Trends Q: How much faster does a resort’s Facebook fan count grow when it is snowing outside?

A few weeks ago, we used season-long snowfall data to see how one aspect of skier behavior might be impacted by the knowledge that flakes are falling at your resort. This week, we took this data to the social sphere to see how much faster a ski resort’s fan page grows when it snows that day. Pretty interesting stuff. Take a look.

The Goods
We used daily snowfall data throughout the 2011/2012 season, provided by Weather Underground, for 25 ski resorts with a combined 535,000 Facebook fans. If snowfall was recorded, that specific day was labeled as a “snow day” (and visa-versa) and then daily fan growth was compared. Here’s how it broke down:

On days that snow fell, fan counts grew by .279%. On days that no snow fell, fan counts grew by .238%. To compare those two number in more clear terms, fan growth was 16.99% higher on days that it snowed.

Why This Matters
There are two lessons to be learned. First, the results from our past snowfall analysis are supported by another behavior – this time “liking” a ski resort’s Facebook fan page. Snow falling at your resort makes your message and voice more relevant.

Second, fan growth remains a major focus for many social media managers and marketers. When planning an ad buy or other effort to get more people to “like” your resort brand, consider that your efforts could be significantly impacted solely by the snow that is or isn’t falling at your resort that day.

In other words, snow makes your resort more “likeable”. On obvious lesson, but an important one to remember.

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