Archive

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.

Is Gathering Social Intelligence A New Concept?

Published
by
Ian Smith
on July 7, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Web 2.0 Search
. 1 Comment

From Google’s collection of search and alert tools to dozens of dashboard applications, marketers are quickly adopting practices to gather information from social networks.  Recently, Nielsen has partnered with McKinsey to introduce social intelligence consulting.  In short, the offering entails gathering social media data and providing analysis.

After reading this announcement, I said to myself, “is this just another segment of the market intelligence pie being chopped into another slice?”

Although the initiative of gathering social intelligence on Web 2.0 sounds like a new and ambitious idea from a strategic point of view, the practice has been around for years.  Since the introduction of Usenet in 1980, internet researchers has had the ability to search, read and extract text from discussion groups on the web.  One of my first mandates in 1998 dealing with competitive intelligence research had me searching for comments regarding a specific drug for osteoporosis.  The client was interested in the negative comments especially when it came to long term side effects.

There is no doubt that the web has evolved since 1990.  From Web 2.0 based sites as sources of information to content monitoring applications, access to marketing intelligence is becoming easier for researchers and analysts.  A solid grasp of internet intelligence search methodologies and tools will provide an advantage to individuals who would like to avoid costly consulting services to collect and analysis of social conversations, mentions and real time information.

Is there a huge difference between “social intelligence” and “competitive intelligence” regardless of how information is gathered?

Your thoughts?

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

Social Media Monitoring With FPinfomart Heartbeat

Published
by
Ian Smith
on June 21, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Web 2.0 Search
. 0 Comments

As content increases on Web 2.0, the need to implement a social media monitoring system is essential for competitive intelligence functions within large and small companies.  As seen in the posts, “Simple Monitoring Of Social Networks With Google Reader” and “Social Media Monitoring With Radian6“, there are applications available to cull strategic details about competitors and their products or services.  Recently, I had an opportunity to take FPinfomart Heartbeat for a test drive.  FPinfomart is a Canadian media monitoring and corporate information service providers.

FPinfomart Heartbeat is an application that allows user to participate directly in social conversations and monitor the conversations through one interface.  Once an user logs in, a dashboard is provided to access to information regarding the keyword(s) that are being tracked across multiple social networks, including forums.  Figure 1 presents the dashboard for the keyword, “Tylenol“, where the latest information on the amount of mentions per social network is posted.

Figure 1: Heartbeat Dashboard For Mentions of “Tylenol”

Individuals interested in the amount of mentions for alternatives brands of Tylenol, Heartbeat supplies statistics as seen in Figure 2.


Figure 2:  Share of Mentions of Alternatives to “Tylenol”

To begin investigating the content gathered by the tool, users can click upon one of the icons representing the Web 2.0 applications.   Figure 3 illustrates the results or “Your Heartbeats” from blog posts that mentions, “Tylenol” and filtered by the tag, “side-effects”.

Figure 3: Filtered Heartbeats by “side-effects” Tag for Tylenol, Motrin and Advil

Heartbeat provides a wide array of metrics to measure mentions on social networks.  Figure 4 presents the “Geography” measurement for “Tylenol”.

Figure 4: Measuring Heartbeats by Geography

Heartbeat also offers a powerful comparison tool for social mentions.  As users click on the “Compare” tab on the dashboard, there are six criteria in which they can generate charts from.  Figure 5 is a look at the gender comparison charts for the Tylenol, Motrin and Advil.

Figure 5: Gender Comparison of Mentions For Tylenol, Motrin and Advil

For individuals who are seeking to improve their Web 2.0 monitoring capabilities, be sure inquire about FPInfomart Heartbeat.

Searching For Facebook Statuses With Openbook

Published
by
Ian Smith
on June 18, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith and Web 2.0 Search
. 0 Comments

A number of my friends on and off Facebook has asked me if there is a way to conduct a keyword search on Facebook statuses.  Well, all I have say is, “There is now with Openbook!!!”  The search interface is present in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Openbook’s Search Interface

By simply entering keywords, Openbook will provide relevant status updates that contains the words.  Figure 2 provides a sample of  the results given for the  query, “investment attraction” on June 14th, 2010.

Figure 2: Sample Results For “investment attraction”

The sole sorting functionality of Openbook is the ability to filter statuses from males and females located beside the search box.

Openbook is available at www.youropenbook.org

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.

Company Buzz App On LinkedIn

Published
by
Ian Smith
on June 14, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Web 2.0 Search
. 0 Comments

It seems that LinkedIn is attempting to make life a bit easier for competitive intelligence researchers.  First, it was the Company Follow function, (please read, Linkedin Follow Function and Competitive Intelligence) and recently, the business social network has revamped their “Company Buzz” application.

This application allows users to monitor the mentions of companies on Twitter, identify trends and track buzz over time.

Once the the application is downloaded onto your profile,  you will have access to a search interface as seen as in Figure 1 where the company name, LinkedIn is used.

Figure 1: Company Buzz Results For LinkedIn

Adding companies to monitor tweets can be done by simply entering their names and  clicking on the “Save this search” link.  Figure 2 profiles the result page when Nike and Reebok is added to the Saved Searches.

Figure 2: Nike and Reebok Added To The Saved Search

For each Company that is added, the application provides a collection of Buzz Words as seen in Figure 2.  Once clicked upon, the buzz words link will lead to a page of results with the word appearance in each tweet.  In Figure 3, the buzz word, “shoes” for  Reebok is highlighted in blue and the associated tweets are listed.

Figure 3: Buzz Words Results - “shoes”

Data on trends (mentions) is also available courtesy of a line graph as seen in Figure 4 for Nike.


Figure 4: Company Buzz Trend Graph For Nike

Downloading the application on your LinkedIn profile is practical.  It will prevent you from jumping to Twitter to retrieve the tweets and generate a graph.

Bing Social Search Tool

Published
by
Ian Smith
on June 11, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Internet tools and Web 2.0 Search
. 0 Comments

Bing has just unveiled their new tool, Bing Social, in hopes of competing with the vast array of social media search tool.  Bing Social aims to provide users with access to real-time content on Twitter and Facebook in terms of status updates.

By default, Bing Social presents updates within the past hour however; the time frame can be changed to past day and past week.  Figure 1 illustrated the results for the keyword query, “B2B Social Media”

Figure 1: Bing Social Results For “B2B Social Media”

As seen in the screen shot, the results can be filtered on the basis of the following two criteria:

  • Public Updates
  • Shared Links

By clicking on the “Shared Links” tab, users are provided with links on the web that are posted on Twitter with the associated title of the page or article as seen in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Results Shared Links For “B2B Social Media”

In addition, Bing Social will list the tweets that contains the title of the page or article as seen in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Tweet(s) With Shared Links

For more details on Bing Social, please watch the following YouTube clip.

Bing Social is available at www.bing.com/social