So we were asking about getting Monarch email addresses for instructors to help them develop longer term relationships with guests. Well it seems that some department at Monarch has been working on a social network for a little while. I was very excited to hear that Monarch has officially launched its own social network called MyMonarchSpace! It’s very easy to find by going to the Ski Monarch website home page. There’s a prominent link in the right side menu.

One of the interesting things I see is the geographic locations in the member profiles. There are lots of people that are not locals. It may be that even though they live in Chicago or California or where ever, they feel like they have some kind of local connection to Monarch. Perhaps they worked at the area once upon a time or maybe grew up around here and got invited to take a look by friends of theirs that still live here. Well for what ever reason, I think it’s great. Don’t expect too much right now as the site is brand new and still needs to develop some momentum. I’m sure that as the ski season arrives and people are more active on the main Monarch website the participation will soar.

Something else I find interesting is that it seems like there are more snowboard members on the site. I wonder why that is? Perhaps it has something to do with the overall demographics of snowboarders and technology. Perhaps snowboarders tend to be younger and more willing to use or more accustomed to online social networks. Also notice that there is not a lot of information in the profiles yet. Is there a reluctance to place information in profiles to avoid identification? It’s probably because it is so new that people are reluctant to just point ‘em down hill and go. It’s going to be interesting to see how the MyMonarchSpace evolves. Even though I am pretty sure the site is moderated, I imagine MyMonarchSpace will take on a life of its own.

I’m all for being able to add more connections. You’ll find MyMonarchSpace profile there (with a reference to this blog as well). I’m still trying to figure out how we can create our own groups and such on the site. I think it’d be really great to add an “instructor” group to help people find their snow pro. Still no email addresses for all instructors (understandable), but I think savvy instructors could really make use MyMonarchSpace.