This document outlines six tips for launching a digital ambassadors campaign to promote economic development. It discusses campaigns launched by the Greater Houston Partnership and Metro Denver EDC. The tips are to seek out passionate influencers to participate, inspire their participation with simple sharing tasks, measure the impact of posts, engage ambassadors in person, and be willing to change the campaign based on results. Examples are given of how each organization recruited ambassadors and examples of content shared on social media.

1. Six Tips to Launch Your Econ Dev Campaign
@aboutdci #dcidigital
September 17, 2013

2. The Voices Heard Round the Room
Janet Fritz
Metro Denver EDC
@MetroDenverEDC
Kim Baker
Greater Houston
Partnership
@GHPartnership
Susan Brake
DCI
@susanbrake

3. Have You Ever Heard the Term
Digital Ambassador?

4. am*bas*sa*dor (Noun) A person who
acts as a representative or promoter of
a specified activity

5. A Visual Representation
of Ambassadors

6. Why it Matters…
• The marketing tactic that C-Level executives
consider to be the most effective, is word-of-
mouth marketing/peer recommendations
• Harvard Business Report that 57 percent of
businesses surveyed mention that they plan to
increase social media spending and 38
percent of CEO's label social as a high priority

7. Why it Matters…

8. Two Pioneering Campaigns

9. 1. Greater Houston Partnership
• Mission: Build economic prosperity in the
Houston area.
• Opportunity Houston 1.0 is an aggressive
marketing and lead generation program.
• Promote message: Houston is “the best
place for business” and a “gateway to
global markets”
• Houston received more than $144 million
earned media in 2012 and more than
139.4 million media impressions featuring
Houston
• Began a robust social media program in
2009 and launched the Greater Houston
Partnership Digital Ambassadors Program
the following year.

10. Houston: Digital Ambassadors
• 24 Houston-area professionals
• Post on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin
• GHP sends content that promotes business and quality of
life once or twice a week
• D.A.s share news automatically or copy/paste
• GHP also posts items to social mediums as well

11. 2. Metro Denver EDC
• Mission: Promote the 9-county
region around Metro Denver for
business development.
• Have promoted Energetic
Bodies, Energetic Minds in
traditional marketing, but made a
deep dive into social
• Wanted to find a way to way to
leverage business news and
messages including job and
population growth.

12. • Mission: Harness the social media influence
of Metro Denver’s influential business leaders
and passionate public.

13. DIGITAL AGENTS by the NUMBERS
135 active agents
Their reach: almost
120,000
connections
Most active Networks:
Twitter (60%), LinkedIn (36%)
and Facebook (5%)
Average age:
38.8
Have shared 3,375 links,
resulting in 19,204 visits
to our website

14. Six Tips to Launching Your Digital
Ambassadors Campaign

15. 1. Seek Out “The Passionistas”

16. Metro Denver’s Passionistas

17. Houston’s Passionistas

18. 2. Inspire Participation

20. 2. Inspire Participation
What information/E-Force posts do you most enjoy
sharing with your network? Check all that apply.

21. 2. Inspire Participation
Week of… Topic
TBD Company Spotlight:
August 19/Aug. 26 Top Colorado Books
September 2 Rankings Recap
September 9 Ambassador Survey Results
September 23 Site Selector Visit and Economic
Development 101
September 30
What We Mean by Energetic
Bodies. Energetic Minds. Launch
of the Monthly Profile
October 7 Rankings Recap
October 14 Midyear Analysis
Oct. 21 How Colorado’s Business Climate
is Like Its Door Climate

23. 3. Keep it Simple
Houston a top five "Best Big City for Jobs 2013", and
Texas overall rules the
list: http://ow.ly/l1rhr #HoustonBiz #WeAreHouston
Houston is a "magnet of opportunity", according to
demographers Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox. The Daily
Beast reported on the nation's Top Aspirational Cities,
and it’s no surprise that Houston made the list-- in
the Top 3!
Forbes: The Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas
region is the metropolitan area with the most
optimistic forecast in the nation for hiring this fall,
according to a new survey by ManpowerGroup.

24. 3. Keep it Simple

26. 4. Measure What Matters

27. 4. Measure What Matters

28. 5. Engage “IRL”

29. 5. Engage “IRL”

30. 6. Don’t Be Afraid to Change

31. 6. Don’t Be Afraid to Change

32. Six Tips to Launching a Digital
Ambassadors Campaign
1. Seek out Passionistas
2. Inspire Participation
3. Keep it (participation) Simple
4. Measure What Matters
5. Engage #IRL (in Real Life)
6. Don’t Be Afraid to Change

34. Thank You!
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