Social media is here to stay and Facebook is one the channels that is leading the way. But how can your club leverage its Facebook Page to increase engagement and participation?
These action orientated top tips can help any club, whether you are new to Facebook or just want to improve your engagement rates.
1) Showcase Your Club
A picture paints a thousand words and Facebook users just love photos. Facebook statistics show that posts with images perform 2.3 times better than those without them.
Whether you are going to post professionally taken photos from your own stock of images, or capture stunning images with your smartphone, it is so easy to showcase your club on Facebook that there is no reason your club should not be posting regularly.
Popular posts include photos of the course, events and competition photos. Members also love knowing what goes on behind closed doors, therefore giving your members a behind the scenes look will make them feel involved.
Top Tip: Sunrise (especially if there is a light mist) and stunning sunset pictures get the best engagement on social channels.
2) Boost Numbers Attending Events
Facebook is the perfect platform to promote your events. Start early, four to six weeks before the event to give people time to take note of it, cross promote it to their friends and family, and to book the date in their own diaries.
Studies have shown that people need to see something two to four times before remembering it, therefore sending out a weekly post on your event will increase your rate of response.
Facebook also has a few resources that will help you reach more than just your immediate followers.
The first thing to do is to set the post up as an event and not just a normal post. Second is to make sure that a location is added to the event (when creating the event start typing in your club’s name in the ‘Location’ option and when it comes up, select it).
Thirdly, don’t forget to use keywords (like golf, tennis, charity, etc.) in the tags label. Facebook uses these tags to recommend events to people whose interests match your tags.
Top tip: Make sure you include all the details they need, and include the link to book or to RSVP as you don’t want to make them go hunting for details.
3) Give Them the “Bad” News
Doing maintenance or have some area of the course/club under repair? Then let your members know. It is tempting to only want to post the “good stuff” but letting them know not only saves a lot of complaints and disappointment on the day for your members, it also gives them a good reason to follow and check out your Facebook page regularly.
Top Tip: Once it been repaired/restored, do a before and after shot, so they can see and appreciate all your hard work. You might be surprised by the amount of positive comments you will receive.
4) Super Sales Tool
From the latest products to hit the shelves in your pro shop to the end of line specials, Facebook is a great place to advertise products both old and new. Just snap some photos, or use the official merchandise images. Add in some details, including how they can buy (call, drop into the pro shop, etc).
You can even encourage members to share their images of something they recently purchased from your pro shop.
Not just for merchandise, coaching sessions and courses can also be filled up by posting them on Facebook. If your members are happy to have their photos taken, tagging them into your club’s Facebook page will boost interaction and showcase how much fun your group sessions are.
Before and after photos and videos also work very well to boost engagement and to show your pro’s skills.
Top Tip: words like: “Be the first to own….”, “limited stock/places left” and “must end Friday” might be cliché but they do work.
5) Encourage Engagement
Facebook is designed to engage, and what better way to communicate with your members than by getting them to interact directly with you.
Your members will love a caption or photo competition and will certainly get a buzz going. Contrary to popular belief, the prize itself doesn’t need to be expensive, as it’s taking part and being able to showcase their own photos (we are all “expert” photographers, aren’t we?) that matter most. A great prize for a photo competition is the winner could have their photo as your Facebook page cover for the next month.
Another great area for engagement is posting live at the events and is a very easy thing to do. You can upload images of the team(s), the winners and the scores. Although Facebook is not Twitter (therefore you do not want to be posting 50 times in one day), posting a few different times throughout the day will increase engagement, and you can also do a recap over the next couple of days, including any behind the scenes shots.
Top tip: If followers comment on your posts or ask questions, be sure to engage with them and respond as quickly as you can.
Final Things to Note:
Although Facebook makes a great forum for opinions, make sure you control the question and direction you want the post to go in. Asking members their opinion on “what to do with xyz” could yield some very positive results, however if you’re not careful you could end up with a full on debate with members’ feelings getting hurt.
