 application along with the proper descriptions and tags.   Search engine optimization for YouTube will be essential as a part of an economic development 2.0 strategy.

What Is Available On YouTube For Site Selectors?

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 18, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development, Investment Attraction and Web 2.0 Strategy
. 5 Comments

YouTube is a very powerful online marketing vehicle if used correctly.  To some, throwing on a video without clear descriptions, nor well defined tags seems to be sufficient enough as apart of economic development 2.0 strategy however; it is not effective.  Economic development officers and  marketers of cities, regions and countries for investment attraction must remember that an increasing amount of site selectors and advisers are turning to the web as a part of their site location search process.

According to the report, “A View from Corporate America: Winning Strategies in Economic Development Marketing” by Development Counsellors International (DCI), the frequency of the use of internet by site selectors and advisers in the site location search process increased from 55% in 2005 to 63% in 2008.  Based on this fact, this investment decision makers have learned to search the web including social networking sites efficiently with their own methodologies.

Just for the fun of it, Intelegia conducted a search of YouTube to see what is available in terms of investment attraction promotional videos as of November 13th, 2009.  To conduct the search for the “best in class” videos, the following keywords were used:

  • “Invest In”
  • “Economic Development”

Intelegia considered results that were listed within the first 5 pages in the “All” and “Channel” sections for each of the keyword queries.  The videos were evaluated and selected for this blog post on the basis of convincing the viewer that their region is the best place to invest in.

“Invest in”

Invest in Ontario

This promotional piece discusses the key locational factors to consider when selecting Ontario as a place to invest.  It stresses the competitive advantage of selecting Ontario in regards to how companies can benefit from the province’s innovation-driven business environment.

Invest in Columbia

This video is used to position Columbia as the best place to invest in Latin America.  It provides information that addresses concerns such as the country’s debt and inflation.  In addition, it discussed trade related issues and locational factors.

Both videos above were found on the first page of results and has descriptions attached to them.

“Economic Development”

Portland’s Economic Development Strategy

Portland’s Economic Development Commission’s YouTube  video is very compelling to investors.  Through the use of testimonials from existing companies in the city, the commission demonstrates Portland’s manufacturing and innovation-driven environment for a green economy.

After conducting this exercise, it is apparent that some agencies or departments that are responsible for marketing their territory for investment attraction are not using YouTube at all or not to it is full potential.  Agencies and departments that are in both cases must remember that it is not good enough to have a convincing video but it must be easy to find on the Web 2.0 application.

Did we miss anything?

Does your organization have a video on YouTube specifically for site selection or investment attraction purposes?  Do you think it is better than the videos presented above?  Post the link in the  comments’ box and we will make it the subject of a future blog post.

LeapFish: An Impressive Online Research Tool

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 16, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence, Economic Intelligence, Internet tools and Web 2.0 Search
. 0 Comments

Here is a search tool that you may want to add to your bookmarks. LeapFish is an application to conduct multi-media, real-time searches and share results with others.  The tool allows users to select the type of query that could be executed, specifically:

  • General Web Search
  • Real Time Search
  • News Search
  • Video Search
  • Image Search
  • Blog Search
  • Shopping Search

The following two images illustrate the search results for a real-time and blog search query for the keywords, “foreign direct investment”.


Figure 1: Results from news sources and Twitter


Figure 2: Results from the blogsphere

To share findings with a colleague, simply place your mouse over the result and click on “Share”.  LeapFish will provide you with the option to post on different Web 2.0 platforms such Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious just to name a few.  Figure 3 shows the complete list of tools.

Figure 3: Web 2.0 sharing tools available on LeapFish

Other value added features of LeapFish includes adding the tool to your browser and customizing your homepage.

LeapFish is available at www.leapfish.com

World Bank Data Available Through Google Search

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 13, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Economic Intelligence
. 1 Comment

Google just made life a whole lot easier for individuals searching for  information on the World Bank’s website.

Through Google’s general search interface, users can now access the 17 “World Development Indicators” from the international agency.  By simply entering queries such as “gdp of Australia” or “internet users in south africa”, Google will provide a thumbnail size image of the result at the top of the page.  Figure 1 illustrates the result given for “gdp of Australia” once the thumbnail image is clicked on.

Figure 1: Result For The Query, “gdp of australia” - Line Chart
Please Click On The Image To Enlarge

Once users have accessed a chart as seen above, comparisons can done by ticking off the box associated with the name of other countries. The list of the countries is located on the left-hand side of the page. Figure 2 presents a comparison of GDP for Australia, Canada and Greece for 2008.

Figure 2: Comparison of GDP for Australia, Canada and Greece
Please Click On The Image To Enlarge

Once the end-product of the search and comparisons is completed, users can easily share their findings by clicking on the “Link” button in the top right-hand corner of the page.  Google generates a hyperlink which can be sent in an email, messaging platform (ie, IM, Facebook chat) or posted on a blog.

Web 2.0 and Investment Attraction: UK Trade & Investment

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 11, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Investment Attraction, Social Media Marketing and Web 2.0 Strategy
. 2 Comments

E&B DATA’s recent benchmark study, “Web 2.0 And Business Attraction - Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index” examined how well economic development agencies in large Canadian cities are utilizing social media marketing tools for investment attraction.

Just to show that cities are not the only entities that are using web 2.0 applications, countries have hopped on the bandwagon.  A perfect example is: UK & Trade Investment.

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is the government department that helps businesses locate in the UK and grow internationally.   The department’s website ranks amongst the best in class according to Organization for Economic Co-operation Development as stated in The World Bank’s Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking 2009 Summary Report (Please see page 62)

Upon visiting the website, you will be able to spot their collection of social media marketing  tools.  The site provides links to the following applications:

  • Blog - The provides insights on various aspects of trade and investment attraction activities.  UKTI uses a multi-blogger approach by having different staff members post on a regular basis.
  • Twitter - This  page acts as a vehicle to push information regarding  UKTI activities and relevant news items.
  • YouTube - This channel is an outlet to:
    • Learn about London’s success stories
    • Provide information on High Growth Markets
    • Provide country information
    • Access past speeches from Lord Davies - Minister for Trade & Investment
    • Access case studies
  • Flickr - The Flickr photostream allows individuals to view pictures from past business events involving UKTI representatives and ministers.
  • Facebook - The Facebook Fan Page is mainly composed of UKTI staff members and is used to provide updates on new posts on the other social networking platforms.
  • LinkedIn - The LinkedIn group is avenue in which UKTI can bring together trade and investment experts and businesses.  It is interesting to see that the department has created subgroup for business people interested in trade and investment between Canada and the UK.

Figure 1 illustrates the UK Trade & Investment’s Twitter page.

Figure 1: UK Trade & Investment’s Twitter Page
Please click on image to enlarge

UKTI shared their thoughts on their web 2.0 strategy in terms of their objectives and tangible benefits:

Objectives:

  • Reach new audiences: new and existing customers; consultants; the media; other government departments; colleagues
  • Spread the word about UKTI through news and insights
  • Raise awareness of events/initiatives/news
  • Support marketing pushes
  • Be more accessible/responsive/open/two-way
  • Keep track of what is being said about UKTI and have the opportunity to respond direct

Benefits

  • Opportunity to feed back, re-inform and offer further information
  • Increase attendance at events, and in turn increase take-up of UKTI services
  • Reach new audiences and be where conversations are already taking place
  • Positive (unsolicited) tweets about UKTI/services have reached a large and diverse audience (of previously untapped potential customers)
  • A major website traffic driver. Both Linkedin and Twitter are in the top 5 traffic referrers to the investment services website.
  • Drive (trade website) registration by raising awareness of how we can help. Eg, by tweeting business opportunities we are broadening reach beyond the current customer-base

Are you thinking about creating an economic development 2.0 strategy for economic development initiatives such as investment attraction for your city, province or state and/or country?    What are the main challenges that you will have to deal with?   Tell us.