2010 Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index©

8/3/2019 2010 Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index

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2010. Intelegia Group. All rights reserved.The Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index Report is prepared rom sources and data which we believe to be reliableand accurate, but we make no representation as to its accuracy or completeness. The report is provided solely orinormational purposes and is not to be construed as providing advice, recommendations, representations or warrantieso any kind whatsoever. Opinions and inormation provided are made as o the date o the reports publication and aresubject to change without notice. Intelegia disclaims any liability or errors or omissions therein.


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Note to Readers

This second edition o Canadian

Cities Online Marketing Index has

been published byIntelegia Group in

collaboration withE&B DATA. Intelegia

would like to take the opportunity to

thank Frederic Chevalier and Jean

Matuszewski, associates at E&B DATAor their precious eedback during

the course o this study.
http://www.intelegia.com/http://www.ebdata.com/http://www.ebdata.com/http://www.ebdata.com/http://www.intelegia.com/


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Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index / 4

Web 2.0 and Business AttractionCanadian CitiesOnline Marketing Index

Content 2010

Preamble 5

Context 5

Key Insights 8

Results 10

Best Practices Social MediaTools Web 2.0 13

Best Practices Site SelectionTools Web 1.0 33

Planning Points 36

Conclusions 38

Methodology 39

Frequently Asked Questions 40

Bibliography 42

About the Authors 44

Final Thoughts 36


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Preamble

Social media marketing has opened the doors or

marketers to promote products and / or services

in innovative ways. Breaking the old model with

marketing vehicles such as printed brochures,

television and radio spots which are one-sided

orms o communications, social media provides

a platorm to engage an audience. As a result,

marketers have the ability to interact with their target

audience, thanks to a cost eective mediumEconomic development agencies that have the

mandate to promote their respective regions or

business attraction purposes possess the ways and

means to use social media applications. The issue

that agencies ace is the return o investment on the

Web 2.0 tools in regards to money owing into the

region to oster a prosperous business environment.

The 2010 Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index

benchmark has two objectives. Primarily, it will

serve as an update to the 2009 Benchmark Studyinterms o what cities have done to improve their rank

according to their maximisation o the applications

unctionalities. The second objective is to highlight

cities that have chosen to increase their capabilities

to share relevant content to potential investors

and new business partners.

Context

I. Distinguishing your city by becoming knowable.

Sophisticated economic center, stability and

attractive markets are ound worldwide, by global

corporations originating in both mature economies

and ast growth markets.1

Canada is a sophisticated economic center. However;

the market is small or many industries.

When it comes to promoting their distinctopportunities, Canadian cities relying more

on services, innovation and to a lesser extent,

manuacturing sectors to drive their economic growth,

need to engage dierently with the rest o the world:

so they can appear or re-appear in the mind o

investors looking or destinations driven by strong

local leadership and innovation.

Canadian cities need to become knowable on the

global landscape to be on the radar o potential

investors, within the country but also around theworld. Only social medias can provide such cost-

efcient ways to communicate.

1 Ernst & Young;Waking up to the New Economy: Ernst & Youngs 2010 European Attractiveness Survey, 2010, p. 5.

In this 2.0 era, knowable reers to the citys ability to take advantage o social

media applications to communicate its strengths but also its deep understandingo potential investors needs and requirements. As a result, the city will projectitsel as being trustable in terms o providing inormation and engaging with theirbusiness network on the micro and macro levels.
http://ebdata.com/ebdata_w/share/EB%20DATA%20-%20Canadian%20Cities%20Onlinemarketing%20Index.pdfhttp://ebdata.com/ebdata_w/share/EB%20DATA%20-%20Canadian%20Cities%20Onlinemarketing%20Index.pdf


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II. Marketing the unique selling point o each city or region is ever more challenging.

Last year, One 3 Communication Design and Economic Developers Association o Canada (EDAC) conducted

a survey which ound out that the majority o Canadian agencies are expected to do more with the same

amount o fnancial resources.2

Canadian cities and regions need to fnd new ways to engage with oreign investors.

Canadian cities and regions need to engage with local businesses to reinorce the region message,

network and value-added proposition.

III. With the introduction o social media, business is not conducted in the same way. Available tools

such as LinkedIn are used to enlarge and strengthen business networks.

Austerity measures have been driving economic development agencies. Taking advantage o the new

business and communication ramework is a key driver in a renewed attractiveness model.

The use o social media attempts to remove barriers between countries regions, cities, organizations and most

importantly, individuals. The applications are allowing economic development organizations to:

be in the loop and out to spot trends and opportunities that can improve their investment attractionstrategy

connect and reconnect with investors, partners and stakeholders

identiy new business opportunities and investment projects and proactively engage with new businesses

2 One 3 Communication Design and Economic Developers Association o Canada; Economic Development

Marketing in Canada, 2009. http://www.slideshare.net/OnThree/marketing-survey-pd

Share

ListenConclude

Engage Capture

Source: Intelegia, 2010.
http://www.slideshare.net/OnThree/marketing-survey-pdfhttp://www.slideshare.net/OnThree/marketing-survey-pdf


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Opportunities are on both sides o the ence:

For investors and site selectors

For cities and regions trying to attract new

investments

Most o EDOs (Economic Development

Organizations) are already members o Linkedin.However, how many are really using the network to

share content and establish new business contacts?

Knowing that they are at the oreront o lead

generation and the hub linking all regional

stakeholders, some regions are ready when it comes

to promoting their region and knock on doors to

attract new investments. They know where and

who has the answers to investors questions. It is

more than providing the cost o operations data. It

is about connecting specifc investors needs to the

regions oer. The ability or economic development

organizations (EDOs) to capture the value and the

inormation and resources available in their region

and to share it efciently to site selectors andpotential investors so they can proactively engage

with them. This is what it is all about.

The use o LinkedIn to connect with site selection

proessionals is a good example o new ways EDOs

connect, share valuable content or simply post

questions.


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Key Insights

Here is a look at some o the key insights.

Getting noticed in a continuously growing

noisy universe

The virtual world is not only getting bigger, the

more people are using it, the more difcult itbecomes to be noticed. Talking is not enough

and Greater Haliax Partnership is building its

inuence on a well-thought content strategy.

Agencies are learning to deal with negative

postings

Every agency takes a risk when using social

networks in terms o receiving eedback.

Dealing with negative eedback is nothing new

and it does open the door to engaging withaudiences. For example, Edmonton Economic

Development Corporation (EEDC) has been

challenged by one particular person who was

leaving negative comments about them on

Twitter and Facebook. However, once EEDC

responded with positive messages, this person

then retweeted them and consistently does

with what the agency is tweeting. This situation

gave EEDC confdence in its ability to manage

unpleasant posting on social networks, as wellas positive visibility on the web.

Level of adoption from within

In its second year o using social media

applications, Greater Haliax Partnerships

employees are now comortable with them

and regularly suggest content to be posted.

Last year, there was one single individual that

had the responsibility to engage its audience.

The person can nowdepend on the input rommore than 20 colleagues.

Content sharing on social media

applications allows organizations to keep

their audience informed without waiting

for traditional media coverageVia its website, Hamilton Economic

Development provides access to

InvestInHamilton TV. Identifed as an early

adopter o Social TV, the agency is able to

position itsel as a source o inormation on

dierent aspects o the local economy, which

stakeholders and potential investors may

consult. Both stakeholders and investors are

now able to get their inormation without

dealing with the noise (i.e., commercials,

unrelated stories) that traditional media has

when broadcasting content to these specifc

audiences.

The agency has ound an efcient way to

deliver economic development good news

and engage audiences with video production.

Invest TV has generated well over 225,000

views in only 11 months o operation.

For Greater Haliax Partnership, social media

gives an opportunity to tell the story behind anevent or project. It gives more depth, and it is a

strong dientiation marketing tool.

New in-house competencies

Recognizing the value o these new tools,

Greater Haliax Partnership has allowed

resources to build competencies in-house

through specialized seminar and ocus

training instead o simply outsourcing web 2.0

marketing activities.


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Executive buy-in is still essential and

growing

Coming rom one o the largest inormation

technology companies in Canada, Paul Kent,

Greater Haliax Partnerships CEO, is one

o ew Canadian EDOs senior executive who

tweets and is involved in the social mediastrategy. This CEO not only supports new

initiatives but he engages himsel in the GHP

branding and communication strategy.

In Hamilton, where the agency is directly

linked to city hall, Fred Eisenberger, the mayor,

is active on Facebook and Twitter.

InLondon, two out o every three city

councillors have a Twitter account.

In Edmonton, or one week Ron Gilbertson,EEDC President answered peoples questions

on a popular Forum called Connect 2

Edmontonwww.connect2edmonton.ca

EDOs as routers for business information

and activities

Greater Haliax Partnership and Invest in

Hamilton share the goal to use its social media

channels to push not only their own content

but also to redistribute content rom theirpartners and stakeholders.

Applying social media strategies and tools

to engage with regional stakeholders has

been very eective or the city oLondon.

For example, the time consuming energy to

stimulate networking among local businesses

and newly graduate workorce is now more

efcient and popular or the city o Londonwhos agency is using a Facebook page.

Last winter, London Economic Development

Corporation organized an industry event

or which they had orecast a crowd o 150

participants. Eectively using Twitter during

the event, they were able to build on the

enthusiasm o the participants and raise the

attendance to 275.

EDOs as regional catalyst

Becoming a regional catalyst is a natural step

or EDOs that are regional routers. London

Economic Development Corporation

manages 10 websites and customizes social

media applications or specifc industry events

positioning the agency as the catalyst. LEDC

use this core competency and is now able

to share it to the benefts o its partners: DIG

London and Student-2-Business Networking

Conerence among others.


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Understanding the scoring

Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index is based

on publicly available data supported by research and

interviews.

The results o this years study were based on the

agencies ability to have a strong presence on theollowing fve social networks and other web 2.0

applications: Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

andYouTube, and to a lesser extent, other content

sharing applications (i.e. Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.),

as well as using applications such as: podcasts,

videocasts and RSS eeds.

The level o strength on social media was evaluated

based on the capacity to be ound on the network,

create and engage with an audience and provide

content on a regular basis.Content or site selectors and potential investors was

examined upon its currency, accessibility (i.e., easy

to retrieve using Google) and its availability in many

languages (more than two languages). In addition to

these preliminary explanations, the methodology and

FAQ are available on pages 39-41.

Results

1. Top Five Canadian Cities

The 2010 Canadian Cities OnlineMarketing Index recognizesthe ollowing top fve Canadiancities economic development andinvestment attraction agencies ortheir true leadership in embracingsocial media applications and

online marketing strategy orinvestment attraction.

1. Edmonton Economic DevelopmentCorporation

2. Ottawa Centre or Research andInnovation ex-aequo with GreaterHaliax Partnership

3. London Economic DevelopmentCorporation

4. Hamilton Economic DevelopmentOfce

Shits in the ranking over the past 12 months can be attributed to the ollowing:

Consistently posting on their Facebook Page and Twitter on a daily and weekly basis

Taking advantage o a blog to give depth on economic development issues and opportunities

Having a complete LinkedIn profle where the agencys representatives can be ound

Developing the ability to engage with target audiences

The map below shows the top 5 ranked cities

according to the studys 19 criteria.


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Edmo

nton,

AB

Sc0re

Top 20 Canadian Cities

Ha

lifax,

NS

Ottawa,

ON

London,

ON

Hamilton,

ON

Toronto,

ON

Regina,

SK

Mont

ral,

QC

Cal

gary,

AB

Vanco

uver,

BC

Qu

bec,

QC

Saska

toon,

SK

Victoria,

BC

Winn

ipeg,

MB

St.Johns,

NL

Yellow

knife,

NT

Charlottetown,

PE

Fredericton,

NB

Iqaluit,

NU

Whiteh

orse,

YT

0

10

20

30

40

5060

6058 58 52

45

27 26 26 23 22 1912 12 11 10 8 7 5

0 0

70


Table 1: Top Canadian Cities 2010 Score

This year some new cities on the radar included:

Toronto - Greater Toronto Marketing Allianceimproved the city ranking thanks to the adoption oa Facebook page, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.

Regina - Regina Regional Economic DevelopmentAuthorityestablished a Web 2.0 presence over thepast year with a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn andYouTube combination.

2. Canadian Cities 2010 Score

The complete picture o the score per city is shown in Table 1.


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Fredericton

Occurancy

Top 20 Canadian Cities

Low

High

Halifax

Hamilton

Charlottetown

London

Regina

Whitehorse

Montral

Vancouver

Yellowknife

Qubec

Ottawa

Edmonton

Calgary

Toronto

Victoria

SaintJohns

Saskatoon

Winnipeg

Iaqluit

0

2.5

2

1.5

1

0.5

Cities that perormed well on Google search test are illustrated below in Table 2.


Table 2: Easy to Retrieve on Google July 2010

3. Agencies easy to retrieve on Google

Some cities ace the challenge o getting ound by

individuals using Google based on keywords that

are entered. Some agencies are very active on the

web 2.0 applications however, keywords such as:

invest in + name of the city doesnt lead to

their economic agencys website eectively. This

could be attributed to a number o actors. This study

highlights three actors:

Agencies communicating rom cities that are very

active and mature about social media initiatives

have to compete with other stakeholders and

agencies who post content at the same pace or

sometimes quicker than them.

Underutilizing the right keywords on a constant

pace in their posts can cause a uctuation in their

search engine rank.

Search engine results are very dynamic. Agencies

cannot depend on being ranked on the frst pageone day and expect to still be there 24 hours

later.


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Figure 1: DIG London 2010 Blog

London Economic Development Corporation

DIG London

As a part o sector specifc approach towards targeted investors, London Economic Development Corporation

created a blog or the Digital Interactive Gaming Conerence (DIG) London 2010. The blog publishes on a

regular basis, dealing with matters important to the industry rom a stakeholders point o view. Figure 1 is a

screenshot o the DIG London 2010 blog.

Blog - Currency o Posts

Best Practices Social Media Tools

BlogsBlogs allow individuals to publish on the web on various subjects. Individuals who have a loyal audience o

readers can become a source or news and insights that are not available elsewhere on the web, as well as an

authority on a given subject. Economic development agencies that are able to harness the benefts o having

and maintaining a blog or investment attraction can provide timely and relevant inormation analysis, and

promotional content regarding their region.


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Figure 2: EEDCs Facebook Page

Facebook Page - Currency o Posts

Facebook

The sheer amount o individuals that are on Facebookis reason enough or agencies to have a presence

on the social network. No longer is Facebookgeared towards teenagers and young adults. Business

proessionals are using Facebookto network with others in the feld, and to market their products and

services via various applications. Some economic development agencies are adoptingFacebookmarketing

practices.

Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC)

Posting current and relevant inormation or site selectors and potential investors is one o the signs o a

very good Facebook presence. The Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) commits itsel to

posting on a daily basis. Figure 2 presents a view o the agencys page and some o postings rom July 19th to

August 19th, 2010.


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Figure 3: Post acknowledging Edmonton has a strong inrastructure or nanotechnology

At times, the postings are mainly ocused on one theme as seen in Figure 3.


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Figure 4: GTMA Customized Tabs

Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance (GTMA)

O the cities that have a Facebook Page or Group, the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance (GTMA) took the

initiative to customize its navigational tabs and pages. As seen inFigure 4, the page oers our labeled tabs:

GTMA Celebrate

GTMA Hot News

GTMA & Partners services

GTMA Partners

Facebook Page Customized Tabs and Pages


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Figure 5: GTMA Foreign Direct Investment Initiatives On Facebook

Within the GTMA Hot News section, there is a segment specifcally targeting companies seeking oreign direct

investment opportunities. Figure 5 illustrates the content that is available as part o their Foreign Direct

Investment Initiatives.

Providing such content on Facebookallows potential investors to have a central source or initiatives

regarding investment opportunities in the Greater Toronto Area.


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Figure 6: Results For Query, London + Economic Development on Facebook


Based on a search conducted on July 26th, 2010,the London Economic Development Corporation

Facebookpage was easy to fnd using a simple

search and keywords, London and economic

development. The placement o the result allows

researchers to locate the page amongst others

including pages rom London, England. The maplelea in the logo which may be unknown to

Facebookusers at the time o the search, also

provides a clear dierentiation between the Canadian

and English cities. Figure 6 demonstrates this act.

Supplying inormation that is timely and relevant

or stakeholders and to the business network o a

region will allow the Facebook Page to be an outlet

or latest news, photos, videos and discussions on

current issues. Although in dierent ormats, the

content has to be geared to have individuals take

action (i.e., leave a comment, like or ultimately

contact the agency to inquire about investment

opportunities).

Agencies must realize that implementing a marketing initiative using Facebookwithout a content strategy is like opening a candy store without an assortmento sweets. A plan has to be in place to satisy a need, keep individuals engagedand prompt them to return. - Isabelle Poirier, Intelegia

Easy to retrieve using Facebook Search


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Figure 7: Greater_Haliax Twitter Feed

Twitter

The microblogging application

allows marketers to communicate

with individuals who have chosen to

receive their messages or tweets.

EDOs can beneft rom the variety

oTwitters eatures to engage

stakeholders, specifcally, site

selectors and potential investors.

Among the agencies that are on Twitter, it was ound that Greater Haliax Partnership consistently sent out

tweets during the period o July 19th

, 2010 and August 19th

, 2010. The tweets via Greater_Haliax (as seenin Figure 7) presented:

Text and hyperlinks to relevant articles and reports

Retweets

Hyperlinks to posts to Greater Haliaxs blog, Smart City

Content available on the eed can be relevant to investors who wish to know more about the region.

Greater Haliax Partnership

ScheduledTweets


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Figure 8: Hamiltonecdev Twitter Feed Engagement

Hamilton Economic Development

Engaging ollowers does not only mean sending out

tweets. It means felding questions or comments

via the Twitter eed. As seen inFigure 8, Hamilton

Economic Development is open to remarks rom

their ollowers based on the number o tweets

starting with the @ sign.

Engaging Followers


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Although the messages sent by the agency may

not be relevant to investment attraction at times, it

does show that the agency uses Twitter efcientlyto communicate with others. As a result, Hamilton

Economic Development has another channel to

network with potential stakeholders.

Using Twitter to market a product or service seems

like a natural ft. As a dissemination tool, users can

simply post a 140 characters message on Twitter or

ollowers to read or can they?

Twitter calls or a very strategic approach which

requires the ability to build an audience, and know

what content should be sent to ollowers. Agenciesmust have a clear ramework which deals with

content issues as:

How oten should tweets be sent?

Why and what should the agency retweet?

Does the agency proactively engage with

ollowers and vice-versa?


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Figure 11: Search Query: Quebec + investment

II) PLE Qubec Chaudire-Appalaches

Figure 12: Search Query: Toronto + investment

III) Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance


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Figure 13: Search Query: Montreal+ investment

IV) Montreal International

In the cases o PLE Qubec Chaudire-Appalaches

(Figure 11) and Montreal International (Figure

13), the choice o keywords is essential since each

agency does not provide a link to their profle on

their website. As a result, fnding the right person to

contact or investment attraction initiatives is easier,

especially i the key decision maker is listed on the

agencys profle.

A content strategy or a LinkedIn presence should be

all about building a channel or the agency itsel and

a network o its representatives.

By having a plan to build a channel, agencies

can decide what type o inormation that

should be pushed to ollowers.

By having a plan to build a network,

representatives can share inormation to

attract others to link together based on mutual

business interests.


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YouTube

Besides engaging content, proper presence on YouTube or investment attraction requires:

Channel description

Relevant Video Tags

The ability to fnd videos via YouTube search

Although elementary, it is important or agencies to have a description to their YouTube channel that makes

it easy or individuals to identiy them. Three agencies were discovered to have a clear channel description.

(Channel descriptions were evaluated based on the agency ability to provide content or the About Me and

or Interests sections o their page).

Figure 14: Greater Haliax Partnerships

About Me and Interests

Channel description

Greater Haliax Partnership

As seen in Figure 14, Greater Haliax Partnership

uses the ideal keywords such as private sector

investment, government support and

economic growth in the Interests feld.

Figure 15: OCRIs About Me description

Ottawa Centre or Research and Innovation (OCRI)

In Figure 15, OCRI uses keywords such as lead

economic development corporation and

technology to position itsel.


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Figure 16: Hamilton Economic Developments About Medescription


In Figure 16, Hamilton Economic Development uses keywords such as business assistance, corporate

relocations, expansion and retention.

Figure 17: Associated tags or Hamilton Economic Developments clip, This Is A City


Assigning relevant video tags to clips on the platorm allows users to fnd content based on themes.

Hamilton Economic Developments clip, This Is A City is tagged with the ollowing:

Hamilton

Ontario

City o Hamilton

invest in Hamilton

Figure 17 is a screenshot o the associated tags.

By clicking on the Invest In Hamilton tag, site selectors can access other clips rom the agency which

maybe relevant.

Relevant Video Tags


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Figure 18: Results For Query, London + Canada + keyword, invest

Using to the ollowing series o queries, it was ound the London Economic Development Corporations

YouTube clips were easy to retrieve, as presented in Figure 18,19 and 20.

Name o city + Canada + keyword, invest

The ability to fnd videos via YouTube search



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Figure 19: Results or Query, London + Canada + keyword, economic development

Name o city + Canada + keyword, economic development


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Figure 20: Results or Query, London + Canada + keyword, investment

Name o city + Canada + keyword, investment


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For all three queries, videos rom the LEDC YouTube Channel appeared on the frst page results on July 22nd,

2010.

The role o content strategy in terms o a YouTube channel is twoold, especially or economic development

agencies. Primarily, the strategy must complement the creative strategy behind the video, in which the

promotional push or the region contains structured inormation, needed by site selectors (i.e. up to date key

locational actors). On the other hand, selecting the right description and tags or videos is a process that is

necessary to ensure that the clips are ound and viewed by the intended audience.


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Videocasts

The use o videocasts available on a website is a powerul marketing tool or a product or service. Videocastscreates a large amount o ree trafc and it increases businesses to the most coveted positions in search

engines.3


Via its website, Hamilton Economic Development provides access to InvestInHamilton.ca TV. It is a source o

videos that news and profles regarding dierence aspects o the local economy.Figure 21 is an illustration o

how InvestinHamilton.ca is presented to visitors o the website.

Figure 21: InvestinHamilton TV

3 Russell, Neil; Internet Video Marketing, August 27th, 2010 http://www.fndarticles.co.za/internet-video-marketing/
http://www.findarticles.co.za/internet-video-marketing/http://www.findarticles.co.za/internet-video-marketing/


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Best Practices Site Selection Tools Web 1.0

Site selection tools located on an economic agencys

website should have one objective, to provide the

necessary and current reerences to take the steps

towards investing a region. Having a website that

is site selector riendly can give a region an edge in

attracting investors.


Via its publication, 2010 Marketing Facts, the

London Economic Development Corporation supplies

up-to-date locational actors inormation. The annualpublication has data regarding the ollowing:

Demographics

Labour Force

Wage Rate

Transportation Inrastructure

Regulatory

Economic Inormation

Living

In addition, the agency publishes, Perspectives

London 2010, a promotional vehicle that contains

inormation on the economic initiatives that are

taking place in London and how investors can beneftrom them

Age o inormationor site selectors and investors


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Figure 23: Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Authority Factsheet Published In French

The .pds contain actsheets regarding Saskatoon in terms o the quality o lie, industries, education, costs o

living, as illustrated in Figure 23. The PDF document is available in French.

Oering inormation in a variety o languages allowsa city to target investors rom dierent parts o the

world.

According to the Global Investment Promotion

Benchmarking 2009 by the World Bank Group, IPIs

need to adopt an investment strategy that reects

their comparative and competitive advantages; this

oten means adopting a sector strategy and providing

substantive inormation on those sectors.4

Not only do agencies have to adopt a sectorstrategy but a content strategy must be in place

to communicate the regions value proposition

via promotional vehicles. A well executed contentstrategy should reect the needs o the target

audience or relevant inormation. One would not

say everything and anything in traditional media

advertisement: the same logic applies to social

media with an even stronger impact because users,

ollowers and riends can re-tweet, comment and

orward the content.

4 World Bank; Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking , 2009, p. 27.

http://www.ic.org/icext/fas.ns/AttachmentsByTitle/GIPB2009/$FILE/GIPB2009.SummaryReport.pdp.27
http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/fias.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/GIPB2009/$FILE/GIPB2009.SummaryReport.pdfhttp://www.ifc.org/ifcext/fias.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/GIPB2009/$FILE/GIPB2009.SummaryReport.pdf


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Planning Points

Economic development ofcers thinking about

establishing aWeb 2.0 presence or their region may

want to create a plan which considers the ollowing:

It is not sufcient to just have a collection o

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 profle o the

organization, it is essential that all members

o the agency have their own profle complete

with their position and job description.

All searches will be in real-time. Web, blogs,

social networks.5 With this in mind, agencies

must take advantage o tools such as Twitter,

YouTube and content sharing applications

to place relevant inormation regarding theirrespective regions in order to target investors

via search engines.

Users o the internet are accessing social

networks via smart phones and mobile devices.

Agencies must provide data that is easy to read

and navigate through on many platorms.

To have sustainable Web 2.0 marketing

campaign, a content strategy must be in place.

A strategy will help agencies answer questions

such as, What do we post to attract investors

to consider our region?, How do we engage

with our ollowers who have an interest in

what we do?

Final Thoughts

Economic development agencies (large and small)that are apprehensive about social media have

to realize that this channel is not a ad that will

disappear any time soon. According to Freddie

Laker, the director o digital strategy at Sapien: 2009

saw the adoption o the social media by all major

marketers.6 These marketers have embraced the

promotional tools to enhance various products

and services online branding. Current signs show

that they will continue to do so. The CMO Survey,

conducted by Duke Universitys Fuqua School oBusiness and the American Marketing Association

(AMA) orecasts that nearly one-fth o marketing

dollars will go to social media in fve years.7

What i tapping into a worldwide business network

like LinkedIn allowed you to engage and develop

new oers and ventures, that are more compelling to

global investors?

5 Kallas, Pritt; 22 Social Media Marketing Trends or 2010 , December 22nd, 2009, Dreamgrow.comhttp://www.dreamgrow.com/22-social-media-marketing-trends-or-2010/

6 Laker, Freddie; What Social Media Will Look Like in 2012, Advertising Age, June 4th, 2010,http://adage.com/digitalnext/post?article_id=143145

7 Marketing Budgets Spiral Toward Social. eMarketer, March 2nd, 2010,http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007540

Social media allows agencies to engage with a target audience in a moretransparent way
http://www.dreamgrow.com/22-social-media-marketing-trends-for-2010/http://adage.com/digitalnext/post?article_id=143145http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007540http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007540http://adage.com/digitalnext/post?article_id=143145http://www.dreamgrow.com/22-social-media-marketing-trends-for-2010/


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EconomicDevelopment

InvestmentAttraction

Foreign DirectInvestment

Facebook 244,000 139 4,560

Blog 1,540,892 1,996 146,903

Twitter 12,500 51 241

LinkedIn 553,000 1,310 5,200

YouTube 23,600 8 764

Flicker 4,210 2 351

I you were told that the company you would like to attract in your region has an executive who is connected

through LinkedIn to one o the proessional or businessman in your network, and that its just a matter o

a click that you can be introduced to him, would you start to think that this whole buzz about connectivity

can make a dierence even or you? You think its not or you? The table below shows how economic

development is largely discussed on social media and provides an overview o the social mentions or three

queries, economic development, investment attraction and oreign direct investment on the fve Web 2.0

tools.

The raw results show that the topic o economic development and associated subjects are being mentioned

on Web 2.0 applications. Focusing solely on the data regarding LinkedIn will drive home the importance o

having a presence on social networks.

As o September 1st, 2010, there were 553,000 pages on which the keywords economic development

appeared. This translates into:

Individuals who publish a profle stating that they have current or past experience in the feld

Agencies and other organizations that have a mandate dealing with economic development

Groups that have discussions around the topic o economic developmentThe same statements can hold true or investment attraction and oreign direct investment.


Table 5: An overview o the social mentions on the fve Web 2.0 tools


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Conclusion

Social media applications allow economic development ofcers to take action at the dierent phases o their

investment attraction strategy. From monitoring industry trends to identiying prospects and engaging with

potential partners, all o this is due to a more coherent strategy and transparent culture.

In the frst edition o this index, an assessment o the introduction o social media applications in the

marketing strategy o top Canadian cities was conducted. The idea was to identiy early adopters and capture

innovative practices.

Twelve months later, Intelegia thought that agencies had the opportunity to improve their understanding o

the tools and start to really take advantage o them to push and promote their cities value proposition to

potential investors and site selectors. This years winners clearly showed their progress.

Within the next year, Intelegia challenges cities to ully take advantage o these innovative marketing tools so

they are not let behind by the ever-growing number o cities who have integrated them into their existing

marketing plans.

Cities that are still hesitant to adopt a social media marketing strategy must realize that the Web 2.0 tools

are becoming the norm and not the exception in terms o communicating online. The use o social media

applications does not call or a dierent marketing plan or organizations. It calls or decision makers to be

open to integrating these tools to carry the organizations message, and to be supportive o this innovative

way o engaging with stakeholders and potential investors.As or any strategic action, maximizing social media requires planifcation, reexion, training and adaptation.

Most o all, it requires vision, innovation and creativity. Isnt that what investors seek, ater all?

Once upon a time the usage o email in business was to be considered a time consuming application that

would slow down productivity and aect the bottom line. As everybody knows, this perception has proven to

be alse. Following the same logic, organizations should not restrict themselves rom harvesting the potential

benefts o using social media or their marketing and branding needs.

To be continued, with every post.


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Methodology

The methodology used or Canadian Cities Online

Marketing Index 2010 expanded on the ramework

used or the initial benchmark study in 2009. The

identical set o cities was selected based on the Top

10 Canadian Census Metropolitan Statistical Areas

(CMSA) as defned by Statistics Canada in 2006.

Specifcally, this years benchmark considered the

ollowing elements or the evaluation o agenciessocial media applications, Web 1.0 eatures, the

availability o relevant inormation or site selectors

and potential investors.

The benchmark considered pages and eeds directly

linked to the metro area economic development

agency website, as well as social media applications

that presented contact inormation consistent with

the agencys website. (i.e. president, general manager

or marketing contact inormation, mailing address,

phone number)

The agencys social media applications were assessed

based upon the appearance o:

Blog(s)

Facebook Page or Group

Twitter

LinkedIn

YouTube

Flickr

RSS Feeds

Videocasts

Podcasts

Content Sharing Pluggins (ie, Digg,

StumbleUpon, etc)

In addition, a set o metrics were used to evaluate

how the social networks were used and their

requency.

The appearance o the ollowing Web 1.0 tools was

accounted or:

Newsletters

Newsletters archives

News AlertsForums

Event Calendar

To evaluate the eectiveness o an agencys website

in terms o urnishing inormation or site selection

initiatives, the ollowing elements were considered:

Currency o location actors inormation

Complete contact inormation or the

individual(s) responsible or investment

attraction available on the frst page o thesection.

Not only was the multilingual unctionality o

the site identifed but also the ability to provide

specifc data in more than two languages (i.e.,

key location actors, etc.)

Assessing how easy to fnd inormation on a citys

agency courtesy o a search engine was conducted

using Google and the ollowing queries:

investment + Name o city + Canadainvest in + Name o city + Canada

incentive + Name o city + Canada

The examination o the social networks, Web

1.0 applications, site selection inormation and

indexation by Google was done between July 19th,

2010 and September 9th, 2010.


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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: When were the sites and applications reviewed or the benchmark?

A: The sites and applications were reviewed during the period o July 19th, 2010 to September 9th, 2010.

Q: How did you select the cities to be included in the benchmark study?

A: Intelegia selected the provinces capitals, and the top 10 Canadian Census Metropolitan StatisticalArea (CMSA) as per Statistics Canada in 2006.

Q: How were the agencies selected?

A: The agencies were selected based on their mandate to promote their region or investment attraction

purposes.

Q: What were the 19 used criteria?

A: Below are the 19 criteria that were used

Web 2.0 Applications

Blog

Facebook Page or Group

Twitter

LinkedIn

YouTube

Flickr

Links to other sharing platorms (i.e., Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.)

RSS Feeds

Videocasts

Podcasts

Web 1.0 Applications

Newsletters

Newsletter Archives

News Alerts

Forums

Events Listing

Site Selectors Orientations

Appearance o link to site selection section on index page

Appearance o contact person name or site selection inquiryMulti-language content

Age o inormation or site selectors and potential investors


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Q: What do you mean by multilingual content?

A: Multilingual content allows users to read content in more than two languages.

Q: What is a podcast?

A: By defnition, a podcast is a video or audio fle that can be downloaded directly rom a website and

be played via a media player. Video clips available on YouTube or other sharing platorms

are not considered to be podcasts.

Q: What do you mean by Web 1.0?

A: The Web 1.0 is the portion o the web that contains static pages (instead o dynamic usergenerated

content) and online guestbook.

Q: What do you mean by Web 2.0?

A: The Web 2.0 is the portion o the web that acilitates interactive inormation sharing, interoperability,

usercentered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web.


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Bibliography

Economic Developers Association o Canada; Economic Development Marketing in Canada, 2009.

http://www.slideshare.net/OnThree/marketing-survey-pd

Ernst & Young; Waking up to the new economy: Ernst & Youngs 2010 European Attractiveness Survey. P.5,

2010

Kallas, Pritt; 22 Social Media Marketing Trends or 2010, Dreamgrow.com, December 22nd 2009,

http://www.dreamgrow.com/22-social-media-marketing-trends-or-2010/

Laker, Freddie; What Social Media Will Look Like in 2012, Advertising Age, June 4th, 2010,

http://adage.com/digitalnext/post?article_id=143145

Marketing Budgets Spiral Toward Social, eMarketer, March 2nd, 2010,

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007540

Russel, Neil; Internet Video Marketing, August 27th, 2010

http://www.fndarticles.co.za/internet-video-marketing/

World Bank; Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking, 2009, p. 27.

http://www.ic.org/icext/fas.ns/AttachmentsByTitle/GIPB2009/$FILE/GIPB2009.SummaryReport.pd
http://www.slideshare.net/OnThree/marketing-survey-pdfhttp://www.dreamgrow.com/22-social-media-marketing-trends-for-2010/http://adage.com/digitalnext/post?article_id=143145http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007540http://www.findarticles.co.za/internet-video-marketing/http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/fias.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/GIPB2009/$FILE/GIPB2009.SummaryReport.pdfhttp://www.ifc.org/ifcext/fias.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/GIPB2009/$FILE/GIPB2009.SummaryReport.pdfhttp://www.findarticles.co.za/internet-video-marketing/http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007540http://adage.com/digitalnext/post?article_id=143145http://www.dreamgrow.com/22-social-media-marketing-trends-for-2010/http://www.slideshare.net/OnThree/marketing-survey-pdf


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About Intelegia

Intelegia advises organizations that wish to embrace innovative

communication and content strategies with cutting edge, simple-to-

manage inormation technologies and social media applications.

As content strategists, Intelegias team uses communication,

marketing and IT knowledge to prepare and implement a content

strategy which adds value to an organizations marketing and

communications plans.

Intelegia conducts training seminars and conerences or

proessionals in the public and private sectors, seeking to gain a

competitive advantage by optimizing internet intelligence research,

strategic analysis practices, and the use o social media in B2B

organizations.

Visit Intelegia online atwww.intelegia.com

Follow Intelegia atwww.Twitter.com/intelegia

About E&B DATA

E&B (Economic and Business) DATA is a North American leader in

the supply o economic and business inormation, specializing in

the industrial, emerging and energy sectors. E&B DATA perorms

benchmark analysis or economic development initiatives. Equipped

with proprietary databases and inormation systems, E&B DATA

operates the largest business capital investment monitoring activity

in Canada since 2000.

Visit E&B DATA online atwww.ebdata.com

Follow E&B DATA atwww.Twitter.com/EB_DATA
http://www.intelegia.com/http://www.twitter.com/intelegiahttp://www.ebdata.com/http://www.twitter.com/EB_DATAhttp://www.twitter.com/EB_DATAhttp://www.ebdata.com/http://www.twitter.com/intelegiahttp://www.intelegia.com/


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About The Authors

Isabelle Poirier

Isabelle Poirier, President o Intelegia, advises

organizations and proessionals in their strategies or

branding, communication and business inormation

sharing on both Web 1.0 and 2.0 platorms. As an

associate Investment Strategist at E&B DATA, she has

15 years o experience in economic development

and investment attraction strategy.

Connect with Isabelle Poirier at http://ca.linkedin.

com/in/isabellepoirier/

Ian Smith

Ian Smith is Course Content Coordinator and

Lead Blogger at Intelegia and Associate Senior

Competitive Intelligence Researcher at E&B DATA.

Ian specializes in inormation monitoring systems

and strategic analysis or investment attraction

intelligence.

Connect with Ian Smith at http://ca.linkedin.com/in/

iancarlsmith/

Follow Ian Smith atwww.Twitter.com/citweetz
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/isabellepoirier/http://ca.linkedin.com/in/isabellepoirier/http://ca.linkedin.com/in/iancarlsmith/http://ca.linkedin.com/in/iancarlsmith/http://www.twitter.com/citweetzhttp://www.twitter.com/citweetzhttp://ca.linkedin.com/in/iancarlsmith/http://ca.linkedin.com/in/iancarlsmith/http://ca.linkedin.com/in/isabellepoirier/http://ca.linkedin.com/in/isabellepoirier/


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Documents

2010 Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index©