Although social media marketing is much more about quality than quantity, I thought it would be interesting to see how many fans different ski resorts have racked up. Later in this series, I’ll also be publishing figures for other countries, and also for British snowsports companies.
The Top 10 French Ski Resorts on Facebook
1. Megeve (32087 fans)
2. Val Thorens (16886)
3. Chamonix (15972)
4. Tignes (15130)
5. Les Arcs (10126)
6. Alpe d’Huez (7693)
7. La Plagne (6583)
8. Serre Chevalier (6386*)
9. Courchevel (5722)
10. Val d’Isere (4340)
* Serre Chevalier also has an individual person page as well as a fan page, with 3811 fans. Both these pages are currently maintained and used – a strategy that Natives.co.uk also employs as it can give some more options for functionality.
Categories
It was also interesting to see the variety of categories the resorts have chosen to describe themselves. They have labelled themselves variously as ‘Travel/Leisure’, ‘Company’, ‘Local business’ and ‘Product Service’. It’s worth noting that the new tagging feature on Facebook currently only allows some of these categories to be tagged.
Where is Meribel?
The one surprising omission from this list is Meribel, by volume of skier and snowboarders, certainly one of the top resorts in France. There are a number of unofficial pages, but the ‘official’ Meribel page amazingly has just 1845 fans.
Know better?
Although I did spend a fair amount of time researching this, I’m not claiming it’s definitive. If you know better, please do comment below or contact me to let me know.
Next up will be the Top 10 Austrian Ski Resorts on Facebook…
By Iain Martin
14 comments
Vix says:
May 13, 2011
nice. next up, Austria?
prud homme says:
May 13, 2011
it s very strange
megeve :more of 30 000 fans
and the number is less important than activities on FB
see you
iain says:
May 13, 2011
Salut Prud Homme. Bien note and now amended. And I totally agree that the activity is much more important overall – volume of fans says nothing in itself.
@Vix: Yes, Austria next.
Léo says:
May 20, 2011
Hello Iain,
thank you for this study, it’s really interesting and your blog is well built 🙂
I’m a community manager for the official Méribel facebook page.
I do understand your surprise as per fan numbers, but thankfully this number is getting bigger everyday.
The truth is that the Méribel official page is young. Because of the many existing unofficial pages and the Meribel-Courchevel page it takes time to create a fan base for our page. We have been concentrating on the content of the page and the ways to interact with our fans, as the number of fans, just like you said, is not everything 🙂
The quality of our fans comments shows that we are doing something right, we’re very happy with the way this page is going. Hopefully we will make it to this list, in time!
Thank you again from everyone at Meribel3valleesofficial.
Join us on
http://www.facebook.com/meribel3valleesofficial
iain says:
May 20, 2011
Thanks for that positive feedback Leo. I’m sure Méribel will catch up quickly, and I can see that there are a number of unofficial pages that will have confused some Facebook users. Hopefully we can follow progress through the year and maybe meet up next winter! Bon ete…
Chx says:
Jun 9, 2011
Megève use Facebook Ads to promote his page…
iain says:
Jun 10, 2011
Not necessarily a bad strategy. It all depends on what they are paying and what they are getting out of it. I wonder if there is anyone in their head office working out a ROI figure?
Portes du Soleil says:
Jun 14, 2011
Hello, just to inform you that the Portes du Soleil is the most followed ski area on facebook. More than 20 000 fans! We have ski resorts like Avoriaz, Morzine, Les Gets, Châtel in our area ! Find us on facebook:http://www.facebook.com/lesportesdusoleil
iain says:
Jun 14, 2011
Thanks for that. I didn’t spot that one – perhaps it should be promoted better on the individual resort websites.
Megeve and Saalbach do still both come in higher I think overall though.
Portes du Soleil says:
Jun 14, 2011
Thanks, we’re doing both too. Avoriaz, the most famous resort of the area has 5695 followers so far… But it seems to be the Portes du Soleil’s facebook that pleases best the fans… Perhaps because we talk in the name of all resorts, …who knows ? If you have any clue, i’m interested! ;o)
Ski Independence says:
Jun 22, 2011
This is all very interesting, thanks! We’ve been wondering when the European resorts will catch up with their North American counterparts. It would help if the French & Austrian resorts could also post in English for those who don’t speak French or German.
Now following the 3 Valles & the Portes du Soleil, which we didn’t know existed on Facebook, so thanks!
Ski Independence says:
Jun 22, 2011
Also, if you’ve got any tips for us on how to grow our fan base, that would be fantastic. We have nearly 1300 followers on Twitter but they don’t seem to want to join in on Facebook. Thanks!
iain says:
Jun 22, 2011
@SkiIndependence: Did you know that you can choose for your status updates to only to be seen by, say, English speakers, or German speakers?
I’m not sure many resorts are taking account of that.
re the Portes du Soleil page, it escaped me for a while too…
re advice, will drop you a mail!
Interview: Megève Tourisme’s social media marketing | Skipedia says:
Aug 25, 2011
[…] recent look at the Top 10 French Ski Resorts on Facebook showed Megève a long way in the lead with over 33,000 fans. We recently caught up with Jean Marc […]