At the recent Australian Regional Development Conference, Propel and the New South Wales Department of Premier & Cabinet were awarded the Economic Development Innovation Award for the social program designed to drive business awareness and investment into regional NSW.

Earlier this year, the Department launched a multi-stakeholder program to attract business investment into regional New South Wales. The Regional NSW Investment Prospectus sought to showcase the region as a great place to live, work and do business; increase awareness of regional NSW’s economic strengths, industry clusters and investment opportunities; and generate leads to support the creation of additional jobs in regional NSW.

As part of this commitment to supporting regional growth, Propel was engaged to design a comprehensive digital and social media strategy to enhance the region’s profile and attract business investment. Working in collaboration with the NSW Office of Regional Development (now DPC Regional), Propel delivered several innovative initiatives including:

• A dedicated ‘social selling’ program for frontline subject matter experts across the region;
• A regionally-focussed social intelligence program; and
• A range of new digital operational processes and tools that empowered individual public servants to build profile and relationships among industry influencers and prospects.

Leveraging the power of social to drive economic impact.

Rather than focusing solely on branded social media channels to broadcast government messages, the program engaged, equipped and empowered a select group of subject matter experts to build a stronger understanding of – and deeper personal relationships with – international business and influencers.

Social listening highlighted the needs and interests of the target industries, providing an ongoing stream of intelligence and thought leadership content to build profile. And with this foundation, subject matter experts then learned new skills and practices as part of a ten-stage training program that helped them connect with business prospects and influencers online.

Furthermore, this program not only aims to drive investment into the regions to support local economic development but also includes communities themselves in the process. By empowering them to share their own authentic stories and experiences online, state and local government staff will serve as a platform and access point for international business prospects to learn about the opportunities in regional NSW from those who know it best. As a result, both government and local communities can work together to drive growth, jobs and innovation across regional NSW.

The benefits of customer insight and connection for the public sector.

While social and digital media are now commonplace across government programs, often the focus is on content production and broadcast communication. Instead, this program focussed on social and digital initiatives that directly aligned with key stakeholders’ needs. It highlights the opportunities available to public sector agencies when social is approached as a source of customer insight and connection, and used to improve decision making around communications, service delivery and policy development.

Propel continues to work with the Department and other government agencies to help build social capability and shift strategic focus away from social media channels towards the role of social to enhance public sector efficiency and effectiveness built on real-time customer insights. Through this program, the Department has demonstrated its willingness to lead the public sector to both listen to the needs of local communities through this real-time intelligence, and empower its people with new skills and technologies to support strategic goals in New South Wales.