SD GOED Website Workshop

Editor's Notes

• #3: Welcome & Thank you for coming to the Website Basics Workshop Introduce self, Jenny & Evan (take business cards) . Housekeeping : restrooms, cell phones, food & beverage rules, please be sure to initial or sign in on the registration sheet. Workshop - informal /conversational – ask questions when think of them. We’d love to have you also share your expertise and experience with the group. Last portion of this workshop will be hands on, any and all questions are welcomed. Go around the room and introduce self and name one thing hope to walk away with from this workshop.
• #4: Overview of Workshop: Three main parts: First Evan will talk about the importance of having a website in today’s economic development market -Next, Jenny & I will discuss what content you’ll want on your website -Finally, Evan will give you some lessons on creating your website and then turn you loose to start creating your own economic development website. Now, Evan will breakdown the importance of ED websites
• #5: I am going start my portion of this workshop with a quote form Bob Dylan that you have probably heard before. Why did I choose this quote? As you probably have guessed, it is because the way EDC’s communicate and share information with site selectors and prospects has changed, and my next slide will show that in detail.
• #6: This is a chart from Y Factor INC. I will give you a few moments to take it in. Ill give you guys a few seconds to take this in, but I do want to let you know that all of these slides are in the handout you were given. What does this slide tell you? What used to take months, now takes weeks What used to be done in person, is now done online These numbers will continue to turn in the favor on the online environment. Meaning that if you don’t get on board soon, you leave the risk of getting left behind. The next few slides I go through here are going to reiterate this points. Having a website is a essential piece to your Economic Development plans.
• #7: The first one comes from Ted Levine. Helps introduce a couple of important parts- one is obviously that you need a website Second, is that you need a website that contains accurate information that is easy to find., We are going to touch on
• #8: This table shows that the internet is on the same level as existing relationships with Ed officials and site visits when it comes site selector importance
• #9: -this quote again hammers home the importance of having a site. In the quote, Ginn mentions “allocating” resources. For most of you with a small budget, resources means time more than anything. It is important to spend time with your website (we will touch more on that later)
• #10: -some more quotes to hammer down your throat. Again, this quotes come form various professionals in economic development and site selection fields.
• #11: You have heard quotes and stats from business leaders from around the world, but lets take a look at a story that hits a little more close to home. A firearms company of upstate New York was looking into relocating. While searching for economic development info, they came across Madison, South Dakota’s ED website, through Madison's, clean and content relevant website, The company was able to obtain contact information. Madison was then able to provide that company with the data they requesting and gave them the contact info for Mark Vaux, the GOED Firearm Industry representative. This was a lead based solely on a well constructed website. Many. Many more of these examples are out there. Ok, now that we all know how vital having an economic development website is, we are going to have Mary and Jenny talk about the vital content of the vital website
• #12: Websites in Economic Development are marketing research tools that serve one key purpose: provide INFORMATION on your community. The well constructed website is a balancing act between content and functionality. While you don’t want a site that’s all flash and pretty pictures with little substance, you also do not want a site that’s so heavy on data, you can’t find the information you need. Economic development sites are primarily tools to disseminate information. The How of accomplishing that is where your marketing expertise comes to play. As I’ve said, economic development websites need to be data intensive . While you have many clients and audiences using your site, you need to remember that your ultimate client is the prospective business looking at your community as a possible site to expand or locate in. And this holds true whether we’re talking a small start-up to a major corporate relocation. If you don’t provide the information they need up front, you’re already out of the race. It’s estimated that a state or community is contacted directly by a site selector or expanding company in about the third rounds of cuts . That means you have either survived or dropped off the list of potential location sites a couple times based solely on the information you have on you website. What do you want to include? You want to be telling a story with your information. It’s the story of your community and its opportunities. It’s the story of your strengths and what you have to offer. You need to do your own research – know your town inside & out and then tell the world on your site.
• #13: Know and satisfy your client. Your ultimate client is the business. Your intermediary client may be a site selector/consultant. Site selectors tend to drive the information aspect of Economic Development. Pay attention to what they consider to be key factors and then populate your website with that information. Additional factors are listed including a separate listing for quality of life factors. In total there are 35 elements to consider. The top 10 are usually always the top 10 – they just may not rank the same as the previous year. A good rule of thumb for you to use is to have on your website the information that is consistently requested in RFIs. Also, review the information on this list, in RFIs, and determine what is original research and concentrate on providing that. Labor, Transportation, Taxes, these are all available through 3 rd party sources. Housing, Utilities, Available Properties, these are the items only you can provide. Set yourself apart by having the best original research.
• #14: Area Development Magazine: The 24 th Annual Corporate Survey & 6 th Annual Consultants Survey A good gauge of the relevance of information on your site. – look at it every year (free online) Have combined the corporate and consultant scores of 26 factors and re-ranked Top 10 are usually always the top 10 The order of importance tends to fluctuate with trends, economic performance, and specializations When fuel prices go up, shipping costs become a concern ICT Services, industry specific
• #15: Don’t Worry about Writing Everything Down – Slides are in your handouts – Also a handout of resources Using the Top 10 as a Guide, we come up with 6 Categories for the top information These are fairly standard categories across ED websites Can organize the majority of all 26 factors into these 6 Categories If you cover these 6 categories thoroughly
• #16: Talk Contact Info Before changing slides: The following info isn’t necessarily in order of importance
• #17: Use Maps County Profiles Website – you’re not starting from scratch Highways How far are you from Interstate highways, US Highways 2-Lane or 4-Lane Highways Are there any planned developments or improvements slated for local highways? Proximity to Major Markets (Minneapolis, Chicago, Denver, Omaha) Railroad Local Rail Access Distance to Nearest Rail Access Name of Rail Shipping Rates Commercial & Private Air Air Carriers, Destinations, Distance from Community Local Airport Details (Runway length, private flight services available) Local Shipping Carriers (UPS, FedEX, US Postal Service)
• #18: Population – Census, break down by age, gender, race Wages and Workers by Occupation – LMIC Educational Attainment – Census or LMIC Labor Profile Labor Supply – LMIC Labor Force – LMIC Currently Seeking Work – LMIC Labor Profile Commute Time – Census or LMIC Labor Profile
• #19: Keep a current inventory of your available land and buildings Always provide size; acres, sq.ft., dimensions, sidewall height for buildings Always provide a price – it assumed that the price is negotiable – must provide a starting point If no price is provided, they won’t call and ask about the property – not serious about selling property Provide Maps and Images of the property for visual reference GOED Property System Handout
• #21: State incentives Suggest a short summary on your page with a link to the GOED program Local Incentives Consider giving land or empty building or reducing rent for a time Property Tax Abatements are available in most areas for new construction Area could be eligible for TIF’s Consider giving money to the project – make it contingent on certain conditions Consider refunding local sales tax on new equipment brought in for the project Be creative Make sure you’ve got board/city approval
• #22: Utility Section is available in the County Profiles shown earlier – utilize that as a starting place.
• #23: Industry Key Industries in your area Major Employers Recent Expansions Maps – a must have Use maps throughout your site to highlight where you are Show location in relation to US, the Region, the State Excellent tool for Available Properties Quality of Life Crime Stats Housing Stats Healthcare Stats Education Cost of Living Recreational & Cultural Opportunities Climate Rankings Other Content Unique to Your community Community development initiative Testimonials Good promotional material to have throughout your site News & Publications Press Releases, Annual Reports, Project Updates Keep your audience informed
• #24: Purpose of Site Recruitment of Outside Business Business Retention Community Development Workforce Recruitment Source Data Allows people viewing to verify data if they want Show’s reliability of data Let’s people know how current the data is Current Designate someone to be updating the information on the site Vital that this is kept current/relevant
• #27: Ok, now we are all feeling good, we know how important having a ED website its, and now we even know what content is important to have on that site. Now on to the next step, and it is one that has probably frightened us all and that is actually creating the website. That is because……….. In the old days, if you wanted to create a website you were it usually felt like you were stuck between a rock and a hard place. With the rock being creating a website yourself (that is complicated, for even people with a lot of coding experience) and the hard place being having to pay someone to create a site for you. But that is not the case anymore…because……..
• #28: The times they are a changin! Yes, it is our boy Bob Dylan one more time! The rock and the hard place are still there to some extent, but now there are tools available to you that will help you get out of that tough situation. H
• #29: There are now many great website creation website options available online You may or may not have heard of these. Woodpress, Joomla, and intutit All of these are great, by we have one site that we feel is best suited for you guys…
• #30: We are going to use Yola for two big reasons Pricing- very inexpensive, basic service is free, will need to a small yearly fee to host your website online. The actual service that yola provides is free. What you do pay is a 19.95 annual payment for Yola to host your site online. Relatively easy to use. We had Alice Wright from our office work with the program. She does not come from a tech savvy background and was able to put together a nice, clean, workable website. I will let her say a few words about the website (Alice Speaks) And right now I am going to log in and show you an economic development website that I created. I will also show you how to add various forms of content, such as text, pictures and maps.
• #31: Before I let you guys off on your own to start building your sites, I have a couple of reminders.. Also, I thought I would play a few introductory YOLA videos in hopes that it will help you feel more comfortable on the website. I will also bring up a few videos to watch. The first is an introductory video that will give you an idea of what Yola is about. The second is an example of the tutorial videos that they provide.
• #32: Alright, this ends the “lecture” portion of our workshop. Right now we will open to floor to questions for either Jenny, Mary or myself. After the questions, if you choose to do so, we will let you guys log on and start building your websites!!