The mobile platform, custom app and social media revolutions are here and your club needs to jump on board – fast.
It’s all about grabbing attention!
Let’s pick up where we left off and dive right into how your club must be using these platforms.
The numbers keep going up! Facebook has released its first-quarter 2017 earnings and shared that it’s moving ever so close to having 2 billion people worldwide using the social network.
Imagine 1.94 billion monthly active users – that’s an 18 per cent increase from last year. 1.28 billion people use the service every day, making up 66 per cent of the monthly count.
Be where the attention is
If you are not on storytelling on Facebook, you are going to lose. Golf club operators simply can’t keep their heads in the sand and hope that this is just a fad. Your existing customers, and most important, your future golfer or member is on this platform.
My 78 year-old mother joined Facebook 5 years ago because she realized that we all shared our daily lives on this platform. Meaning, if she wanted the latest picture of one of her 10 grandchildren, she would find it posted on Facebook.
The News Feed is GOLD
Per Facebook: “The stories that show in your News Feed are influenced by your connections and activity on Facebook. This helps you to see more stories that interest you from friends you interact with the most. The number of comments and likes a post receives and what kind of story it is (ex: photo, video, status update) can also make it more likely to appear in your News Feed.”
Since your golfers and members are already on the platform, and are connected to other golfers, (because that’s who they’re friends with) and they share/post their experience during their round at your club, what do you think shows up in their friends’ news feeds?
Pictures and videos of your course, your clubhouse, your patio, your team, etc.
Get your guests and members to follow your Facebook page today.
Encourage everyone to share his or her experience. Come up with a creative hashtag – #GolfClubName2017 – #GolfClubNameCanada150 – #GolfClubNameHalloween.
Next: create a Facebook video. Get creative and tell your club’s story. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be real. Use your existing iPhone or Android phone to shoot the videos. Don’t over-edit your videos. What wins on Facebook video is authenticity.
Here are some quick tips:
1- Create square videos (better screen use for mobile users)
2- Add captions to your videos
3- Recommend viewers to tap for sound
4- Focus on one benefit or unique selling point of your club
5- Upload your videos natively (not linked from YouTube)
6- Give a great title
7- Add a call-to-action
8- Go “live” with real-time behind the scenes action
9- Boost with Facebook Ads.
In my opinion, the most powerful ad tool for golf clubs on Facebook is Lookalike Audiences. It allows you to use your customer information to find people similar to them on Facebook.
Facebook is betting on the future of video on its platform, so much that it just announced that it will be launching a new Creator app in the fall of 2017. This tool will help video makers create content for Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. The focus will be on video creation, fan engagement and video analytics.
Start today if you haven’t already. Experiment lots. Keep posting
Think of Twitter as a cocktail party. You can connect directly one-on-one with your potential target market. Follow those who follow your competitors. Follow those who are in your geographic area and who post about the game of golf.
Be a good listener first
The power of Twitter is you get the opportunity to get to know what your target audience likes. Do you ask golfers as they book your course for their Twitter handle? If not, why not?
Users post about the equipment they play with, professional golfers they love (or hate), and about the clubs where they play. Clubs can get so much information on golfers before they even step foot on your property. Does your club have a player/member database? Users share so much great information that your team could track when they visit your course.
Here are some quick tips:
1- Do tweet out questions
2- Make at least 30-40 per cent of your tweets replies to other people
3- When tweeting links, add a line of your own insight to spark conversation.
4- Tweet directly to your audience. Instead of “Blog Post Title, [link]”, try “What do you all think of this new post? Blog Post Title, [link]”
5- Post videos. Twitter has Periscope built-in. Use it.
6- Do not connect other social media platforms to Twitter. There is nothing worse than seeing a post that says: “Such a fun day Instagram.com/p/asd8asd” or “fb.me/DsxYTo2R5W”.
These types of posts mean nothing to your followers and give them no context. It’s just lazy. Each platform is unique and each one requires its own message format.
Facebook purchased Instagram for 1 billion dollars five years ago. It went from 30 million users to 700 million (Q1 – 2017). The company was acquired for its innovation, however, it’s done a great job at also copying features that are big on other platforms, including Facebook’s. It’s also gone head-to-head with Snapchat because it has the infrastructure, the analytics, and is quick to adapt to any loss of attention.
Good artists copy. Great artists steal
Here are some quick tips:
1- Shoot square and native to the app
2- Utilize a customized link shortener to track your traffic (Bitly)
3- Promote your team (junior instructor, chef, sommelier)
4- Cross-promote with your partners (Callaway, TaylorMade, Titleist etc.)
5- Partner with Instagram Influencers
6- Make graphics shareworthy
Snapchat
If you are trying to build up your junior program and followers, Snapchat is the place to be. First of all, Snapchat is a unique platform and not like any of the other social media services. Its users are about one-to-one (or one-to-a-few) messaging, real-time video, emojis and doodles, and quirky content.
It’s full of personality and raw. Don’t be too professional with your brand messaging or it will be seen as boring. You must be willing to think outside-the-box, have fun, and experiment or it’s not the right social platform for you.
Just be You!
The amazing potential is the average time spent per user on a daily basis has reached 30 minutes per day. That’s over 170 million daily users or 302 million monthly users. The sweet spot target market is that 71 per cent of users are under 34.
It’s still new, therefore there’s less competition, and you’re more likely to stand out. Currently there is also no algorithm hiding your posts. So, if a user adds your business as a friend, he or she can easily see that you’ve added a Snapchat Story and play it. One of the other advantages is there are few ads and no links to drive traffic away from seeing and interacting with your content.
Going back to the beginning of this platform review: if your golf club is serious at building up your junior program, then in the long run you’ll see that it’s worth investing the time and resources to engage this audience.
Here are some quick tips:
1- Keep it real. This is not a sales pitch.
2- Be native to Snapchat. Don’t copy what you’re doing on other platforms
3- Go behind the scenes and share how you get to your final product
4- Share promo codes
5- Run contests. (Users post Snaps at different parts of your club.)
Be where your market is
See you on the links!
