Can Twitter Work for Economic Development?

I’m hearing from a lot of economic development organizations who want to get involved with social media. Some are interested in Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc., but almost everyone I hear from is interested in Twitter. Although most are not sure if Twitter will work for econoimc development or what it is they should be tweeting about.

One of the first things you should do is develop a separate social media strategy so that you understand what it is you want and the specific policies surrounding it. Once that’s done, here are some ideas on what to tweet about.

Share what’s going on – I’m not saying you need to share every little thing that goes on in your organization but share the important things. For instance, your community has recently won an award or your organization played a key role in a business expansion or relocation.

Communicate your Vision or Mission – What is your community striving for and how are you, as economic development, doing things to help realize that vision?

Talk about trends – Many organizations are using Twitter to not only talk about themselves but to discuss trends in their industry. This can be true for economic development organizations. Discuss best practices in the industry or talk about trends you are seeing locally, nationally or internationally.

Recognize key players in your community – There are many ways you can share the things that are happening in your community. What company is thriving, what company is doing something unique, what individual is working towards making your community a better place to live?

Be receptive – Twitter is still evolving and your organization needs to be flexible to adapt to a changing environment. What starts out as sharing information about your community may evolve into something completely different. Be aware of who is following you and the type of response you are getting to help forecast your Twitter future.

Ask questions – Twitter can be an excellent resource for finding out information. Don’t be afraid to ask a question. For instance, perhaps your community is struggling with how to help local businesses, put the question out to see who is doing something that your community may be able to adopt.

Economic Development and Social Media

The buzz about social media and how it can help business is all around us and now our industry is talking about how it can work for economic development organizations. Whether it can help or not is still too early to say. But one thing I know for sure is social media will never work for you if you’re not plugged in.

The first thing I suggest is to get involved and one of the easiest social media tools out there is Twitter. Before signing up with Twitter take a little time to decide what it is you want from social media. Just like having a strategy plan in place for your organization, have a social media strategy in place before heading in blind.

Here’s five easy steps get you started:

Signup for a Twitter account – Its free and all you need to do is go to their homepage and click the green button that says “Get Started” to create your account.

Select a good username using keywords or a brandable phrase – Your username is what people will use to communicate with you, so it's important to pick something related to your field to better brand you as an expert. You can use your real name, organization or you can use keywords to help you rank better in searches. It's a 15 character limit. Remember, you can change your username at any time after signing up.

Create your profile - Start to update your profile by adding a picture of yourself or organization’s logo and include some information about yourself /organization to your page. You can add the picture by going to the Settings section on Twitter.

Follow people with the same interests as you (including us http://twitter.com/ecdevcomdev. The more people you follow, the more will follow you back but be careful not to follow people just because you want followers. Understand what it is you want from the people you follow or who follow you. For example, EDCD Consulting wants to provide relevant economic development and business information to our followers.

Send out your first tweet - You can start just by saying hello. You won't have many followers yet. The key is getting started.

Learning for Others - Part III

Here’s the final article on what other communities are doing for economic development. As you read through them think of how they be applied to your community.

City of Cotati

Cotati is focused on attracting and retaining new businesses and they do that in a number of ways. They have a new website that lists available commercial properties. They also have a site that gives businesses an opportunity to advertise free of charge.

They formed a task force, in partnership with the city council, to ensure it is easy for firms to locate in their community by educating them about zoning, permits, fees and licences. The task force launched an Economic Development Survey for citizens and businesses to identify specific business types that residents want to attract to Cotati.

City of Sebastopol

The city’s Community Development Agency emphasizes business retention and assistance for existing firms, while also finding ways to expedite city processes for new and existing businesses. A Business Outreach Committee was created with the goal of tripling funding to the city’s Facade Improvement Program, developing a new city Web portal, implementing a downtown directional signage program and providing matching funds for consolidated advertising campaigns.

This fall, Sebastopol is hosting an Economic Summit and will be providing grants and loans to non-profit organizations for technology improvements. This program could evolve into a similar loan program for local business.