The City of Roanoke was invited to present at the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) Conference in Atlanta last month on the topic of attracting and retaining young adults in the creative economy. The conference amassed over 1,400 individuals from around the world – Mayors, economic development officials, corporate CEOs, consultants and vendors – offering specific expertise to bring back to their regional economies. We were able to share our progress and methods with others around the world, as well as, learn from others.
The key theme at the conference was the importance of regional branding. It was clear by the exhibitors and speakers how technology shapes these brands. One vendor, ZoomProspector.com, distributed a book called Economic Development Marketing (2008) based on their research of economic development organizations. The organization found the most effective marketing strategy used by economic development organizations was the Internet /website. Yet, funding allocations were not aligned with this proven strategy.
Our region’s web presence is a tremendous opportunity to showcase ourselves to the world. There are so many fantastic web resources we can use to position ourselves in the global economy such as blogs, Twitter, Fwix, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, Craigslist, etc. These resources are easy and inexpensive to use. It’s not one group, organization or website that will create our web presence – everyone can and should participate.
We need people to establish their own blog or use Twitter to communicate our story. We need people to add positive videos to YouTube. We need people to showcase the region’s beauty by submitting their photos on Flickr. We need people to tag Roanoke online content on Digg. These and other activities add to the online image and perception of a geographical region.
We have made financial investments in the offline image and perception of our region by creating welcome signs on the side of interstate highways as travelers pass through the region. However, what’s the return on investment for these expenditures? Could a percentage of those funds be used for search engine optimization? When people search Roanoke on Google, what will they see on the information highway?
We must drive more on the information highway by positively participating in these online communities. Everyone can help and we need it. Below are definitions of 10 online resources you must be using.
Text Box – 10 Online Resources You Must Use
Source: Wikipedia.com
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.
Flickr is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community platform.
Fwix is a physical regional aggregator of content in over 30 online communities. Roanoke is one of 21 U.S.cities listed.
Digg is a website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet, by submitting links and stories, and voting and commenting on submitted links and stories.
Craigslist is a central network of online communities, featuring free online classified advertisements and forums on various topics.
LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site mainly used for professional networking.
YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips.
Google Reader is a Web-based aggregator, capable of reading Atom and RSS feeds online or offline.
A blog is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.
Wikipedia is a free multilingual online encyclopedia.
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At least we have the new Taubman Art Museum, so maybe there is hope.
Just because we want to be cool does not mean that the young people are going to start flocking in and start ratcheting up our cool quotient. We must first bring in the businesses that will HIRE the young people, and we must provide opportunities for them to interact with each other. And we have to NOT fight forever on ridiculous issues such as the stadium or where the Amphitheater should be located. And we have to NOT vilify the one major organization that is building a significant presence in the Valley because the cost of its X-rays are higher here than one can get them for in Norfolk.
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I think ol' Frank above has it pretty much correct on some points...but not all of them. Sorry Frank.
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Remind bloggers to tag their entries with 'Roanoke'.
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