When I attended as a student I was really thrilled with the material, the instructors, my fellow students, the food, the quality of my room…everything.  Now I know what it takes to provide that memorable experience.  They are a team of very dedicated people who do this year after year, I am really impressed.

You know, you can find plenty of management information online.  Anything you need to know is out there…for the general public.  My opinion though, is that managing an RV Park or Campground is a specialty and general education doesn’t necessarily apply.  People who manage a park are actually managing a city.  Frequently it’s a city in your own backyard.

How better to learn park management than from park managers?  It just makes sense and it is something that helped me tremendously through my own days of working in a campground.  When you attend the campground management school you learn from and with your peers, and that makes all the difference.

If you’ve been thinking about it, sign up.  If you sign up, find me and say hello. I really would love to meet you.  Tracie

I’ve worked with many, many Workamping couples in my day and was so absolutely happy with the results.  There are several whom I still keep in contact with and cried like a baby to see them leave.  There were some amazing people who passed through the park I worked in.

Many were retired from a broad range of industry.  They showed excellent work ethic and really began to feel like family.  I know there are some horror stories out there regarding Workampers but, let me tell you, there are some real horror stories out there about park owners too.

For both sides there is a good way and a bad way to enter into a work for camping contract.  It’s a simple one though…treat each other as you would wish to be treated.  I’ll be following with a few more posts on creating the best work-camping situation for all concerned.

You can also follow along as I focus on different aspects of workamping on my Squidoo lenses here:

http://www.squidoo.com/work-camping-life

It currently is a work in progress but stay tuned.  I’ll be building more on all kinds of topics such as profiles of some of my favorite Workamping couples, public and private jobs, rig age requirements, aaaahhhh so much to say.   More to follow.  Tracie

Rule number one.  Your profile must be of a person…not a nickname, family pet, campground or hobby.  Once you create your personal profile you can then go on to create a Facebook Page for your park.

Profiles and Pages are set up for different purposes.

Your profile is personal and private.  Anyone who wants in has to request that you let them be your friend.  You then decide whether or not to approve them.  Once approved they are in the inner circle of your life…kind of like a friend, y’know?

Your pages are public.  Anyone who wants in simply has to click to become a fan.  They want to know what’s happening in your park.  From your Facebook Page you can list your park events, send invitations, upload photos and videos, start conversations, take a poll, all kinds of things.

Facebook will disable your account in a heartbeat, and without explanation, if they feel you are not complying with their terms of service.  Here’s an article on 13 reasons your Facebook account could be disabled.

You’ll be doing yourself a favor (your friends and fans too) if you set things up right the first time.  Start with a Facebook Profile about yourself, then build a Facebook Page for your RV Park or Campground.  Later we’ll talk about groups.    Tracie

Now, this is how it works…from your Facebook Page they can click on the coupon which takes them to your website.  On your website is a link to download the coupon.  They print it off and bring it to the campground at check in.  Here’s the download: Happy Camper RV Park Facebook Fan Coupon

I know it’s not pretty and, really, there is so much more you can do to spiff up your coupons.  I just wanted to get a sample out there for you.  The benefit of having fans on your Facebook Page is that you can have a conversation with people about your park.  They in turn can talk to you.

There are tons of things you can offer in your coupon, free mini-golf, ice cream cones, it’s all great.  Now, truthfully, this coupon thing requires some photoshopping, html coding and some light-level webmaster stuff but really could be done for less than $75.00.  Let me know if you need specific steps and I’ll be happy to work with you or your web person, explaining the process.  If it’s something you want on your Facebook Page and don’t have the web person of your dreams, I can provide that service for you.

Last but not least, be sure to put a link to your Facebook Page from your website.  Feel free to email me with questions, I love to hear about what you’ve tried and what you know.  Tracie

I love their newsletter.  It’s written just the way a campground newsletter should be written; like a letter to friends.  It’s conversational, friendly and full of news.  (there’s usually a private joke for one of their regular campers hidden in there too)  Tom graciously gave me permission to post it for you.  You can download the pdf here: Grand Rogue Campgrounds & Paddlesports Newsletter

I know it’s a lot of work and not for the faint of heart but it can go such a long way in building that personal relationship with your camping family.  They really do want to know what’s up, what changes are going in, what the winter was like.  You don’t even have to publish monthly, try just twice a year for starters.

If you would like to provide a newsletter but are not too sure how to get one going, let me know.  I’ll do some more digging and come back with tips from those who have worked out the “bugs”.  Thanks for visiting.  Tracie

So, here’s my point.  I’m now handling Twitter accounts for myself at CampManager, the ARVC Michigan members at arvcmichigan, the ARVC Michigan campers at michcampgrounds and the ARVC Campground Management School at campgrndschool.  And let me tell you, it’s fun, I’ve learned a lot, met some really great new people and got lost a time or two.

Enter Splitweet.  The perfect solution for me.  It’s a great dashboard from which I can handle all the accounts I choose.  I can read, tweet, follow trends, direct message and reply all from one place.  This is one Twitter tool that has really helped me streamline the process.  You could use it to your advantage too.  Create Twitter accounts for your park and any activity groups that frequent it such as canoeing, birding, homeschoolers, RVing Women, and anything you feel you can keep up with.  Then load them all into Splitweet.

That’s it for now, I have some tweeting to do.  Thanks for reading, I’d love to hear your ideas too.  Tracie

It was my experience, when I was the Office Manager of a large campground, that some groups were better at self organizing than others.  It seemed the worst offenders were family reunions.  They were excited, making lots of plans, lots of emails, lots of phone calls to the office and might not have had a strong “point person” to facilitate information.

Here’s the concept I’m suggesting.  Let’s say you have a group of 12 sites coming in for 4 days in August.  You establish that they’ll be called the Braxton Family Reunion.  The group will probably consist of 2 motorhomes,  one pop-up, one cabin rental, three tents and 4 people staying in a hotel in town.  That’s all they know right now and will provide more information as people confirm.

You can now go to Ning and create a Social Network for them.  (first you need to create an account.  Do this for your park and spend some time filling in the profile)  Name it something like Braxton Family Reunion 2009.  You’ll be prompted to enter what you’d like the URL to be which is the online address to find the site (it will always end with ning.com).  Keep it simple such as Braxton2009.ning.com.  Ning will let you know if the address is available.  If it isn’t, try again changing it slightly.

Next we’ll go through the options for designing the page.  But first, I want to jump to the end when you send an email to the group leader.  Let them know that you want their experience to be wonderful and you’ve created a complimentary site online for them to communicate the details with each other.  Provide a link to the URL and ask them to forward the email to all attending.  Now, because you are the administrator of the site…you are behind the wheel.  You’ll also be able to broadcast messages to all the members which will be pure gold when you need it.  You have one place to gather everyone’s information and you can watch the conversations.  You’ll be able to see any problems cropping up and you can discover some real treasures.  You may learn of a 50th anniversary, a new baby on the way or a college graduation.  These tips offer you the opportunity to present the group with something special when they arrive.

Ok.  Back to designing the site.  We’ll cover this in a few posts but let’s get started with the basics.

I’ve started a sample group on Ning so you’ll be able to watch the process.  We’ll take it a step at a time.  You can see it here Sample Camping Group There are a ton of options for things you want on your group’s site.  You can pick the theme, color, add photos, add videos, you can also kill a lot of time so be careful and try not to get too detailed.  Ning also provides statistics which I think is very cool.

You’ll find all these options under the “manage” tab.  Go ahead, check it out.  Create a sample one of your own to test things out.  Get some of your employees to become members and follow the process.  Or create a few fake ones yourself to get a real take on how it’s done.

That’s a good start for today.  I’ll be back soon with a next step for Ning.  Thanks for reading.  Tracie

Once you create an account with Twellow (after you’ve created an account with Twitter) you can search for people by interest, name, place…all kinds of ways. (be sure to click “advanced following” so your selections will be updated in your Twitter account)

I used it after I created ARVC Michigan’s Twitter account to find all things Michigan camping, rving, tourism, travel and news related. Entire lists of possible people and businesses to follow came up. Then I was able to simply click “follow” on any I wanted. The beauty of it is that many of them, after receiving notice I was following them, opted to follow me back.

Try it and let me know how it works for you.

This is what I’ve learned so far. Everybody’s doing it.

Churches are doing it, Taxi Cab companies are doing it, Realtors are doing it, Teachers and Colleges are doing it. But the real question is, are RV Parks and Campgrounds doing it? So far, not so much. Well, I think it’s the perfect time to start. We should, at the very least, be monitoring Twitter to learn when we are being Tweeted about.

A good example I heard of this was when a JetBlue customer needed a wheelchair and the answer was just a Tweet away. The problem was handled immediately. That could be pretty sweet in your park. Resolving issues before they become issues is the ulitmate dream for most of us. I think Twitter can go a long way in helping us get there. Imagine giving your campers the link to your Twitter stream from your website. You can then watch their Tweets as they travel to your park on Friday night. You’ll know who’s going to be late and you can also let them know of any road construction, last minute cancellations or upgrades as they travel because many people receive their Tweets by phone!

I know it sounds big and you’re busy, with little time to figure out something new. So, take it a bite at a time. Go to Twitter Search and type in the name of your park, see if anything comes up. Then type in the words Campground or RV Park. You’ll get a very good idea of what goes on in the Twitterverse. The best way to begin with Twitter is just to watch and explore for awhile. It may give you some great ideas of ways you can use it to your, and your camper’s advantage.

You can create as many lenses on as many topics as you want.  For example (our sample campground) Happy Camper Maker Park might want to make a lens on kids activities, large RV sites,  great camping recipes,  holiday events,  campfire songs, canoe rentals and any host of things they offer at their park.  It’s a way of speaking to your current and prospective campers and getting the word out as to how much fun they’ll have at your place.

It isn’t hard to do but it will take a little time and concentration the first time you create a lens.  Here’s a great how-to for building your first one:  How to make your first Squidoo Lens

Squidoo also provides you with a great dashboard, behind the scenes so you’ll know how many visitors you’ve had, where they came from and what they clicked out on.  That reminds me….make sure you link to your park’s website from your lens.  They can click on it and go straight to your site from there.

Here’s one I did for a nice park in Michigan:  Harbortown RV Resort This is just a sampling of the things you can do with Squidoo.  I really, really, recommend it.