Darcy Morse is the director of communications for Sunday River Resort where she oversees the resort’s internal and external communications (including social media and in the winter months, snow reporting) and media relations. She’s a born and raised Mainer who grew up skiing and snowboarding on the slopes of Sunday River before attending the University of Maine Orono and later the University of Denver. To date, she’s been in the ski resort industry now for well over a decade, with some time spent at Winter Park Resort as their Communications Manager before deciding to move back home and into her current gig. When she’s not at her computer or on her phone or on-mountain, she’s probably chasing her two-year-old daughter/washing dishes/or renovating her and her husband’s home and pretending that it counts as physical training needed for events that she’s signed up for this summer.
MySpace seizures, personalities and patience, and on never being off the record
What was your first experience with social media?
I would have to say MySpace. I know that I dabbled with AIM and other outlets, but MySpace stands out as the first one I really cared about or used with any frequency. It was new, flashy, and I was just out of college so it allowed me to keep tabs on my friends. Plus, you could customize your page with just about anything imaginable, which I thought was really cool … right up until my younger brother warned me that anyone visiting my page risked a seizure. Apparently I wasn’t as cool as I thought. That was probably the day MySpace and I broke up and I started dating Facebook. Now I use it along with Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and YouTube almost 100 percent for work-related projects.
What do you like about social media?
From a business standpoint, I love the instant gratification of good social media. When it’s done well and it’s thoughtful, the rewards can be significant and almost always worth the time involved. And, while it sounds cliché (mainly because it’s continually drilled into the minds of anyone even remotely invested into social media), the real benefit remains being able to listen to your customer. When things are good, you learn a lot from their excitement and enthusiasm. When things are bad, well … your customers never hesitate to let you know.
The impact that social media has on Sunday River’s business has continued to grow and evolve since the resort started using it to communicate directly to its fans/followers. What started with an online forum for our fans to talk to us and one another has grown into multiple channels and the real need for someone to help implement a strategy for marketing to and talking with these audiences. Case and point, this past winter we hired a Digital Marketing Communications Manager for the first time ever to help drive all of our social media and visual content. Her name is Shelley Bowen (@shelabo), and more often than not, she’s the creative force behind what you see on Sunday River’s social media channels (she’s also our brochure and trail map cover girl, so really her title should probably be Content Queen). A few years ago, there really wasn’t a need for a position like this and now it’s hard to imagine what I did before this position existed.
As for the impact that social media has on society … I’d like to think that it’s making us better citizens, but if you watch the news or even follow the news via social media, there are times you question this. It’s given us access to information and people, and we can now record moments in lives in some pretty beautiful ways. That said, while I love being able to scroll through pictures and thoughts from my past, as a mom with two beautiful little girls, social media has become just one more thing for me to worry about as they get older.
What do you dislike about social media?
Professionally, what I dislike about social media is how addictive it is, how competitive it can be, and how it’s always “on”. On the one hand, you want those fans and those followers and their feedback, and on the other hand, sometimes (just sometimes!) you wish they’d go to bed early or sleep in a bit so you could do the same. And then there are the times where you think you have content that you consider to be social media gold and before you know it, another brand or competitor has already done it. It’s also a study in personalities and patience. It’s hard not to feel personally responsible for someone’s bad day/ experience, and it’s especially hard not to get caught up in their emotions with them. I’m constantly reminding myself and my team to take deep breathes – not just to keep us sane, but to keep our perspectives balanced.
Personally, social media use is tough. I love being able to keep up with friends and family members, and connect to people who inspire me professionally, however, at the end of the day, I’m in public relations and it goes back to that first lesson you learn: You’re never off the record. If you’re putting something out there on social media – it’s most definitely not off the record! As a result, I would say that my personal use really isn’t personal any more, except for maybe when I post pictures of my family. Even then you’re probably only seeing the good and not necessarily the pictures of when my two-year-old is tantruming. It’s my life…#filtered. In fact, just yesterday I read an article about raising confident little girls from as young as five years old and it noted that the mother you are in-person is as influential as the version of you that they see online. Let’s talk about added pressure, shall we?!
What would it be like for you to disconnect from social media for six months?
Amazing? Unthinkable? Something in between? I’d certainly free up some time though, knowing me, I would find a way to fill it; my family would probably need to relearn what I look like without the glow of an iPhone or computer screen to identify me by; and I would definitely miss/forget people’s birthdays.
If you could only use three words to describe social media, what would they be?
Content may self-destruct.
Is there a person or brand that you think uses social media effectively?
Jay Peak (Facebook) — They’ve developed this brand voice that is enviable. They’re one of the few ski resorts that can get away with telling it like it is…to a certain point.
Aspen Snowmass (Tumblr) — They’re photography is amazing and how they use it throughout social media is dialed in.
Red Bull (Content Pool) — The content that they produce is mind-blowingly good.
On the Plus Side (blog) — She’s a good friend and an even better writer, and it’s been really fun to see the growth of her blog go from something personal to something still personal, but now picked up by media.
I want to thank Darcy for taking the time to talk with me about her opinions on, and experience with, social media.
You can find Darcy on Twitter at: @DarcyMorse
Sunday River Resort Social Media
Facebook
facebook.com/sundayriver
Twitter
twitter.com/sundayriver (general news) and twitter.com/sundayriversnow (winter conditions reporting)
Instagram
instagram.com/sundayriver
tumblr
sundayriver.tumblr.com
YouTube
youtube.com/sundayriver
Vimeo
vimeo.com/sundayriver
Pinterest
pinterest.com/sundayriver
Foursquare
foursquare.com/sundayriver
Sunday River Online Community
community.sundayriver.com
Tough Mountain Challenge – Facebook Page
facebook.com/toughmountain
www.sundayriver.com