Ski Resorts and Twitter

[drjeff]

I follow (and did last season) Mount Snow on Twitter. It worked out pretty well on wind hold days/mechanical issues days, etc. Most of their twitter updates they cross posted to Facebook, but not all of their Facebook updates were crossed tweeted (that 140 characters limitation thing).

It did the job for me. A quick, easy tweet such as "#11 de-iced and ready to open" works for me when i'm on the hill

 

[drjeff]

The perfect example of this is Belleayre. They have a FB and a twitter but they rarely update either

So much of that I think depends on how social media savy one's marketing department is. If you have a person with a passion for it, and who regularly updates it (and with not just the basic info, but with different, fun and interesting pieces of info), then it quickly can go from bland to great with literally thousands of new followers very quickly.

Mountain Creek was the pefect example of this. Their Snowreporter/social media guru, Halley O'Brien, did wonders for their site's social media traffic (and also before when she was at Mount Snow). Her work was recognized to the point where she's been indentified in Ski Area Managment Magazine as one of the ski industries "20 under age 30" (basically the up and coming young guns in the ski industry) and has been hired by the National Ski Areas Association to work with their media campaign (she's still also doing free-lance work for MC and i'd guess any other resort who wants to hire her).

Dave Amirault (a.k.a "Ozskier" for anyone who's been around New England Ski Area/Sunday River chatrooms for the last decade or so) is another prime example of this, where one's on snow passion combined with a knack for media savy bits that capture the attention of the young (and young at heart) also had him identified by SAM as a "20 under 30" a few years ago and now has him doing some big media work at Freeskier Magazine.

It takes a combo of on snow passion, a media savy angle that can relate to multiple types of customers of a ski area, and also the backing of management to let the person follow a vision that they might have for a vibrant social media community for that ski area to make it work. It's not an easy combo to achieve, but when it's done right, the results (and happy customers) are plentiful!

 

[ctenidae]

Before I left the house this AM.... The new Northern Tool "Master Catalog" arrived last week. Great reading on the can.

That is good reading. Paper's fairly soft, too, though not very absorbant.

 

[Glenn]

That is good reading. Paper's fairly soft, too, though not very absorbant.

:lol:

 

[Skimaine]

I've been using Twitter for my club for a short while now.

This leads to the question, how well are resorts using Twitter, especially for conditions update. It would be nice to have a near-real time status, as opposed to a daily web update.

Anyone follow resorts on Twitter last season?

Sugarloaf uses Twitter updates for condition updates and lift status. At Sugarloaf, having a clue on what is happening with the lifts is critical. Overall the updates are timely and accurate and give you an edge up on getting to newly opened terrain. A couple good examples from last year include letting folks know that the lifts hours were extended or when they decided to run the snowcats to the summit.

Other than Jimmy Buffet and Grace Potter, Sugarloaf is the only Twitter thingies (technical term) I follow.

 

[ScottySkis]

I mean I have created a quick hit list of resorts. Check it out here:

http://twitter.com/#!/AlpineZone/ski-resorts

You can then follow whatever resorts you want from that list directly. I don't think I have all the NE ones but I should have most.

can you get Plattekill please my favorite catskill ski hill thanks

 

[Nick]

@Scotty - Thanks for the suggestions, I'll add their Twitter account. They are on board for the AZ Challenge though - they are up next on the docket after we wrap up the ones running now - probably in 1 - 2 weeks!

 

[mikestaple]

Sugarloaf does a great job with updates. As for out west, I followed Steamboat and they too did a good job letting you know about the gondola and condition updates.

Disappointing that other mountains don't use update tool too. Cheap and simple. Easier than updating a web site.