At the start of the season we launched our social sharing feature using the hashtag #aussieskier to display your Instagram Pics and Viddy Videos on aussieskier.com/social and also our Facebook page.
The simple ‘Shoot, Tag, Share’ instructions have been an absolute hit – at this halfway mark of the season over 600 pictures have been uploaded, and I can’t remember the last day where somebody didn’t upload a picture. Furthermore pics have been rolling in from all the major resorts and from extended members of the community – of course it was with the help of my mates that this concept was kickstarted but now on top of that we have dozens of aussieskier readers with whom I have no affiliation who are making amazing contributions.
So to all I have one message: THANK YOU!!!!!
Through this community effort thousands of readers are able to see the best of the conditions each day of the season at all the resorts – aussieskier.com is a ‘one man band’ and there is only so much I can cover on my own, though I am assisted with a blogger at Hotham, but it’s through these efforts by readers across the Vic & NSW resorts that we all benefit. I myself now feel more informed about the conditions elsewhere due to the pictures coming in, so I can only assume that all readers feel a similar way.
The 100 or so most recent pictures are available for viewing on aussieskier.com/social or through the Photo Albums on our Facebook Page, however if you would like to scroll through the entire history of #aussieskier photos you can do so here: http://hashgr.am/aussieskier. You can also search for the Hashtag #aussieskier within the Instagram app on your phone, and on the Facebook Albums there is an instagr.am URL to each photo so you can start following your favourite users. The more you follow and like the pictures, the more incentive there is for people to continue!
There’s no doubt that Instagram is a hit, and this was validated by Facebook recently purchasing it for a cool $1 billion. But when I was working on this feature I also thought ahead about Video. Skiing & snowboarding are action sports and video is the best medium to convey this. I looked around for what was the video equivalent of Instagram and the answer was Viddy. This may sound stupid but out of its competitors, the reason I chose Viddy was because Justin Beiber was using it. Yes that sounds totally lame but he is a ‘tour de force’ of social media and has the horsepower to ‘make’ a service.
Things have been a little slow on the Viddy side, which I anticipated as the service is newer and still growing, but I think it has a lot to offer the community. Unfortunately like Instagram it was first developed for iPhone with an Android version yet to be released, and it’s API is still in beta so I’m not able to integrate it as closely as I have with the pictures, but this will all improve with time.
Naturally the best way to kickstart this is with a competition. I’m currently working on a prize pack with a couple of the companies I have affiliations with, I will announce it in the next couple of weeks. So download the Viddy app & learn how it works!
Let me know in the comments below what you think of the concept so far? Do you mind so many photos appearing in your Facebook feed? Any other feedback?
