If you have a look at the Breckenridge website everything seems fine. Large images, including a nice family one of a girl and a big dog are all part of a neatly-designed site.
Then you click on the Facebook link at the bottom of the page and all of a sudden you are being spoken to in a different language. The intro tells you the resort is now open for the 2006-7 season and looks like it was written by a 13 year-old.
I don’t want to seem unduly harsh, but isn’t the notion that the website is for the “adults” and the Facebook for the “kids” a little bit too simple these days? And is swearing and calling the resort a “friggin classic” the best way to get to the kids?
It’s a dilemma for ski resorts, because they want to attract the younger image-conscious skiers and boarders, but is this the best way? Maybe it is, maybe ski resorts should throw over their social media to the kids and give a young person freedom to do as they please.
The danger is that an old goat like me comes across a page sanctioned by the resort that is filled with swearing and it might just leave a nasty impression.
The other danger is that if you give your social media over to a skier or boarder, you lose control over it and it simply looks out-of-date and unprofessional.
Am I just old fashioned, should the ski resorts find the first bunch of young boarders sat on their backsides and ask them to run their social media in the hope that it will have a bit of an edge to it?
Do resorts keep their social media official or set it up so that it no longer looks like it is in any way associated with the resort or the tourist office? Or is it possible to use social media in a way that attracts younger people but doesn’t alienate others? If you were running a ski resort what would you do?
