New Tools for Economic Developers
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The document is a practical guide for economic developers on using new communication tools like social media, blogs, and email campaigns. It highlights the importance of adapting to these platforms for effective marketing, providing strategies and best practices for leveraging them to build brand presence and engage audiences. The paper emphasizes measurement, interactivity, and the need for a strategic approach to manage these tools effectively.
New Tools for Economic Developers
- 1. The New Communication Tools for Economic Developers A practical guide to social media, blogs and email campaigns EDAC / ACDE Marketing and Communications White Paper Series September 2009
- 2. the social web. Your competitors are already Communication is there. Your customers have been there for a long time. If your business isn’t putting itself out there, changing… but don’t it ought to be.” worry, it’s a good thing. The same is true for economic developers. A quick search of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn (to name a few) yields hundreds of The days of controlled messages, one-way results for municipalities and regions already marketing campaigns and careful spin are building their social media presence. Blogs over. Although that can be scary for economic are supplementing, and even replacing, the development marketers, it can also mean new traditional “news” sections on city websites, levels of interaction and measurement that were opening the door to two-way communication impossible with traditional marketing methods. via comments from readers on individual stories and posts. Gone are the days of shot gunning thousands of brochures out into the abyss and wondering if When it comes to email, economic developers they landed in the recycling box. Now it’s about are getting smarter by enlisting professional tools targeted electronic efforts that tell you exactly that measure deliverability and effectiveness whether your communication earned you a “click of their campaigns. They are automating list through” or an “unsubscribe”. management, allowing people to subscribe from their website, and segmenting and targeting Social media in particular has democratized content based on the performance of past marketing and communication, providing campaigns. real-time feedback on your brand and the effectiveness of your latest marketing efforts. According to our 2009 EDAC Members Transparency and personality are applauded in Marketing Survey: the social realm, and corporate speak and PR spin are harshly punished. • 59.3% of EDAC members are using email campaigns. It’s a whole new world out there. This white • 28.1% of EDAC members are already using paper will offer a practical guide to get you social media. It is the top new marketing started with social media, blogs and email activity planned for 2010 for those that campaigns – the new communication tools for aren’t. economic developers. • 92.8% have a website specific to their organization, yet only 7.3% have a blog. Many economic It’s clear from these results that economic developers are embracing these new tools. The developers are already real question is, how many are getting it right? using these new tools Later on in the white paper, we’ll offer 8 tips to ensure you are managing your electronic and social presence with the same care you manage In February of 2009, BusinessWeek wrote: your brand in other aspects of your marketing. “For companies, resistance to social media is But first: A primer. futile. Millions of people are creating content for
- 3. a reason to come to you. Blogs usually consist Getting acquainted of posts that appear in reverse chronological order, that can be further categorized and with the new tools and tagged with keywords. why you should They require a good deal of care and feeding, but research shows they are well worth the consider them effort. According to Hubspot, the average company that blogs has: Email Campaigns • 55% more visitors • 97% more inbound links Email campaigns may take the form of • 434% more indexed pages newsletters, announcements, press releases or a myriad of other applications traditionally done Unlike your primary website, there is an in print or in person. We are seeing this shift expectation that your blog be updated frequently towards electronic communications with our with a variety of content. Blogs are a vehicle for audience for a number of reasons: thought leadership, for providing links to other resources and for offering free advice and tools • It’s green – less paper reflects a to the readers, in addition to self-promotion. commitment to sustainability. Social Media • It’s fast and cheap – As we tighten our marketing purse strings, email allows us to Social Media is a nebulous term to define, but get messages out quickly without incurring it basically refers to user communities that have costs for mailing or printing. more to do with networking and conversations than they do with traditional marketing. • Audience preference – many people now Examples of social media sites include prefer to receive communications Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn and Twitter, electronically, and to be able to complete to name a few. Some argue that the term “social tasks like renewals and registrations online. media” is actually a misnomer, as it operates very differently from traditional media. We’ll use it • “Warming up” your cold calls – Who anyway for the purpose of a common language, clicked? Let’s follow up! Establishing and leave that debate for another time. interest is that simple with sophisticated email campaign tools. What isn’t up for debate is the increasing popularity of social media sites. As of 2009, 67% • Measurability – Today’s tools help you of global users visit member communities and find out what content is most popular, 10% of all time spent on the internet is on social who is subscribing or unsubscribing, media sites. Although these new platforms can and which stories your audience is be a little overwhelming, with their “tweets” and forwarding on to others. “@replies” and “fans” and “friends”, it is clear that they are here to stay. Blogs While email campaigns push content out to your audience, blogs must give your audience
- 4. for you, while your neighbour may choose to 8 pointers to help leave the technology up to an outside agency. It is incumbent on you to research what is out you get started there and decide what, if any, tools you want to integrate with your current strategy. Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s look Using these tools may seem like a cheap way at some ideas, etiquette and advice for getting to go, but what you save in hard costs you will started with these new tools. Regardless of incur in the time required to keep your content whether it is email, blogging or social media, fresh and interactive. Think carefully about what there are some basic tenets to consider that will you will have the time to sustain. ensure you are successful. 3. Don’t jump right in 1. Have a strategy and integrate it Once you have decided on the channels you’d If you hear your colleagues exclaim: “We need like to integrate, it’s time to… sit back and take to get a Twitter!” or “Let’s get at least 100 notes? Yes. Many social media platforms have Facebook friends!” or “Let’s buy a third party their own vernacular and etiquette. Watch how email list so we can show big distribution your peers are using these tools, and note how numbers!”, then you don’t have a strategy, you audiences are responding. have a big, big problem. Email, blogs and social networks are fickle True, these tools are growing in popularity and mediums, as it takes very little effort to “un- importance, but aiming wildly at the flavour of follow”, “un-friend” or hit delete. Be sure to get a the month is not the way to take advantage of good grasp of how to make the best impression them. Like any marketing channel, you must and build trust and credibility. You will only get answer basic questions like “Who do we want to one shot. reach?”, “What message do we want to send?”, “What is the goal of this activity?” Once you’ve 4. Measure got that figured out you can decide on the tool that will get you there. One of the greatest advantages of these new tools is how well they lend themselves to Your strategy in these new areas must also work measurement. Set goals and constantly measure with your overall marketing strategy. Too often, your progress in order to tweak content and marketers neglect the important potential of determine which channels are working for you so cross-pollination that comes from social media, that you can allocate your resources accordingly. blogs and email. How can you use them to Some ideas for measurement include: leverage each other and your other marketing efforts? • Traffic: Use a free tool like Google Analytics to see what efforts are increasing traffic to 2. Do your homework your website or blog. You will be able to see what content is most popular, where users This white paper will not offer a magic bullet are being referred from and how often they when it comes to selecting from the suite of return to your site. tools available to you. While Twitter may work for some, the openness and frequency demanded • Comments and other interactions: Which by that platform may not be right for others. blog posts get the most comments? An in-house email solution may be the route What Facebook updates spark the most
- 5. user interaction? What LinkedIn discussions company wanted to use social media, but they get the most responses? Use interactions were scared about what would happen if people as a measure of engagement and make said bad things about their products. As a result, note of what is generating conversation. she asked how they could minimize negative comments on the web about their products. In • Email Metrics: If you consider pasting her search for a way to control the message, she 300 email addresses into your “bcc” field an missed the most basic solution: Fix your stuff.” “email campaign”, then it is time to check out some of the new tools that allow you Eric Karjaluoto, SmashLab to track specific user behaviours, compare campaigns to one and other and see what We used to pay big bucks for focus groups. content is most popular. Email metrics are Social networks provide a focus group of sorts powerful, and can be used for specific for free, and the responses are often more events as well as ongoing communications. spontaneous and honest than those you get around a board room table or in a town hall 5. Be human forum. Be sure to listen to how your community can “fix its stuff”. There is an expectation with blogs, social networks and emails that content is more 7. Quality over quantity conversational and personal. Remember that you are being invited into someone’s inbox It takes a long time to build a good network, or personal network, so don’t regurgitate and trying to find shortcuts will not serve your your media releases and mission statement. goals. It may be tempting to purchase an email Share advice, offer resources and don’t be list, but before you do, think about the last time afraid to add some personality to your writing. you received an unsolicited email. Likely, your Being interesting is more important that strict reaction was one of confusion and annoyance, adherence to corporate taglines and not one of relief that someone sought you rigid grammar. out to tell you this great piece of information. Further, privacy practices dictate that you cannot 6. Listen send emails to people that don’t explicitly give permission or implicitly give it by having done When you open yourself up to interactions with business with you within the last two years. your audience, be prepared to listen. You may need a thick skin sometimes, but it’s critical not Social networks and blogs are similar. Many to censor or try to control the conversations that treat them as a popularity contest, but the most happen as a result of a social presence. You valuable friends, followers and subscribers may get a harsh “What a crock!” to one of your are those that look forward to your posts and blog posts, or a snarky comment on Facebook, engage in conversations with you. In short, but you’ll earn a lot of credibility for letting the it may be tempting to try to push up your conversation happen without trying to steer it. numbers, but do you really want to be talking to You may also find that other users jump in to people that don’t want to listen to you? defend you, which is far more powerful than a rebuttal from you. More importantly, the things 8. Put the shoe on the other foot you may not want to hear are the exact things you may need to be hearing: There are no hard and fast rules for how often to post to a blog or send an email newsletter. The “At a talk about a year ago, one audience one rule you should heed however is to never member stood up and asked a question. Her waste your reader’s time.
- 6. Before you put a message out there, put yourself in your audience’s place and ask if this is going to add some value to their day. If it’s not, it’s better to wait until you’ve got something to say that will build your credibility and leave them wanting more. In closing Like any other industry, economic development marketing is moving towards new tools for communication that rely heavily on technology, transparency and measurement. Used correctly, they can greatly enhance your community’s brand in the market, and can facilitate business development, job growth and civic pride. Take About the Author the time to figure out the best strategy for you, On Three Communication Design Inc. is a creative agency respect the practices of these new platforms, specializing in promoting places not products. and you will reap the rewards as you grow this For more information and insight, visit them at www.onthree.ca area of your marketing strategy. or read the blog at http://blog.onthree.ca. Fast Facts Social networks and blogs are the 4th most popular online activities, including beating personal email. 77% of active Internet users read blogs. 67% of global users visit member communities and 10% of all time spent on the internet is on social media sites. In 2009, email marketing is predicted to return $43.52 for every dollar spent. If MySpace were a country it would be the 5th largest in the world. 100 million Facebook users log in at least once a day. As of September 2009, there have been over 4 billion “tweets” on Twitter. As of June 2009, Flickr hosted 3.6 billion user-generated images. It was launched in 2004. 133,000,000 - number of blogs indexed by Technorati since 2002