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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/8/3/2019 2010 Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index
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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.
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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.
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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
Source: Intelegia, 2010.
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.
Source: Intelegia, 2010.
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
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
London Economic Development Corporation
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
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
Hamilton Economic Development
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
Hamilton Economic Development
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
London Economic Development Corporation
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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
Hamilton Economic Development
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/
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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.
London Economic Development Corporation
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.pdf8/3/2019 2010 Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index
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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-2010/8/3/2019 2010 Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index
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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.
Source: Intelegia, 2010.
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
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
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-pdf8/3/2019 2010 Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index
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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/8/3/2019 2010 Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index
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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/8/3/2019 2010 Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index
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