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REQUEST FOR ACTION <br /> River <br /> TO ITEM NUMBER <br /> Economic Development Authority 8. <br /> AGENDA SECTION MEETING DATE PREPARED BY <br /> January 14,2013 Clay Wilfahrt,Assistant Director of <br /> Economic Development <br /> ITEM DESCRIPTION REVIEWED By <br /> Update of Branding Projects Annie Deckert,Director of Economic <br /> Development <br /> REVIEWED BY <br /> Cal Portner, City Administrator <br /> ACTION REQUESTED <br /> None <br /> DISCUSSION <br /> City and EDA Website—The city is in the final stages of completing a new website which was a major <br /> goal of the brand plan. The structure of information was redesigned to be more active,engaging, and <br /> intuitive. A specific section"For Businesses"will house information on business incentives,property <br /> listings, and other EDA related subjects. The website will launch in February of 2013. <br /> Constant Contact Contest—In December,a Constant Contact contest was sent out to over 3,400 <br /> individuals on the city's e-mailing list. The contest was a celebration of the 500th "like" of the Economic <br /> Development Facebook page. The contest required that contestants like and comment on the Elk River <br /> Economic Development Facebook page to be entered into a drawing for a Powered by Nature <br /> sweatshirt. All participants also received a Powered by Nature microbuff. <br /> During the week the contest was running,40 new people liked the page, 30 people commented on the <br /> page, and 951 people were reached. The email itself was opened by 1,105 people, shared on Facebook 13 <br /> times, once on Twitter, and once on Google+. The Facebook page was visited by 51 people,and 10 <br /> people visited the blog after receiving the email. <br /> Blog and Stats—The Powered by Nature blog continues to receive a steady amount of traffic. In <br /> December, 66 unique visitors viewed the site 108 times and stayed for an average of one minute. Visits <br /> were up from an average of 35 unique visitors and 55 visits per month over the previous three months. <br /> Other city social media outlets referred traffic to the blog. Twitter referred 17 visitors, Facebook referred <br /> 13, and Constant Contact referred 12. Staff plans to continue to aggressively utilize other social media to <br /> boost the visits to the blog. <br /> The Brand Champions—The group is planning a meeting for mid-to-late January. At this meeting they <br /> will discuss maintenance of www.poweredbynature.com,potential future projects, and community <br /> outreach. With the resignation of Nick Zerwas, the EDA does not currently have a representative on the <br /> Brand Champions, and a new appointment may be necessary in February. <br /> P f I E R E D 8 1 <br /> NATURE <br />