http://www.parellinaturalhorsetraining.com Is the online side of the extremely sucusfully natural horsemanship trainer, Pat Parelli. Parelli has branded equipment, a multi-step training program, multiple school that teach the Parelli method, and events all over the country.
Parelli has gone above and beyond in their social networking efforts. Parelli is on facebook, twitter, tumblr, google+, and YouTube. There are two blogs linked from the main site. One is Parelli Central blog, which is run by team members, staff, and Parelli instructors. The second blog is Linda Parelli's personal blog.
Twitter
@OfficialParelli currently has 3,595 tweets, 4,830 following, and 7,667 followers. They post a twitter "Question of the Day", along with information on expos and links to blogs and articles. There is a conversation happening here.
Facebook
The Parelli facebook page currently has over 63,000 likes. There are pictures, videos, and events posted. There is also considerable traffic from users posting on the page's timeline.
Blog
The earliest post on Linda Parelli's personal blog is from October of 2009. the earliest post from her second blog, which is link from the main Parelli site is from June 2010. The blog makes use of tags and links to other Parelli pages and blogs. Every blog post has a share feature, which opens up to show buttons for just about every social media platform out there.
YouTube
ParelliTube was created in December, 2009 and currently has 9,576 subscribers and over 3 million video views. There are 557 uploaded videos.
Google Alerts
Since I created my listening station, "Parelli natural Horsemanship" has gotten 78 alerts, and "Pat Parelli" has 54 alerts.
On a social media scale, there isn't a significant number of people talking about parelli Natural Horsemanship. However, from the other side of the fence (the side with the horses and the horse-people), it is quite a bit of traffic.
Strengths:
Parelli has something going on all of the main social networking tools, and is keeping up with all of them. They are having a conversation with their consumers/customers/fans, and they seem to be doing a good job of it.
Weaknesses:
The primary weakness is in the main Parelli website store. The number of followers, subscribers, and fans in the social networks is not reflected in the number of people reviewing products. This may be due to the fact that one has to log in to write a review.
The second weakness is that Parelli's networking tool, ParelliConnect, requires a membership.
Third, Parelli gear is expensive, and I know from experience that it is nothing special.
Parelli's Original Carrot Stick and Savvy String Combo is $61.
It's a stick, and a string.
Suggestion of where I feel the company should go in the future:
I think that the Parelli brand needs to be reined in a little bit. It feels like they are, to use a music industry term, selling out. I feel like Parelli is pushing their brand to hard and using the name to sell more products at higher prices, and that this is diluting what Parelli originally stood for. I support the methods, techniques, and philosophy behind natural horsemanship, but I will not buy "Parelli" equipment. Again, this is a personal expression, but if I feel this way, chances are there are other people who do too.
