We've all learned how time consuming Social Media can be and how hard it is to measure ROI for all that time invested. But in the past few years social media has also become much less social. Many brands today use social media as broadcast media channels to blast content out to the masses with no paticular target market in mind. In email we can call this approach spam or junk mail, but in social media we call all that additional info we really don't care about as NOISE.

Action sports brands have an endless opportunity to create, optimize and promote new content. The reason I say "endless opportunity" is because most action sports are bombarded with changing elements like seasonality, weather, fashion, technology and athletic advancement. These changes help create great new stories that can be told with pictures and video that harness the emotions, lifestyle and environment that words alone can't always describe. The brands using a content marketing strategy use planned campaigns that can be measured throughout the process for success and improvement.

My last post of this wakeboard industry series examined the social media presence of 5 wakeboard brands, focusing on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. I highlighted which brands are leading the pack and why.  Liquid Force was the clear winner of Social Media Marketing, but how will they do in the race for Best Overall Internet Marketing?  Read on to find out who has the best website stats in Part 3 below!

Have you ever been guilty of sending an email to current customers with an offer that should only be seen by potential customers? Embarrassing, right? If it happens more than once you may even see your good customers unsubscribe from your email list.

For most people, participating in action sports or even watching action sports is far more exciting than marketing action sports. But for the marketers behind the scenes for these brands, action sports marketing is about as exciting as marketing gets. Content creation opportunities are endless. The ability to use ever-changing new technology to capture new riders doing something that wasn't considered possible a year ago and then share this content with the world on digital media platforms that didn't exist a year ago provides awesome marketing potential for any brand.

Last month I started my 1st internet marketing competitive analysis series that focused on the high-end slalom ski industry. I wanted to start with a small niche sport for my first review, and competitive slalom brands worked, plus I already had much of the data prepared.  But with further research I found that this sports segment as a whole can do much better to market their brands online.

Website design, site architecture, new content and SEO all play an important role to any website's success. Unless you are relying on all your traffic from paid ads, your website depends on these four factors to generate the best possible targeted organic traffic from search. Search engines are using a combination of these four factors to rank your website and the less compliant you are, the lower your results.  Bottom line is that consistantly integrating these four components on every web page you create will return targeted visitors who are searching for your products and services.

My previous post of this slalom ski industry series broke down the social media marketing efforts of each waterski company, focusing on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. I highlighted which brands are leading the pack and why, plus made some suggestions for the brands that are not keeping up with their industry competitors.  Radar Skis was the clear winner of Social Media Marketing, but how will they do in the race for Best Overall Internet Marketing?  Read on to find out who has the best website stats in Part 3 below!

Facebook Fans, Twitter Followers and YouTube Subscribers

My previous post of this series showed you how Radar Skis had 36% of the slalom ski industry Facebook Fans, Twitter Followers and YouTube Subscribers. Today I’ll break it down further to show you how well each brand is doing within each of these social media platforms.

Social Media Marketing for the Slalom Ski Industry

I have been involved in the watersports industry for most of my career and before wakeboards existed, so it makes perfect sense that I start off here. I'm going to focus on brands that manufacture high-end slalom skis since this is where the waterski industry focuses most of their marketing effort. The brands in my study include: HO, Connelly, O'Brien, Radar, Goode, D3 and AM.  HO, Connelly and Radar have separate wakeboard brands which will be reviewed in the wakeboard industry comparison later in this series.