A look at the best practices of the use of social media marketing in Canada for economic development.

1. Canadian Best
Practices In Social
Media Marketing
For Economic
Development
Results From
Canadian Cities Online
Marketing Index©
2010
September 2010

2. About Intelegia
Intelegia is a boutique consulting firm which
realizes that the paradigm of doing business
is evolving.
Intelegia publishes the “Canadian Cities
Online Marketing Index©”, an annual
benchmark study of how well Canadian
cities are using social media to market their
regions for investment attraction and
business retention.
For information, visit www.intelegia.com
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3. Agenda
• Context of Social Media For
Economic Development
• Key Insights From Cities
• Benchmark Results
• Planning Points
• Methodology Notes
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4. Context of Social Media For Economic
Development
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5. Context of Social Media For
Economic Development
• What are the new rules of competitive success?
• Marketing the unique selling point of each city or region is
challenging
• With the introduction of social media, business is not conducted
in the same way. Tools are available such as LinkedIn which are
used to enlarge and strengthen business networks.
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6. Key Insights From Cities
• Usage of social media is a moving target
• Getting noticed in an ever growing noisy universe
• Agencies are learning to deal with negative postings
• Level of adoption from within is increasing
• Content sharing on social media applications reinforces
traditional hardcopy advertising
• New in-house competencies are needed
• Executive buy-in is still essential and growing
• EDOs are regional catalyst
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7. Benchmark Results
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8. Benchmark Results – Final Rankings
1. Edmonton Economic Development Corporation
2. Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation & Greater
Halifax Partnership
3. London Economic Development Corporation
4. Hamilton Economic Development Office
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9. Best Practices
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10. Best Practices – Blogs (Currency of Posts) :
London Economic Development Corporation
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11. Best Practices – Facebook Page (Currency of
Posts) : Edmonton Economic Development
Corporation
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12. Best Practices – Facebook Page (Customized
Tabs) : Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance
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13. Best Practices – Twitter (Scheduled Posts) :
Greater Halifax Partnership
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14. Best Practices – Twitter (Level of Engagement) :
Hamilton Economic Development)
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15. Best Practices – LinkedIn (Percentage of
employees on LinkedIn) : Ottawa Centre for
Research and Innovation (OCRI)
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16. Best Practices – LinkedIn (Easy to retrieve using
LinkedIn Search) : Greater Halifax Partnership
Search Query: Halifax +
“investment”
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17. Best Practices – LinkedIn (Easy to retrieve using
LinkedIn Search) : PÔLE Québec Chaudière-
Appalaches
Search Query: Quebec + “investment”
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18. Best Practices – YouTube (Channel Description) :
Greater Halifax Partnership
Greater Halifax Partnership’s “About Me” and “Interests”
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19. Best Practices – YouTube (Channel Description) :
Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation
(OCRI)
OCRI uses keywords such as “lead economic development
corporation” and “technology” to position itself.
.
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20. Best Practices – YouTube (Channel Description) :
Hamilton Economic Development
Hamilton Economic Development uses keywords such as
“business assistance”, “corporate relocations”, “expansion”
and “retention”.
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21. Best Practices – YouTube (Ability to find videos
via YouTube Search) : London Economic
Development Corporation
Results For Query, London + Canada + keyword,
"invest"
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22. Best Practices – Videocasts : Invest In Hamilton -
Hamilton Economic Development
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23. Planning Points
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24. Context of Social Media For
Economic Development
• It is not sufficient to just have a collection of social media
applications. Each tool much be maintained to engage the
audience on a regular basis.
• LinkedIn is becoming an important business tool that aids in
opening doors to investment initiatives. Along with a profile of
the organization, it is essential that all members of the agency
have their own profile complete with their position and job
description.
• All search will be in real-time. Web, blogs, social networks . .
With this in mind, agencies must take advantage of tools such as
Twitter, YouTube and content sharing Users of the internet are
accessing social networks via smart phone and such agencies
must provide data that is easy to read and navigate through.
• To have sustainable Web 2.0 marketing campaign, a content
strategy must be in place. A strategy will aid agencies answer
questions such as, “What do we post to attract investors to
consider our region?”, “How do we engage with our followers
who have an interest in what we do?”
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25. Methodology Notes
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26. Methodology Notes
The methodology used for Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index©
2010 considered the following elements for the evaluation of
agencies’ social media applications. The agency’s social media
applications were assessed based upon the appearance of:
• Blog(s)
• Facebook Page or Group
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Flickr
• RSS Feeds
• Podcasts and videocasts
• Content Sharing Pluggins (ie, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc)
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27. Stay In Touch…
Isabelle Poirier
isabelle@intelegia.com
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/isabellepoirier
facebook.com/isabelle.poirierintelegia
http://twitter.com/#!/intelegia
(Consulting and Training)
http://www.intelegia.com
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