How not to Use Social Media, Part 2
Earlier today I noted that whoever is running the official Facebook fan page for Welch Village wasn’t, to put it politely, using it well.
I just looked at the page a few minutes and noticed a few other choice items. For example, on December 7, a fan asked “Any more runs open today???” The official reply was “What does the snow report on our website say?”
I’ve been an Internet/e-mail user long enough to know that it’s hard to infer someone’s emotional state from the written word alone, but as I read it, that response conveys boredom, contempt, or both.
On December 8, in response to someone’s question, Welch replied “We will post the weekend outlook by Thursday. We should have about 20 runs or so.” That was a fine response. Then shortly after, the Welch Facebook person added, “I’m sure someone will ask why we won’t have more…”
Get snippy with your customers much?
On December 9, the tone continued to be less than responsive. In response to the question, “What’s your guys plan for opening runs?,” the Welch Facebook manager answered “We plan to open more.”
A better response, of course, would be something like “We’re aiming to open runs X and Y first,” or “We want to open these kinds of runs first” or even “Everything depends on the weather, but we think we can have all the runs covered in ___ days if all goes well.” Instead, the Facebook manager appears to have let the negative attitudes of a few people goad him (or her) into adopting a surly attitude.
And now for the fact that drove me to write this post: Someone at Welch Village has apparently removed some of the nasty back-and-forth exchanges that were previously on the fan page. In one exchange, someone said, in effect, “Hey, why are you insulting your customers?” That’s exactly what I thought. Even if your customers deserve to be insulted, you shouldn’t do it. Nor should you enter into new media if you’re going to whitewash history.
December 15, 2009 @ 9:16 pm
Wow I can't believe the mountain would have that person talking directly to guests that way. Social media is huge and each day that person gets to have a conversation with a guest that could leave a lasting impression, obviously you want to leave a positive one and not a negative one.
December 15, 2009 @ 10:47 pm
So many people fail at understand how social media actually works. I was reading something from Vail about what they plan to do with social media and all I could think about was how they flipped out when I slammed Keystone for having ski patrollers that were over the top. They could have handled it better and yet in the end its costing them.
Guess resorts need to step out of the dark and into the light with how to effectively utilize their social media.
December 16, 2009 @ 9:15 am
not all together surprising considering what Welch has done in the past.
They drove the traveling ski school SkiJammers away by enforcing a strict "No bag lunch" policy. If you want to bring your own lunch, Welch requires that you eat it in your car and not in any of their buildings. The logic was that people who bring bag lunches will not buy their cafeteria food.
So now SkiJammers doesn't go their any more…instead taking their 1,500 lift tickets elsewhere each Saturday.
They don't allow "pot-lucks" at snowboard contests (which is a bummer because parents would always get together to bring a bunch of hot food for kids and coaches).
December 16, 2009 @ 2:00 pm
Banning bagged lunches? I've been to WV and I've taken a lunch, but I have never gotten in trouble. Maybe that's a benefit of munching on sandwiches between runs.
Banning potlucks? I can see banning hotpots, if only to prevent the electrical system from blowing. But banning potlucks seems so … draconian.
There's also the issue of having banned "aggressive carving."
As for the Facebook page, customers can be a pain in the neck. But someone has not handled the situation well.