I live in the Mitten State, aka Michigan. It is a great state where we experience 4 seasons, sometimes all in 1 day. To most people MI is the frozen tundra, but we do have about 3 or 4 months of beautiful summer weather. It is in these months the highways (US 23, US 31, US 131, US 127) and expressway (I-75) are lined with RV's, 5th wheels, boats, campers, and any other motorized vehicle you can imagine. This is the time people go "up North".

I am one of those people.

I have a sweet 1947 restored Tear Drop Camper, otherwise a bed on wheels and thought this would be a great weekend to take it out and enjoy what MI has to offer.

Most people make their camping reservations months to a year in advance.

I am not one of those people.

I fired up the trusty HP laptop to search for a campground with a 2 day vacancy for this coming weekend.  

A quick Google search informed me I had over 30 options to choose from within a 3 hour radius of my hometown. Some of these were National Parks, some were State Parks, and the remaining were county or private.

The great thing about this Google search was there was a plethora of info on the most popular places; Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park and every MI State Park was given its own Pure Michigan page providing a ton Of reasons why I should spend 2 days here. These sites gave me:

• local attractions,

• camp amenities like water or electrical hook ups,

• how far from the Lake (pick one)

• snapshot pictures of why my site would look like

• distance my site was from the bathroom

• activities I could partake in, like swimming, hiking, boating, and fishing

• the ability to see availability and reserve online.

• reviews from other campers who exclaimed it was their best trip ever

As I worked my way into the county and private campgrounds, the info available and the reasons why to camp at these began to diminish. Some did try to convince me, but the info tended to be outdated or just not selling me and others not anything at all. They did not give me a reason to give them a try.

This made me think about employers who do a phenomenal job informing potential candidates why they would want to work there. They talk about:

• The great location and the attractions nearby

• The perks and amenities (parking, Hawaiian Friday's, benefits, unlimited vacation, etc)

• Pictures and videos of the building and the office

• The room for growth and career advancement

• Employee testimonials sharing why they work at said great company and why the culture is amazing

Then there are the organizations who don't brand themselves or do it very poorly. They, just like the county or private campgrounds, don't give reasons to be interested in working there.

Now I am not suggesting that these county or private campgrounds or poorly branded companies do not offer or provide these same great things, but how is anyone to know?

Oh yeah, in case you were curious if I am going camping this weekend, nope struck out.  The good ones were full and I didn't want to take a chance on the others.