Attracting investors to your community can be a difficult task, it is time-consuming and will often require the ability to handle rejection without being discouraged. This is why having an investment attraction strategy is essential. The purpose of a strategy is to develop a strategic plan for attracting business investments (FDI or domestic inward investments) into your community specifically.
Investment attraction is based on the appeal of various features surrounding your community. These influencing factors differ depending on the industry and preferences of the investor, with some factors being more appealing than others. In order to maximize the benefits of your investment attraction strategy, attention must be paid to the needs of your community. This means targeting investors whose objectives are aligned with the appealing aspects up for offer.
The right investment attraction strategy will provide you with the analysis, strategy, tools, and plan of action required to attract suitable and desired investment opportunities to your region. Formalizing your community’s investment attraction strategy will help you set clear, attainable objectives and develop policies and programs to meet them.
Why should you use social media for investment attraction?
Social media can be a powerful tool when incorporated into your investment attraction strategy. The many platforms provide you with fast, engaging, and targeted low-cost options for marketing a community, gaining insight, and communicating with potential investors.
Investment attraction is one of the most important activities when it comes to economic development in your community, after all, growth is not possible without investment. An important factor in any investment attraction strategy is being able to reach the right potential investors and retain their attention. With over 4.6 billion users, social media gives you access to the largest market of potential investors available.
Traditionally, in economic development, site selectors and investors rely on each other to find investment opportunities, trusting word of mouth communication as the main source of information in the industry. Social media allows word-of-mouth communication between industry professionals to be centralized and is transforming traditional investment attraction practices. Social media gives you the opportunity to generate a two-way conversation with potential investors – something that differs from traditional practices of investment attraction that relied on one-way mediums of communication such as print, direct mail, radio and television advertising. While these traditional practices tend to be strong tools to educate potential investors in your community, they typically do not generate the engagement between the community and the investor that social media provides.
- More from ResearchFDI:
How to use social media for investment attraction
Social media can amplify your presence, showcase your assets, increase your reach and help you target the right potential investors for your community. If you know how to use it correctly and are willing to invest your time and energy into the right strategies, social media will be a vital tool for your investment attraction strategy.
Here are five ways ResearchFDI advises you to use social media for investment attraction:
Set your goals and have a clear plan
To make effective use of social media for investment attraction, the purpose behind your social media presence should reflect the targets and goals of your strategy.
When setting your social media goals here are three important questions you can ask yourself:
- What platforms are you going to focus on?
- There is no shortage of social media platforms you can use; however, it is important that you do not try to use more platforms than you can maintain and that you focus on platforms strengths when deciding if you should use them.
- LinkedIn is the primary social networking platform for professionals. Since it’s a professional network, it makes the best choice for B2B social media marketing and it was ranked as the best platform for generating leads by Forbes.
- Will you be using paid ads on social media?
- Paid social media includes content that brands pay social media platforms to share with specific new targeted audiences who are likely to be interested, either through “boosting” their organic content, or designing unique advertisements.
- There are many different types of paid ads on social media and it is important to find the one that works best for you. Check out some of the paid social media options LinkedIn offers to their users.
- What is your content strategy?
- A content strategy entails the planning, development, and management of all the content you will be sharing. When setting your goals and creating a plan for your social media presence you should be deciding what you want to post and when. This strategy should take into account the platform you are using, the goals you have, and who/what you are targeting.
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Create an online brand
Once you have set your social media goals and have a plan for your online presence you have to bring it to life and create your online profile. Your profile page will be the first thing potential investors see and will also be how you are recognized on social media.
- Fill out all of the profile fields.
- Include links to your website on your profile so it is easily accessible.
- Include up-to-date contact information.
- Include any keywords that could be used to find you.
- Be consistent in your branding across all your networks and content.
- Use high-quality images that follow recommended sizes for the platform.
In the age of social media, it is rare to find an organization without an online presence, so you need to stand out and be recognizable.
Grow your audience
The goal of building a social media presence is to grow your audience, but make sure that your audience is comprised of potential investors. By using social media, you have the opportunity to reach a wider audience of potential investors – and if done properly, you can convert that audience into leads.
To attract investment, you must showcase your region’s attractive features to those interested. It is critical to identify what you offer and target investors whose objectives align with yours, as some factors will be more appealing than others, depending on the industry. Using SEO keywords, you can target investors and make it easier for them to find you. You should identify the keywords your target audience uses and integrate them into your social media communications and presence so that you will become more visible online.
Another way to grow your audience is simply by growing your online network. This is particularly relevant for LinkedIn. Your network on the platform consists of your 1st-degree, 2nd-degree, and 3rd-degree connections, as well as your followers and fellow members of your LinkedIn groups. You can reach more relevant connections through interacting with your network and sending out more connections.
Building a better network on LinkedIn can not only increase your audience but you also get the chance to target a more specific audience built around potential investors you seek.
Find leads in your audience
To create awareness of your community as an investment location and generate interest, lead generation is an important part of any strategy. It entails identifying potential investors and communicating directly with them.
With the help of social media, you can amplify your lead generation efforts and identify potential investors who may be interested in your region. Once you start growing your audience on social media, you can use it to generate leads. You should focus on targeting potential investors that show interest in your community.
To generate leads on social media you and your employees should:
- Optimize your profiles.
- Make content clickable.
- Design user-friendly landing pages.
- Host contests and sweepstakes.
- Host live videos.
- Run social media ads.
- Host virtual events or social media conferences.
- Hold AMAs (ask me anything) sessions.
- Provide targeted and personalized offers.
- Measure your data and analytics.
You can read ResearchFDIs full article on how to use social media for lead generation to find out more about these specific tips.
Monitor your engagement and track your goals
Finally, if you want to succeed in using social media to its full potential in investment attraction you need to be monitoring your analytics. By monitoring your social media analytics, you can understand how effective your campaigns are, if your content is engaging to your audience, and if what you are doing is working.
Monitoring analytics will show you what is working and what needs to be adjusted in your content strategy. You will be able to make small improvements in the short term and use the information to adjust your future strategies.
Google Analytics is free to set up and it will track leads on your website. You will be able to compare analytics across platforms and reassess the strengths of each. By monitoring your analytics, you will be able to gain insight into different metrics such as:
- Engagement rates: This includes your likes, shares and comments, and will show you if your content is interesting and engaging for your audience.
- Reach: This will show you how many people are viewing your content and will help you understand what content is having the greatest impact.
- Account mentions: This will show how many times your brand name has been mentioned by someone else. You can monitor this to see what is being said about you and use it to help you maintain your brand’s reputation.
- Sentiment: This allows you to see how many users are talking about you compared to your competitors and understand your standing in comparison.
In closing
Social media, when used correctly, can help you attract more potential investors than ever before. With billions of daily active users, social media is transforming the way we communicate globally. It can showcase your assets and increase your reach like never before possible, which can help you target the right potential investors for your community.
Now that you have a better understanding of how social media can be beneficial, you can get started on using social media to its full potential in investment attraction.
