If your economic development organization has a YouTube video or a channel, have you attempted to find it via the tool’s search engine using keywords? Any luck finding it? Is it on the first page of results? Second page? Third page? Can’t find it.
You have just experienced something that site selectors and potential investors may have to deal with in the very near future.
According to ComScore, YouTube was ranked second amongst the leading search engines on the web behind Google and in front of Yahoo in October 2009. The implications of YouTube being used as a normal search engine are important. It is plain and simple. If site selectors and their advisers can find your promotional content then you run the risk of not being seen.
A solution to the case described above is to improve your ranking on YouTube through search engine optimization strategies. Below is a series of blog posts / articles in which you can read up on some handy tips:
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!!!
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!
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It should not be a huge shock to find that some of the well known brands in the world have a Facebook Fan Page. The popular social media marketing tool allows marketing professionals to reinforce brands on the web by engaging consumers via wall postings, photos, videos and discussions. This low cost avenue of keeping a brand in the minds of consumers does have its disadvantages.
In the process of exchanging messages and sharing images via the web 2.0 application, companies must realize that a great deal of competitive intelligence data can be made available. Such data can be used by competitors to adjust offline marketing plans, create consumer profiles and modify their respective social media marketing campaigns. Figure 1 illustrates Mitsubishi’s Facebook Fan Page.
Figure 1:Screenshot of Mitsubishi’s Facebook Fan Page
Please Click On Image To Enlarge
The challenge of finding the right balance between soliciting just enough feedback from consumers and not putting on display valuable information should be a concern for marketers and CI practitioners responsible for defensive competitive intelligence strategies.
Dealing with the challenge calls for having a practical approach to managing a Facebook page by considering the following issues:
Do you really need a fan page?
Should the page be public or private?
Are you aware of who is joining the fan page?
Are you prepared to deal with feedback provided on the page’s wall? (Positive vs Negative)
What topics should be discussed to engage consumers on the page?
Although it would be easy to suggest possible answers to the questions listed above, it is recommended that they should be used as discussion points in your company. Results from the discussion can be used to build a sound social media marketing campaign considering the competitive intelligence implications of the Facebook Fan Page.
One tool that was omitted by the cities was SlideShare which is a pretty useful Web 2.0 or economic development 2.0 tool.
SlideShare allows individuals to upload presentations and documents with the intent of sharing the content with others. You may consider it to be the “YouTube for Powerpoint presentations”.
The presentation can serve as an effective and efficient information package for site selectors and potential investors in the region. Slides # 34 to #38 are quite powerful when it comes to promoting Chesterfield.
To view the complete presentation, please click here
The business case study presents how social media marketing applications were adopted by Entreprise Chaleur, an economic development agency that represents 15 communities on the northeast coast of New Brunswick.
Location of The Chaleur Region
Source: Entreprise Chaleur
The use of Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, key success factors and a status report of the initiative for foreign direct investment attraction as of September 2009 are the main topics that discussed in the case.
To download the case study, “Entreprise Chaleur - Social Media Marketing Applications For Economic Development”, please click here.
Do you believe that websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube can play a key role in your investment attraction strategy for your cities or region? Tell us by leaving a comment below.
