SIFTING THROUGH THE NOISEMaking Social Media Work for Economic Development

The Faces Behind the Voice

Jessica TuqueroAccount Supervisor

Susan MerrymanVP of Marketing and

Communications

Sandy McMertyCommunications Director

Lorna ShepardConsultant

About DCI

• Served 350+ countries, states, regions and cities since 1960

• Specialize in economic development and destination marketing

• Employ 35 of the brightest “place marketers”

Agenda

• How are we using social media?• Developing your strategy • Building an online community• Talent attraction 2.0• Establishing guidelines• Q & A

How are we using social media?

Of the 307 organizations who participated in a survey…

57% 43% Use social media Don’t use it

Managing Resources

Percentage of Allocated Resources

77%

2%4%

17%

Full TimeEmployee w/OtherResponsibilities

Part TimeEmployee/ Intern

Outsourced

Full TimeEmployee's OnlyResponsibility

Who are we speaking to?

• Within your organization 27%• Regionally 41%• Nationally/Internationally 30%

What are we communicating?

• Project announcements

• Organizational news

• Quality of life

• Support for local businesses

ED’s Most Valuable Online Tools

#1

#2

#3

The Future of Social Media in Economic Development Marketing

5%

14%

28%

36%

15%

0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%

Least important1

2 3 4 Most important5

Social Media is Not Just For Kids…

• Median age is over 30 on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter

• Forbes: The Rise of the Digital C-Suite

• Nielsen Global Index: Social media sites accessed more than email

HOW DO I GET STARTED?

Developing your strategy

Conversations are happening

Hear and be heard

Social Media is more like sociology than technology

Social Media is about dialogue - not monologue

Cool!

VS.

We still need strategy

The principles are the same– Who – are you trying to reach? – What – do they do online today? – When – will you connect?– Where – is the right medium? – Why – for what purpose?– How – will you connect, engage, sustain?

3 C’s

• Context• Connect• Continuum

Connect with Columbus

Building an online community

Building Community in Social Media

• Simple Reasons Why You Should Do It• How Social Is Not Traditional• Why and How is North Dakota Playing• Results You Can Shake a Measurement At

Getting Social

Why build community?– Duh. It makes sense.

– Relationships are key to ED.

– Measure ROI in a new way.

For companies, resistance to social media is futile. Millions of people are creating content for the social Web. Your competitors are already there. Your customers have been there for a long time. If your business isn't putting itself out there, it ought to be.

February 19, 2009

Traditional Style – Hey Everybody

Traditional Media• monologue• GETTING attention• broadcasting• interruption-based• days +

Social Style – Hey YOU

Social Media• dialogue• GIVING attention• narrowcasting• permission-based• minutes

It’s Like Dating

Like

What are you doing right now?

The BIG 3 Analogy

• The Office • The BBQ• The Bar

• You Tube• Blogs

Philosophy of Thirds

• All Business• Personal• What the ?$%#

BE AUTHENTIC.

NO

Measure – Even When You Can’t

• ROI– Return on influence

It isn’t always the bigthing that matters.

Results

e-newsletter • Sent to 1739• 46% (811 of 1739) read

•5913 total reads- 730% return on message- in top 5 referrers

Results

• 3rd Party– Colorado Ambassador

• “Crow”

• Mileage

link tracking - bit.ly• 361 using bit.ly link to view• 2 families move b/c story

• Untrackable reposts – LOTS- Do they count? YES.

Talent Attraction 2.0

Research Findings

• AVAILABILITY of WORKFORCE – Key challenge among prospective companies– Key challenge among companies in Greater Reno-Tahoe

• WHAT WORKFORCE NEEDS & WANTS– Rational: CoL; affordability of housing; quality of schools– Emotional: ?People like me living there? (Race, beliefs,

interests)– Unfamiliar with Reno-Tahoe: ?Are there skilled, professional jobs

there?• Greatest potential for attraction: California,

Northeastern U.S. & Western states

Strategies

• Educate the workforce in other markets– Attract those not necessarily looking to relocate or considering

GR-T• Involve companies already in Greater Reno-Tahoe &

skilled professionals living in GR-T• Guerilla (cheap)• Start in northern CA, then expand

Tactics: Web Portal

WWW.MyNevadaDreamJob• A local-market “Monster”• A portal for non-job information • A way to ‘connect’ with like-minded professionals

living in Greater Reno-Tahoe• A means to collect, track and provide value to

EDAWN’s members

Tactics: Beers & Careers

Awareness – through P.R. ‘stunt’– Facebook: ad & events page– Flickr– YouTube

Tactics: Beers & Careers

Awareness– through P.R. ‘stunt’– Facebook: ad & events

page– Flickr– YouTube– Email to friends &

colleagues

Beers & Careers

Beers & Careers

Beers & Careers

Beers & Careers

Results

13 GR-T employers + UNR + 2 real estate developers

• 110 Professionals attended Beers & Careers• $63,000 in media coverage• 2,927 video hits• 1,935 unique visitors to MyNVDreamJob.com

– 550+ from CA– 60 completed profiles

Establishing guidelines

• Should I have social media policies?

• Where do I begin?

• Examples…

U.S. General Services Administration Social Media Policyhttp://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php?f=5

IBM Social Computing Guidelineshttp://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html

Intel Social Media Guidelineshttp://www.intel.com/sites/sitewide/en_US/social-

media.htm

Q & A

Ask us anything!Jessica TuqueroDCI

Lorna ShepardEconomic DevelopmentAuthority of Western Nevada

Susan MerrymanColumbus Chamber of

Commerce

Sandy McMertyNorth Dakota Department

of Commerce

Thank you!

Jessica TuqueroDCI@DCIEcondevJessica.tuquero@dc-intl.com

Lorna ShepardEconomic DevelopmentAuthority of Western Nevadalorna@red-dogconsulting.com

Susan MerrymanColumbus Chamber of Commerce@ColumbusChambersusan_merryman@columbus.org

Sandy McMertyNorth Dakota Department of

Commerce@NDAmbassadorsmcmerty@nd.gov