Archive for the 'Economic Development' Category

It’s Location, Location, Location For Site Selectors

Published
by
Ian Smith
on September 1, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development and Investment Attraction
. 0 Comments

Last week, I came across a discussion on the LinkedIn Group, Site Selection, where the topic was, “What should be on a website for investment attraction?”.  A member of the group simply stated, “a detailed map”.

Make sense, right?

Of course however; how many agencies have a map that is more that a map?

A map for investment attraction used by site selectors should be an information product that provides intelligence on locations in a region.  Case in point: IDA Ireland.

IDA Ireland (Industrial Development Agency) is responsible for the attraction and development of foreign investment in Ireland.  Below in Figure 1 is a screen shot of the agency’s “Location” section on its website.

Figure 1: IDA Ireland’s Location Section

Thanks to tabs labeled:: “Locations of Ireland”, “Business & Technology Parks” and “Strategic Sites”, site selectors can easily access information that they can use to choose real estate to fit their clients’ investment needs.

Within the Strategic Sites subsection, IDA Ireland offers the opportunity to have a view of 10 locations in which they feel that it would be beneficial for any investor to do business.  Figure 2 is an animated model of Oranmore, Co Galway where Biopharma Campus Ireland is located.

Figure  2: Animated model of Oranmore, Co Galway

For each listed strategic site, the website provides a promotional brochure and video to learn more.

When engaging site selectors via a website, it is important to realize that some selectors would like to be independent when it comes to gathering information.  Pushing information to individuals for the decision making process does have its limits.  With a variety of search tools, selectors may want seeking out information for themselves since they are only individuals who knows what they really need and want from a location.

Business Attraction Website For Virginia, USA

Published
by
Ian Smith
on August 25, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development, Friday Afternoon Reading and Investment Attraction
. 1 Comment

Pop quiz.

What makes a good website for business attraction?

a) Current and relevant key location factor data
b) Social media tools to push information and great marketing content
c) Multilingual content
d) Database of available real estate options in the region
e) All of the above

After our evaluation of the leading economic development agencies in Canada for the 2010 Canadian Online Marketing Index, Intelegia believes that the answer is definitely, e).

We were alerted to the Yes Virginia website by Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) via the LinkedIn group, Foreign Direct Investment Professionals.  The website deserves a closer look in regards of the elements vital to investment attraction efforts.

I) Multilingual Content

Seeing multilingual content on a website that is devoted to investment attraction is a clear indication of “openness” on the part of a region.  Supplying information in more than one language allows a region to put itself on the radar of investors who speak French, Spanish, German or other languages.   Figure 1 illustrates Yes Virginia’s content in German that deals with Virginia as a place to invest.

Figure 1: Yes Virginia German Content
Please Click On Image To Enlarge

This particular section of the site provides details on:

  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Investment by Country
  • Strategic Locations
  • Mergers, Acquisitions & Joint Ventures
  • Success Stories
  • Export Programs

Along with German content for the above is available in French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, China and English.

II) Site Selection

It only makes sense for a site selector to have access to database of available real estate option to evaluate possible sites.  Yes Virginia gives site selectors the opportunity to conduct in-depth research based on their needs.  Figure 2 is the search interface for a query for industrial sites.

Figure 2: VEDP Property Search Interface - Industrial Sites
Please Click On Image To Enlarge

III) Contact Information

One faux pas that agencies commits on  the website is the lack of contact information for key individuals. VEDP provides a detailed a staff directory on their website.  Figure 3 is a sample of the directory.


Figure 3: VEDP Staff Directory
Please Click On Image To Enlarge

Each individual that is listed in the directory has their phone number and email address.

The three elements of the VEDP’s website that were highlighted in this post should be at the core of any website for business attraction.

  • Multilingual Content - Multilingual content ensures that agencies do not discriminate against potential investors who may speak a difference language other than English.
  • Site Selection - This portion of the site must give selectors and potential investors the ability to place themselves in a region to benefit from the existing infrastructure, especially transportation.
  • Contact Information - By simply providing a list of contacts relevant to investment attraction, agencies can remove the first barrier associated with promoting a region.

Online Marketing Strategy For Investment Attraction

Published
by
Ian Smith
on August 4, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development and Investment Attraction
. 0 Comments

At the core of a good investment attraction is a strong online presence starting with a website.  To some economic development officers, a website is a means to promote their region with the use of glossy images and clever sales pitches.  On the contrary, a site should be in place to provide information to potential investors and site selectors in a simple manner that the data is current and easy to access.  Case in point: Greater Rochester Enterprise’s website.

Once logged onto the site, individuals can access significant information related to investing in the region.  As seen in Figure 1, there are navigational tabs to browse through details regarding:

  • News in the region (What’s new?)
  • Sites and buildings
  • Incentives
  • Demographics
  • Top Employers
  • Videos

Figure 1: Sites & Buildings Navigational Tab

A pretty impressive feature of the site is the database that is placed in the incentive section.  Individuals may search the database using different criteria for incentive programs that are available in the city of Rochester and surrounding counties.  Figure 2 is the screens hot of the results given for the grant programs in Ontario Country for medium sized businesses.

Figure 2: Listing of Grants Available in Ontario County for Medium Sized Businesses

As supporters of economic development agencies that use social networks, we were happy to see that Greater Rochester Enterprise is present on Twitter with GRERochesterBiz and a Linkedin profile.

Linking their Web 2.0 presence with a well though out website provides Greater Rochester Enterprise with a “push and pull” information dissemination strategy to serve site selectors and potential investors.

Reaffirming The Competitive Intelligence and Economic Development Link

Published
by
Ian Smith
on July 28, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Economic Development
. 0 Comments

If you think that the practice of competitive intelligence does not have an increasing role in economic development, then it is time to step back and understand the prevailing outlook when it comes to investment attraction.

Investors are now have less time and less money to place in regions that may look the same on paper thus putting economic development officers in competition with other officers not only in the same country but in the same province or state.   In order to sell potential investors and site selectors on a competitive advantage that a jurisdiction has over another location, gathering and analysing data on a frequency basis is required.  As a result, the practice of competitive intelligence should be undertaken.

Last week, instructors from Intelegia joined Eric Canada from Blaine Canada and Jennifer Zeller of Georgia Power at The Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute.  The four representatives were on hand for the course, “How to Conduct Business Intelligence to Gain a Competitive Advantage“.  The day was broken down into six sessions:

  • Fundamentals of Business Intelligence - This part of the course set the tone for the day by furnishing a look at the business intelligence cycle.  Eric Canada continued to stress the importance of localized business intelligence and asking the right questions when it come to business, retention, expansion initiatives.
  • Know Your Companies: Business Intelligence For EDOs - In his second session, Eric went on to highlight to some of the anaylsis frameworks used to assess companies for economic development initiatives. Frameworks such as Benchmark Analysis, Portfolio Assessment, Triage Analysis and Company Analysis were discussed.
  • Serving Georgia Companies Through Business Intelligence and Research Services - Jennifer Zeller discussed some of the end-products and research tools that are delivered and used at Georgia Power.  From business comparisons reports to industry-specific overviews, attendees had the opportunity to see how an information gathering service can help economic development agencies.
  • Locate Your Sources: Gather Relevant Information - Instructor, Frederic Chevalier presented a collection of “must have” sources for EDOs to conduct their own online searches.  The sources ranged from some of the free well known sites to premium content databases.
  • Leveraging Social Networks To Gather Business Intelligence Data - Isabelle Poirier demonstrated how economic development professionals can benefit from the wealth of information available on social networks and the simple search tools to find content on Web 2.0.  Tools such as Addictomatic and Samepoint were presented.
  • Business Intelligence Monitoring Tools  for Enterprise - Using applications such as Google Reader, Facebook, Twitter and other free tools, Isabelle showed attendees how to push strategic information to themselves.

At the end of the day, attendees were given an outlook on the use of business intelligence and competitive intelligence that every economic development agencies and officers must have.  In order to attraction and or retain investment in a region, agencies must go out and compete with the use of relevant and timely information and established analysis methods to make the best decisions.

Are You Really On Social Media For Investment Attraction?

Published
by
Ian Smith
on July 21, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development and Investment Attraction
. 0 Comments

A lot of effort can be placed into planning and executing a social media marketing campaign for investment attraction however; there is an element that cannot be omitted.  Getting exposure.

Similar to the saying, “If  a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”, having a presence on social media but if nobody knows it,  then it is a huge issue that should be dealt with immediately.  While preparing for the 2010 Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index, I was surprised to find that some Web 2.0 accounts were not linked to the economic development agencies’ website and vice versa.

Here are a few practical tips to help obtain some additional exposure for your agency’s Web 2.0 efforts.

1. Links, Links, Links - Take a look at the agency’s website. Do all the links to your platforms (i.e., Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) appear on the front page of the site?   Providing direct links will make life easier for investors and site selectors who are looking to gather information and not guessing where links are on the website.  Be bold and put them upfront where they can not be overlooked.

2. Find Yourself - Put yourself in the shoes of site selectors and conduct a search on the popular social media networks using the keywords that they would used.  Have you found your agency’s page, profile, channel and / or account?  If not, you have some extra work to do to get on the first page of results.  (Please read, “Finding Keyword Intelligence For Investment Attraction Promotion“)

3. Get People To Read All About It - If you believe that you have done something great with one or all of your Web 2.0 applications, let people know about it.  Issue a press release, mention it in a newsletter or send out a tweet (remember to use hashtags).  Nobody is going to draw attention to your agency except for yourself.

4. Be Active and Engage - To some. being on social networks for investment attraction begins and ends with just posting content in the form of links, videos, tweets, etc.   An important factor to a social media campaign is engaging your target audience.  This can be done by simply replying to comments made on a Facebook Page Wall or participating in a LinkedIn Group. This kind of interaction will help you enhance your credibility as a knowledgeable economic development officer representing a region and an agency.

If you have placed a check mark beside the four tips above to indicate that you have completed or are doing the tasks, congratulations.  It is a sign of very good social media marketing management.

If you found yourself nodding in agreement as an indication that these tips should be acted upon, then I wish you good luck.  It is time to improve your visibility to get on the radar of site selectors.

Business Intelligence Course For Economic Development Officers

Published
by
Ian Smith
on July 14, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development and Economic Intelligence
. 0 Comments

On July 20th, 2010, Intelegia will be on hand at The Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute to present its portion of the Certified Economic Developers (CEcDs) accredited course, “How to Conduct Business Intelligence to Gain a Competitive Advantage“.

The course is a combined effort of the institute, Eric Canada of Blaine, Canada Ltd and Jennifer Zeller of Georgia Power and Intelegia’s instructors, Isabelle Poirier and Frederic Chevailer.

Eric Canada, chief strategist at Blane, Canada Ltd  will kick off the day with two training sessions.  Eric will first go into detail regarding the fundamentals of business Intelligence and its importance to economic development organizations (EDOs).  The session will address questions that EDOs may have when starting a business intelligence gathering initiative.  Eric’s second session will deal with the issue of business intelligence research services for business retention, expansion and recruitment programs.  Attendees will learn how to collect company and competitor information needed to make the right decisions when it comes to economic development activities within a region.

As the Director of Georgia Power, Jennifer Zeller will be present to share her insights on how an economic development organization can support communities and companies via research services and analysis.    Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about the value of having access to such business intelligence gathering efforts.

My colleagues Isabelle and Frederic will be in Atlanta to provide their know how when it comes to collecting information from traditional web sources and social networks for investment attraction purposes.  Not only will they show you how and where to search, they will have you think strategically before, during and after conducting research regarding a promising investor in your region.

To register for this seminar, visit the Enterprise Innovation Institute’s website.

The Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index 2010

Published
by
Ian Smith
on June 30, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development and Web 2.0 Strategy
. 0 Comments

In September 2009, E&B DATA in conjunction with Intelegia published the first Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index.  This benchmark study examined the use of social media tools by large Canadian cities to market themselves for investment attraction purposes.  One would assume that big cities such as Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal would have had an official presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube however; they were not even ranked amongst the top 5 CMSAs in Canada.  On the basis of the city’s economic development agency website had to offer in terms of Web 2.0 tools, the top ranked  cities were: Halifax, London and  Hamilton,

This summer, Intelegia will be hard at work to produce the second annual benchmark study.  The 2010 version of the study will investigate:

  • Has these cities modified their social media strategies over the past nine to twelve months to increase their power to convince investors to place money in their respective regions?
  • Has cities (that were ranked lower down on the list) adopted social media marketing tools to catch up to the top three?
  • What are the prevailing Web 2.0 marketing trends that are being adopted by different cities?

Plus, a whole lot more.

With the assistance of interviews with the agencies that are responsible for investment attraction, the study will document how well the top cities in 2010 in terms of using the web for investment attraction.

Results will be unveiled by my colleague, Isabelle Poirier, at this year’s Economic Development Association of Canada Conference 2010 in Quebec City, Quebec.

Why Attend Intelegia’s Workshop at Georgia Tech?

Published
by
Ian Smith
on June 23, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith and Economic Development
. 0 Comments

As discussed in Intelegia’s Business Intelligence Course At Georgia Tech University,  I mentioned that two of Intelegia’s seminar trainers will be present on July 20th, 2010 at Georgia Tech to cover the topic of business intelligence research for economic development initiatives.  At the end of the post, a list of who should attend was provided.  Now, here are five excellent reasons why you should attend.

1. To discover other internet search tools that will help you become an efficient online researchers. Did you know that using the Google Advanced Search option will increase your chances of finding more information about a company and/or sector?  If you have not seen the image shown in Figure 1 before, you really need to think about attending the workshop. :)

Figure 1: Google Advanced Search Interface

2. To begin using Web 2.0 as a source of competitive intelligence.  User generated content is great to spot valuable information for key decisions.  Why not expand your internet searching skill set with tools which will allow you to gather real-time information?

3. To eliminate the routine of conducting the same queries for important key intelligence topics, learn how to set up content alerts efficiently. This is the ultimate time saving component for any business intelligence research function.

4. To analyze collected information to make insightful decisions.  Collecting information is nice however; what does it really mean for your organization?  Learn about frameworks that will permit you to get more out of raw data.

5. To quench your thirst. After the workshop, you can pay a visit to Coca-Cola museum and have a few Cokes.

Convinced yet?  For more information on “How to Conduct Business Intelligence Research to Gain a Competitive Advantage” contact Hortense Jackson

Intelegia’s Business Intelligence Course At Georgia Tech University

Published
by
Ian Smith
on June 16, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith and Economic Development
. 0 Comments

I would like to congratulate my colleagues Isabelle Poirier and Frederic Chevalier who have been invited to be course leaders at Georgia Tech University next month.

They will be on hand to provide insights and the necessary search tools as a part of the course, “How to Conduct Business Intelligence Research to Gain a Competitive Advantage“.  This course is in the Georgia Tech Professional Education’s portfolio of training opportunities.

This highly interactive course will have attendees learn about time-tested methodologies and a variety of internet search tools to find information to be used for economic development initiatives.  Be it investigating an existing company or a potential investor for a region, there is more to internet research than typing words into Google.  In addition, Isabelle and Frederic will show how Web 2.0 can be a great source to gather relevant and timely details that will help economic development officers make informed decisions.

Who should attend?

This course has been created for economic development professionals would like to improve their online information gathering skills.  If you find yourself amongst the list below, then you should attend the course on July 20th, 2010:

  • Economic Development Officers
  • Marketing Managers
  • Trade Officers
  • Analysts
  • Site Selectors
  • Investment Attraction

For more details on the course and to register, please see the “How to Conduct Business Intelligence Research to Gain a Competitive Advantage” outline.

SouthAfrica.info Facebook Fan Page

Published
by
Ian Smith
on May 26, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development, Friday Afternoon Reading, Investment Attraction, Social Media Marketing, Uncategorized and Web 2.0 Search
. 0 Comments

My colleague, Isabelle Poirier alerted me to the SouthAfrica.info Facebook Fan Page which is worth a look from agencies who are still wondering what content should be posted on a Facebook page.

The page is an extension of the International Marketing Council of South Africa website and as part of its web 2.0 branding campaign for the country.  Other elements of the campaign include RSS Feeds and a Twitter account, SA_Info.  Figure 1 is a screen shot of the Facebook Page.

Figure 1: SouthAfrica.info Facebook Page

The first thing that visitors notice on the page are the photographs associated with each postings.  The content that is available is a mix of news dealing the South African economy and the upcoming World Cup of Soccer.  Figure 2 is a look of postings from May 21st and May 24th, 2010 on the subject of the country’s GDP and an investment project from Omina Solutions.

Figure 2: Postings On SouthAfrica.info From May 24th and May 20th, 2010

The search engine optimization for the Facebook Page needs a bit of work.  Entering the keywords, “south africa” + investment and “south africa” + “economic development” in Google does not deliver the direct link to the page.