To create a thriving club community and attract visitors and new members, communication is paramount, making social media and apps the perfect frontline for customer service, notification of upcoming events and speaking directly to the customer.
But what options should you choose?
Advantages
With millions of users, Facebook will be very familiar to most of your golfers, and if done correctly by creating a club Facebook page for upcoming matches and sending out regular updates – from photos taken at the weekend to club news – your club will have the opportunity to build an ongoing relationship with your members and gain crucial feedback.
The paid advertising feature that Facebook offers is fairly simple to use with targeted options (gender, age, location, interests, etc.) allowing clubs to “cherry pick” the people that they want to see the ads.
For example, if your club is doing a new membership drive, you could take one of two approaches:
1) create a competition, driving people to the landing page. Here you collect their names and email addresses, allowing you to email them your offer(s) and grow your database
2) raise awareness of an open day to encourage them to visit
Disadvantages
If you’ve come to Facebook looking for instantaneous sales, then you’ve come to the wrong place. While it can be good for creating an interest for localized events, creating nationwide or overseas campaigns often does not yield results.
You also have to pay for each campaign or boost you deploy, and to create great Facebook advertising campaigns you might need to employ someone trained in this area to make it successful.
How often should I post?
Research done by Constant Contact revealed that one post a day was the optimum number. Any more than that and people thought companies came across as spammy. Any less than three times a week and numbers of visitors drop off.
Advantages
Twitter is great for small sound bites and snippets of information, and can be a good way to evaluate ideas and the opinions of others – this includes what your competitors are doing!
This means you’re able to contact your club’s biggest advocates directly, and they’re able to contact you. This kind of communication can help bolster your company and spread the word about new products and open days.
As with Facebook, details on club competitions, including entries and results, will be popular, as will updates on the course conditions and upcoming events.
Disadvantages
Building your list can take time and there are so many tweets it can be easy to get lost in the noise.
Twitter users expect you to be responsive and address their concerns immediately. If you don’t have the capacity to react quickly on Twitter, you may find yourself at the receiving end of a storm of complaints!
Again, successful campaigns can require someone dedicated to running it. Outside agencies can be useful in starting you off to build your following and advise you on content strategies.
How often should I post?
Quick Sprout found that the most retweets happened about an hour after tweeting, so a higher daily frequency is best. They actually recommend that you have 15 tweets per day! Thankfully, this does not mean you need 15 completely new tweets. There are a number of free and paid software, like Hootsuite or Buffer, that can help you schedule them.
Mobile Marketing (Club Apps)
Of the three, this is the most powerful and flexible option, capable of communicating directly with your members and making it easier for them to engage with you and other club users.
Advantages
Capable of driving real time revenues and increasing participation, apps allow clubs to send notifications directly to members, wherever they are. If they’re at home, for example, they can receive info on an upcoming club event or promotion. When out on the course: a reminder to order food.
With a one-time login, clubs will no longer have to write down email addresses to collect names of visiting golfers. Apps like CourseMate will simply allow the club to export the data into their own mailer systems.
It’s not just a one way street either. With apps, members can easily look up events, book tee times, make dinner reservations, take advantages of offers, keep track of their scores, lower their handicaps, and even create mini tournaments amongst themselves. Apps make a go-to option both on and off the course, and a win-win for all.
Disadvantages
Unlike social media, this is one option you will not be able to set up by yourself. Instead you will need to hire a good, reputable firm to do the initial set up. However, once running, you should be able to easily update the content yourself.
Club apps come with all kinds of options and if you are not careful you could invest in an app that is too limited (i.e. a booking app), one that puts off users (i.e. filled with third party pop ups or banner advertising), or one that doesn’t work out on the course (i.e. a web app).
How often should I post?
From our own research, this sales and marketing tool is different from the other two social media options because it does not need to be managed by the club on a daily basis. As long as the events are updated and new club promotions are added periodically, golfers will naturally come back to your app.
Note: the rule for push notifications is: advertising and event notifications should not be used more than a couple of times per month; general notifications (like course closure, etc.) can be as and when needed.
As with all successful strategies, none of the above is “fire and forget”. Firstly, you will need to work out your objectives and time/resources available and then concentrate on one or two strategies.
Secondly, don’t fall into the trap that some clubs do by thinking their members should know that this new social media/app option exits without actively telling them. They are not mind readers and therefore you will need to do an awareness campaign via all your traditional methods encouraging them to join up. Also, remind them periodically throughout the year in order to keep your chosen options alive and profitable throughout the coming years.
Jenni Biggs, entrepreneur, technical blogger and the App Director of Golf2Win. She enjoys using both her creative and technical skills to create apps that sets apart her clients from the rest.
Golf2Win originates from a corporate multimedia background and is bringing a new era to the golf industry with stylish, yet highly functional apps that focus upon giving golf businesses direct access to their members and visitors for a high rate of return, balanced with features that bring great benefits to the golfers too.
