According to a recent survey presented at the International Economic Development Council  (IEDC) Annual Conference this week in Charlotte (NC), USA, more Economic Development professionals are embracing Social Medias to promote their business locations at regional level as well as at national and international level.

The survey, which involved 307 professionals in the Economic Development sector, was carried out by IEDC and Development Counsellors International (DCI). The findings indicate that a growing number of economic development agencies are implementing Social Media. 63% of the professionals confirmed that their organization is using social media since less than one year, while 30% of them said that they have been using social media for 1 to 2 years now. A good number of the professionals recognized that social media will become increasingly important in the coming three year.

The results in numbers:

• 57 % of the 307 interviewed responded that their organization use social media within their communication efforts.
• 77% of the staff members managing social media are full time and have other responsibilities.
• 41% use social media to communicate frequently or very frequency at regional level, while 30% uses social media with the same frequency to communicate nationally and internationally.
• LinkedIn and Facebook, in this order, are considered the most valuable social media to communicate inside and outside their regions.
• Social Medias are used, within the region to communicate: organization news (28%), Project wins/ Expansions/ Retentions (21%), support for local businesses (19%), and local events (18%).
• Economic Development organizations that were mentioned as using social medias in the most effective way are: Indy Partnership, Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation, and Gwinnett Chamber.

Global Arena recognizes these findings in its own experiences. The fact is that more economic development organizations (EDOs) and investment promotion agencies are looking for new ways of promoting their business locations online. From our personal experiences offering Location Marketing Solutions, we can say that American economic development agencies having taken a proactive step in this matter during the past 12 months. European and Asian investment promotion agencies (IPAs) are still holding a step back regarding the importance of promoting their business locations online.

In the context of IEDC and DCI survey results, Global Arena encourages IPAs worldwide to take the leadership and spread the word regarding what the regions and business locations have to offer to investors. If IPAs and EDOs don’t communicate the competitiveness and business advantages of their regions for investment attraction, who will?