Does Your GM Have a Blog? Should He/She?
Gregg Blanchard /
Bossman, el capitan, chief, head honcho. Whatever nickname you attach to your GM, President, or CEO, there is something about getting information directly from the top. You don’t trust a grocery bagger or fast-food cashier with your important complaint, you’d much rather “speak with their manager.” And so it goes with skiing, you trust what the guy behind the Twitter profile says to a point, same goes for Facebook. If the GM says so, however, now that is a different story altogether.
A lot of marketing value comes from the guy that runs the whole resort taking time to explain what is going on at the mountain and why. It played a valuable role during the race to open and I believe the value continues throughout the year. A simple way to allow your skiers to build a personal connection with the big cheese is through a blog. Here are four GM/CEO blogs to take a look at and get some ideas from.
Telluride – Dave Riley
Rarely updated but good content. When Dave posts you are sure to see lots of great operating details, pictures, and personal perspective.
http://blog.tellurideskiresort.com/blogs/davesblog/default.aspx
Arapahoe Basin – Alan Henceroth
This is the best of these blogs, in my opinion. Frequently updated, lots of personal perspective, and great insider information.
http://arapahoebasin.blogspot.com/
Boston Mills Brandywine – JR
Also good content but a little big vague on who “JR” is. Not so much of a blog as a page that is occasionally updated but a good resource that I see “lower” employees reference on a regular basis.
http://www.bmbw.com/notes-gm
Mount Snow – Kelly Pawlak
The content over at Mount Snow is solid. Lots of fun personal perspective from lift rides and running the resort in general. Not a separate blog but just a type of blog post mixed in with their normal posts.
http://mountsnow.com/gm-blog-lucky-50/