This Swiss ski resort has the best command of social media
SOCIAL MEDIA The Austrians are doing well on Facebook, while the Swiss have a better handle on Twitter. That’s the conclusion of a study by Webguerillas, which examined the social media presence of ten ski resorts.
Many ski resorts in the Alps rely on social media to attract visitors.Among the largest ski resorts in Austria and Switzerland, Ischgl and St. Moritz are the winners on the social web: Ischgl sets the tone on Facebook, while St. Moritz is the top dog on Twitter. The result is symbolic: overall, the ski resorts in Austria have a better grip on Facebook, scoring points here with a higher number of posts and more intensive interaction with their community. Overall, the Swiss tend to shine on Twitter. This is confirmed by the latest Triple A check by webguerillas, Germany's leading agency for alternative advertising and influencer marketing. webguerillas examined the social media presences of the five largest ski resorts in Austria and Switzerland - based on the number of kilometers of slopes on the respective websites. For ski associations, the individual presence with the most followers was analyzed. The following entered the race for Austria: Ski Arlberg, Skiwelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental, Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn, Ischgl and Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis. For Switzerland, Les Portes du Soleil, Verbier, Matterhorn Ski Paradise, Engadin St. Moritz and Davos Klosters Mountains were in the starting gate.Analysis of Facebook and TwitterFor the study, webguerillas Munich analyzed the two social media platforms Facebook and Twitter using 21 different key performance indicators such as relative growth or the number of admin posts, which were condensed into four core values: "Brand Punch" stands for the brand's own activities on the social web. "Brand Awareness" provides information about the size and activity of the community. "Brand Applause" summarizes the approval of the users - for example through likes or retweets. "Amplification" describes the virality of the content, i.e. how quickly or easily it spreads online. The platforms were examined from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015.Ischgl is ahead on FacebookIschgl may be one of the smallest ski resorts - with 238 kilometers of slopes, it is in 9th place overall - but it is one of the biggest on Facebook. With almost 90,000 likes, Ischgl has the third-largest fan base among the ski resorts, with only Saalbach (155,247 likes) and Portes du Soleil (113,643 likes) being more popular. And that's not all: on a standardized scale from -1 to +1, the Tyroleans achieve the best average value overall with +0.40, leaving the Matterhorn (+0.36) and St. Anton am Arlberg (+0.34) behind. Looking at the individual core values of the survey, the overall winner Ischgl occupies places in the upper midfield in the ranking. In terms of Facebook punch, however, it has the lowest score: -0.57. Saalbach invests significantly more here and achieves the highest score of +0.6. However, the high investment in Facebook does not necessarily seem to be paying off for them: Although they have the highest awareness score (+0.96) thanks to their large fan community, they only achieve the lowest score among the competitors in terms of Applause (-0.84) and Amplification (-0.88).
Ischgl is the most popular ski resort on Facebook, followed by the Matterhorn and St. Anton"The example of Saalbach Hinterglemm shows very clearly that not all content that is posted automatically spreads online - no matter how large the community is. It depends on the right content to strike a chord with the target group. The ski resort on the Matterhorn illustrates this: "The punch value there is average, but the amplification and applause values are by far the best," says David Eicher, Managing Director of webguerillas.Swiss more present on TwitterOn Twitter, Swiss ski resorts performed better overall than their Austrian neighbors in the test. Engadin-St. Moritz achieved the best average score on the short message service (+0.37). With 5,553 followers, the exclusive vacation resort has the most popular Twitter account in the ranking. Engadin-St. Moritz is in the upper range in all four individual categories, achieving top marks for awareness (+0.92). In terms of punch, they are in second place behind Saalbach (+0.82) (+0.59). The webguerillas' Triple A check also shows that tweets from St. Moritz are retweeted or given a little heart particularly often. The largest ski resort overall, Portes du Soleil (600 kilometers of slopes), achieved second place with an average value of +0.34, followed by the only Austrian outlier: the largest Austrian ski resort, St. Anton am Arlberg (+0.18).
The Engadin St. Moritz ski region is ahead on Twitter, followed by Portes du Soleil and St. Anton."Overall, our analysis shows that both the communities and the ski resorts themselves are significantly more active on both social media channels in winter. What is striking is that Twitter still has significant potential in the regions we analyzed - the orders of magnitude here are at a much lower level than on Facebook, for example. The Matterhorn in Switzerland does not even have a Twitter account yet. The same applies to Twitter as to Facebook: "Many tweets do not mean high virality," adds David Eicher. The Triple A check by webguerillas Munich also reveals the weakness of ski resorts on YouTube: the Swiss ski resort of Verbier has only uploaded one video to its YouTube channel in the current 2015/2016 winter season. "Action cameras and drones have long been an integral part of sport. With their spectacular and thrilling shots, they offer the perfect footage to attract ski enthusiasts to the slopes. There is therefore no way around YouTube," continues the webguerillas Managing Director.
