Facebook

Aspen/Snowmass

Above is the Aspen/Snowmass Facebook page. It shows the classic Aspen logo as their profile picture and a beautiful photo of Aspen mountain as their cover photo. They have 57,688 Likes and over 9,000 people are currently talking about them. Aspen uses it's Facebook to post information about the mountain, snow reports, local events and other forms of content marketing like photos and videos. 

Aspen does an excelent job of producing quality posts. They post cool pictures and even cooler videos. One current set of content Aspen is publishing is a video series on YouTube. Aspen/Snowmass is using Facebook to promote this video series and create buzz around the upcoming season. Due to the seasonal nature of ski resorts, it is important to keep viewers interested and engaged even when the snow has melted. This video series does an excellent job of this by prompting viewers to return at later dates throughout the year to view new episodes.

Aspen also does a good job promoting good environmental practices and often posts about initiatives involving environmental stewardship. For example Aspen, as well as 100 other ski resorts signed a Climate Declaration in order to protect great ski conditions for years to come. The post Aspen made is shown below.

Aspen took a great step in the right direction by supporting this declaration, however in the discussion that ensued below the post, there was no support from Aspen. The comments on this post ranged from "Great job Aspen" to "bunch of stupid liberals" but not a single comment was from Aspen/Snowmass. I was disappointed that Aspen did not enter the conversation to support their stance on climate change. I understand why Aspen chose not to engage in the controversial conversation but they should have had some input. Instead of hiding from topics like these, Aspen should have responded to those people who supported the declaration, by thanking them for their support. This would show that Aspen is true to their values while not risking losing potential customers who disagree with Aspen.

As I continued to read conversations on Aspen/Snowmass' Timeline I realized that they were doing a very poor job of responding to peoples questions and comments. There were many posts by others that were asking for help or information that received no response from Aspen. This was surprising as other small comments of little importance received responses. Below is an example of a comment left by someone asking for help but received nothing.

Aspen should have responded with concern about the missing people or shared the post to help Micheal. Even if Aspen could not do anything at all, they should have expressed concern and wish him good luck with his search. Besides not responding to important posts, Aspen chooses to respond to some very small insignificant posts. Below are some examples of responses Aspen should have used their time differently on.

Not only do these comments have little productivity for the brand but they sound like a 18 year old stoner is writing the responses. I understand that Aspen is trying to appeal to a younger more hip crowd but that does not mean they should talk and act like a young hip person. Aspen needs to pay more attention to Facebook comments and respond to them in a more professional way.

Vail

Above is Vail's Facebook home page. It has a skiing action photo as its cover photo and the Vail logo as it's profile picture. The page showcases it's photos, Instagrams, live webcams and an application called Passfinder. Vail currently has 143,193 Likes and 4,006 people are talking about it. Similarly to Aspen, Vail uses Facebook to post information about the mountain, snow reports, local events and forms of content marketing like photos and videos.

Vail does a superior job of producing good content on Facebook. Their posts are almost always accompanied with a photo or video which make for more likes and create reach. Not only does Vail produce great content, they also comment and reply on posts like mad men. Wether it is a small thank you for someone posting about their great weekend in Vail or someone asking when the new chairlift will be open, Vail is always present on the commenting boards. Below are some great examples of how  well Vail engages it's audience.

Above, we see that Vail not only responds to Greg about the issue, but informs him that lightning was the cause of the problem.

Vail goes the extra mile here by informing the Director of Lift Maintenance of his concerns.

Vail doesn't forget to comment on small funny comments as well.

Vail is also very good at communicating potential solutions to peoples problems.

 As seen above, Vail goes will go to any length to make sure people are satisfied and are getting the information they need. They are engaging in good conversations started by others as well as conversations they have started themselves. Below is one example of a conversation Vail started last March.

This conversation is Unique in that it takes the form of a poll. The poll allows for people to engage directly with Vail and talk about what they are most excited about. It also provides Vail with information about it's viewers. Vail can deduct from this info that they may need to advertise one of the concerts more in order to get more people excited about it. Unique conversations like this are great for generating buzz especially for a re-opening weekend, which does not happen often.

Vail also uses another unique tool on Facebook, applications. They have created an app on their homepage called "Passfinder". Passfinder is an app that allows the user to input their desired resorts, number of ski days desired, whether or not they will ski in california and whether or not they will ski on holidays.

This is a great interactive app to find out which pass best suites your specific needs. It also provides the customer with the ability to purchase the pass right there, which is good for both parties.

Vail vs Aspen/Snowmass

When looking at these two Facebook pages it is safe to say that Vail does a far superior job of interacting with Facebook then Aspen. Aspen and Vail both produce high quality content that is entertaining and engages the audience, but that is where the similarities stop. Aspen fails terribly at communicating via comments and responses. They choose to respond to posts that are immature and unimportant, and fail to respond to the countless meaningful questions and comments people post. Vail proves it's superiority of communication by responding to a huge majority of posts and comments. whether it is a small comment or a big difficult question, Vail goes the extra mile to make sure the customer is satisfied. Vail continues to succeed with the use of voting polls to get the user engaged and create meaningful conversations and thus building customer passion and sentiment. All of these positives that Vail does on Facebook are excellent motivators for viewers to ultimately purchase a Vail lift ticket. Fortunately Vail provides a quick and easy way for people to do just that. The addition of the Passfinder lift ticket purchaser, is the finishing piece to Vail's excellent Facebook strategy.