Social Media Batting Practice: 3 Tips For A Fly Fishing Instructor
John W. Ellis is our first batter to step to the plate for social media batting practice. He has some great insight on what he would do with the fly fisherman example. You can see the full post on John’s blog or read most of it below…
First up: How would a weekend fly fishing guide and instructor use social media to grow his business?
Here are 3 quick tips for this small business:
- ‘Fly Fishing Tips’ Blog
Creating an instructional blog is a great way to target specific customers. Don’t worry about revealing too much. You want to do just the opposite. This is a great opportunity to show your expertise in fly fishing.As an instructional blog, it has a clear focus. Many blogs are all over the place and have no consistency. Creating a clear, precise blog is a great way to target customers. Remember it’s not the quantity of visitors you want, it’s the quality. Five strong customers are better then 100 5-second visits. - Start the conversation on Twitter
Start following friends, colleagues and competitors. Now of course, tweeting with friends will not expand the bank account. However, it does start the conversation. By discussing “fly fishing” the conversation expands beyond friends. After friends, begin following local lodging companies, restaurants, and local organizations. Don’t just follow. Join the conversation. Make friends. Make partnerships.Twitter creates followers, it creates buzz, and it eventually creates customers. It all begins with one sentence: “What are you doing?” - Flickr Photo Contest
Ask for photographs of favorite fly-fishing spots. Then, give away free instructions to the best entries.After it’s over, be sure to give something to all entries. Even if it’s small, everyone loves winning.Flickr requires minimal time and investment. Plus, it has great photo sharing tools that allow you to integrate those photos into your blog and more importantly it allows “customers” to share those photos.Other tips, outside of Social Media:
- Create packages with local lodging companies
- Place brochures in state border Welcome Centers
- Find ways to give away lessons. A small gesture will lead to great word of mouth
- Email is a great way to talk with customers. Look for ways to collect email addresses.
John, thanks for the insight here. Very good thoughts. Ok, who’s ready to bat next?
Tags: new media marketing, online marketing, social media marketing
April 24th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
The fly fishing guide could do well if he could do one or two short videos that show him fishing and interacting with the camera. He could do a video lesson on casting that would speed up time for new fishermen that use his services. When you do this, you will make people comfortable by introducing yourself and your style through the video, and they will know you are legit.
The site should also include information that local shops are willing to share like specific flies that are working right now. This will help people trust him and he can also start an e-store offering incredible discounts on the flies that are getting a lot of action in the streams.
April 24th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Jeff, good thoughts here. The local angle makes a lot of sense. Good idea!