With ski season just around the corner, ski resorts are looking to harness the power of social media to appeal to millennial travelers. “Sharing photos and videos on social media is a core part of today’s travel experiences, especially amongst millennials,” said Kyle Wong, founder and CEO of Pixlee. “Putting authentic customer experiences front and center is required for travel brands to break through and connect with this hard-to-reach audience.”  The demographics’ propensity for social media requires marketers take a new approach: Using millennials’ own words and pictures to drive marketing efforts.

Here’s how three prominent ski resorts have successfully integrated user-generated content across their digital marketing channels to kick off this ski season.

1. 1. Solitude Mountain Resorts and Ski Vacation
2. Solitude Mountain Resorts and Ski Vacation put together an inspiration gallery of fan photos to engage their customers. Under the hashtag #PureSolitude #SolitudeMountainResort #SkiSolitude, Solitude Mountain Resorts asked fans to join the conversation and upload photos of their experience at the ski resort.

3. 2. Keystone Ski Resort
4. With less than two weeks away from Keystone’s Opening Day, Keystone Ski Resort is running a social media contest. Customers who share their photos at Keystone Resort on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter with the hashtag #KeystoneOpeningDay have the chance to unlock a variety of great prizes.

1. 3. Telluride Ski Resort
2. With the recent downpour in the snow in Telluride, visitors and locals alike are posting hundreds of photos showing the recent snow. Telluride is rounding up their favorite Telluride snow photos under the hashtag #TellurideSnow on Twitter and Instagram and sharing them in an inspiration gallery on its site.

Travel brands are in a prime position to engage with millennials and put the instagramable moments that they share to use. Top ski brands are driving value from customer engagement by displaying in situ photos of visitor experiences on their owned media. By prioritizing social engagement, these brands are converting customers into brand loyalists and are creating a peer-to-peer megaphone of online brand endorsement.