Get engaged at sites that have solid, specific snow and ice communities, like Plowsite.com, Goplow.com (owned by SIMA), and others (see below for a good starter list of sites in our industry). Advertising is important on sites like these, but being mired in the popular communities is also key. • Use Facebook and LinkedIN as ways to grow stronger relationships with snow contractors and to personalize your company. SIMA interacts and shares data with hundreds of snow professionals via our SIMA Facebook page. We too get some good discourse and interaction occuring at our LinkedIN SIMA group, and use Twitter to share data between Facebook and LinkedIN. • Use video: Snow contractors are visual folks, and particularly if you have equipment or services that are better described visually, use this medium! Also, video testimonials are a large way to illustrate how you can service your customers. Also,Youtube is becoming more popular with many snow contractors. Create a Youtube channel and upload your videos, and then connect it to your Facebook page, then you`ll have video content in both places with one click! • Give people online an opportunity to allow you feedback on your products and service. You`ll see about things you might not need to hear, but you`ll also acquire a big care around the way the market views your business. Here is a safe working name of the major websites out there in our industry.Some sites below are owned by SIMA, and around are competing sites; my end is to be as object as possible for you:Plowsite.com: Many of you make most probably visited this site, it is by far the heaviest-trafficked site in our diligence to my knowledge. This place is a wide-open forum, and SIMA has been engaged there for years, most effectively I believe in the final 2. This situation is necessary in my view to acquiring a firm agreement of the c and ice industry; it is a big range to lurk and see how people actually feel about issues in the industry. It is besides a big position to get feedback on your products/services, company image and more. One tip: the community is really open, and don't be surprised if you occasionally get a little beat up sometimes. We've learned that those people sometimes have valid points, and we've also learned to respond respectfully and clearly when necessary. For every 1 person who may belly ache about something, there are another 100 who are only reading the posts, that is the interview you should be speaking to on the site. Advertising on Plowsite is something SIMA has done in the retiring and volition do more of in the future; the biggest reward of ad on the situation is the big traffic, the disadvantage is there are many advertisers and the ads are comparatively small. You can get some great picture by asking Plowsite.com to make a draw for your company. They may do so depending on the relevancy to their community. At the least you should continue coming to this situation to remain on top of what is of concern to the industry, and participate where you can.Goplow.com: This site is a joint venture between Snow Business magazine (SIMA`s publication, published by a 3rd party) and SIMA. This situation is new since June 2010, and features both subject and a snow-specific community. It is also the digital home of archives and the most recent publication of Snow Business magazine. It is generating strong, sustainable traffic, though not at the levels of Plowsite.com. It does give a core audience of SIMA members who haunt the site, many of who do not frequent other industry sites actively. From an advertising perspective, the traffic is lower, but the character of ads is higher and more affordable than Plowsite.com, and there is less competition for space. The former great benefits of this place is suppliers can get busy and involved for release by creating user accounts, making friends, and uploading any videos to the Community Videos section of the site. There are now over 100 snow-specific videos uploaded by members of the community at Goplow.com, many from suppliers to the industry.SIMA.org: This is the place of SIMA online. It has a comparatively long existence on the web (10 years now), which gives it some strong search engine rankings. It has sustainable and solid traffic and is the single-best position to read about SIMA online, including our certifications, events, Symposium, and more. Over half of all SIMA membership renewals now come at this site each year. It has a SIMA news section on the homepage that is updated several times a week for new content. Advertising has been available and sustainably sold for various years now on the site, including on the base page and the members-only Learning Center.Snowplownews.com: This place recently changed ownership and went through a makeover. The program it`s built on is pretty flexible, and they've done a sound job of leveraging the functionality of the platform. They get sustainable traffic and do suffer a community that is growing it appears. The other beneficial aspect of the situation is that it does seem to concentrate on a somewhat broader audience, including municipal snow folks. The site rank is not free, which may limit membership numbers; however the owner of the situation does run specials consistently to try and raise the community. This place does a secure job of aggregating newsworthy items from the industry, and is running on appealing to quality community engagement.www.snowandicemanagementmarketplace.com: This place is owned and operated by a society called Multi-view Inc. who has partnered with SIMA to allow the industry`s only comprehensive online buyers guide for snow professionals. The situation is solely dedicated to organism the `Google` of the coke industry, helping contractors and end-users find products and services. Listing on the situation is free, and there are some options for enhanced listing for a fee. Some of the return of this site go backwards to SIMA, which we allocate to various projects throughout the year. The marketplace's main stage of entry online is through direct search or at the searchable widget at Goplow.com.LetsTalkSnow.com: This situation is very like to Plowsite.com in its design, as a basic threaded discussion forum. The place was created years ago when a total of community members at Plowsite.com did not appreciate some of their more controversial posts being pulled, so they started their own site. This situation does not get the dealings of Plowsite.com, but there is a smaller group of committed individuals who know the situation and proceed to patron it. If you take other sites you`ve found interesting or useful in our industry, share them below!
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