Nudism is starting to embrace social media

I just got back from the AANR West Board of directors meeting. I am the pr chair. AANR West started a twitter account in August. We are now going to start a Facebook account. The boards aim it to embrace social media as much as possible so that members and potential guests of nudist resorts can contact us as easily as possible.

The NY Times just had an article on businesses using Facebook. Here it is:

"Business owner, you might want to friend Facebook.

Identify a short list of goals before you begin.

Show some personality in your page.

Don't shill. Use your page to engage-and trust that sales will follow.

Use Facebook data to analyze your customer demographics.

A growing number of businesses are making Facebook an indispensable part of hanging out their shingles. Small businesses are using it to find new customers, build online communities of fans and dig into gold mines of demographic information.

“You need to be where your customers are and your prospective customers are,” said Clara Shih, author of “The Facebook Era” (Pearson Education, 2009). “And with 300 million people on Facebook, and still growing, that’s increasingly where your audience is for a lot of products and services.”

...Facebook offers an array of tools and networks, and it’s easy to wander down too many paths. Ms. Shih recommends that newcomers start by asking themselves a simple question: What is your basic objective? Is it getting more customers in the door? Building brand awareness? Creating a venue for customer support? Once you have set your goal, you can strategize accordingly.


...You can enliven your page with photos, comments and useful information. As you grow more comfortable, you can add videos or business applications. Flaunt your personality. The page of an ice cream parlor should feel different than that of a funeral parlor. “The pages that are most successful,” said Tim Kendall, the director of monetization at Facebook, “are the ones that really replicate the personality of the business.”

Aim at Potential Customers Only

...“I’d be out of business if I didn’t have Facebook,” Mr. Meyer said. “Especially with this economy, I need to stretch each marketing dollar as much as I possibly can.”

Facebook enables small businesses to engage in targeted marketing that they only could have dreamed about a few years ago. Facebook users fill out profiles with information like hometown, employer, religious beliefs, interests, education and favorite books, movies and TV shows — all of which can help advertisers deliver messages to specific demographic slices.

...“Be patient with it,” Mr. Nelson advised. “People are not going to flock to your social media site overnight. Technology is about the network effect. It takes time for those connections to build.”

For the full article Click here

And if you have suggestions on how AANR West can better reach out to people, feel free calling me at 800-786-6938 or e-mailing me at tom@sunnyfun.com

Tom Mulhall
Terra Cotta Inn clothing optional resort,
Palm Springs, CA
http://sunnyfun.com

Follow Terra Cotta Inn on twitter at http://twitter.com/nudist_resorts

Follow AANR WEST on twitter at http://twitter.com/aanrwest

Belly's on men considered hip by New York Times

Finally, I'm hip! I'm cool! Since I hit 40, I have slowly been gaining a belly. Now according to the New York Times it doesn't matter any more. Round on men is in, flat bellies out!

It's an interesting article especially where they not that women still don't get the same "belly pass" as men.

Here it is:

"It’s Hip to Be Round

This summer the unvarying male uniform in the precincts of Brooklyn cool has been a pair of shorts cut at knickers length, a V-neck Hanes T-shirt, a pair of generic slip-on sneakers and a straw fedora. Add a leather cuff bracelet if the coolster is gay.

...this year an unexpected element has been added to the look, and that is a burgeoning potbelly one might term the Ralph Kramden.

...too modest in size to be termed a proper beer gut, developed too young to come under the heading of a paunch, the Ralph Kramden is everywhere to be seen lately...

...the Kramden is to what my colleague Mike Albo refers to as the “coolios” of now. Leading with a belly is a male privilege of long standing, of course, a symbol of prosperity in most cultures and of freedom from anxieties about body image that have plagued women since Eve.

...but how does one account for the new prevalence of Ralph Kramdens? Have men given in or given up? Are they finished with asserting the privileges that have always accrued to men. Or is the Ralph Kramden Barack Obama’s fault?

...“I sort of think the six-pack abs obsession got so prissy it stopped being masculine,” is how Aaron Hicklin, the editor of Out, explains the emergence of the Ralph Kramden. What once seemed young and hot, for gay and straight men alike, now seems passé. Like manscaping, spray-on tans and other metrosexual affectations, having a belly one can bounce quarters off suggests that you may have too much time on your hands.

...Women have almost never gotten a pass on the need to maintain their bodies, while men always have...

For the full article click here

Sadly, so many women are very insecure about their looks. In our experience insecurity is the biggest reason more women do not try nude recreation. Morality and religion have almost nothing to do with not trying nudist resorts. It is all self image, and fear of not "stacking up" to other women that keeps more women from trying it.

Further, ask any adult women what one of her most traumatic experiences is and you will get wearing a bathing suit. That's why more and more women are going with one pieces.

This is completely wrong, but it is so hard to get women to feel comfortable about themselves. Too bad society doesn't say the Kramden is OK for women too.

Vacationing at nudist resorts is not about looks, but about freedom, being yourself, enjoying life and having fun.

If you want to have your best, most fun vacation ever, give us a call at 800-786-6938Visit our site at http://sunnyfun.com

We hope to see you soon in sunny Palm Springs!

Palm Springs is featured in the New York Times

Palm Springs is one of the most popular vacation destinations in the US. And with summer coming soon, there is still time to book at our resort, The Terra Cotta Inn clothing optional resort and spa locate in Palm Springs, California. The sunniest city in the US!

The New York Times just did an article about Palm Springs today. Here it is:

"36 Hours in Palm Springs, Calif.


PALM SPRINGS... Today, after some hard-earned changes, the desert town nestled in the Coachella Valley is becoming a destination for laid-back cool once again. Palm Springs is finding a balance between the past and the present and attracting visitors just as happy climbing canyons and sipping cocktails on a lounge chair as taking in the design and architectural treasures of the past...

3) PARTYING POOLSIDE

Back when Frank Sinatra held raucous shindigs at his Twin Palms home, Palm Springs was known for its party scene. These days, the best drinking establishments are in hotels...[Our resort, the Terra Cotta Inn has a very fun pool atmosphere.]

4) A MODERNIST MECCA

Along with the moneyed 20th-century tourists came eye-catching buildings: hotels, commercial spaces and vacation homes. Next to a hopping Starbucks on the main drag sits one of the city's oldest architectural touchstones: a concrete bell tower salvaged from the long-gone Oasis Hotel, which was designed by Lloyd Wright (son of Frank) in 1924. This spot is also where Robert Imber, the often seersucker-clad architectural guru and one-man show behind PS Modern Tours (760-318-6118; psmoderntours@aol.com), starts his three-hour excursions, which provide a survey of the city's key structures with a focus on the midcentury sweet spot. For $75 a head, design enthusiasts can press their faces against the windows of Mr. Imber's minivan, catching glimpses of the iconic Albert Frey-designed Tramway Gas Station, Richard Neutra's 1946 Kaufmann Desert House and the mass-produced but stunning Alexander homes that your guide identifies by pointing out the four key components — “garage, breezeway, windows, wall” — in their various arrangements. [Of course nudists get to stay in one of Palm Springs's most historic resorts. Yes, ours! The Terra Cotta Inn was a famous boutique resort for the movie stars in the 1960's and was designed by Albert Frey.]...

FRIEND OF THE HOUSE

Most of the favored area restaurants have an old-school vibe: tuxedoed waiters, a headwaiter who has worked there since opening day and steak-and-lobster specialties. Though the six-year-old Copley's on Palm Canyon (621 North Palm Canyon Drive; 760-327-9555; www.copleyspalmsprings.com) might not have the culinary history of nearby Melvyn's Restaurant and Lounge, which opened as an inn in 1935, it has a different sort of storied past — it's housed in what was once Cary Grant's estate — and food that incorporates 21st-century flavors (the spring menu included dishes like a duck and artichoke salad with goat cheese, edamame and litchi; $12). {Both Melvyn's and Copley's are great. Mary Clare and I were restaurant critics in Chicago for 10 years, so we can make great recommendations.]

...THE BASICS

Getting from the New York area to Palm Springs generally requires a change of planes. Plenty of major airlines (Delta, American, US Airways, United, Northwest and Alaska Airlines) serve the city's centrally located airport. One-stop tickets from New York start as low as $240, according to a recent online search. You can also fly into Los Angeles or the lower-traffic Long Beach airport (nonstops from JetBlue starting at $219) and then drive to Palm Springs in about two hours.... [Also the Ontario, California airport is only 70 miles or a 1 hour drive away. And San Diego, although 140 miles away, is just as quick to get here as is LAX as it is an easier airport to get into and out of.]

For the full article Click Here

What I thought was interesting about the article is it was titled 36 hours in Palm Springs. They meant you check into town at 4pm and check out 2 days later in the morning. That's 2 nights you have to pay to spend in a hotel room.

We have always been called one of Palm Springs's best value hotels. That is one of the reasons we are so popular and why our occupancy is not going down during this recession.

We allow early check in (10am) and late check out (5pm). You can get 31 hours or 2 days of sun for the price of one night here. NO OTHER hotel in Palm Springs has such a great deal. When we go on vacation, I wish other hotels were as nice to their guests as we are to ours.

Although year round about 40% of our guests book a week or longer here because we are the ONLY nudist vacation resort that caters to couples on vacation in the western US, we do have a lot of guests take us up on our 31 hours in Palm Springs special offer.

Now is the time for you to try a new vacation experience. A fun vacation. Try going clothes free on your next trip whether it is a quick 2 day 1 night nudist getaway midweek, or a nice long relaxing 1 week vacation.

Give us a call at 800-786-6938.

Visit our site at http://sunnyfun.com

Hope to see you in sunny Palm Springs!