The City of Caldera announced this week the launch of an ambitious new business attraction campaign aimed at corporate CEOs, national site selectors, and other high-level decision-makers who officials believe are likely spending their evenings scrolling through municipal Facebook pages.
The campaign, titled Caldera Means Business, will feature a series of Facebook posts highlighting the community’s strategic location, quality of life, shovel-ready sites, workforce assets, and recent downtown beautification efforts.
“We know CEOs are busy people,” said Council Member Rick Donnelly. “That’s why we need to meet them where they are: on Facebook, between photos from the parks department and a reminder that trash pickup is delayed because of Presidents Day.”
According to city staff, the campaign will include professional graphics, drone footage, business testimonials, and several posts beginning with phrases such as “Did you know?” and “Big things are happening in Caldera!”
The city plans to boost each post for $40, targeting users ages 18 to 65+ within a 50-mile radius who have expressed interest in business, leadership, entrepreneurship, economic development, Chambers of Commerce, ribbon cuttings, or “being a CEO someday.”
Economic Development Director Marissa Klein said she supports telling the community’s story online but gently noted that the audience for major business recruitment may not entirely overlap with the audience that comments on road construction updates.
“Social media can absolutely be part of a broader strategy,” Klein said. “It helps build local awareness, celebrate wins, and reinforce community pride. I’m just not sure the CEO of a global advanced manufacturing company is going to choose our region because he saw our industrial park shared next to a missing dog post.”
The campaign was recommended by the city’s Marketing and Visibility Subcommittee, which formed after several council members agreed the community needed to be “more aggressive” in business recruitment without spending money on anything that could not be liked, shared, or printed in the local paper.
“We asked ourselves, how do we get in front of the people making these decisions?” said subcommittee member Linda Perez. “And then someone said, ‘Facebook is free,’ which really brought the room together.”
Officials say the campaign will use a mix of organic and paid content, though most of the early discussion has focused on encouraging residents to share the posts so “maybe someone important sees it.”
The first post, published Monday morning, featured an aerial photo of the city’s industrial park beneath the headline “Room to Grow.” By noon, it had received 43 likes, six shares, and 27 comments, including one resident asking when the splash pad would reopen, another expressing concern about traffic, and a third tagging her cousin because “he works at a factory.”
City leaders called the engagement encouraging.
“That’s reach,” Donnelly said. “You can’t put a price on reach. Although, in this case, we did. It was $40.”
The campaign’s second post highlighted the city’s proximity to interstate access, available utilities, and a strong regional workforce. It was later edited after a resident pointed out that the featured photo showed a site located in the neighboring county.
Klein said the mistake was corrected quickly and described the incident as “a useful reminder that business attraction marketing should ideally include a map.”
Despite early challenges, officials remain optimistic the campaign will generate leads.
“We’re planting seeds,” Perez said. “A CEO may not call us today. But maybe six months from now, they’ll remember seeing a Facebook post about our community while looking for photos from the chili cook-off.”
Officials said the campaign proves the community is “open for business,” even if most residents remain primarily interested in whether the splash pad is open for summer.
