Every once in a while I’ll run a report that, among other things, shows me the annual tweet volume of each ski resort in North America.

Typically I’ll use this to identify resorts that have changed their handle or moved to a new/different/whatever account that they weren’t using before. But as I’ve gone through this list recently I’ve noticed something a bit surprising.

More and more abandoned accounts.

Many Reasons
Naturally there will be some accounts that go unused when the ski area closes.

• @tuxedoridge
• @SaddlebackMaine
• @Ski_Baldy

And there are some, like I mentioned, that moved to a new handle for one reason or another.

• @RoundtopMtnRsrt → @RoundtopMtn
• @montdulac → @mdlresort
• @BlackjackResort → @SkiBlackjack

But there are an equal number that just, well, stop posting. Stop tweeting. Stop replying. No sign of another account, no new username they’re linking to from the ski area website. Nothing.

Some of those include:

• @LabradorMtn
• @NubsNobSkiArea
• @SkiHesperus
• @Ski_Val_dIrene
• @SkiMontHabitant
• @georgianpeaks

While Facebook has seen a very small number of pages go completely unused, the same cannot be said for – yes, you likely saw this coming – Google+ where it’s not just small ski areas closing up shop, but large resorts as well.

• +Waterville Valley
• +Sugarbush
• +Windham
• +Snowshoe
• +Breckenridge
• +Big Sky
• +Alta
• +Mammoth
• +Copper
• +Steamboat
• +Vail

The lesson here is three-fold.

First, the hyper-growth of resorts joining social networks for the sake of joining social networks has subsided.

Second, a slight contraction has begun – especially among smaller areas – as they stop updating those accounts.

Third, Google+ really is dead. For every large resort that’s still updating their account regularly, there’s another that’s been gone for 6-12 months or more.

I honestly like this trend. True some of the buzz has been replaced by things like Snapchat and the growth of Instagram, but seeing a future where resorts can focus on two or three key sites where they get 95% of value while being able to ignore the rest is a future I can get behind.

Especially for small ski areas where one is plenty and that one, as far as I can tell, is going to be Facebook for the forseeable future.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.