7️⃣ Halfway Through April

Spring weather always makes me think of site visits and fam tours.

13 Apr 2021 — 4 min read

Welcome to the Econ Dev Show newsletter all you economic development fans and practitioners. I'm your host and editor, Dane Carlson, and I hope that you enjoy all of the content this week.

Spring weather always makes me think of site visits and fam tours. Please get vaccinated so that we can all get back to normal and see each other again.

Podcast update: I'm lining up podcast guests for May. If you have any suggestions, please email them to me.

Must Read This Week

How to use Facebook for Economic Development

Hear me out: The social network Facebook can be a serious tool for economic development when used for business retention.

I know what you're thinking:

Facebook is dead. I saw it on the news, or read it on, Facebook.

No, it's not. 2.8 billion people use Facebook. 66% of those use it every day, and 93% use it every week! Within the US, 228.6 million use it. That's 69% of the entire US population -- including babies!

Almost every business in your community has either a Facebook page or an employee who's probably checking their own account at work. More often than not, they have both.

Using Facebook for business retention is all about communicating with your local businesses: talking to them, listening to them, discovering their challenges, and explaining the benefits of your successes.

Whether or not you're a membership organization, the secret to Facebook is to think like a Chamber of Commerce.

Must Watch This Week

Assorted Links of the Week

The assorted links posts are what I'm reading that day. Some of it will only be useful to me, others should be of interest to you, and some will hit the sweet spot of being great for both of us. Either way, I strive with these links to make you smarter every day and hope that you enjoy them.