More than once, recently, I’ve mentioned the idea the real power in social media isn’t found in your followers, it’s in the follower counts of your customers.

At the core has been the phrase, “give people a reason to talk.”

The internet has no shortage of “good ideas”, so let me take one step further and show you how I applied this principle a couple months ago on a side project. It has no Twitter handle, no Facebook page, no Google+ profile for this project, yet 27% of my Traffic in July has come from social media. Here’s how.

Social7 Meet SocialSav
Some of you may have noticed that I removed the link to the non-resort version of Social7 and am instead directing people to something called SocialSav. SocialSav was actually the original idea I had before I tested it as Social7 on SlopeFillers.

Once I knew it would help people, the original idea finally was launched around Christmas of 2012. It’s nothing spectacular – just over 2,000 users now – and has been sorely neglected because of more important things, but it’s given me yet another testing ground for my ideas.

Including the one I mentioned above.

One Tweak
SocialSav is identical to Social7 in every way but one: I’ve limited some of the features to “premium” users.

The catch is that you can’t pay for an upgrade. The only way to get it is by telling people about the site and hoping they join.

In other words, I’ve given people a reason to talk.

And I’ve also given them a very easy way to do so. This appears in their account:

And this appears at the bottom of every email:

I launched this feature about a month ago. Now, when you do a Twitter search for “socialsav”, this is what you get:

On Facebook, my share stats for the site look like this:

Heck, I’ve even see a good number of shares on Pinterest.

Remember, I don’t have any social media accounts for this project. I don’t worry about what to post, I’m putting zero effort into growing fan and follower counts, nothing. I setup the system and every new member (and email I send) drives it forward.

A Reminder
Now, I’m doing very little marketing on this site, so 27% of all traffic in July is a higher percentage than it normally would be, but let this serve as an example of what I mean when I say “give people a reason to talk.” Plus, because it’s all word-of-mouth traffic, it’s converting at 26% instead of the usual 10%.

In this case, the reason was an slightly better product for the user. In the case of EpicMix it’s a digital pin or on-mountain accomplishment. In SSV’s case it was a chance to ski before they opened. Powder’s reason was bragging rights. Bluehouse hand delivered skis.

So again I ask, what will it take to get your skiers talking?

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.