In the digital age, social media platforms have become an essential tool for economic development organizations (EDOs) to connect with stakeholders, attract investment and promote economic growth within their regions. With the right strategies, EDOs can build awareness, foster collaboration and share their success stories. Here are the five best social media practices EDOs should be utilizing today to maximize their impact through these channels:

1. Leverage Visual Storytelling

Economic development is a broad concept, encompassing everything from investment in infrastructure and policy advocacy to workforce training and community engagement. To convey these complex topics effectively on social media platforms, where high volumes of content are consumed at a fast pace, your EDO should use visual content such as infographics, videos and images as often as possible.

Need ideas? Highlight successful business attraction projects by the numbers, infrastructure improvements through timelapse construction videos, community initiatives through collage videos, and your team at industry events and conferences with photos. A well-crafted video tour of new real estate developments or an infographic comparing your region’s economic strengths can engage potential investors and stakeholders far more than a simple text post.

Low-cost, easy-to-use design tools like Canva are a great option for helping marketers without a design background make engaging social media visuals today.

Pro Tip: Ensure your visuals are high quality and aligned with your brand’s messaging and style.

2. Engage with Local Communities

Social media isn’t just about broadcasting information; it’s also about fostering dialogues. EDOs should actively engage with local community partners, businesses and area residents. Respond to comments, share local news, celebrate milestones that matter within your region, and tag stakeholders and partner businesses. By doing this, you can create a sense of belonging and show that the organization cares about its people and the economic impact delivered by players at all scales.

Pro Tip: Run polls, host Q&A sessions or LinkedIn Live sessions and create community-driven content, like a “business of the week” spotlight to get account followers involved and help them feel heard. Prospects will be impressed at how involved you are with your partners!

3. Be a Resource for Investment and Business Opportunities

Social media offers an excellent platform for promoting new investment opportunities, tax incentives, grants, and other resources available to businesses and entrepreneurs. Position your organization’s accounts as a resource by regularly posting about new opportunities and using relevant hashtags such as #EconomicDevelopment, #InvestLocal, and #BusinessGrowth. You can also get specific with a location-centric hashtag that you use consistently across posts and channels.

Highlighting case studies and success stories can showcase the advantages of doing business in your region and also help current businesses understand the economic value of utilizing local programs and incentives. Real, human stories should be utilized often on these platforms.

Pro Tip: In addition to a location-centric hashtag, create a dedicated one for investment opportunities to track engagement and build community around those posts.

4. Focus on Thought Leadership and Industry Expertise

Establish your organization as a leader in economic development by sharing insightful articles, research reports and economic trends for your region or for the nation overall. By doing this, you can become a trusted source of information for those looking to understand local market dynamics, workforce trends, or economic forecasts. LinkedIn is an excellent platform for publishing thought leadership content, as it attracts professionals who can benefit from your insights and enhance perceptions about your EDO. Your EDO leader can also position themself as a credible source of information through consistent content sharing on their personal pages. When this is done, EDOs should re-share their content as a way to help grow their individual social media following as well.

Pro Tip: Share articles or participate in trending industry conversations on social platforms to keep your audience informed about both local and national economic trends.

5. Monitor and Measure Your Impact

Social media is a powerful tool, but only if you track and measure your efforts. Analytics tools on all social media platforms have improved a great deal in recent years, and online training courses can help any marketer learn how to understand these analytics. These tools can be used to monitor engagement rates, audience growth and post performance. Understanding which types of content resonate most with your audience will help refine your social media marketing strategy over time. If your posts about infrastructure development are getting more engagement, consider focusing more on these areas.

Pro Tip: You can find metrics within the individual social platforms you are using, but additional tools like Google Analytics, Hootsuite, or Sprout Social can also be integrated with your accounts to help you gain insights into your audience and adjust your content strategy with the help of deeper insight.

Conclusion

Social media platforms are becoming an increasingly vital tool for economic development organizations looking to create and expand connections, drive business investment for their region, and grow their credibility as a thought leader in their market’s economy. By focusing on visual storytelling, engaging with local partners, providing valuable resources, sharing thought leadership, and measuring success, EDOs can effectively harness the power of social media to foster growth and prosperity in their regions.