The other day I tweeted something. Something fairly small but within it was an observation on a trend. And like all observations, I wasn’t sure if I was alone or if there was a larger group of people feeling the same way I did.

Here’s the tweet:

Can I say how much I like it when someone on camera doing a resort video just talks like a human? Nothing inherently wrong with trying to sound like the 10-o'clock news, but comes off awkward if you don't have the touch. Nice work, @brandoslc, and congrats on a great season. https://t.co/QcTR8GpYIN

— Gregg Blanchard (@slopefillers) April 26, 2019

I’ve learned over the years that a tweet with 10+ likes might be something worth talking about more, but a tweet with 20+ likes is something definitely is. And perhaps more than once.

Breakdown
So let’s do that and start by asking what I mean when I say:

“Nothing inherently wrong with trying to sound like the 10-o’clock news, but comes off awkward if you don’t have the touch.”

It’s probably no surprise that the folks on the evening news talk…well…differently. Their voice goes up when it normally goes down. It goes down when we’d expect it to go up. It’s goes from one to the other, other to the one, flat randomly, the back again.

It makes zero sense when you break it down, but yet it works. It’s that perfect (intentional) blend of non-biased and and keeping your attention for their purposes.

The Thing
Here’s the thing: behaviors that are hard to wrap you head around are also things that are really, really hard to mimic.

So we have a ton of people on camera at resorts trying to sound like the 10-o’clock news because they thing that’s the voice they are most familiar with, but mostly struggling to replicate. Some get it. Some can absolutely make it happen. But dozens of others, for whatever reason, can’t. It’s sorta like trying to speak french without actually knowing french. You can make similar sounds, but they don’t work together like they should.

And then you get a video like this:

Brandon is just…well…talking. Like a human. And it’s refreshing, it’s personal, and it honestly works really well. I’m not watching the news, I’m talking to a friend.

An Alternative
If you’re on camera with any regularity at your resort, I’d suggest you try giving the human angle a go. Don’t try to be a news anchor, just be yourself. Don’t try to perform, just…well…talk.

You don’t have to be unbiased, you don’t have to sound like you aren’t taking sides. You’re talking about skiing, not gunshot victims and politics. You love this stuff. You live this stuff. And if you risk sounding awkward in an effort to avoid sounding like you care, maybe you should just talk like you feel.

Maybe.

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.