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In our recent post, “3 Signs That A Content Strategy Is Needed For Investment Attraction“, we referred to the notion of “content block” as being one of problems that economic development agencies face when executing a social media initiative for the first time. It is evitable; agencies will run out of things to say on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube without a plan.
As suggested, well thought out content strategy can and will alleviate some of the pressures on the individuals responsible for marketing a region for investment attraction.
For those who wish to take a proactive approach to avoid content block, here are four tips that you may follow before planning your next post.
1. Collaborate with others
Creating engaging content is not a “one man” or “one woman” show. Getting the input from others is a key to a good content strategy and at the same time, overcoming content block. Not only can colleagues suggest ideas of potential post but they can be a source of success stories in your region. Colleagues that actual have day-to-day contact with site selectors and potential investors may have profound insights and real life examples that can be turned into great engaging content.
2. Look from within
Chances are that your agency may have content already prepared in-house, you just have to look for it. It may be in a different format such as a sector profile, a promotional brochure or a past white paper. It is up to the people in marketing to take the content and put it in context of illustrating the region’s brand. (This is a main driver behind creating a content strategy.) Be sure to take an inventory of what has been done and when it has been done. Beware of posting outdated content!!!
3. Breakdown bigger blocks of content
At times, managers of social media marketing initiatives rush out and attempt to post too much content in the hopes of reaching a large portion of the target audience. The old adage, “more is less” can aid in avoiding content block. Consider the following: Instead of having one blog of 1000 words dealing with how your economic development agency was successful at attracting four companies to your region, you can convert the text into four unique blogs. It can provide your agency with four occasions to engage instead of one single time.
4. Get Visual
Remember not all your content has to be in text form. As the motto says, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. That being said, going out and taking pictures of available sites for companies to relocate to is a good start. Attempt to build albums on Flickr with the appropriate descriptions and tags for the collection so the photos can be found.
I know what you are saying at this moment. “Geez Ian, these tips are not to difficult to implement.” I say, “True however; it is one thing to have elements of plan, it is another thing to have the time to implement them.”
