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IN THE F IELD

kansas Economic Development Commission helped facili- tate the deal. Other participants were the Arkansas Depart- ment of Finance and Administration, Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, attorney general, Arkansas Capi- tal Corporation, Entergy Arkansas Inc., and BNSF Railway. That a project of such magnitude would attract the atten- tion of the state’s highest elected official is of little surprise. Former Gov. Mike Beebe spoke at the ground-breaking, and in July, Gov. Asa Hutchinson traveled to Dusseldorf, Ger- many, to meet with SMS Group CEO Burkhard Dahmen. Big River Steel announced plans to build the mill in early 2013. In preparation for the mill’s opening, two workforce development programs are already being offered by Arkan- sas Northeastern College in Paragould. The collateral boost to the economy, anchored by high five-figure jobs, is expect- ed to have a profound impact on the economy of Osceola, a town of about 7,700 on the Arkansas Delta. The site was chosen in part due to its location on the Mississippi River and its proximity to Memphis, which is 55 miles south. Speaking at the 2014 ground-breaking, Osceola Mayor Dickie Kennemore pointed to the hopes surrounding the plant now under construction on 1,300 acres between the Mississippi and the BNSF railroad. “Big River locating in Osceola will positively impact many families in the Delta for generations,” Kennemore said. “Helping people help themselves is the greatest accomplish- ment one can have in this life, and that is what all those in- volved have done for the citizens of Arkansas and Missis- sippi County in particular.” Twitter. Twitter is unique, with 49 percent of monthly users following brands or companies, compared with 16 percent of social networks overall. This makes Twitter ideal for brands to reach audiences with a consistent presence. Serena Ehrlich, director of social media for Business Wire , offers useful Twitter tips: Add multimedia to your posts if possible; pin your most engaging Tweets to the top of your page; tweeted content should be text, links and thoughts; ideal content includes brand updates, ideas, feedback, quotes, statistics, and facts; use hashtags, but research them first (see twubs.com);test headlines and headline styles to find what works with your audience. looks like SPAM, add additional hashtags as a comment to increase a post’s search visibility, and use a custom bit.ly as your Instagram URL to conserve space. Charlene Macielag, social media strategist for FedEx, does not showcase products, but rather the people that bring the brand to life. Her posts revolve around two basic principles: educate their audience or share something beautiful. To extend the reach of FedEx’s Instagram channel, Macielag asks partners to tag them and reciprocates the favor by reposting followers’ content. This allows them to show their own perspectives of the brand. Snapchat. Companies such as General Electric and Intel are using Snapchat to reach a younger audience. Unique features of Snapchat include: Less than 1 percent of marketers are using this platform, more than 70 percent of Snapchat users are under age 25, geofilters allow you to bring location- specific angles to your content, you can segment your existing social audience to determine if they are on Snapchat. Post your Snapchat ID on other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

Friend of THE ZWEIG LETTER and marketing director of Shive- Hattery Inc. (Cedar Rapids, IA), Greg Kanz , shares some of what he learned at a recent social media conference. Social media experts at the August 6 PR News’ Big 4 Conference in San Francisco shared many ideas about Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. While most of the speakers were with product- based companies and nonprofit organizations, several suggestions apply to professional services marketing. Facebook. Facebook is a powerful channel for recruiting and retaining employees. Lauren Friedman, head of social business enablement at Adobe, says people trust people more than branded channels, so get your employees talking. For example, #AdobeLife allows employees the ability to share experiences at Adobe. Show Facebook a little money and your traffic will dramatically increase. Jen Martin Hall, vice president of communications at Sharecare, says a paid ad investment of only $200 makes a significant impact. Experiment and track the results. Sponsored Facebook posts strengthen recruiting efforts by driving traffic to your website. Use Facebook Insights and other analytics platforms to show management the return on investment. Instagram. Instagram has the most engaged users and has doubled in size over the past 13 months. Katie Keating, program manager for social brand strategy at IBM, recommends showing off your creativity and culture while leaving “the heavy branding” elsewhere. Keating unites audiences around hashtags such as #Viewfrommydesk (images of where IBMers are working) and #IBMDesign (employees sharing interesting ideas and design). Keating’s Instagram tips include: Use only three #s in a post or it

STEEL , from page 5

lightweight advanced high-strength steels to complex elec- trical steels, energy pipe grades, and coiled plate dimen- sions,” Bula says. “Connecting an electric arc furnace to an RH degasser is key to producing these steels, and that is one of the components that is making Big River the world’s first Flex Mill. The mill is revolutionary for not only Arkansas, but for all of North America. It is the first time this combi- nation of equipment has been used in a mill.” When fully operational, the mill will produce as much as 1.6 million tons of steel per year. Varieties of steel include hot rolled, hot rolled pickled and oiled, cold rolled, cold rolled motor lamination, and galvanized. The mill will make steel for the automotive, oil and gas, and electrical energy indus- tries. For a project of this size to move forward, a lot of moving pieces had to come together. Amendment 82, passed by Ar- kansas voters in 2004, authorized the state to issue $125 million in general obligation bonds, which were purchased by the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System. The funds were used for a loan, site prep, subsurface stabilization, and the bond issuance cost. Arkansas also offered an assort- ment of tax incentives and training funds – $5 million from the Quick Action Closing fund and $5 million from the De- partment of Workforce Services Trust Fund. Mississippi County and the city of Osceola gave a combined $14 million. The Arkansas Development Finance Authori- ty came through with a $5 million bridge loan, and the Ar-

THE ZWEIG LETTER SEPTEMBER 21, 2015, ISSUE 1120

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