Why Regional Business Leaders Should Blog
29 January 2010 | By kaidegner in FYIAs the DNRonline.com has been “paywalled“, meaning people need to pay to read it online, there are a number of added challenges to inform the public on important matters. However, there’s one with a more direct added financial impact: business leaders from outside the area can’t read about or find economic development news because the news stories don’t show up in search engine results (Google won’t show DNRonline.com pages because users can’t read them).
So, when an article like today’s “Rockingham Plans to be Ready for Wind Farms” is published, the only people that really have a chance to read it are local people with a paid or online subscription on the day it’s printed. The opportunity lost is for people in this industry to get our region on their radar. Of course, I’m not just talking about the wind industry – any industry. All of our comparatively good news printed in the DNR is effectively invisible online.
This, then, puts an added responsibility for regional business development advocates (from local government to commercial real estate to builders to industry leaders) to fill the void with web content that is “search engine optimized”. That’s a fancy phrase for blogging.
And the opportunity is rich. Right now, if you google “Harrisonburg economy business” the FIRST result isn’t the city’s or the county’s economic development website, or the Shenandoah Valley Partnership, or the Chamber of Commerce. Nope. You know what it is? A link on www.HarrisonburgSummits.com about the February 18th Harrisonburg Summit on Strengthening Local Business and Economy. That’s right. An announcement I posted last month as part of my job at the Fairfield Center is currently the online “gateway” to our community’s economic development efforts (at least with those google terms). As much as I stand behind these events and enjoy their visibility, we have to change this – and that means business leaders put more energy into creating content for the web. We are behind the curve.
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29 January 2010 | The Business Of Blogging | hburgnews.com Said:
[...] Mayor Kai Degner writes about the connection (or disconnection) between the Daily News-Record’s pay wall, and the local business economy: . . . business leaders from outside the area can’t read about or find economic development news [on the DNR's website] because the news stories don’t show up in search engine results (Google won’t show DNRonline.com pages because users can’t read them) . . . The opportunity lost is for people in this industry to get our region on their radar . . . we have to change this – and that means business leaders put more energy into creating content for the web. We are behind the curve. (read the full entry) [...]
30 January 2010 | Dave Briggman Said:
Or, businesses with an interest in our community could pay $20 to gain online access to the crappy paper that the DNR is.
30 January 2010 | R Said:
Completely agree. It’s ridiculous, quite frankly. A struggling newspaper in our small town puts itself behind a pay-wall. Considering the fact that most of the articles are either about high school sports or AP reprints from the wire, there’s not a chance that any business outside of our area would sink money into seeing a poor web layout to hopefully find local stories of interest. The New York Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times, and the vast majority of other major newspapers with *original* content are free to read, but our newspaper, with mostly reprinted content is behind a pay-wall. Ridiculous.
30 January 2010 | Andy Perrine Said:
Insightful perspective Kai. Thanks.
30 January 2010 | Dany Fleming Said:
The DNR continue to make itself an easy target for criticism in any number of ways. Piling on is pretty easy. However, Dave and R, the DNR is really not the point.
If we need to rely on the DNR as a significant or reliable source of information on economic development, then those promotion efforts are in real trouble. Though I have many of the same DNR critiques as lots of other folks here, I also would not expect them to take up the call for any economic development marketing strategy. Good or bad, they have their own bottom-line decisions to make.
The point is that promoting economic development opportunities needs its own effective champion with that as its mission. Attracting business investment is incredibly competitive. Sitting and waiting for the rush of investment or not having a strong outreach effort is not a winning plan.
Business leaders, however, have both the knowledge and skills to make this effort work. They certainly become a prime beneficiary with new and increased investments. I also believe it’s their corporate responsibility and contract with the community. It’s the responsibility that comes when a community develops infrastructure, makes plans and provides other support efforts (like university research and community college programs for their workers, low taxes and stable housing markets for their employees, good schools for their children, etc.).
The business/community relationship works well in a mutually supportive way. However, to be sustainable, businesses need to ensure business diversity and sound investment. The Valley has been good at that diversity, but shouldn’t take it for granted.
If you want to see what happens when that effort fails, just look at any rust-belt area. The steel mills shut down and there was nothing to fall back on or build upon.
31 January 2010 | Kai Degner » Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-31 Said:
[...] blog post: Why Business-Related Web-Friendly Content http://www.whykai.com/why-business-related-web-friendly-content/ [...]
02 February 2010 | kaidegner Said:
I’m emailing Gov. McDonnell’s scheduler to invite the administration to attend the Feb 18 Harrisonburg Local Business Summit. Would love to link to yesterday’s DNR article about the event, but can’t.