Ed Solutions + Atlas Social Media Webinar 15 July09

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Social Media’s RoleinEconomic Development
Mark J. James, CEcD
Principal
ED Solutions, Inc.
3730 Perennial Lane
Powell, OH 43065
614.792.9102
614.578.6702 (c)
866.288.9597 (e-fax)
Mark.James@solutionsED.com
www.SolutionsED.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/edsolutions
http://twitter.com/EcoDev
ben wright
ceo
Atlas Advertising
Email
Web
LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn Group
Twitter
Blog

Professional Learning Laboratory
Affiliates for this webinar-

1. Viewer Window
2. Control Panel

ED Solutions, Inc. mission is to help economic development organizations with the effective use of technology.
We provide-

Web site review and analysis
Web redesign strategies and advisory services
Contact management solutions
A variety of other technology solutions for the profession
Training services to the economic development profession.
Web Metrics and data subscriptions through affiliated firm- www.developmentresults.com.

ED Solutions, Inc. is among the most respected firms providing web site strategies to the economic development profession. ED Solutions, Inc. has worked on over 150 web projects in 20 US states, Canada and the UK.
2009 © ED Solutions, Inc.
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About ED Solutions, Inc.

About Atlas Advertising
Atlas builds landmark brands in economic development. We have been successful by never settling for obvious or tired approaches to advertising, and we work best with clients who want their brand, GIS applications, and websites to work harder for them.
Atlas Advertising is led by a former economic development practitioner and has worked with 48+ different economic development clients in 26 states. Our approach and experience means that our campaigns generate an average of three to ten times the response of other campaigns. Ben Wright, our CEO is a frequent speaker at national and regional economic development conferences, and through the International Economic Development Council.
Featured clients:
Indy Partnership
State of Ohio
Team New England
Savannah EDA
Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities

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Outline
Why Social Media is important
Overview of Social Media tools
Social Media and Economic Development
Social Media and Business Recruitment
Social Media and Retention
Social Media for Tourism Development
Discussion/Wrap up

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Speed

Why is it important
to use technology
in
Economic Development?

Efficiency
Differentiation

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Social Media Definition
At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one to many) into dialogues (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal, political and business use. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).
Source: Wikipedia

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Why is this all happening?
Our email inboxes are overcrowded.
We don’t trust the media like we used to. Instead, we trust people who we perceive not to have an agenda.
Media no longer controls the means of production for distributing information.
We are all voyeurs at heart.
We miss our high school friends?

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Growth of Social Media (Pew Internet & American Life)

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Interactive Advertising Predictions (Forrester)

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Why all of this seems so simple…

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Overview of Social Media Tools

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Three Main Web 2.0 communication types
“Push”
Email
Websites
Blogs
Direct mail
You Tube
Podcasts
“Pull”
RSS
I-Tunes
“Connect”
Facebook
LinkedIn
Forums

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Twitter
www.twitter.com
About
Twitter is a community of friends and strangers from around the world sending updates about themselves, articles they’ve read, posts they’ve made, etc.- all in 140 characters or less.
Usage up 1300% in last 12 months
Why
You can connect with your customers, follow your competitors and find out what others are saying about you. Bloggers can use it as a mini-blogging tool to promote full posts.

Top 21 Twitter Apps.
Twitpic 1,236,828
Tweetdeck 285,864
Digsby 233,472
Twittercounter 212,200
Twitterfeed 149,812
Twitterholic 147,164
Twhirl 143,333
Twitturly 88,793
Twtpoll 74,154 10
Retweetist 60,051
Tweepler 51,304
Hellotxt 45,754
Twitdom 45,411
Tweetscan 44,463
Tweetburner 41,754
Tweetvisor 31,621
Twittervision 30,708
Twitterfall 29,592
Monitter 25,433
Twibs 17,168
Twistori 16,229
Twitbin 14,986
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/19/the-top-20-twitter-applications/

Create a Custom Background

Plaxo

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Read This…

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About Facebook
“Facebook helps you connect and share with the
people in your life.”
More than 200 million active users, 100 million once a day
More than two-thirds of Facebook users are outside of college
Average user has 120 friends on the site
More than 900 million photos uploaded to the site each month
More than 1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week
About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States

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Key Features of Facebook

Your Profile
Your Friends
Status Updates
Inbox
Applications
Advertising
Mobile Access

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About LinkedIn
“A professional network of trusted contacts.”
42 Million plus users worldwide, in 170 industries and 200 countries
Execs in of the Fortune 500
60% of incomes over $93,000
Segments:
Executives: 28%
Networkers/Consultants: 30%
Late Adopters: 22%
Exploring options: 20%
People with incomes of $200K + were seven times more likely to have 150 plus connections than lower income users.

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Key Features of LinkedIn

Your profile
Your Contacts
Your Connections
Status updates
Groups
InMail Feature
Applications
Advertising
Mobile Access

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Why?
Your network consists of your connections,
your connections’ connections,
and the people they know, linking you
to thousands of qualified professionals.

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Ning
About
Ning is a hosting service and a set of tools that let any individual or organization create its own social network
Ning powers over 46,000 social networks and counting
Why
Diversity of social networks
Personalize network by adding videos or a photo gallery
Standard tools of social networking: discussion forums, blogs, and lists of "popular members"

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You Tube
About
YouTube is the leader in online video, and the premier destination to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience.
YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email.

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Create a Channel in YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/orlandobusiness

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Idea:Put on Podcasts…

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Greater Spokane Podcast
Source: Dawn Picken, Greater Spokane, Inc.

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Social
Media
Newsroom
SHIFT Communications - The First Social Media
Press Release Template

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RSS-Really Simple Syndication
http://www.whatisrss.com
http://www.newsgator.com/individuals/feeddemon

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Add Your Organization to Google Maps

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Finding people using Google/ LinkedIn

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SEO & SoMe
“Search is where they find you, SM is where they hear about you.”
Relevancy
The goal is to get your content picked up and passed along via shared links. Driving comments and bookmarks to your site gives your page “authority”. It feeds upon itself with scrapers and reposters.

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Social Media and Economic Development

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Social Media Strategy
Consider-
Best Tools for You
Best Audience for Your Goals
What Calls to Action Will You Use?
How Will You Measure Success?
Visits
Followers
Etc?

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Mission: Greater Spokane Inc.
Increase membership and profile in the community
Position GSI as an expert in matters relating to business, economic development, and public policy
Reach out to business owners and site selectors to position the Spokane region as an ideal location for business.
Does not replace face-to-face interaction
Cost-effective
Convenient
Creates Visibility

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Social Media Tactics for Recruitment
Build each BDR’s LinkedIn network of past deals, site selectors and local brokers, and prospects
Build industry-specific networks of prospects and past deals according to each BDR’s industry focus
Seed those relationships with the following content regularly
Slide share presentations of new data
Virtual familiarization tours
Other events
www.slideshare.com

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Who is the audience, and what are they looking for?
Site selection professionals
Corporate real estate execs
CEO’s
Media
Others (?)

2009 © Atlas Advertising
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What are the Top Five Decision Making Criteria for your Clients in Selecting a Location Today?

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What Was the Most Important Thing an Economic Development Organization Did For You in 2008?

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What Advice Can You Give EDO’s today?
Stick To The Basics
ED is about Networking, Get Out Of Your Office
Do Something Outrageous
Be prepared with all the facts
Focus On Retention
Be experts in your targeted industries

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How Important are each of the Following Sources of Information when Learning about a Community?
Scored on a 5 point scale.

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When in the relationship building cycle should you use Social Media?
Stay in front of businesses with slide share, Twitter feeds
Being in their network, having a blog
Maintaining a blog, website, wikis of business info
Coordination with local partners through Twitter
Giving others in the company the ability to learn about the community through blogs, groups, etc

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Social Media Tactics for Retention and Investor Relations
Same LinkedIn tactics as for recruitment
Add a Twitter feed and consider industry-specific Twitter feeds, as well as organizational updates, that can augment monthly or quarterly email. Consider Ning as well.
Focus on posting current, relevant information along with a link to a story or download.
Designate a marketing representative to post 2-3 times daily.
Set an edgy, “insider” tone with your posts.

Use Launchpad for Buy Local Campaign
Source: Dawn Picken, Greater Spokane, Inc.

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Building your Contact List and Your Connections
Inventory contacts associated with past deals
Inventory industry specific contacts
As a team, set territories
Import lists into Outlook
Import contacts from Outlook into Linked In
Write a personalized invitation – keep it simple.
Send invitations to those you know well en masse
Work your 1st degree connections to gain introductions to others on your list

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Social Media Tactics for Workforce Recruitment
Use Facebook as the primary tool, supported by a blog
Post about:
Networking opportunities
YP events
Job opportunities
Hot spots around town
New developments
Stay away from:
Latest economic data
Organizational announcements about your organization

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Social Media Tactics for Tourism
Twitter Posts-
TwitPic-
Flickr
Trip Advisor
Virtual Tourist
Source: Karen Ballard, Administrator
Idaho Division of Tourism Development

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Wrap up
Social media extends the reach and influence of you and your organization.
Because social media is evolving, you can use it now and get great results. It will not be this way for long.
By cutting through the confusion on focusing on the right tactics, you can save time.
Unlike traditional marketing, your agency or marketing staff can’t do this for you.

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Read This…
http://www.socializedpr.com

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And These…
http://www.copyblogger.com/grow-business-twitter/
http://123socialmedia.com/business-blog/
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3283966/The-Essential-Guide-to-Social-Media#document_metadata
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3483043/Social-Media-A-Simple-Visual-Story

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mark.james@solutionsED.com
&
ben@Atlas-Advertising.com
Thanks for your attention!