I have been cottaging pretty much since I was born, at our family cottage on Georgian Bay. I have great memories of events organized by the Clearwater Beach Ratepayers Association when I was growing up. Since about 2000, I have had the pleasure of serving my cottage association. First as a volunteer for a number of years at our Fun Day/BBQ, then joining the board in a number of capacities, first as Secretary, then Vice President, and now President. Part of the job of the board of a Cottage Association is keeping your members informed. Social Media can give you a great tool kit for both getting information and sharing it to your members.
This is the fourth of several posts on using Social Media for a cottage association. This post is just an overview. I will be going in to more detail in future posts.
The idea behind this series is that it is not so much a "this is what and how to do it' manual, but more a "here are a bunch of ideas/tools you can pick and chose from". You need to figure out what works for you and your association. I will be using the sources that I use for my association as examples, you should be able to find similar sources in your area.
This will not be a static post, I will update it as errors are found or when someone sends me information that fits in. If I have missed a tool or source that you use, please let me know. I am always looking for ways to better serve our association.
Sources
There are a number of great sources for information. Plug in to as many sources as you can, but watch out for information overload,
Your members are a great source of information.
Government at the Local, Regional, Provincial, and Federal levels
Web Sites
Twitter Accounts
FaceBook Pages
Shows/Expositions
There are a number of cottage shows/expositions, 2 of ones that I love to go to are the Cottage Life shows (they have a Spring and a Fall show) and Ottawa Cottage and Backyard show
Associations
Cottage related associations like FOCA
Local business associations
Police
Many local police forces have a web site, Facebook page, twitter stream. The OPP is a great source of info in Ontario.
Magazines
Magazines have great information, in the magazine, on their web site, Facebook page, Twiter stream
Newspaper
Local newspapers have great information, in the paper, on their web site, Facebook page, Twitter stream...
TV
Local TV stations have great information, in the news cast, on their web site, Facebook page, Twitter steam....
Web Sites
There are a lot of great websites on cottaging.
Blogs
There are number of great blogs focusing on cottaging and cottage related things.
Books
There are a lot of great books out there on cottaging.
Facebook
There are a number of Facebook pages that are cottage related or cover the area your association is in.
Twitter
There are a number of Twitter feeds that are cottage related or cover the area your association is in.
Google Plus
There are a number of Google Plus feeds that are cottage related or cover the area your association is in.
