Linked In Group for Boaters

Just a quick post to invite you to join one of the largest boating groups on LinkedIn.

The FirstBoat Business Networking Group is a place for both boating enthusiasts and folks in the marine industry to connect to discuss virtually anything. You will have the opportunity to network with other executives who share the common interest of boats and boating.

Members include executives from all different industries... all aspects of the recreational and commercial boating industry, from all over the world, as well as people who work in energy, government, education, software, manufacturing and insurance, to name a few. The group includes advertisers, logistics officers, pilots, headhunters, and even a Space Shuttle Instructor. All share a love for boating, whether they own one or aspire to some day.

So if you are on LinkedIn, stop by our group and say hello. You'll be glad you did.

Building a Champagne Brand on a Beer Budget

I remember boat shopping at a few marinas along the Connecticut shore about ten years ago and being told by more than a few dealers that my tastes far exceeded my budget. In fact, I'll never forget one woman telling me that I had champagne tastes and a beer budget.

Well, I finally did get a great boat at a fantastic price, but that's another story.

The boat shopping memory came to mind today as I was stepping up efforts to promote BoatNameGear without breaking the bank. Just today I announced two new ways for customers and potential customers to interact with the brand using social media sites FaceBook and Twitter.

It's not that I think these two tools are the end-all-be-all of marketing solutions. I simply want my brands to be where the customers want them to be. In less than few weeks since creating a FaceBook fan page for BoatNameGear, the page already has over 150 fans. And the best part is they all seem to interact with the brand and with each other. Moreover, the conversations and a contest on the page have already generated new product ideas that I've put into place and a few that are now in the pipeline. The twitter account started just today and I'm hoping for similar results.

And the other nice thing about of all this social media stuff is it's all free - if you have the time for it - leaving room in the budget for some "traditional" web advertising and local trade shows.

Sure there are other sites on the radar, Google Buzz, YouTube, Flickr, FourSquare.  But you can't be everywhere on a beer budget so I recommend you go slow and stick with what you know - expand to other properties when you can. Don't get sucked in to any of these communities and overdo it, as they can easily drain a resource that is just as valuable as money to a start-up business - your time.

Boating Times Long Island

It's always nice to see your store or products published in print magazines, even if that particular type of media is less relevant than it was as recently as ten years ago. It's not just because of the "free advertising" aspect, which is nice, but also because I personally think it adds a sort of legitimacy or validation to stores that are purely online such as BoatNameGear.com.

That's why I was pleased to see us get a mention in Boating Times Long Island (www.boatingtimesli.com). It looks like they did a "gifts for boaters" page in their winter issue and listed our Boat Name Gear store near the top. Better still, all the stores they included were contributed by their readers, so thank you to both the magazine and to the readers of the Boating Times Long Island for thinking of us!

BTW, I am happy to provide better product images or even samples to the press for future stories. Just email me at andrew (at) boatnamegear (dot com) if you're interested.