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Applied Social Media Marketing for Economic Development Organizations //Derek Pillie

Applied Social Media Marketing for Economic Development Organizations //Derek Pillie

LEDOsuite.comtwitter.com/dpilliefacebook.com/dpillielinkedin.com/in/dpilliejust search for “derek pillie” or “dpillie”Project Manager – LEDO Suite

Why are You Here?

• You know that the success of your economic development organization means attracting new businesses and supporting existing business

• You know attracting new investors means going where they are

• You know that you know these investors are online• Over 90% of site selection begins (or

ends) on the web• How do you know these investors are

finding your website?

• Your stakeholders want to know that they are getting a solid return on their investment in your online marketing program

What Will You Learn?

• What are the pros and cons of using different social media channels

• How to use free online tools to optimize your social media impact

• What steps you need to take to apply the elements of a social media plan for your organization.

• How to measure the data generated through your social media channels to determine the effectiveness of your plan

• How to best utilize free information to connect with potential investors researching opportunities online.

About Cirrus ABS

• 15 Years Experience in Online Marketing and Website Development

• Hybrid company that offers the best of marketing and technology firms

• 25+ employees

• Full staff of technical & creative personnel

• Clients ranging from Fortune 500 to small local businesses

About Cirrus ABS

Cirrus ABS Core Competencies• Corporate Marketing Solutions - Strategic

Consulting, Website Development, Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Platform Solution Development• Vertical Market Solutions• Economic Development,

Education, Insurance…• Corporate Solutions for

Distributor/Dealer Networks• Franchise Solutions

Cirrus ABS Featured ED Clients

Cirrus ABS Featured Corporate Clients

SM // The “Social Three”

SOCIAL MEDIA – Take the “social” out of it and it is just good, old-fashioned media

SOCIAL NETWORKING – Just like business or personal networking, just online

SOCIAL MARKETING – The same concepts you employ in other marketing efforts will still work here

SM // Social Media = Tools

SM // Social Networking = Visibility

SM// Social Marketing = Application

SM // Where Is The Intent?

• Television• Direct Mail• Radio• Newspaper• Print• Email Marketing• Social Media• SEO• Search Marketing• Trade Shows• Sponsorships• Yellow Pages

SM // How does my LEDO use this?

It can help you attract new investment!

1. Improves your online visibility2. Provides opportunities for feedback from stakeholders,

investors and community3. Establishes traffic through backlinks to specific pages on

your site4. Encourages page or site indexing by search engines5. Promotes your “likability factor”

“All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends. All things being not quite so equal, people STILL want to do business with their friends” – Jeffrey Gitomer

6. Promotes knowledge expertise within organization and throughout community

SM // Social Media User Profiles

Types of Social Media users:

Engaged – Actively interacts with others content, shares relevant content from different users

Networked – Connects with many users, may interact but not using organic methods

Connected – Has an account, tends to be very guarded about interacting with unknown entities online but posts information to profile and interacts with friends

Inactive – Has an account but doesn’t post often or interact with others

SM // Facebook

Some quick facts:

- Most trafficked website last year

- Leading the way in search

- Exponential growth

- Used to produce search engine results pages by Yahoo/Bing

SM // Facebook

What do we know about Facebook users?

• It’s not just for young people anymore!–Almost 40% of Facebook users in

the United States are over 34 (55 million people)

• It’s growth in the United States is exponential!– It grew from 20 million users in

2007 to 146 million in 2011• Over 71% of the web audience in the

U.S. has joined Facebook

SM // Facebook

Challenges facing organizations on Facebook:

1. Best practices dictate that your “organization” maintain a “page” rather than a “profile”

2. “Pages” can’t interact on user profiles, only “profiles” can

3. You can’t have a “page” unless you have a “profile”

4. Strong emphasis on paid promotion to gain followers

SM // Facebook

Advantages for organizations using Facebook:

1. Very easy connections between web pages and your Facebook page

2. There are many tools available to promote your page without paying for advertising

3. Fair analytics panel with excellent demographic breakdowns

4. Content areas to promote different media types

SM // Twitter

Some quick facts:- Over half of active

Twitter users follow brands/organizations

- 65% of Fortune 100 companies use it

- 300K users/day sign up for new accounts

- Twitter’s search engine processes 600 million queries/day

SM // Twitter

What do we know about Twitter users?

• They’re not the same as Facebook users!–Over half of Twitter users update

their status daily, one in eight Facebook users update their status daily–Significantly more engaged with

brands they follow• Well over half of Twitter users are

over 34• Almost half of Twitter users are in

college

SM // Twitter

Challenges facing organizations on Twitter:

1. Identifying your key followers can be difficult

2. “Twitter culture” takes some effort to learn3. There is no intuitive path to pursue

engagement4. Over-emphasis on follow counts as “proof”

of authority5. Large amounts of spam

SM // Twitter

Advantages for organizations using Twitter:

1. Very simple interface2. Lots of independent applications

have been developed to improve usability

3. Active user community4. Brand loyalty among engaged users

SM // LinkedIn

Some quick facts:- Membership almost

doubled last year- Page views more

than doubled last year

- Over 50% of users are outside of U.S.

- An exec from every company on Fortune 500 represented

SM // LinkedIn

What do we know about LinkedIn users?

• Top four industries represent almost half of LinkedIn users– High tech, finance, manufacturing and

medical industries

• Over 40% of LinkedIn users are over 34

• Almost 40% of LinkedIn users have an average family income over $100K

• Over 60% of LinkedIn users visit LinkedIn from home

SM // LinkedIn

Challenges facing organizations on LinkedIn:

1. Less adoption compared with other channels

2. Many options for interaction creates confusion

3. Some features required a paid membership

4. Less than optimal analytics

SM // LinkedIn

Advantages for organizations using LinkedIn:

1. Tightly focused, engaged audience2. Greater share of LinkedIn members

promote content3. Lots of options for engagement4. Much less spam, less privacy concerns5. Opportunities to have work recommended

and explore connections’ networks

SM // How do we engage?

Failure to plan is planning to fail!

1. What are you trying to accomplish as an organization?

2. Who do you want to communicate with to accomplish it?

3. How do you want to communicate with them?4. Which channels are best to reach them with

that method?5. To what extent were you able to reach them?

SM // Social Media User Types

Remember this slide?Type Facebook Twitter LinkedIn

Engaged Huge value to your organization, must have engaged profile

Huge value to your organization, difficult to find for EconDev

Helpful for reaching niche industries you are trying to attract

Networked Still have some value to produce good SEO

Low value for your organization

Helps share relevant content w/ network

Connected Still have some value to produce good SEO

Often protects profile, hides content

Helpful to identify deeper relationships

Inactive Largest share here Not many here Helpful to identify deeper relationships

SM // Social Activity Optimization

Optimize your efforts!• Schedule activity during peak times• Coordinate your efforts through free tools!

SM // Producing analytics

There are lots of options for producing SM analytics data:

1. Social Media Channels2. Social media applications (like Hoot

Suite or TweetDeck)3. URL shorteners (like Bit.ly)4. Google analytics

SM // Producing analytics

Here are some tools we like:

1. Klout – While there is a general over emphasis on “scores,” Klout offers more detailed information on how they develop their “score,” offering objective insight into important metrics like reach and amplification.

2. PostRank – This tool automatically annotates your stream and shows how pages on your website are amplified by a wide variety of social media channels.

SM// Upcoming webinars

Join us for future webinars every other Thursday

Watch LEDOsuite.com for updates

Thursday, February 17th, Using your Economic Development Website to Generate Productive Leads

Thursday, March 10th, Online Marketing Metrics Analysis for Economic Development Organizations

We'll Help You Master Internet Marketing

These days it’s more important than ever for you to reach new investors, satisfy existing businesses, find new efficiencies, and improve your local business climate. The Web is the way to do it. We can help!

Call Derek Pillie at 1.877.817.4442 to find out how we can improve your online visibility.

Please take our post-webinar questionnaire at http://svy.mk/hwwgvc