Once upon a time, having a good website, put your location ahead of the pack; but then everywhere else got one too. What will make investors and their advisors take any notice today? The answer doesn’t lie with your website, but what you do with it. If it’s nothing more than a pretty online brochure with words and pictures, you’re missing a huge opportunity.
Your website should be the backbone, the beating heart and the thinking mind of an ongoing body of communications. It should:
- initiate timely and relevant conversations
- engage and interact with target audiences
- build meaningful relationships
To do these things, your website must be integrated with other online features such as blogs (Wordpress), videos (YouTube), photos (Flickr), networks and discussion groups (LinkedIn) and live news feeds (Twitter).
Inward investment teams should be using new tools like LinkedIn and Twitter to initiate, facilitate and amplify conversations and relationships that will enhance their profile and reputation.
For a glimpse into the future, look at how the inward investment battleground has shifted online in the US. Recently, the banana company, Chiquita, has been in the middle of an online battle between Cincinnati (their existing HQ) and Charlotte (their potential new HQ). This battle, played out largely through Twitter, is a lesson in how to rally support and get your message across to the senior decision-makers. See: http://tinyurl.com/bananaHQtweets
To help the UK inward investment community, Breeze Strategy is building a range of social media networks:
Our Inward Investment group on LinkedIn has now got more than 330 members: if you’re not one of them, take a look and sign up, it’s really easy.
The group is carefully managed and moderated, so it’s kept free of spammers, time-wasters and self-publicists.
Join at: www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=3640297
To complement the LinkedIn group, Breeze Strategy has launched an inward investment twitter feed that will provide a few carefully chosen bits of breaking inward investment news and the odd rye comment.
