52 Fridays 2012 – #9 Being A Gift To The Horsebiz

52 Fridays is an ongoing series for equestrian professionals and equine business owners and managers, with marketing and public relations stories, ideas, tips, and resources shared here each Friday.

It’s kinda funny and has become something of a pop-culture joke, but among the most perplexing questions humankind has wrassled with over the millennia are the infamous ‘who am I?’ and ‘why am I here?’ ones.

Do you ever have those moments when life trips you up and you say ‘why?!’ During those times, I work on seeing it as an opportunity. Sometimes there’s grief, consternation, anger, sadness, etc. – yes, absolutely! And then, rather than getting stuck there, I ask myself, what is the gift in this? What am I not seeing? What can I do differently?

The horse world has been going through some tremendous challenges and shifts these past few years. Some lament ‘the good old days’ and others have set about creating new ways of being and doing in the horse world. Which approach is working for you?

52 Fridays 2012 – #8 Some Interesting Stuff Going On In Horsebiz Marketing

52 Fridays is an ongoing series for equestrian professionals and equine business owners and managers, with marketing and public relations stories, ideas, tips, and resources shared here each Friday.

Image courtesy BreyerFest.com

A bunch of equine industry press releases have crossed my computer screen recently, so here’s a potpourri of some news items that I find intriguing from a marketing and/or social media viewpoint.

52 Fridays 2012 – #7 Do You Know What Google Is Doing With Your Online Horsebiz History?

52 Fridays is an ongoing series for equestrian professionals and equine business owners and managers, with marketing and public relations stories, ideas, tips, and resources shared here each Friday.

On March 1st, Google changed their online privacy policy, consolidating the data collected via their various products (60 of ’em!) into a ‘profile’ they report will allow more customized search engine results.

Some say it’s a way for marketers to get their product or service in front of a consumer through highly targeted online ads; others call this move by Google a massive privacy invasion. There are ways to minimize the data collected, but thus far Google’s not given users a way to opt out entirely. Is this legal? That’s still being debated.

If you have a Google account, use Gmail/YouTube/Google+/Picasa/Google Maps, search the Internet using Google, or have an Android phone that requires a Google account and login, here’s what you should know about the data being collected regarding you and your horsebiz.

52 Fridays 2012 – #6 Despite No Oscar For WAR HORSE, It Was Still A ‘Knight’ Of Horsebiz Success

52 Fridays is an ongoing series for equestrian professionals and equine business owners and managers, with marketing and public relations stories, ideas, tips, and resources shared here each Friday.

Image courtesy oscars.org

Equestrian Oscar nominee WAR HORSE lost out on taking home even a single statuette despite a respectable six nominations for the Steven Spielberg film.

However, the evening wasn’t a total loss for the horse world, since horses were featured on not one, but TWO major American networks that night.

52 Fridays 2012 – #5 Kentucky Surveying Horsebiz For Economic Impact Study, AND Updating Its ‘Foal’ License Plate

52 Fridays is an ongoing series for equestrian professionals and equine business owners and managers, with marketing and public relations stories, ideas, tips, and resources shared here each Friday. We’re currently catching up, due to the International Hoof-Care Summit, helping judge the ESMAs, and new client projects, so enjoy the extra posts!

Many non-horsefolk, legislators included, forget about the economic impact of the equine industry. It’s simply because it’s not on their radar. If they’re not horse lovers or horse owners and they don’t even see horses on a regular basis, it’s quite easy for people to forget about our industry. Especially if we’re not speaking up.

The Bluegrass State’s got several initiatives going right now to support awareness and understanding of their state’s ‘signature’ industry; should they be a model for other states with large numbers of equestrians, to foster greater horsebiz awareness across the country?