Week 12: Using other online tools

I like this exercise for one reason: it forces me to search outside of my social media box. I've been content with the juggernauts of the social media world but there is more out there and more specific communities as well. I think you may be surprised by what you find if you just look for it.

For my business, which focuses on outdoor/hiking products, there is a community for outdoors-minded people! It's called, "Gociety" and is basically a social network for adventurers who like to be active and go outside. You can browse recommended places, find/communicate with like-minded people, start a "plan" such as a planned hike and you can join planned hikes in your area. I'm thinking I can use this for my business in a similar way to Facebook but instead of pushing ads and events all the time, I can use this service to try to build another outlet of online presence and a sense of authority in the community. I could also link to this community from my website to reinforce content in a blog or article about a popular hiking spot or coordinate a large planned outing.

There's also the app, "AllTrails," which functions in the same way as Google Maps. The app gets your location data and lists all the popular hiking spots in your area, along with reviews. Lake Calavera Loop Trail here in Carlsbad alone has over 600 reviews! That's huge and I can't imagine how many reviews and users a more popular hiking area would have. It might be pulling data from Google itself, I can't tell unless I sign up. In any case, I'm surprised something like this even exists!

Thanks,
DavidT