How Social Media Can Help Biking and Ecotourism in Columbia County WI

I am an avid bicyclist.  I wouldn't call myself rabid. I have bike commuted to Madison before, and try to ride to my office in Lodi from my house one or two days each week, but I am not consistent. I wish I had a position that would allow me to do that since I would be a lot happier overall. I am also very committed to my local community in the Scenic Lodi Valley, the Town of West Point in which I live and Columbia County. There is a passionate group of individuals in the Columbia County who are working hard to make biking and other outdoor activities like hiking, kayaking, canoeing, camping and walking part of every trip into this broad community.  To that end, I have been working on a bike route mapping project that I hope will be successful in ensuring that the US Bicycle Route 30 comes into Columbia County via the Merrimac Ferry and through Lodi on its way to hook up with the Bike Path on Hwy 12 and onto Madison.

It starts with goals. 
I made my project also something of a work-related project. As a certified social media strategist, I wanted to use this as a case study on how one person could make a difference with a thorough strategy, action plan and a few social media tools.

My goals looked like this:

1. Get US Bike Route 30 through Columbia County WI
2. Showcase Columbia County as a bike destination in Wisconsin
3. Make the Scenic Lodi Valley a central hub in a 50 mile radius for eco-tourism

My strategy looked like this:

• Share stories and experiences of the people who bike in Columbia County
• Use multiple forms of media
• Build evangelism
• Create amplification of all digital

And my current action plan rides like this:

• Create a social media map for entity that manages social profiles for Lodi Silent Sports
• Audit digital asset inventory for re-purposing
• Develop geo tagging and keyword system for digital assets  
• Map 10 routes for each town in Columbia County
• Map minimum of 1 route from each town to USBS 30
• Document each route with pictures, video, article posted online
  

Results

This is an ongoing project and we have accomplished much this year.  If you do some searches for Columbia County Biking, you can judge for yourself how we are appearing in search results under blogs, images and video. I have included my presentation given at the WI Counties Association Annual meeting where I presented.

Presentation on Slideshare:

How Social Media Can Help Biking in Columbia County WI

View more presentations from Wendy Soucie Consulting LLC | Business Focused Social Media Strategy

Related articles

• Hills Galore Build Character - Biking Around Lodi | Lodi Silent Sports (lodivalleynews.com)
• Biking has some risks - Columbia County Wisconsin | Lodi Silent Sports (lodivalleynews.com)
• Devil Dam the Ride - Biking In Scenic Lodi Valley | Lodi Silent Sports (lodivalleynews.com)
• Riding With a Chill in the Air - Columbia County Biking (lodivalleynews.com)

Striped chairs- on the wildside

Striped chairs- on the wildside, a photo by wendysoucie on Flickr.

Striped chairs- on the wildside

Brilliant graphic shows where and when you should post status updates

Brilliant graphic shows where and when you should post status updates: We spend so much of our time writing here about the ins and outs of social media that our heads can get buried within the complexities of the various social networks but luckily today we spotted a simple graphic that explains it all for you. Instead of having a complicated strategy and worrying about where you cross post to and what to do when you are in a bar it could be good advice to simple have a copy of this with you at all times…

Wendy's Note: Just a little disappointed that this guide total makes LinkedIn a boring choice. Its certainly can be a safe choice.

Related articles

• B2B Companies Can Update Status on LinkedIn (socialmediab2b.com)
• LinkedIn Lets Companies Share Their Own Status Updates (readwriteweb.com)
• LinkedIn Confusion: Group or Company Page? (socialfish.org)
• 5 Ways to Get More LinkedIn Company Followers (socialmediab2b.com)

LYME DISEASE HELP | Trish's Blog

LYME DISEASE HELP | Trish's Blog

Wendy's Note: As an avid hiker and outdoor person, Lyme Disease is always on my mind. Recently I was in my home state of New Hampshire which is consider Lyme Disease Central and pulled off 12 ticks in a short walk in the woods, 8 of them being deer tickes.

While I don't have Lyme disease, I have read this passionate plea for help and wish to share it with my broader community in case you have personal experience that could be helped by Trish Braden's story, or if you want to support Dr. Hoffman. I know others who have suffered, but perhaps caught the disease early. At 23 years old, Trish is too young to have this kind of experience in life for sure, and at the hands of what we consider the better hospitals in the area.

Personally, I had a misdiagnosis of Hyperthyroid for almost a year so can understand the struggle that Trish has faced with her medical treatment. Hope this helps others. Please share Trish's link to her blog.

What’s Really Scary about Social Media? [INFOGRAPHIC]

What’s Really Scary about Social Media? [INFOGRAPHIC]: What’s Really Scary about Social Media? [INFOGRAPHIC]
October 31, 2011 By Kara Martens
inShare

When talk of Halloween began in early October, it got us thinking. Horror movies and strange noises in the dark definitely put one on edge this time of year, but what’s really scary for pros in our industry? What do social media professionals think is most frightening? The infographic below shows what they told us in a survey conducted this month.


by Shoutlet, enterprise social management software

Note from Wendy(all my social presences at Xeeme.com/wendysoucie) : Infographics are one of my favorite types of sharing. What are some of the best you have found?

Related articles

• Infographic on my Twitter Behavoir | Social Business and Relationships (wendysoucie.com)
• Hottest Halloween Costumes of 2011 [INFOGRAPHIC] (mashable.com)
• Top 12 Mashable Infographics (mashable.com)