This is an excerpt from “Enterprising States: Creating Jobs, Economic Development, and Prosperity in Challenging Times” authored by Praxis Strategy Group and Joel Kotkin. The entire report is available at the National Chamber Foundation website, including highlights of top performing states and profiles of each state’s economic development efforts.

States throughout American history have done everything they can to cultivate, attract, retain, and grow the businesses that comprise the most fundamental building blocks of their economy. Even in today’s volatile global economy states with severe unemployment and budget woes can point to policies, programs, and investments that foster new economic opportunities and create jobs.

Read the full report.

Read part one in this series: The Jobs Imperative: Power to the States

Many state economic development organizations were originally established with business recruitment and attraction as their primary focus. But today’s mix of state approaches to economic development has moved well beyond earlier, sometimes singularly focused attempts to lure footloose businesses with huge financial incentives and/or by offering a business climate based on cheap labor, low taxes, and lenient regulations.

States, nonetheless, still compete with each other for companies in “traded sectors” and jobs in the global economy, either directly or by virtue of unique assets and resources, and this sometimes involves financial incentives and tax abatements. But there is growing momentum among governors and state legislatures to grow their economies from within by creating a new set of competitive advantages that include building human capital through workforce development and training, harnessing the power of science and technology assets, making strategic investments in infrastructure, reaching out to global markets, developing opportunities related to energy and the environment, and spurring entrepreneurship and innovation.

Generally, state economic development efforts include an interrelated array of policies, programs and investments, falling into three major categories: (1) an entrepreneurial approach focusing on new business and technology-based development, oftentimes with a focus on bolstering productivity and innovation; (2) recruitment, expansion, and retention strategies emphasizing financial incentives or investments and other programs, including international trade and export promotion; and (3) “fertile soil” policies28 that create the conditions for growth that will benefit almost any type of business by streamlining governmental regulation, optimizing taxes, investing in infrastructure, and/or by providing a better-educated, more highly skilled work force.

While it is up to state governors and legislators to set the environment for development to flourish, ultimately economic development success is defined by execution at the local and regional level. With well designed state-implemented development tools, effective workforce development and skills training systems, and strong infrastructure, states can give local economic developers the power to assist the growing businesses, to broker the key partnerships, and to lead the key initiatives that create the jobs needed to sustain our growing population.

Most of all, states must carefully weigh policy to refrain from constructing barriers to private enterprise growth. Many of the most effective economic development initiatives start from grassroots efforts or private sector business leaders, so supporting these efforts from the state level is imperative.

Measuring the States: A List of the Top Performers
A primary goal of any state economic development program is not only to increase the number of jobs in the state, but to improve the quality of jobs and the overall prosperity of the state’s residents.

This study combines metrics for each economic development policy area to measure overall high performers in each policy topic area. States are compared in each metric and top states are determined by a composite comparison of all metrics in overall performance and in each policy area. For a full description of all metrics and results for each state as well as top performers in exports, innovation, workforce development, infrastructure, and tax and regulation, see the full report.

To establish the overall best performers we combined measures of Job growth rate since 2000 and since 2007; Gross State Product (GSP) measures: real GSP growth since 2000, GSP per job 2008, Growth in GSP per job 2000-2008; and income: per capita personal income growth 2000-2009 and median four person family income adjusted for cost of living, 2009.

Top Overall Growth Performers

Growing Jobs: How Do They Do It?

A review of which states are high performing shows a diverse group—some big, some small; some rural, some urban; some inland, some coastal—but a closer examination shows a shared pattern of policies by these high performers.

There is no such thing as single a silver bullet strategy for job creation. Among our top ten performers, all ten have seen at least 4% job growth since 2002 in mid-level jobs requiring at least long term on-the-job training but less than a four-year degree. Five of the ten states increased those jobs more than 10%. At the same time all ten increased science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs by at least 4% over the same period, with 7 of 10 growing STEM jobs at least 14%.29

An assessment of top performing states, regardless of by what measure, eventually gets down to a state’s ability to execute successful initiatives. Aside from minding the basics of primary education and supportive infrastructure, success begins with an understanding of a state’s economy and demographics, including its strong points and its gaps. States that can mobilize the relevant partners to put together the strategic networks to build upon those strengths while addressing the weaknesses will be winners in the long run.

Adequately financing any initiative is paramount to its success. Top performing states have come up with winning formulas often based on combining state funding with federal programs and private sources. As regional workforce skills gaps become more acute, non-governmental agencies and private enterprises more are willing to join new collaborative development projects.

Programs such as Kentucky’s “Bucks for Brains” which requires universities to match state funds with donations from philanthropists, corporations, foundations, and other non-profit agencies, or Florida’s use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding in combination with existing state funds to tackle major infrastructure programs illustrate unique solutions to sufficiently financing winning initiatives.

Examples of strong partnerships featuring open communication are especially evident in high performing export states. Export programs are based upon effective communication between the importing country, the exporting manufacturer or business, and the state program helping to facilitate the connection.

The TexasOne program creates promotional materials to market the state and its manufacturers to importing countries and leads trade missions to importing countries and hosts reverse trade missions to the state. Nevada works with a network of trade representatives in targeted markets throughout Asia, North America and Europe, focused on cultivating distribution channels and facilitating opportunities for foreign direct investment in Nevada enterprises.

Many high performing states offer an array of corporate, manufacturing, and land tax programs. So too, many states are shying away from direct subsidies for promised job growth in favor of highly targeted tax credit programs that require direct investment by the firm or venture investors wherein the tax benefits are only realized after new jobs are in place. Other credit programs target historically underdeveloped geographical regions.

Other states such as North Dakota, Florida, and Mississippi have turned to comprehensive tort reform as another key element enterprise-friendliness. Whether these reforms are specific to a particular industry or issue, they ultimately help businesses, large and small, remain competitive and free of excessive burdens from excessive litigation.

Private sector and academic collaboration is one of the most readily identifiable attributes of high performing states across all measures. Whether it is successful innovation and entrepreneur programs such as Montana’s TechRanch, Oregon’s Innovation Council, Rhode Island’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, or job creation and economic development initiatives such as Momentum Mississippi, these private and academic partners are providing critical input, oversight, and resources to bolster the effectiveness of state efforts.

Many states are locating business incubators adjacent to universities in partnership with the schools while others are building laboratory spaces and other specialized infrastructure to offer to growing companies on an a la carte basis. In either case, this business and scientific infrastructure can reduce start-up costs for new enterprises and provide students the chance for experiential learning while earning their degrees.

While there are obviously other policies or initiatives that high performing states share there are some commonalities: building on momentum; delivering adequate funding for initiatives; developing strong relationships and communication strategies; enterprise-friendly tax and regulation systems; and vigorous collaboration between business, government, and education institutions.

Read the full report.

Praxis Strategy Group is an economic development, analysis, and strategic planning firm and a partner with the Flint Group

Joel Kotkin is executive editor of NewGeography.com and author of The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050

This article originally appeared in NewGeography.com and joint Joel Kotkin and Praxis Strategy Group publication

LiveCity Yaletown

When the cauldron was lit and the games of the 2010 Olympics were declared open, HatlingFlint was there at the Opening Ceremony, tweeting live. And we weren’t alone. Turns out there were lots of tweeters inside BC Place, around Vancouver, and all over the world who were sharing their Olympic experiences from where they were at that moment. This may not seem that unusual, but looking back only four years ago to the last winter Olympics, social media was virtually unknown. Today, social media is playing a very big role in connecting fans with athletes, teams, countries, and the overall Olympic experience.

It is for this reason that the US Speedskating team has added two members of the HatlingFlint team to their Olympic delegation, for the sole purpose of managing their social media campaign. Many of the athletes such as Apolo Ohno, Allison Baver, Jordan Malone, and Katherine Reutter, just to name a few, were already veterans of social media, but for the team as a whole, it was new.

Members of the US Speedskating team skating in Vancouver

The purpose of this new social media campaign that is still in its infancy, is to bring the Olympic experience of the team to fans of Speedskating, and continue with a sustaining program after the Olympics are over. Despite the well-publicized sponsorship of Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert of the US Speedskating team, after the Olympics are over, his involvement will be complete, so the team continues to seek a new gold-level sponsor who will take the torch from Colbert. Having a sophisticated social media campaign in place will be attractive to any future sponsor, and can serve as an additional means by which to get this message out.

The primary components of the campaign include:
Facebook fan page – updated several times per day with photos, race updates, and of course, daily medal counts. Fans have also engaged by adding their own photos of them wearing their Colbert Nation caps, historic photos of Olympics from the past, and posting questions about where  to get tickets to events.
Twitter – most popular are the live tweets from the venues as the races unfold. Even though some of the events are not broadcast or delayed, fans can choose to follow the action immediately. Two times per week, a trivia quiz keeps fans coming back to answer a question and go into a drawing for a cool prize.
YouTube – new videos are uploaded showing many different sides of athletes from competitions, practices, goofing around, and their opinion on brussel sprouts.
Blogs – daily monitoring allows us to comment on every blog that mentions Speedskating in some way; so far there have been over 100 blog posts to date and growing. Featured bloggers are added to the facebook page which helps give them even more exposure.

So take advantage of this new phenomenon and join in the fun. Engage with the US Speedskating team online and we’ll keep you up to date on every possible moment we can, now through the Olympics, and well into the future.

Social media can accomplish a lot. Solve customer service issues. Provide insights. Forge connections. Identify opportunities. And, we now know for certain, help sell tickets and definitely increase awareness.

In partnership with UND Fighting Sioux Athletics, SimmonsFlint and Flint Interactive developed and implemented a social media campaign to promote “Meltdown at The Ralph,” one night of UND basketball in key games at the majestic Ralph Engelstad Arena, usually reserved for UND hockey.

We created an online landing page, where we aimed all other platforms, including:

• YouTube videos featuring players and coaches from the UND hoops teams, playing a little basketball on the hockey rink and checking out the arena (UND men’s hockey players were good sports in making cameo appearances)
• Twitter updates
• Facebook status updates and advertisements
• Emails to UND alumni, students and other sports’ ticketholders
• In-Arena Video Promos shown on the big screen during UND home hockey and basketball games
• Traditional media, including print, radio and TV commercials, promos in game broadcasts, billboards and public relations

Winning numbers

Even though the UND teams didn’t win, the games attracted 4,354 fans, the largest crowd the two teams have ever played for in Grand Forks.

Other game stats:

To discuss how social media fits your game plan, contact us.

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One of my favorite SNL characters is Stuart Smalley, portrayed by Senator Al Franken. He used to look in the mirror and say, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!”  A humorous yet inspirational daily affirmation that reminds us that we are good just the way we are. In the same manner, I confess that I thought marketing was, indeed, beautiful just the way it was—despite its disparate processes and imperfections.

photo by tanakawho on Flickr

But the world went and changed. Communication technologies evolved and altered how we consume media. The next thing I knew, the marketing practices I fell in love with back in college had grown unsightly and questionably obsolete. But have no fear, marketers! Our old friend just needs a little nip-tuck, and she’ll be generating leads and building your brand just like the good ol’ days.

Here are five makeover trends meant to upgrade your marketing strategy.

1. Interruption to Engagement

“Psst. Hey you!  Stop what you are doing. Look over here, and listen to what we have to say!”  If our marketing efforts could talk, this is what they would be saying.

Our tactics and messages are typically about interrupting our audience in hope of gaining mind share. However, technology allows us to imbed our messages into our consumers’ lives without nearly as much disruption: emails read on smart phones, online pre-roll advertisements before watching your favorite sitcom on Hulu, and rich media banner ads that practically bring your website to your consumer without yanking them away from their current web page.  Be where your target audience consumes media. Make it seamless and easy for them to participate with your brand.

2. Awareness to Participation

Did someone say participate?  Previous marketing intellect prescribed a healthy dose of “attention grabbing,” taken with a full glass of “awareness building.” While both are still imperative, the latest studies show we need to take our marketing beyond simple awareness. Consumers don’t want to be talked to; they want to engage in a conversation.

Social media is about having a personal voice and sharing it with the world (or connections, friends and followers, depending on the social tool of choice).  Successful companies have found ways to transform customers into vocal consumer advocates via Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, YouTube and community blogs. Craft your message, provide a platform for discussion, and engage in a dialogue with your audience—they are dying to be heard.

3.    Marketer-Centric to Customer-Centric

Bad news. We’re marketers and we have two things going against us: time and subjectivity. First, most of us are strapped and burning the candle at both ends—so we send communications out to consumers when we find the time, or when it’s scheduled on the promotion calendar.

Secondly, we forget to be objective. We force-feed our customers the value prop we’ve defined for our product or service. The reality is, customers don’t care about how smothered your inbox is, and they don’t care about your functionality spec sheet. Customers are looking for relevant information when it’s convenient for them, not you.

Marketing automation technology allows for triggered direct mail, email, and mobile responses which deliver that instant gratification your customers demand. Optimization features in these tools will soon allow us to automatically test and improve results of marketing campaigns for each individual—including collection of time and behavior-based data that will forecast when your customers are most likely to view your marketing communications.

4.    Segments to Individuals

Did someone say individual? (I’m getting good at this transition thing).  A number of years back, we thought we got smart. We started communicating to our consumer base differently by segmenting them into groups using demographics, firmographics, and purchase history.

We just can’t seem to catch a break.  Today, by tracking web-based behavior (website activity, email click-throughs, web form submissions, and social media interaction), we harness the power to completely customize creative and copy for each communication, ensuring the right message is used to resonate with your customer.

Personalized direct mail, email, banner ads, mobile messages are all feasible or on the horizon.  It’s not just cool (and a little freaky I’ll admit), it will soon be an imperative in order to break through the “one size fits all” clutter.

5.    Business Gets Personal

Business used to be personal.  I’m talking small-town bakery personal.  Then, mass communication exploded.   Service had to scale, and the goal was to reach as many people as possible with a single message.

However, marketing is in a throwback trend.  Corporation executives are having interpersonal two-way conversations with their consumers while the world observes. Studies show people trust other people more than any other marketing medium.

Subsequently, organizations are starting to share stories of people impacted by their brand. People listen, people respond with their own story, more people listen and respond.  Soon everything becomes marketing. Organic, consumer-driven discussion trumps the carefully crafted corporate message.

Recently, I heard about a new restaurant in Fargo, so I asked a few friends about it. It seemed like the word hadn’t yet spread around:

“Haven’t tried it yet.”
“Haven’t heard of it.”
“Oh, is that the new one south of town?”

No real luck.

Next, I searched for the restaurant on Google, and I found a TV commercial on YouTube.

“Great,” I’m thinking. “A chance to get a feel for the place.”

photo by schmilblick on Flickr

I  learned a little bit from the 30-second commercial. The place had a ton of pool tables, and some pretty-good looking pizza.

But I still wanted more.

What if I don’t play pool? Can I sit down and have a meal with my family? Is the ambiance refined and quiet, or more social and fun? How about a word from the kitchen or the wait staff?

Is your commercial enough for online users? Is that what they are looking for?

A TV spot is supposed to generate awareness, and sometimes a specific action. But on the web – especially searching on YouTube – your audience is already engaged and interested. Online video gives you a platform to tell them more.

Coined the “lean forward” medium, online video gives you access to an interested user, and a chance to talk to them one-on-one. Don’t miss out on that opportunity.

Here are a few tips to make the most of your online video:

1. Your communications strategy is key. Online video should support your business goals and communicate your key messages.
2. Use relevant content. Give your users what they’re looking for. Do they want to be entertained and get a feel for your brand? Or do they need more information about your product before they buy?
3. Be Sincere. Keep it real. For example, use testimonials from the real users of the product or service—not models or actors.
4. Decide what production value you need. Don’t spend any more money than necessary on production. A Flip camera works great for simple blog interviews. For anything more than that, consider working with a professional to produce your original content.
5. Keep it Short. Online videos should meet your user’s time constraints. Usually nothing longer than 1-2 minutes. Make every second interesting.

Here’s to your engaging online videos in 2010.

The United States Speedskating team is searching for a sponsor. Several sponsors have come on board leading up to the Olympic Games this February – including Steven Colbert from Comedy Central’s Colbert Report. After the team’s major sponsor, Dutch Bank DSB, went bankrupt in the fall, Colbert stepped in and drew plenty of attention to their needs. But his support ends in March.

What the organization needs now is a new long-term, program-sustaining sponsor that will fuel their organization for the next four years.

We’re working with US Speedskating, employing social media to increase opportunities for fans to connect with and contribute to the sport. But we keep coming back to the need for a sustaining, gold level sponsor.

We advise companies on sponsorship opportunities and help develop sponsorship programs and corporate giving programs. The best – and most long-term – scenarios result when the mission, values and reputation of a sponsor align with those of the organization it suppports. Possibilities for US Speedskating include companies with the hallmarks of strength, endurance and dedication. Companies with services focused on performance and values might also be a great fit.

With more than seventy clubs and a growing fan base of all ages , the sport enjoys a geographical reach across the United States. This February, the US Olympic Speedskating team is on track to continue their record of leading the winter Olympic medal count. (US Speedskating has earned 35% of all medals received by the United States during the past five winter games.)

And my favorite aspect of this sport is that it doesn’t discriminate. You’ll find men and women of all ages contribute to the sport.

Who do you think would be an ideal sponsor for the incredible US Speedskating team? Who could benefit from the level of attention already gained by Stephen Colbert’s involvement?

Photo: usspeedskating.org

Canadian-based UGroup Media specializes in the development of web-based personalized video solutions. What better way to generate awareness of their product than to offer it as a free gift to millions of people?

PNP Greeting from Santa

Thanks to some clever production and a handful of survey questions, the “Portable North Pole” (PNP) once again thrilled millions of children this year with personalized video messages from Santa Claus himself.

Introduced last year to Canadians, the largely successful PNP video greeting was upgraded this year to be used internationally, and has been a huge hit in the U.S.

I followed the easy steps and created a video from Santa for my son, Gabe. In addition to some basic questions about where you live, the child’s age, etc… there are fun ways to personalize the message, such as choosing something the child “is working on” from a drop-down menu. I selected “going to bed when you’re told.” Lo and behold, Santa mentioned it!

Bet your child is in Santa's book, too.

Santa told Gabe he was proud of him, but he needed to keep it up. Is there any greater parenting support than Santa Claus?

It was great watching Gabe’s jaw drop when he saw his picture right on a page of Santa’s book!

Actually, YouTube is packed with clips of children watching their own personalized videos from Santa. Their excitement is priceless… just like the video! Offering these customized videos at no charge was a smart move by UGroup Media.

It’s not too late to create your own video and thrill that special child in your life.

Merry Christmas!

Recently I had the opportunity to meet a beautiful, dynamic woman with an impressive resume. Shelly Gompf is a senior vice president at Ulteig in Fargo. She’s also the newly-crowned Mrs. North Dakota International.  Our conversation reminded me of one of my favorite integrated brand advertising and public relations campaigns—the Dove© Campaign for Real Beauty.

Dove first launched the campaign in 2004 as it expanded its product offerings. Using women of all shapes, sizes and ethnic backgrounds the campaign confronted our cultural perception of beauty head-on and worked for positive change. It still does so today.

The Dove campaign came up because Shelly’s platform as Mrs. North Dakota revolves around building self-esteem in girls and women. She is a trained facilitator of self esteem workshops through one of Dove’s partners, Girls Inc.. Dove’s efforts map perfectly to its mission to make more women feel beautiful every day by widening stereotypical views of beauty, by provoking discussion and encouraging debate.

This campaign has definitely created discussion and debate. And you’ll find it integrated into every aspect of their communications—ads, websites, print, social and more. The Dove website links directly to bloggers on girls’ self-esteem, videos, many of which have gone viral. (I’ve been forwarded the link to the video Evolution multiple times since this video reached more than 3 million views on YouTube in 2006.) Customers are encouraged to be part of the effort on multiple levels, from entering UPC codes to increase the Dove self-esteem fund to becoming a fan on Facebook.

You’ll hear our PR team talk about developing and adopting community relations programs and initiatives that make your brand relevant to your customers and important audiences. The really good programs are those that are genuine, enduring and map back to your mission. This one is a beautiful example.

Can you think of others that are equally as integrated, effective and impactful?

2009 HatlingFlint Circus Party