Tag Archive for 'Social Media'

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.

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.

YouTube Puts Saratoga County On Business Attraction Map

Published
by
Ian Smith
on May 12, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Investment Attraction and Web 2.0 Strategy
. 0 Comments

Executing a social media marketing strategy for investment attraction entails aligning the use of a selection of tools and a sound communications plan about the initiative.  A clear example of this assertion is the web 2.0 strategy for Saratoga Economic Development Corporation (SEDC).

In April 2010, the firm issued the press release, “Saratoga Economic Development Corporation Launches Global Marketing Video: Life With Balance” highlighting a new marketing video that can be viewed below.

The clip focuses on the key sectors and key localisation factors that the county has to offer investors and site selectors. This is strategically done by using testimonials by CEO of companies that have selected  Saratoga County as the place to operate (i.e., GlobalFoundries and AMD).  A key testimonial by U.S. President Barack Obama was used with from a speech made in September 2009 at Hudson Valley Community College.

As discussed in the post, “SEO For Your Investment Attraction YouTube Videos“,  writing a detailed description for the video and using the correct tags will allow the clip to be found easier by viewers.  Figure 1 is a screen shot of the description and tags for the county”s YouTube video.

Figure 1: Description and Tags For Saratoga County’s YouTube Clip

As of May 6th, 2010, the clip, “Saratoga County, New York - Saratoga Economic Development Corporation” has received 1207 visits.  According to statistics given to Intelegia from the corporation, the video has been seen in Germany and Singapore (Figure 2).  Only time will tell if investment dollars will flow from these countries into the county to deem the social media initiative a complete success.

Figure 2: Number Of View Per Countries/States

Panel Discussion At APDEQ Event

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

Last week, our post, “APDEQ 2.0 - Economic Development Meets Web 2.0” introduced to you the upcoming economic development 2.0 event scheduled for May 5th, 2010 in Brossard, Quebec.  The event will conclude with a panel discussion centered around the theme of Web 2.0 applications and case examples of economic development initiatives.

Below is a listing of individuals that will be participating in the panel discussion:

1) Sébastien Daoust is a strategy adviser at Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton. He has 10 years of experience in the fields of process management and information technology.  During his career, he has presented at several conferences dealing with business processes, strategies for integrating information technologies and identify scenarios outsourcing business processes.  Passionate about sales and networking, he also promotes the strategy development and corporate uses of social networking to facilitate accounts management.

2) Benoit Meunier is a practitioner of 15 years and strategist in the world of digital marketing, user experience and social media. He has developed web sites and several strategies within large organizations and many SMEs in Quebec.  Benoit has worked with over 120 companies in diverse sectors such as B2B, media, commerce, education, culture and professional services. His strong experience in online marketing and his constant presence in the world of Web 2.0, enables him to offer effective tools to companies to become more efficient.

3) Isabelle Poirier is an expert in investment strategy at E & B DATA and a director / trainer at Intelegia. She has 15 years of experience in the fields of economic development and strategy of attracting investment in Quebec and the rest of Canada.  Isabelle provides training in using the internet to collect intelligence, improve competitiveness and brand regions using Web 2.0 tools.  Isabelle has given seminars at the European Business School (Paris, France), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) (Paris, London and Ottawa) and various federal, provincial and regional economic development agencies in Canada. In 2009, she co-authored, “Web 2.0 And Business Attraction - Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index“, a benchmark study assessing how economic development agencies in large Canadian cities are promoting their regions to potential investors.  In March 2010, she spoke at Restigouche Tourism Association 2010 in New Brunswick on the topic of the use of Web 2.0 and branding.

4) Sandra Dessurault is the communication officer at CLD des Chenaux.  Sandra will be present to share her insights on her organization’s use of social media marketing tools.

For further information on the APDEQ event, please visit www.apdeq.qc.ca/.

Invest In Korea Social Media Tools

Published
by
Ian Smith
on March 31, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development, Investment Attraction and Web 2.0 Strategy
. 0 Comments

On the heels of our recent post, “Invest In Sweden Social Media Tools” that discussed the use of web 2.0 tools to promote a region for foreign direct investment, we were informed on the LinkedIn Group, Foreign Direct Investment - FDIexecutive about the Invest In Korea economic development 2.0 initiative.

Invest In Korea seems to be slowly building their presence on some of the popular social media websites.  Using the UK Trade & Investment integrated approach with Invest In UK as a model, Invest In Korea is promoting their region by means of the following tools:

1) Twitter Feed

INVESTinKOREA is a source of information regarding the foreign direct investment entering the country.  This evident by the use of the hashtags, “#FDI” and “#Korea” in the posted tweets as seen in Figure 1.

InvestInKorea Twitter Feed

Figure 1: INVESTinKOREA Twitter Feed With Appearances Of Hashtags, #FDI and #Korea

2) YouTube Channel

The InvestinKorea YouTube Channel has a collection of  multilingual promotional videos.  Below is a  clip that combines a listing of world rankings for Korea in terms of economic factors, top sectors and key locational factors.  To reinforce the message that Korea is the best place to invest, brief testimonials from CEOs of companies that are in the country are used.

Using subtitles throughout the video allows the promotional clip to be effective without the audio track.

The use of the two tools are solid building blocks to add to in the future.  Will we see a Facebook Fan Page?  Stay tuned!!!

Thank You Readers Of Tools For Thought

Published
by
Ian Smith
on March 19, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence, Economic Development and Social Media Marketing
. 2 Comments

Last week, Intelegia published its 300th post.  From the first post, “Users of Wikipedia - Now Read This!!!” to “Competitive Intelligence Research With Google Squared? “, the objective of Tools For Thought was to provide readers with an outlet to learn about tools and practices for competitive intelligence research, social media marketing and economic development initiatives.

We are honored that we have such loyal readers from around the world.  In January 2010 to February 2010, readers came from over 75 countries, specifically, from approximately 800 cities as illustrated in Figure 1.


Figure 1: Locations of Tools For Thought Readers (January 2010 - February 2010)

From search tools to the use of Web 2.0 applications for economic development purposes, Intelegia looks forward to every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in providing its readers with the relevant resources to be efficient users on the web as a research or communication tool.

Some of the popular posts so far in 2010 include:

We welcome your feedback on each post that is placed online.  Feedback will be used as discussion points in future posts.  If you feel that we are not dealing with an important aspect of competitive intelligence research or economic development, please let us know.

Once again, thank you for dropping by Tools For Thought and your continued support.

Best Regards,

Isabelle Poirier and Ian Smith

Social Media Monitoring With Radian6

Published
by
Ian Smith
on March 15, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith and Web 2.0 Search
. 0 Comments

With the overwhelming amount of strategic intelligence that is available on social networks, competitive intelligence professionals must have access to a reliable tool that will gather information and organize it in a manageable format.

Radian6 has announced their Engagement Console application, a social media monitoring service which tracks brand mentions across the web specifically on Web 2.0 network accounts.  This can be managed all in one screen.  Figure 1 is an image of the user interface of the Engagement Console.


Figure 1: User Interface of Radian6 Engagement Console

By using the console, user can track content from sources such as:

  • Flickr
  • Google Buzz
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook Fan pages
  • Public discussion groups
  • Mainstream news sites
  • Blogs
  • Videos
  • Forums
  • Boards
  • Twitter

One of the key functions that users will benefit from is the ability  to save conversations on social networks with others.  This is especially handy for companies who use Twitter and Facebook to engage customers in discussions about a product or service for market research and branding intelligence purposes.

You may access a demonstration of the application at www.radian6.com/register-for-a-demo/

Using Hootsuite To Manage Social Networks

Published
by
Ian Smith
on March 5, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Internet tools and Social Media Marketing
. 2 Comments

Having difficulties managing your time amongst the different social networks that your organization has a presence on?

Below is a tutorial that my colleague, Aicha Habiby, created in PowerPoint to aid individuals in using Hootsuite.

Hootsuite is an application that will allow individuals to manage multiple social network accounts via one interface.

This tool can be extremely helpful for individuals who responsible for their economic development agency’s Facebook, Twitter or blog accounts.

The complete slideshow is available in English and French on Intelegia’s Slideshare page

Want to know more about using social media marketing or Web 2.0 tools for economic development? Attend Intelegia’s seminar, “Optimize Investment Attraction Strategy Through Information and Social Media Applications“

Why Use SlideShare As A Part Of Your Economic Development 2.0 Strategy?

Published
by
Ian Smith
on February 24, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development, Investment Attraction and Web 2.0 Strategy
. 1 Comment

You have decided to implement a marketing strategy for your region for investment attraction purposes.  As a part of  the strategy, you have selected to use social media marketing applications. After concluding a benchmark of sites that are using Web 2.0 tools, you have created a list of the following applications that should be used in the strategy.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Flickr
  • RSS Feeds

The list seems to be pretty complete however; there is an application that does not come to mind when discussing social media marketing tools.  The application is SlideShare.

SlideShare is a tool that allows individuals to place documents in various file formats (i.e, .ppt, .doc, .pdf) on web.

The use of SlideShare in a marketing context is very practical.   Here are the advantages

1 - Avoid reinventing the wheel

There is a good chance that you may have promotional material in .pdf and or PowerPoint already in your agency that can be easily placed online.  Instead of spending a portion of your budget on new promotional content, use what you have and upload it to SlideShare.

2 - Reinforce Your Search Engine Optimatization Strategy

Having a presence on various Web 2.0 applications will enhance and reinforce your search engine optimization strategy for your website.  SlideShare is an efficient tool to accomplish this goal,  Each word of the document on the application is indexed and allows it to appear on Google’s result page quickly and within the first couple of pages. (if you are creating a new document to be place on SlideShare, keep in mind the keywords that investors are most likely to used to find information regarding investment attraction along with the name of the city, region, province / state or country.  Good examples of keywords would be: “Invest in”, “Investing in”, “Incentive” or “Doing Business In”.

3 - Be Visual

Using Slideshare to publish Microsoft Powerpoint presentation is a very powerful strategy.  The medium allows agencies to communicate facts about their region visually.  Figure 1 is a page from the Chesterfield Economic Development (Chesterfield, Virgina) presentation on SlideShare.

Figure 1: Chesterfield SlideShare Powerpoint Presentation

This particular slide is effective to help sell the region as a location of  growth in terms of the value of new commercial construction by using the ascending set of bars in the chart.

Some may consider SlideShare as the poorman’s YouTube when it comes to delivering content visually however; it can be efficient tool to aid in obtaining your marketing goals for economic development initiatives.

SlideShare is available at www.slideshare.net

Thinking about creating your Economic Development 2.0 strategy?  Attend Intelegia’s seminar,  “Optimize Investment Attraction Strategy Through Information and Social Media Applications“

SODIL Lanaudière On Twitter

Published
by
Ian Smith
on February 10, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development and Social Media Marketing
. 3 Comments

The topic of this blog is based upon a posting on the Linkedin group, Economic Development Professionals, specifically in the “discussions” section of the group.

A group member brought to our attention a Twitter feed that offers trilingual tweets.

Figure 1 is a screen shot of SODIL Lanaudière Twitter page.

Figure 1: SODIL Lanaudière Twitter page

SODIL Lanaudière is the agency that encourages the development of the Lanaudière (Quebec, Canada) business communities by assisting the region’s SMEs with their projects directly.

The SODIL tweets are made available in French, English and Spanish.  The images in Figure 2, 3 and 4 illustrates the trilingual tweets.

Figure 2: French Tweet

Figure 3: English Tweet

Figure 4: Spanish Tweet

Having the ability to post in more that one language is a benefit and most importantly, it can be a competitive advantage.  Communicating with existing or potential stakeholders of a region in a language that they feel the most comfortable in is a critical aspect in marketing.