Summer Update Series Pt.3

Welcome to our summer update series! As our year-round employees know, the fun never stops at Shawnee Mountain. Our winter season typically runs from late November through late March, and summer prep starts immediately following our closing day. This week we met with… ourselves! In case you haven’t seen us around, we’re Rachel and Michaela, and we sat down to discuss the projects that keep us busy during the off-season.

A little bit about Rachel:

I was born and raised with a love for the slopes, I learned to ski at Shawnee Mountain at the age of 2 and picked up snowboarding by 13. My journey at Shawnee continued through high school, working in both the rental and repair departments for 4 seasons. My passion for the outdoors took me to out west to Boulder, Colorado for college. However, family brought me back to Pennsylvania where I married my husband, Claes, and now have two energetic boys. In 2019, I returned to my roots at Shawnee Mountain, diving into social media, and by 2021, I oversaw our general marketing.  I have passed on my love for skiing to my boys, teaching them to ski at just 15 and 18 months old. It continues to be a passion for my entire family, and I feel privileged to raise my two boys at this beautiful, family-focused, independent mountain.

A little bit about Michaela:

Michaela joined Shawnee during the 2014/15 season as a seasonal Group Sales Associate. Her then-boss, Kevin Adams, created a workplace atmosphere that kept Michaela coming back every winter while she completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art. While working in Group Sales, Michaela met her husband, Alex, and the rest was history.

Michaela went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Arts Administration, and took a full-time position with Shawnee in 2019 as their Social Media Manager and Marketing Assistant. Michaela never truly loved the cold or snow until she snapped into a pair of skis this past winter and immediately fell in love (and also just fell – a lot) with the sport. Now Michaela is going into her tenth season with the mountain and is looking forward to hitting the slopes and continuing to learn how to ski alongside her daughter and snowboarder husband.

Summertime Marketing at Shawnee

Rachel: Hi I’m Rachel

Michaela: I’m Michaela

Rachel: And we are your marketing team here at Shawnee Mountain. We just wanted to come on a little bit to talk about what we do in the off season. It’s kind of a busy time for us cuz we’re ramping up for season pass sales and locker sales and just general ticketing. Michaela can tell you a little bit more about what she’s been up to.

Michaela: So I’ve been working on building out the social media calendar, we do like to plan that months in advance so all of the winter posts that are gonna go up are being planned now. I also do all of the design work. So we’re working on our billboards for the fall and the winter, working on all of our social media graphics, anything that will go up on the website, too. We’re also, with our web developer, redesigning the website so that’s gonna look really nice for winter, and even for when season passes go on sale July 1^st. We also spend a lot of the time this summer getting content out on the mountain and going around and showing you, like in these videos, what we’re doing.

“You’d think a ski resort in the summer is dead, but it’s not — we’re as busy as ever, so that’s something that we like to capture in photo and video and post on social media for you guys to see.”

Rachel: Yeah I think part of our persona is obviously being family friendly but I- we try to be transparent with you guys so we want you to see what’s going on. We’re not just sitting around doing nothing all summer even though there’s not a lot happening for the public, we are really busy and we want to show it off to you guys. And check out our live webcams because they are actually pointed where they’re doing a lot of lift work right now. So if you ever want to see what we’re up to, feel free to hop on. Make sure you guys are also signed up to get our emails. Michaela has been sending out some awesome blogs which are really fun to read, and it also signs you up for our texts. So you’ll get an alert when season passes go on sale, lift tickets go on sale, festival tickets like our food truck festival in October. So it’s just a really great, easy way to stay connected and it’s kinda mindless, you just get a text and you can check out what we have going on.

Michaela: We’re also gearing up for our intern search. We’ll have an intern start probably the beginning of October. And they’re going to help out a lot with social media and content making, so if that’s something that you’re interested in, it’s never too early to reach out to us. You can always send us a message or an email and we’ll be looking for that intern to come in and join our team.

Rachel: Yeah. And we hope to see you all at the fireworks. It’s a donation-based event for the Shawnee fire company. It’s July 5^th. It’s on our beginner’s hill which is a better viewing area, it’s going to be flat, bring your chairs, bring your blankets. We’ll have food trucks and a live DJ and we’re excited to see you all then.

Michaela: Bye

Written on: June 18, 2024  |  Written by: Michaela K., Marketing Asst.