19th Hole Media’s Top 10 List of 2015

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Zeb Welborn

At the end of the year, the 19th Hole Media team gets together to reflect on our successes and failures throughout the year. This meeting gives us an opportunity to fine-tune our direction and set new goals for the upcoming year. These are the Top 10 things we accomplished in 2015.

Top 10 of 2015

10. Share Your Passion Scholarships

Since starting the Share Your Passion Scholarships in 2012, we’ve awarded scholarships to 17 deserving students. We have kept in contact with many scholarship winners and are still inspired by them. They continue to work towards following their passions and helping better the lives of others. This year we awarded 3 Share Your Passion Scholarships and gave out our first Student of the Year Scholarship Award to one of the hardest working students at The Tutoring Solution.

9. TV Appearance

Zeb appeared on the Golf Life Video Channel for Fox Sports WEST. It was pretty darn cool to get on television.

8. Joined the Rotary Club

Zeb was inducted into the Chino Rotary Club by Melinda Robbins, Dale Bright, and Steven Bremer. The Chino Rotary Club has been serving the Chino Valley since 1925. San Bernardino County Supervisor Curt Hagman spoke and my wife, Cindy, mom, Annie, and dad, Larry were all in attendance.

7. Speaking Engagements

One of the things we enjoy most is educating others on growing their business. This year Zeb spoke with the San Bernardino County Workforce Investment Board, the Inland Empire Small Business Development Center, the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce, Baldy View ROP, Small Business Summit, the California Golf Course Owners Association and the Golf Inc. Summit.

Topics for Zeb’s Speaking Engagements were:

Internet Marketing Strategies
Marketing with Facebook
How to Turn Your Business Into a Social Business
Marketing with LinkedIn
Marketing with Twitter
Social Media for Golf Courses
Innovative Marketing Tactics for Public Courses

6. #GolfChat

At the beginning of this year Zeb started #GolfChat. #GolfChat is a Twitter chat which happens every Tuesday at 5PM PST where some of the greatest minds in the golf industry come together to talk golf. #GolfChat has grown drastically since the beginning of the year and is a trending topic on Twitter every Tuesday. We’ve met so many amazing and passionate people working to grow golf. A highlight of #GolfChat in 2015 was when professional golfer, Natalie Gulbis surprised #GolfChatters by giving away free tickets to the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay Golf Course.

5. Awards and Accolades

It’s always nice to be recognized for the hard work you do. This year we were extremely grateful to receive a few unexpected awards:

Top 9 Game Changers by Southland Golf Magazine
10 Most Innovative People in Golf Marketing by Golf Inc. Magazine
Top 100 Podcasts that Will Make You Smarter, Better and Wiser by Inc. Magazine
Silent Partner of the Year by the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce

4. Southern California Charity Golf Classic

We hosted the 1st Annual Southern California Charity Golf Classic to raise money for several worthy charities on July 17 at Los Serranos Country Club.

With help from many in our community, the tournament helped raise $7,597.81 for charity.

We distributed the money to several charities including: Bark for Life, Boys Republic, California Scholastic Press Association, Chino Rotary, Corona Firefighters Benevolent Fund, House of Ruth, The Let It Be Foundation, Salvation Army, Share Your Passion Scholarship, and the Wounded Warrior Project.

We had such a great time with this, we’re planning on running it again in 2016!

3. Chairman of the Board at the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce

On July 27, Zeb was installed as Chairman of the Board for the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Becoming the Chairman of the Board has given Zeb an opportunity to help make local business owners more successful.

During his term of office, he set five goals to work towards in 2015/2016:

connect and work with other local business-related organizations
collaborate more with organizations that work to educate business owners
encourage and promote the involvement of young business owners in our community
enhance our use of technology
focus more on giving back

2. Lacey Gets Married

In August this year Lacey got married to Ryan Bernholtz at a fun wedding in Santa Ana, CA.

In June, Lacey’s twin brother, Rocky married Megan Hutchinson at a beautiful wedding in Corona, CA.

Truly a notable year for the Welborn Family and there was another addition to family this year…

#1. Birth of Sebastian Welborn-De La Torre

Sebastian Welborn-De La Torre was born on Friday, November 13th at 9:52pm in Ontario at 8 pounds, 9 ounces.

Sebastian is a happy, healthy, and super cute baby.

Zeb says it’s awesome being a dad.

Thank you all for everything! We hope you all have an amazing 2016.

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Zeb Welborn to Speak at Golf Inc. Strategies Summit

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Lacey Welborn

The Golf Inc. Strategies Summit is the industry’s most inspirational, visionary and energetic event of the year. The three-day event is packed with 25 educational sessions, 7 networking events, hundreds of industry leaders and a 1,001 ideas. The event takes place September 28-30, 2015 at La Quinta Resort & Club in La Quinta, California.

See Zeb’s Speaker Bio

Check Out the Course Details:

Innovative Marketing Tactics for Public Courses

September 30, 10:00am

How to use events, promotions and social media to drive rounds
Lead-generation strategies to uncover new golfers
Visuals: Why Instagram is the next big thing for golf
Fresh ideas and strategies from the most innovative marketers in golf

Andrew Fleming, KemperSports
Christina Khamis, Western Golf Properties
Michael Phelps, Pipeline Marketing Group
Zeb Welborn, 19th Hole Media, Welborn Media

Some other notable speakers at the summit are Eric Affeldt, CEO, ClubCorp; Dana Garmany, CEO, Troon Golf; Jim Hinckley, CEO, American Golf, Century Golf Partners; Steve Skinner, CEO, KemperSports; Randy Starr, COO, Topgolf; Rick Farrant, GreatLife Golf & Fitness; and Peter Hill, Billy Casper Golf.

Zeb was recently chosen by Golf Inc. as one of the 10 Most Innovative People in Golf Marketing.

Will You Be There?

Are you going to the Golf Inc. Strategies Summit?

Email me at Zeb@WelbornMedia.com or tweet me @ZebWelborn to let me know you’ll be there
(I may give you a free copy of the book, The Social Golf Course)

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Zeb Welborn in Southland Golf Magazine

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Lacey Welborn

Zeb Welborn was chosen as a Game Changer in Southland Golf Magazine

Source: Southland Golf – July 2015

Southland Golf takes an annual look at a few people in the Southland who are Game Changers. People who help, inspire, influence or positively impact the game. It’s this year’s Front Nine.

Click the link above to read the article or check out some of our favorite parts below.

ZEB WELBORN

The former school teacher now instructs course operators how to connect with golfers online.

“The marketing model has changed dramatically over the past decade. Marketing used to be static. With social media, it demands to be dynamic,” Welborn said recently while sipping lemonade at Anaheim Hills Golf Course. “The algorithm of social media is engagement. People connect with golf courses through their emotions. You have to touch those emotions.”

The use of photos and videos on social media are other keys to making an impression, Welborn said, but even those are evolving from just a few years ago.

“It’s not photos or videos of the golf course. It’s photos and videos of people’s experience on the golf course,” he said. “That’s what makes the connection. We’re in an age where people want to share the fun they’re having in their lives, and that’s what we market to other golfers.” SG

Read the full article >>

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How We Generated at Least $936 from One Golf Course Facebook Post

Posted on August 20, 2015 by Zeb Welborn

In November, we ran a golf course Facebook contest at a client golf course which we highlighted in a blog post we wrote titled, How to Run a Facebook Contest for Golf Courses: A Case Study. The contest, which reached 2,976 golfers and had 409 people engage in the post, was won by Art Franco, who said he never played our clients golf course before.

Fast forward to April when Art Franco won another contest at our client golf course.

In five months, Art Franco said he’d played golf nine times at our client course. Our client charges $52 per round during the week, so Art brought an additional (9 x $52) $468 in increased revenue.

I continued to follow up with Art via the Facebook messaging service and here’s what Art had to say:

According to Art, every time he played our client course he brought someone different, who had never played the golf course before. Assuming he only brought one other person each time our one Facebook post can account for (9 x $52 x 2) $936 in increased revenue. If he brought a foursome each time he played golf, our one golf course Facebook post can account for (9 x $52 x 4) $1,872 in increased revenue.

The Recap

Art had never played our clients’ golf course before.

Art brought at least nine golfers who had never played our clients’ golf course before.

At the minimum, 10 new golfers had been exposed to this “hidden gem.”

Our client course, at the very least, made $936 in increased revenue in a five-month span from one golf course Facebook post. It’s likely that the actual number of increased revenue from rounds of golf was closer to $1,872 and that’s not even including food and beverage and purchases in the golf shop.

But, it still doesn’t even tell the full story.

The Full Story

Ten new golfers were exposed to this “hidden gem,” if they’re all as enthusiastic about golf as Art is then at least ($936 x 10) $9,360, or if they all brought foursomes, $18,720 could be attributed to this one golf course Facebook post.

In addition to Art’s involvement at our client course, our two contests reached more than 4,299 golfers and had more than 832 people respond to them.

Lastly, all of this happened within a span of five months. When you calculate the lifetime value of these new customers from this one golf course Facebook post, what would that number be? Could you do this daily? How much revenue could you generate from using Facebook effectively?

Sign up now for our Social Media Scorecard to see if your golf course’s social media presence is up to par – http://19thholemedia.com/socialmediascorecard

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#GolfChat – How to Build a Genuine Community Online by Jeremy White CEO of Connect Golf

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Zeb Welborn

Jeremy White, CEO of Connect Golf

Marketing is, at its simplest, working out what people need and communicating that your product can serve them. Given the barrage of marketing messages, most people are switched off to traditional mediums, so it’s key to build the awareness first and that happens best in places where people are engaged. Mostly online communities. Only then might they switch on and start listening to what you’re saying.

You don’t need a college degree to figure it out. Common sense is all that’s needed and you’ve got that in bucketloads. Plus the courage to actually get out and give it a shot. No doubt there are plenty of history teachers and others who have a good idea to fill a niche, but they never have the guts to quit their jobs and carpe diem the heck out of their idea.

When I started building Connect Golf, I knew it needed to be attached to a community, but also knew communities were, understandably, suspicious of brands. It is also difficult to find communities without agendas. They exist, but it none represent the greater golfing demographic. The bigger social media platforms have some large communities when you look it on pure member numbers. However you can’t filter out the brands and individuals doing not-so-subtle self-promotion stuff or even the randoms posting pics of themselves on their latest golf holiday. Let me rephrase that, you can filter them, but you can’t be bothered. Most members aren’t even active and a post’s visibility is questionable to say the least.

It’s quite a coincidence, but true all the same, that I came to the view that a Twitter chat for golf was needed to solve most of the issues noted above – excepting the occasional and to be honest quite brilliant moderator stunts involving surprise female pro golfers and car brands (I’m a huge marketing cynic, but was happily tweeting with @lexus mentions). I realised that being a wannabe brand, doing it myself would probably lack credibility with participants, but the very next week I came across month 2 of #Golfchat. Problem solved!

Your role, experience, podcast, website, Twitter account etc. is based around the personal brand of Zeb Welborn, so while most people get that part of the exercise is to grow your own brand, they’re fine with that because they can see, hear and read the story behind it. Done for the right reasons and you’re building a no-nonsense community with golf at the core.

At the door to many online golf communities you have to read a heap of rules about what not to do on those platforms or forums, but with #GolfChat there’s none of that, yet people instinctively know how to behave. Yes we all want more business or more subscribers or more readers or more impressions or whatever, but the #GolfChatters generally understand that the way to build a brand via social media is to participate. Just participate and not sell. Pure and simple, we just talk golf and that’s cool from the perspective that we’re not in our usual sales mode. As John from @golfbloggercom would say, we’re just sitting at the #GolfChat bar and talking about the sport.

I’m usually your one paragraph email kinda guy who has a hard time not communicating a sense of rudeness due to brevity, but I look up here and have written a fricking novel about the things you’re doing right. I truly believe that what you’re doing is the best strategy to bring all the golf influencers together on a single platform for discussion.

Sincerely. Well done mate. Two thumbs up.

Jeremy White, CEO Connect Golf

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How to Run a Facebook Contest for Golf Courses: A Case Study

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Zeb Welborn

Contests for free stuff are cool.

Not only are they cool, but they are a great way to create word-of-mouth marketing at your golf course.

Earlier this month we ran a Facebook contest for our client and here’s how we did it.

The Contest:

This particular client was in the process of renovating their putting green. The course invested a lot of money to improve the experience for their golfers and wanted to let as many golfers as possible know about it.

Our Facebook contest announced the upgraded putting green and the copy for the contest went something like this (picture below):

“Contest for Free Golf: If you could name our NEW putting green . . . What would you name it?

The comment with the Most “Likes” will win a Free twosome of Golf, Monday – Thursday, AND our Favorite Comment will also win a Free twosome Monday – Thursday.

Contest ends at 5pm PST on Friday, November 21.

Good Luck!”

The Anatomy of a Great Facebook Contest for Golf Courses:

Contest is Easy to Enter – The contest needs to be easy to enter. This contest is super easy to enter. All they need to do is name the putting green.
Rules are Simple – The simpler the contest is, the more likely people are going to enter it.
Compelling Picture – There needs to be a unique, authentic and compelling picture to make a great Facebook contest for your golf course.
Valuable Prize – The prize needs to be something your golfers want, but doesn’t need to be anything over the top. I’ve seen golf courses give away 10 free rounds of golf to a contest winner or more. A free twosome is all you need to get massive engagement on your Facebook page.
Clear End Date – Make sure you identify the end date of your contest.
Promote – Be sure to promote your contest in as many ways as you possibly can. For this particular contest the golf course announced it via their email newsletter. Other ideas could be to inform golfers at the point of sale, on the phone, and on your website.
Boost It – We knew this Facebook post would be popular so we boosted it. Boosting a post on Facebook means Facebook will show it to more people. For this contest we boosted the post by spending $5. A minor investment for a significant increase in exposure.

In the first comment to any contest post you should include the following disclaimer:

“By entering this contest, you agree to a complete release of Facebook from any or all liability in connection with this contest. This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.”

Now that you know how to create a killer contest, let’s take a look at the type of results you can expect from running one.

The Results:

At the start of this contest this particular Facebook page had 883 “Likes.” Just 4 days later, their Facebook grew by 47 Likes to 930.

The contest itself reached 2,976 people, was liked 33 times, commented on 111 times, and shared 15 times. From all posts, including shares, the post had more than 339 likes, comments, and shares – 78 total likes, 241 total comments, and 20 shares. The post was also clicked on 409 times.

For a Facebook page with less than a 1,000 followers, those numbers are pretty darn good. Nearly 3,000 people saw this and better yet, more than 400 people engaged with this one post.

By the Numbers:

47 New Likes – 47 new golfers exposed to golf course content for life.
2,976 People Reached – 2,976 people physically saw this post
1,741 Organic Reach – Post reached 1,741 people for free
1,235 Paid Reach – Paid $5 to boost the post which went to 1,235 more people
33 Likes on the post itself
111 Comments on the post itself
15 Shares on the post itself
339 Total Likes, Comments and Shares after considering shared content
78 Total Likes
241 Total Comments
20 Total Shares
409 Clicks on the post itself

Follow Up:

The benefits of running a Facebook contest for your golf course don’t end there. A great contest leverages the experience of the golfers who entered and won the contest.

Be sure to announce and recognize the contest winners as soon as you can with a comment on the contest post. Be sure to ask them to send you a direct message with their contact information. Don’t forget to get their email address so you can add them to your email list.

Then, use their profile pictures and announce them on your main Facebook page giving them some recognition but also reminding your Facebook following that if they check your posts they can win free golf at your golf course. This will give you an opportunity to advertise and market to your audience moving forward for free.

Now your contest post gets even more visibility. In this post we reached an additional 495 people with 143 post clicks, 15 likes, 8 comments and 1 share.

The final thing you want to do is send an email to the winners. This is the email we sent to the winners of this contest:
Congratulations on Winning A Free Twosome at (Golf Course)!

“(Name),

Congratulations on winning a free twosome of golf at (Golf Course). Hope you enjoy your experience here.

If you’re interested, please take photos of your round and share them with me so I can post them on our Facebook page.

Thank you for participating!

Zeb”

If you’re open to it. An even better email to send out would be something like this:

Subject: Congratulations on Winning A Free Twosome at (Golf Course)!

“(Name),

Congratulations on winning a free twosome of golf at (Golf Course). Hope you enjoy your experience here.

If you’re up for it, we’d love to play golf with you and use some of the photos from our round on our Facebook page. May we join you?

Totally understand if you’d like to play golf without us. Either way, just let us know.

Thank you for participating!

Zeb”

If they do invite you to join them for a free round, it’s a great opportunity to take lots of pictures you can then use to post on your Facebook page for months to come. It also gives these golfers a chance to become loyal to your golf course.

If you can’t make it to play golf with them, send the first email and hopefully they will send you a picture of them at the golf course and you can use that to promote your free golf giveaway (and your golf course) even more.

Interested in learning more about running a Facebook contest for your golf course? Contact Zeb at (909) 973-9089 or email at Zeb@WelbornMedia.com

Bonus Content – Learn How to Run a Facebook PHOTO Contest!

Exclusively for members of our email list we’re sharing how to run a Facebook Photo Contest, the results we achieved, and teach you how to run your own photo contest.

Sign up now to learn how we ran a Facebook photo contest for another client of ours where we reached 2,972 people, collected multiple golfer-generated photos, and how we used those photos to promote our clients golf course even more!

Click Here to Learn How to Run a Facebook Photo Contest!

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Zeb Welborn to Speak at the Crittenden Golf Conference in Phoenix, AZ on The Social Golf Course

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Zeb Welborn

Earlier this year, it was announced that I was going to be the moderator for a panel discussion on our book, The Social Golf Course, at the Crittenden Golf Conference on October 2 from 3:30pm to 4:30pm.

We will be discussing:

Old Marketing Tactics vs. New Marketing Tactics
How Social Media Increases Revenue
Content Creation: How to Create a Compelling and Engaging Social Presence
How to Think Socially

It was an honor to be selected as a presenter for one of the largest golf conferences in the United States and I was even more honored once I was able to select the panelists for our discussion.

Zeb Welborn to speak with Amy Spittle, John Hakim, and Jodi Shaver on The Social Golf Course at the Crittenden Golf Conference in Phoenix, AZ

Crittenden Golf Conference: The Social Golf Course

John Hakim is the owner of Greenskeeper.org, a golf social network of 60,000+ members that has been in existence for over 10 years. Greenskeeper.org has been working directly with golf courses for over 8 years providing online media advertising and social media consulting. John has presented to the National Golf Course Owners Association and California Golf Course Owners Association. Greenskeeper.org currently works with over 30 golf course clients and is very well respected in the golf course industry. John is the community manager of the Greenskeeper.org and has a thorough understanding of other social media platforms. John brings a unique understanding and working knowledge of how golfers engage each other and golf courses online.

Amy Spittle joined KemperSports in 2006 and has over 15 years of sales and marketing experience. Ms. Spittle demonstrates high-caliber leadership experience in all aspects of the sales and marketing process with concentrations in competitive analysis, brand positioning, special events planning and business development. For KemperSports, she has lead the development and execution of many successful, high-impact business plans with a creative, visionary approach that have produced high-growth revenue and market share results. She is characterized for her motivation of teams to achieve peak performance, discern competitive markets and meet aggressive business objectives. Prior to joining KemperSports, Amy worked in the resort and hospitality industry with both Troon Golf and OB Sports Management serving as a Director of Sales and Marketing where she was instrumental in the successful leisure sales, tournament outing sales, website development and overall revenue growth at the property level.

Jodi Shaver is the Assistant Marketing Manager at Desert Willow Golf Course. Desert Willow Golf Resort located in Palm Desert, California, just minutes away from Palm Springs, offers two of the Coachella Valley’s best plays. Test your skills against the natural hazards and myriad water features of the challenging Firecliff Course or play a smoother, more relaxing round on the magnificent Mountain View Course. Thank you John, Amy, and Jodi for agreeing to be in our panel discussion. I’m really looking forward to speaking with you.

The Crittenden Golf Conference takes place October 1-3 at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort. Register today to join hundreds of top golf industry executives at this exclusive event.

The Crittenden Golf Conference (formerly the Golf Inc. Conference) is a three day event for professionals in the golf industry. This event includes 9 hours of educational sessions facilitated by the industry’s leading executives and designed to aid in the growth of your business. Attendance to this event will supply you with up to date, topical, and exciting information on a wide range of material; as well as provide the opportunity to network at several organized events with hundreds of other professionals in the field.

Crittenden creates a bridge of information between the Golf industry and its professionals. Over the past 25 years, we have established a recognized platform where business professionals are given the necessary tools to build their company and succeed in today’s ever changing golf world. We encourage you to explore the numerous benefits of participating in this highly rewarding conference.

Want to see how your social media presence stacks up against the competition?

Download our free Social Media Scorecard which will help you determine how good your online presence is.

Social Media Scorecard

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	Look inside >

10 MOST INNOVATIVE PEOPLE IN GOLF MARKETING

Turn Your Golf Course Into a Social Golf Course

Top 10 of 2015

Will You Be There?

Zeb Welborn was chosen as a Game Changer in Southland Golf Magazine

ZEB WELBORN

The Recap

The Full Story

Bonus Content – Learn How to Run a Facebook PHOTO Contest!