Sonoma County Connection: Selling a Region through Virtual Storytelli…

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SonomaCountyConnections.org is our regional talent attraction website that was created to be a resource for all of the information an individual would need to make an informed choice about living and working in Sonoma County.

It’s an innovative website that does more than just provide raw data about living in Sonoma, it visually tells the story of the beautiful region in which more than 500,000 people call home. Through curated videos, profiles of local businesses, stories from local papers and good old-fashioned statistics, any site visitor is able to get an initial understanding of what it's like to live in the northernmost county in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The design of our site is simple, yet detailed and provides visitors with everything they need to know about relocating to Sonoma County, with just a couple of clicks and I’m excited to share it with you today.

This website that was created to be a resource for all of the information an individual would need to make an informed choice about living and working in Sonoma County.

The website provides information about major employers, current job opportunities and possibilities to relocate one's business to the region. There is also a great deal of information about what to expect in regards to the cost of living in the area, average wages and various activities that one could be involved with once an individual moves to Sonoma County.

The target audience for Sonoma County Connections ranges from young professionals to business owners, as well as married adults looking for the perfect location to balance raising a family, having a successful career and social life.

Our site has proven to be a much-relied upon tool for local business owners to post open positions as well as a necessary guide for businesses to share with prospective candidates who are interested in learning more about Sonoma County, but aren't sure where to start.

During the initial development stages of this website, we began to realize that although we are all familiar with most aspects in our region, the true storytellers are those that reside and work within each city and town. It became apparent that we needed to partner with experts and leaders from each of our nine cities to help us convey the story of each area effectively (and correctly!).

In the last twelve months, Sonoma County Connections has received more than 38,000 page views across the site (Google Analytics).

The website breaks down our region by city and provides information from housing costs to average wages, school districts, methods of transportation and more. This information has proven to help better educate individuals in regards to the cities they are considering residing in, that best fit within their budget and vision of life in Sonoma County.

Data, it’s all about the data! This four-letter word of the century is important to most individuals, but the way in which it’s presented is unique to most, as we all have different learning styles, right?

Our data is organized in a manner where it’s gradually introduced and the site visitor has the opportunity to “drill-down” if desired.

Take our housing page for example, all nine cities are listed up front with three data-points that we felt may be the most relevant when an individual is considering relocating to the area. They get a general idea of the average home price and media household income (can I afford to live here based on the salary I was offered/planned revenue from my business) and if that city appears to meet their requirements based on the preliminary information provided, they can proceed to click and download our most recent City Report. These reports dive deeper into the Demographics, Employment, Business, Income & Spending, Housing and Education statistics.

For a second example, assuming that most people are more visual when it comes to information (like myself), instead of creating a bullet point list of high schools and districts across the region, we created a color-coded map, which has proven to be a great visualization tool, and not only easily indicates the size of the region, but also helps provide a bird’s eye view of one location, in relation to another.

Enough about the methodology - let’s check out the site!

Developing a maintenance plan with the staff in our office to ensure that timely articles are uploaded, and data is current (and relevant) to the site user
Diving in deeper with Google Analytics to continuously improve and understand the pages with the most site traffic
The Strategic Sonoma Action Plan sets the economic priorities for Sonoma County over the course of a five year time period. The plan is a culmination of a year-long stakeholder process and provides an economic roadmap for helping Sonoma County gets back on its feet after the 2017 wildfires. Of the six priority areas that were identified in the developed of this plan, one of which is focused on workforce development and talent attraction. With the success of Sonoma County Connections, we are now looking at alternative ways in which we can take this project to the next level, with valuable input from the members of our Talent Alignment Council, who represent local major employers and educational institutions. As Becky mentioned in her presentation this morning, it is also important to understand ideas (and workforce) from a student perspective. We are currently working on a way to gain feedback from current students and alumni of our educational institutions, to better understand their decisions to attend our schools (if they are from out of the area) and what led them to stay or leave the county.

Thank you for your time today!

Sonoma County Connection: Selling a Region through Virtual Storytelling

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Sonoma County Connection: Selling a Region through Virtual Storytelling