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.
