Handout used in Professional Learning Laboratory webinar held on August 31, 2010 entitled Social Media for the Practical Economic Development Professional.

1. 1 Social Media for the Practical Economic Development Professional Sara Dunnigan, CEcD Greater Richmond Partnership, Inc. sdunnigan@grpva.com http://linkedin.com/in/sarajdunnigan http://twitter.com/saradunnigan Mark J James, CEcD ED Solutions, Inc. mark.james@solutionsED.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/edsolutions http://twitter.com/EcoDev

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3. 3 3 Professional Learning Lab Affiliates

4. 1. Viewer Window 2. Control Panel 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. 4 Kevin Stuart kstuart@blanecanada.com

6. Web redesign strategies and advisory services

7. Contact management solutions

8. A variety of other technology solutions for the profession

9. Training services to the economic development profession.

10. 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 200 web projects in 30 US states, Canada and the UK. 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc.

11. 6 About Sara Dunnigan Sara is an economist who has developed a deep appreciation for economic development and strategic place marketing. Experience in economic research, business retention and expansion programs, business attraction initiatives, workforce development, and entrepreneurial support activities in both public and private sector organizations. Particularly interested in advancing the use of open networks and social media in economic development, workforce development and community capacity building activities to support economic growth. E-Mail - sarajdunnigan@yahoo.com LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/sarajdunnigan Twitter - www.twitter.com/saradunnigan 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc.

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14. 9 5 Ways Social Media has changed economic development Even less control about what’s being said about our place. The “democratization of information” Exponentially enhanced our marketing reach. Able to create communities within and between our communities We can now crowd source ideas/initiatives Social CRM and Social SEO Audiences 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc.

16. Sherwin-Williams Co., Georgia

17. Trione & Gordon/ONCOR Intl., Texas

18. Colliers International, Toronto CANADA

19. Little & Associates Architects, North Carolina

20. Palm Inc – Sunnyvale, California

21. Visa – San Francisco, California

22. Foote Consulting Group – Glendale, ArizonaSource: Atlas Advertising

23. What social networks or tools, if any, do you use? 71 % use LinkedIn, and just over 50% use facebook. Source: Atlas Advertising

24. How frequently do you use each? 72 % use some form of Social Media at least weekly. Source: Atlas Advertising

25. What is the applicability of Twitter to your profession? 63.6% say Twitter has no/very little applicability to the site selection profession. Source: Atlas Advertising

26. What is the applicability of LinkedIn to your profession? 52.6% say LinkedIn has good application to the site selection profession. Source: Atlas Advertising

27. What is the applicability of LinkedIn to your profession? “I have used it along with Hoovers to check who is LinkedIn and contact people for business meetings.” “I think it has good application. I have gotten proposals through this tool.” “Pretty low rated.” “It’s okay.” “I already have the contacts I need in my email – how is this different?” “Not much” “Good for seeking independent information.” “Good for finding contacts, and to keep in touch with peers.” “More of a business site” Useful networking tool Don’t know yet. Source: Atlas Advertising

28. 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. 16 What does all this say to the practical economic development professional? Just say no

29. 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. 17 What does all this say to the practical economic development professional?

30. 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. 18 What does all this say to the practical economic development professional? Depending on organization, a reasonable inclusion of SOME social media applications

31. The Practical ED’r Starts with a Social Media Strategy 19 Consider- Objectives Identify your audience-key leaders, stakeholders, etc. What calls to action will you use? Identify some benchmarks Keyword/SEO analysis How Will You Measure Success? Visits Followers Return on conversation? (Last) Best Tools for You

32. Some Typical ED Goals Brand awareness Program/practitionercredibility Drive traffic to web Create community Connect resources Lead development

33. 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. 21 What’s Yours?

34. 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. 22 Social Media Integration

35. Websites have a crucial new role Old view: Destination New view: Content Engine Source: Mark W. Schaefer Slideshare- http://www.slideshare.net/Rialta/social-media-best-practices-for-economic-development

36. 24 Our web sites need to be aboutCOMMUNICATION,not marketing 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc.

37. 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. 25 Indypartnership.com addthis.com or sharethis.com

38. 26 SEO & SMO Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites. Methods of SMO include adding RSS feeds, social news buttons, blogging, and incorporating third-party community functionalities like images and videos. Social media optimization is related to search engine marketing, but differs in several ways, primarily the focus on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO.

39. 27 6 Deeper Dive Facebook LinkedIn Flickr Slideshare YouTube Twitter 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc.

40. Using Facebook – WHY? 500 million active users 50% of active users log on EVERYDAY >5 Billion Pieces of Content >1.5 Local Business Have Pages It’s International – 70% of FB users are OUTSIDE the US INFORM-INFLUENCE-ENGAGE 28

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42. Using Facebook – Start Smart Who’s Your Target Audience? Prospects Existing Business Investors Find Your Voice Business Community Stakeholder Post Current Relevant Content Use Applications to Pull Your SM together Push traffic to your website Engage your community Create “Super Fans” 30

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45. Using FacebookAnalytics and Advertising Insights – Detailed real-time demographics Advertising – VERY targeted pay-per-click schedules Link other Fan Pages - Favorites 33

46. Facebook – The Good News Business and Community Use is Growing Exponentially You can separate your personal from your professional persona It matters in SEO 34

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48. Using LinkedIn Favorite SoMe tool of choice by SSC’s/Businesses Increasing number of toolsets for b2b and b2c It matters in SEO 36

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50. 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. 38 Don’t forget Keywording…

51. Building profiles Education and expertise Clients you have worked with Full contact information Link/address to Twitter page Link to your website Slideshare “Slidespace” Membership groups (groups joined) Upcoming and past events Upcoming sales trips (as events) 39

52. 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 LinkedIn 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 40

53. More LinkedIn Tips Build new GROUPS and connect with GROUPS Participate in DISCUSSIONS Build a Company Profile for your organization FOLLOW Companies – Existing and Prospects Ask for RECOMMENDATIONS and INTRODUCTIONS Remember – this in NOT your online Roladex. It’s your opportunity to inform, influence and ENGAGE your network. (and their friends) 41

54. xobni

55. 43 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. www.waynealliance.org

56. 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. 44 “Maps, maps, my project for a map!” Mark M. SweeneySenior PrincipalMcCallum Sweeney Consulting

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59. 47 Where Does Twitter “Fit In” Link sharing, not trite sharing Offer twitter feeds to chamber members Search twitter to see if existing companies in your community are tweeting Start conversations on Twitter- e.g., does anyone know which skills their employees need and aren’t found in X. Celebrate newsworthy events

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61. OK, so let’s admit this…

62. 50 A Word About Followers Its not how many, its who Look for people to follow who have more followers than they are following Beware of ‘someone’ with very little followers and lots of people they are following. This = spam Check this out- http://twittercounter.com

63. Create a Custom Background 51 2009 © ED Solutions, Inc. 51

64. 52 How… http://www.ehow.com/how_4613303_twitter-background.html Step 1 Create a Twitter account. If you haven’t gotten around to signing up for Twitter yet, what are you waiting for? Go to twitter.com and sign up for an account. If you need a little more help, read How to Set Up a New Twitter Account in the resources below. Step 2 Decide what type of image you want to portray. Part of the difficulty in setting the correct background is deciding what you want your Twitter page design to say about you. Many folks take any image or graphic and upload it to their Twitter account without much thought. Take some time to come up with something that speaks of your style, taste and personality. Step 3 Consider the screen real estate. The important information to be viewed on Twitter occurs in the center of the page. No matter how many images or sayings you have on your background, the center of the screen belongs to Twitter. Therefore you have to create a background that gives Twitter center stage. Step 4 Go large. Larger images and/or graphics reduce the necessity for tiling an image. It gives the appearance of one large background specifically made for Twitter. Try starting with an image as large as 1600 x 1200.

65. 53 How… Step 5 Remember that all screen resolutions are not the same. The smaller the screen resolution, the lower the likelihood of your image will have to repeat. In other words, if you elect to use an image that has a flower located to the extreme left of the screen, on a lower resolution screen (800 x 600 for instance), the flower displays once. A screen with a resolution of say 2048 x 1536, the flower will display tiled on the screen several times. Step 6 Think about using a border. When creating an image, remember that a small portion of the top of the screen is dedicated to the Twitter logo and user navigation. It’s a little easier on the eyes if the design included a boarder over which the Twitter logo and navigation could sit without having to fight against a busy background. Step 7 Upload your image to Twitter. Once you’ve played around with the image, upload it to Twitter to see how it looks. Log onto your account. Click “Design” found under the “Settings” tab. Once on the design screen click “change background image.” Once you upload your image, check it out to see if you like it. If you don’t you can change it or use one of the Twitter default images until you come up with something you like.

66. 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/ 54

67. Consider a profile on…

68. www.tinytwitter.com 56

69. 57 Why is 120 the New 140? Retweets! RT@ecodev....

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72. 67% 30-49

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74. 27% 65+Balanced by income/education Wireless connectivity is a big driver 13 hours uploaded every minute 65,000 videos uploaded per day Source: Pew Institute

75. Using YouTube 60

77. Industry specific presentations

78. Expansion or relocation announcements

79. Policy announcements

80. Company or stakeholder profiles

81. Annual accomplishmentsIdentify a low cost production partner or invest $2,500 to $5,000 in the tools 61

82. Upload all of your videos to YouTube, and embed Produce or record videos Check format, file size, and length. Offer multiple formats (e.g., mov, mpeg, mp4) Include meta data, keywords, etc. in video titles Use one video per URL Enable comments Autoshare with various social media networks Embed them in your website Send to partners to embed in their websites 62

83. Establish a YouTube channel for your community A place for all of your community’s videos Can include multiple organizations in your community, such as economic development, tourism, workforce, and more Develop a profile Invite others to subscribe Subscribe to other channels Solicit comments 63

84. http://www.youtube.com/user/NCDeptofCommerce 64 64

86. Get your video indexed-http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2010/03/videos-indexed-by-google/ 66 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc. Put a video on your page : I mean a real video, hosted on your site, not on Youtube or DailyMotion. You need a .flv file (or .mpg, .avi, .mp4) and a video plugin that supports this kind of video formats. Jing is perfect to record onscreen action and make nice video tutorials. Create a thumbnail of your video : that’s the thumbnail that Google will display on its search results page, so making a good quality thumbnail out of your video is an important step. Personally, I’ve found that 160×120 gif or jpg works well for that purpose….and they actually don’t need to be extracted from your video. Any image pertinent to the content of your video will make the trick. Create a video sitemap : Video sitemaps are XML files similar to usual sitemaps but using a different syntax. See an example below. Submit your video sitemap to Google : Video sitemaps can be submitted in Google Webmaster Tools exactly as a standard sitemap. If you had not yet registered your site in Google Webmaster Tool, that’s the perfect occasion to do it now.

87. Using YouTube to drive traffic- http://www.blastmedia.com/blog/2010/02/7-ways-to-get-website-traffic-from-youtube/ 67 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc.

88. Social Media Tactics for Recruitment/Retention 68 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

89. Social Media Metrics Not mature yet- things like; Return on Conversation Followers Impressions There are a few things which you can and should do Monitor what’s being said about your community Measure the numbers Regularly go back to the strategy

90. Social Media Metrics Some interesting metric tools- Compete.com Google Alerts Xinureturns.com Bit.ly search.twitter.com Twittercounter.com

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94. Wrap up 74 Social media extends the reach and influence of you and your organization. It allows you to reach and connect with people/companies in much deeper ways than has been possible with traditional ‘marketing’. By cutting through the confusion on focusing on the right tactics, you can save time. It can be done for low or no cost (other than the currency of time).

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96. Read These… http://www.socializedpr.com 76

97. And These… 77 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

98. 78 mark.james@solutionsED.com Andsdunnigan@grpva.com Thanks for your attention! 2010 © ED Solutions, Inc.