This week and next I’ll be sharing the results from the ski resort social media marketing survey. I had originally planned to just do a couple posts, but man, there’s some really interesting stuff in here.

Let’s follow up on Facebook from yesterday with Instagram. Once again, I’ll start by rolling through the results (with a touch of commentary) and then share each of your individual responses after that.

Effectiveness

The consensus I was expecting yesterday? Found. Of the 56 resort marketers surveyed, 93% said Instagram is either “slightly” or “much” more effective today than it was three years ago. Only two respondents said it was less effective now versus then, with two others seeing no change.

Value

Nearly 29% of marketers said Facebook’s value was solely in paid, but only a single person said the same for Instagram. Instead, an incredible 46% said the main value came from the free, organic reach with the other 52% using a combination of the two.

Format

I was expecting a more distributed spread than this, instead, 3/4 of resort marketers said the simple, the original, the easy single-photo was still their bread and butter. Videos came in second with 14%. Note: The purple slice was an “other” response.

Stories

Maybe slightly higher than I expected, but even though single photos are still the preferred format, a TON of resorts are using stories.

Free Response
The question was “In a sentence, where’s your head at with FACEBOOK right now?” which 44 people replied to. Here what they said:

Show me all the pretty things!

Solid reach for a free tool. Simple expressions work best

Mostly a stoke builder for us.

Reaches our younger guests which make up the smallest group.

Growing.
Instagram is more effective organically, but users can see right through when you’re trying to sell to them. They appreciate the organic brand awareness way more than you selling them on an off-season festival that they aren’t interested in.

Flat

Using it more until I see if content gets too lost in the shuffle

Instagram is a leader in expanding brand awareness yet is poor for converting users to future purchasers for our resort.

Wish their analytics were better!

Getting There

Swipe up feature on Instagram to drive website traffic, pushing high quality imagery and catchy short video content. Not a fan of/user/publisher on IGTV

hitting the younger generation that has left FB

A great tool that reaches a younger market.

Brand play

Chugging along strong

Stories are where it’s at – highly viewed – we strive to keep the content creative with high doses of brand awareness.

It’s a great story telling platform. It seems to be a necessary evil from an advertising standpoint. We don’t see as many sales coming from Insta as we do Facebook but it’s still an important one to be advertising on due to the amount of views ads can get.

Loving every minute – except not being able to post from desktop…c’mon people, this is the 21st century!
My favorite platform, I am working on inspiring the social team to really get into Stories this season and to continue this into the offseason.

Instagram has the broadest reach of all the social channels we utilize. It is still about overall brand for us with IG.

Better way to reach younger ppl

Insta stories and live is very now with younger demographic

Still trying to figure out best way to monetize

It’s great for our products as it’s very visual and less about information or selling, plus our millennial audience is very active on insta.

Stories stories stories…

Currently the best platform for us, but we expect it to follow Facebook’s path and become less relevant.

Oh god the story expired, time to go get another one.

Top dog.

It’s easy for our brand to connect with consumers, mostly organically, but it’s great for branding and timely content. We haven’t done much with direct sales pieces and measuring ROI.
Stories are perfect for the ski industry, bring your Snow Report to where people are spending their time.

Showing off

Instagram has been great for reaching millennials. It works well for our skiing and summer/fall weddings.

It’s a way for people to see how awesome this place is.

it’s looking good – easier than facebook, at times

We’re starting to use Instagram more than Facebook and just a year ago it was the other way around.

Instagram is peaking right now – it’s personally my favorite social media platform and is incredibly powerful, especially with added features on stories and the advertising capabilities.

Instagram stories as paid media is fire right now.

Keep it beautiful and simple.

Beautiful pictures are key

It’s a priority and works well for us.

If you’re looking to target the younger market this is perfect, but there parents are on facebook.

Instagram sucks

A decided upbeat recap with lots of people talking about stories.

Okay, that’s it for Instagram. Tomorrow? Twitter.

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.