Marketing your city through technology

1. By Carla Pendergraft Marketing your city through technology

2. About You • Tell me about your technical knowledge • Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced?

3. What We’ll Cover • What are we marketing, and to whom? • City websites and what they need to contain • Intro to Search Engine Rankings • Concepts: Tag clouds, long tail • Web 2.0 for cities: • Blogs • Podcasts • Social Media (MySpace, YouTube…)

4. Discussion Questions • Should municipalities market themselves? • If so, to whom?

5. A Typical City Website Goal Statement • Key business goals of this website are: • to use the Internet and other emerging technologies to improve City service • to use the Internet and other emerging technologies to increase opportunities for citizen participation in government.

6. Who are our markets? • Citizens (not the main focus here) • Potential New Businesses • Potential New Citizens (relocation) • Visitors • Anyone else?

7. Why are we marketing our city? • Citizens – information • All others • Growth in our businesses & job creation • Growth in our wealth

8. Marketing to Outsiders • Billboards – overrated • Media – travel, business magazines • Web - The first place they will look for you • Does your city have a website? • Can they find the information they want? • Can they find the “back-story”? • Where do they go for additional information?

9. Overlapping Constituencies Chamber of Commerce Convention & Visitors Bureau Businesses (Hotels, Realtors, etc.) Municipality

10. Chambers of Commerce • Internally focused on their members • You can always find out how to become a member… • But you can’t always figure out how to start a business in that city • And their websites suffer from ad clutter

11. Convention & Visitors Bureaus • Focus on visitors from over 50 miles away • Filling hotels is their bailiwick • Most are funded by hotel/motel occupancy tax

12. Businesses • Each focuses on its own needs and customers • Realtors - Relocation • Hotels/Motels – Visitors • Restaurants – Visitors • Etc.

13. Municipalities • The municipality has the responsibility and unique opportunity to address these needs • Visitors • Economic Development • Relocation • Not driven by membership or ad sales

14. Websites are our Main Tool. • How to answer these needs in a cohesive, easy to use manner?

15. “The Rules” for All Websites • Don’t Make Me Guess • Don’t Confuse Me (and make me feel stupid) • Keep it Simple • Give Me the Info I want – Don’t Throw a Bunch of Ads at Me!

16. The Silent Questions • Is this the right website? • Is this an “official” website? • Will I find what I’m looking for? • Am I dealing with professionals? • Do they deal with my needs—or theirs?

17. Let’s look at some Texas websites! • El Paso • Waco • Dallas • Houston • San Antonio

18. ElPaso.org - portal • Doing Business on the Border • Living in El Paso (relocation) • Visiting El Paso • Our Government

19. Waco-texas.com Business in Waco – Chamber, Economic Development Visiting Waco Citizens

20. Dallascityhall.com“City Web Portal” Businesses Visitors Citizens New resident’s guide

21. Houstontx.gov“The Official Site for Houston” Businesses Visitors

22. Sanantonio.gov“Official Website of the City of San Antonio” Business Recreation Request a Pothole repair

23. Award-Winning Sites • Center for Digital Government “Best of the Web” • www.centerdigitalgov.com, click on Surveys • The program judges state, city and county Web sites on their innovation, Web-delivery of public services, efficiency, economy, and functionality for improved citizen access.

24. Washington, D.C. • What Do You Want to Do? • Start a Business in DC • Start a Nonprofit in DC • Finance a Business in DC • Do Business with DC Gov’t • Apply for a Business License • FAQ • Fulfill Annual Business Requirements • Learn About Business Improvement Districts

25. www.dc.gov--Business Services • Overview • Licenses & Permits • Development & Incentives • Tax Services • Business Planning • Nonprofit Planning • Business Resources

26. Issues • Most City website graphics are not compelling. • Often use in-house marketing staff • Don’t hesitate to outsource graphics! • Don’t be afraid to market, even though you are a municipality!

27. What Do Tourists Need? • Accommodations • Restaurants • Attractions • History • Calendar of Events • Map • PDF of your visitors guide • Link to your CVB

28. Visit Pittsburg

29. San Antonio

30. Other Kinds of Visitors • Media – Travel Writers • Film Crews • Prospective University Students • Tour Operators / Motorcoaches

31. Advanced concepts • Search Engine Rankings • Tag Clouds • Web 2.0/Social Media

32. 2-minute intro to Website Rankings • Search engines read “real” text, not graphics • Search engines like incoming links • Search engines like official sites with good content • They love “Web 2.0” features like blogs.

33. Tag Clouds

34. Tag Clouds • They show the page as a search engine sees it, with the most popular words appearing largest. • They can help us understand how search engines, and people, see our websites. • Does your website convey what you want it to convey? Check it with a tag cloud generator. • http://www.tagcrowd.com

35. The “Long Tail” for Cities • The “long tail” – selling 1,000,000 bestsellers vs. selling 1,000,000 of many different books on Amazon • The “long tail” for municipalities – using various social media to reach as many small, niche audiences as possible.

36. The “Long Tail” • Green part is the bestseller – one book, many buyers • Yellow part is the “long tail” – many books to many buyers

37. Web 2.0 • Blogs • Podcasts • Various popular social media • MySpace • YouTube • Flickr

38. Discussion Question • Are any cities represented here, using any of these techniques now? If so, how? • Does anyone here have a MySpace or Facebook page of their own?

39. Web 2.0 Defined • refers to a perceived second generation of Web-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, etc. • Participatory • Generally unregulated, unfettered and free • And relatively unused by municipalities.

40. Some Numbers • Facebook – 58 million members • Extensively used by political candidates • Creates a “friends” network you can easily communicate with • MySpace – 200 million members • YouTube – hosts 60 million videos • Blogs – over 75 million (maybe 15 million active)

41. Blogs • Free and easy to start (www.blogger.com) • Little technical knowledge required • Harder to keep going • Why not a blog for a municipality? • Mayor’s Musings • City Manager’s Thoughts, Philosophies • Info and observations not available elsewhere

42. about-arlingtontx.com

43. Example Blogs • http://metroblogging.com/ • “Think Global, Blog Local” • Municipalities are behind the curve on blogs! • Enter “convention visitors blog” into Google search box – 193,000 examples come up • http://visitcolumbia.blogspot.com

44. Blog - Columbia, SC Convention & Visitors Bureau

45. Podcasts • Usually an audio file in MP3 format • “Mayor’s Hour” – Tampa, FL • City of Moore, OK – “Inside Moore” • “Why I moved to Moore” – follows a young family with children, a doctor and a retiree • City of Davie, FL – Mayor’s podcasts • Disaster preparedness, affordable housing, and one that addresses a news article’s inaccuracies

46. Webcasts/Vidcasts • U.S. Conference of Mayors webcasts • Clips of up to 1 hour in Windows Media Format • Require broadband

47. Tampa – “Mayor’s Hour” podcast feed (RSS)

48. Social Networking • MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Digg, Technorati, Flickr… • Completely user-generated • The Library of Congress uses Flickr to post pictures of their content • CVB’s use MySpace and YouTube frequently

49. Flickr – photos of a community

50. MySpace – Columbia, SC Convention & Visitors Bureau