Economic Development Communications Trends and Tools for Higher Ed
Enhance online economic development presence and messaging
This toolkit will help college and university leaders bolster institutional economic development communications.
Institutions are economic drivers, both by their existence as large employers and purchasers and as leaders of activity that promotes institutional and community economic goals. While innate and strategic drivers of economic activity in their regions, many colleges and universities fail to communicate strategically about their role in economic development.
This lack of effective communication may leave key stakeholders confused and uninformed:
- Existing partners are unaware of the institution’s full economic development portfolio and how to grow partnerships.
- Potential partners struggle to identify where to connect with the institution on projects and initiatives.
- Community members mistrust or misunderstand institutional economic development work and priorities.
- Internal stakeholders are unfamiliar with the institution’s economic development vision, initiatives, and role.
Instead, colleges and universities that pro-actively communicate and define their approach to economic development can get credit for their economic development activity, surface new partnership opportunities and grow existing ones, build trust, and demonstrate commitment to the community.
EAB identified five major trends to consider when communicating about institutional economic development activity and goals. To support these efforts, three tools provide examples and recommendations for building an online economic development presence and a coda presents the qualifications and responsibilities of the Economic Development Communications Specialist role, seen at the most progressive colleges and universities.
Five key communication trends
EAB research and interviews revealed five major economic development communication trends, presented below and highlighted throughout the toolkit. These trends are fundamental in effectively communicating about economic development to a variety of stakeholders.
1. Integrate storytelling into impact reporting
While economic impact reporting typically involves institutions sharing large impact numbers (e.g., total dollars of economic impact), true impact is most clearly articulated when numbers are paired with meaningful storytelling. Accessible stories help engage a wider audience, providing context and perspective that help stakeholders remember the successes of the institution. Leaders can encourage success story sharing from faculty and staff by compiling and sharing back achievements.
Trend in Action
Mississippi State University helped establish gardens in schools across the state to aid nutrition education. While impact does not directly align to a concrete return on investment (ROI) number, storytelling communicates the unique, lasting community benefits.
2. Showcase unique strengths and capabilities
Identifying and advertising distinctive institutional and locational strengths is integral to partner attraction, internal engagement, and wider community trust in economic development work. Institutions may identify a variety of capabilities:
- Institutional assets (e.g., research strengths, unique partnerships)
- Place benefits (e.g., quality of life, cost of living, industry variety)
- Relative economic impact
- Community resources supplied
Benefits of Place
- Wayne State University promotes Detroit as a multi-faceted city, highlighting the many industries beyond automotive to prospective partners and inhabitants.
- Grinnell College showcases the small-town benefits and inclusive culture of Grinnell, Iowa.
Community Resource
- East Carolina University’s Eastern Region Pharma Center was marketed as being designed to fill a shortage of pharmaceutical workers in the local community.
- Texas Southern University and Prairie View A&M University demonstrated their commitment to providing access to the local community by creating on-campus warming centers during a winter storm. Tweets were posted to spread this information.
3. Tailor messaging to specific audiences
Messaging is integral to stakeholders’ understanding and perception of economic development work. Economic development is complex, and different stakeholders will care about and respond to different aspects of institutional efforts.
Internally, those tasked with economic development work may need to prove their work’s worth to leadership by including considerations like ROI, student impact, and grant funding. Leadership may also be interested in the percentage of media mentions tied to economic development to determine broader community interest. For the larger campus community, mature institutions often tie messaging back to economic development mission so that faculty, staff, and students recognize institutional importance and know how to get involved.
Economic development leaders must also pay special attention to translate internal messaging to be externally relevant. In some instances, this can be as simple as word choice – while terminology may be common within your campus, those outside of the institution may have a different understanding, or lack of understanding, of the same language. Simplify and clarify messages by highlighting impact and partnership and removing jargon. When communicating with the local community, many leaders also tie messaging to the community’s future and re-iterate the desire to be a community resource.
4. Work with community members to expand economic impact
Community members are great resources for gaining insight into the community’s biggest challenges and perceptions of the institution. Institutions that are better informed of these realities can be more successful in spreading messages that resonate within and outside of the institution.
For hands-on community participation, progressive institutions invite community members to decision meetings to incorporate additional perspectives, encourage faculty to serve on local boards to gain insight into community concerns and pain points, and even leverage part-time staff who are involved in the community for real-time information sharing. Many leaders also highlight the importance of institutional attendance at local town councils, public meetings, and chamber events to demonstrate a desire to partner with and incorporate input from the community.
Trend in Action
University of Alberta facilitated 83 roundtables with community members to discuss community needs and guide future engagement work as part of its community engagement consultation.
5. Present one face to market
Consistent communication enhances message clarity and transparency, which safeguards against stakeholder confusion. Without clear messaging around economic development work, an institution can appear disorganized and ill-equipped for initiative execution and partnership. Rather, with a centralized message around economic development work, stakeholders gain a clear understanding of institutional strengths, the value of institutional work in the community, and how to initiate or expand partnerships.
Assigning a dedicated owner of economic development work further positions the institution as a coordinated partner and community member. Even institutions without an office devoted to economic development can provide a specific point of contact that triages stakeholder requests and inquiries. Publicizing a single staff member or office as the primary owner of economic development work, even if this does not align to internal university structure, allows stakeholders to more easily engage and access information.
Trend in Action
Drexel University’s Solutions Institute acts as the single point of contact for employers with a wide range of interests (e.g., research and development, talent, problem-solving). The institute is responsible for connecting employers to the appropriate institutional contacts.
Tools to build an economic development plan
Tool 1: Social media strategy plan
Colleges and universities have the opportunity to promote economic development initiatives, provide real-time updates and information, and network through various social media channels, but it can be difficult to effectively engage stakeholders with these tools.
Use this step-by-step guide to establish an effective social media strategy for economic development.
Tool 2: Economic development website guide
Explore 10 essential components commonly seen among the most mature economic development websites, with links to real institutional exemplar websites. Use these components to assess areas of strength and improvement for your current site, or to get started building one.
Tool 3: Effective e-newsletter design guide
Economic development newsletters can be a powerful way to highlight initiative successes, encourage stakeholder participation and partnership, and promote local and broad reaching institutional impact. This tool outlines 11 considerations for impactful e-newsletters.
Coda: How to hire an economic development communications specialist
The most mature colleges and universities elevate economic development communication efforts by staffing an Economic Development Communications Specialist. Use this tool to explore the responsibilities and qualifications of this role.
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