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Is a One-Time Build Out of Your Resorts Facebook Timeline Wasting Valuable Content?

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July 2nd, 2012By: Gregg Blanchard

Many resorts have already built out their Facebook Timeline’s with interesting facts, stories, milestones, and upgrades. As a lover of all things ski history, it’s been fun to see this mix of the old and the new filling my news feed during the last few months.

But that “filling” is exactly what I’m worried about and, if I were in your shoes, might consider doing differently from here on out.

I Love Brundage
I absolutely love Brundage Mountain Resort and the nearby town of McCall, Idaho. It’s one of the most beautiful, relaxing places I’ve ever been. So, when the resort started building out their Timeline, I was glad they were showing up in my feed.

Within an hour two, nearly 10 items from Brundage showed up. On one hand I was surprised that so much content passed the EdgeRank check and was being shown. On the other hand, my marketing side wondered if may there is a better way.

Slow Drip or Full Throttle?
If you haven’t yet built out your timeline, or if you stumble accross more content you plan to add, I’d consider slowly adding these facts and photos over time instead of all at once. I think this would do a few things.

  • Give each piece of content the best chance to be seen on any given day. If EdgeRank is going to let this much through, putting it next to 8 other pieces of content from your resort may cause some of the best stuff to not get noticed. It’s the same principle behind large photo albums. You may have a great photo in spot #28, but the odds aren’t good I’ll make it there.
  • If that holds true, the “slow drip” could get you more engagement on each piece. Consistently higher engagement over time means each piece you share after that has a higher chance of being seen.
  • This method would also give you content for those summer days when there’s nothing else to share. Rather than go a few days without posting, building out your Timeline is a great way to keep unique content coming.

It’s not a guarantee to double engagement of get massive visibility on each piece, but I do think it would help.

Gather all the content you need but build it out slowly. Give each piece of content the focus and attention it deserves and keep a stash of quality stuff you can share on slow days and weeks.


  • http://tomwintermedia.com tom winter

    Quality not quantity for content. Always. . . otherwise you're just creating static.

    • http://www.slopefillers.com GreggBlanchard

      Tom, great point. For Timelines, the quantity will always be there it's just a matter of how to pace the distribution. In this case, smaller quantity helps improve each piece's quality.

  • http://www.wackytourist.com Shawn_Alain

    Are you sure adding milestones posts effects EdgeRank at all? Here's my theory/speculation with no real facts to support this but I don't think adding milestones or cover photos is included (positive or negative) in your EdgeRank score. The reason I believe this is because FB admins can see what our reach was for each post in the bottom left but these stats do not appear on milestones or on new covers.
    You can also hide milestone posts from your newsfeed but ya they are interesting and drive people to your page so it is better to space them out.

    • http://www.slopefillers.com GreggBlanchard

      Great point, Shawn. I could be wrong, but I believe that interactions with those pieces of content still feed signals into EdgeRank even though the insights platform doesn't extend to those pieces of info. Probably more of an issues around the limits of insights than the limits of EdgeRank.

      • http://www.wackytourist.com Shawn_Alain

        Waddya think about covers? They do show up in the newsfeed and get little engagement. They also don't give an engagement score. We change ours daily and managed to keep a top TAP and talking throughout the ski season. Again, this is speculation but I believe these aren't counted in EdgeRank.

  • http://www.skipedia.co.uk Iain

    Agree entirely on that. Or, if there's masses of content, there is that handy 'Hide from Timeline' check box…

Industry Social Snapshot

Totals and averages from all North American ski resorts' social media activity.
total views new yest mo grwth
39,529,594 12,674 1.18%
total fols/+1 new yest mo grwth
36,544 25 4.79%
avg score was yest 7-day
45.26 45.32 -0.67
total fols new yest mo grwth
333,038 297 2.51%
total page likes new yest mo grwth
256,448 17 0.69%
total fols new yest mo grwth
13,294 21 4.56%

Resort Social Dashboard

View any North American resort's social media performance & compare them to other mountain resorts.

About: Gregg Blanchard

SlopeFillers is run by marketer and skier / snowboarder, Gregg Blanchard. He loves writing in 3rd person, meeting the talented people who read this blog, pretending to be a web developer, and eating reuben sandwiches. Need more dirt on Southern Edwards, Colorado's most famous ski marketing blogger taller than 6'?
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