How Facebook can make or break your 2018 ski season

Facebook is more temperamental than snow forecasts of late, promising one thing, delivering another, showering you with snow love then slapping you down with rain. It’s enough to send you into therapy.

Why don’t you love the snow froth, Facebook?

You’d think after the data debacle when users left in droves that Facebook would be enticing the rest of us to remain. But no, some guy called algorithm decided that you won’t be seeing the news of any of your friends you accepted or requested on your personal news feed but you will be seeing random pages you liked back in 2007 when you first joined.

Then that same algorithm guy decided that start ups and small businesses will be given the same financial treatment as big wigs like Nike, Apple, Buzzfeed and the like, you know the brands with big budgets, the same brands who can afford to boost posts and advertise to ensure their community see their content. If you don’t have their budget then the community who want to see you and the community you’ve invested big hours to build up will simply forget you existed.

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The irony is that all these years it’s those small businesses that have been advertising for Facebook with the Facebook logos and icons on websites and other social media. These businesses have been driving traffic to Facebook’s platform and for doing so they must now be punished.

Put simply, videos that used to gain tens of thousands of views are now seen by hundreds. Posts that would go viral are now collecting cobwebs. The algorithm forces people to spend money they don’t have with empty promises of being seen by their own community.

It’s like charging dollars for entry to the family Christmas dinner and then serving up tofurky.

How does this impact your ski season?

The irony of this blog is I will post it on Facebook and you may never get to read it, because, algorithms.

It depends on Facebook’s love and hate cycle, one post of mine on the Miss Snow It All Facebook page may reach 30 000 + and another may reach 800. It’s so random and even with content that is highly engaging or connects specifically with our market we’re not guaranteed that you will see it and this make me sad.

I love snow and I know you do too. But there are days I feel like I am speaking to an empty hall and that’s not great for me, you, my clients or my business. In December 2016 we reached over 7 million people for the month through our Facebook page, the southern season last year our videos were seen by over 1.1 million people, during peak season we regularly reach 200 000 – 600 000 per week, more if there’s new snow. I knew then that you were always getting the snow news you love and that made me happy.

Then along came algorithm and now I definitely know that many of you may be missing out on snowfall, snow forecasts, industry news, athlete interviews, competitions to win big prizes, snow love and laughter.

I don’t have a full time team of people, an office filled with staff, a gazillion advertising dollars and a big corporation backing me to boost my content. SnowsBest is independently owned by one person, we are not a sales funnel backed with tourism business dollars, it’s just me, my laptop and a wifi connection in my pajamas juggling editorial, advertising and content specialists.

Even when I do boost a post because Facebook tell me for $20 I can reach 7400 people (uh, my community is 36 000) they then only show that boosted post to half the people they promised for the $20. Way to instil trust and brand loyalty, Zuckerberg.

What’s the snow solution?

There is a way to ensure you get to see our Miss Snow It All content.

Simply head to the top tab of our Facebook Page and click ‘following’ then in the drop down menu tick ‘see first’ and then ‘turn on notifications’. That’s it.

Voila, you should now be seeing our ski and snowboard news, views and travel content and the froth should be real.

You can also sign up for our newsletter where we send you the latest news, views, travel and deal and join our Facebook Groups for deals and chatter.