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GolfBoard and Social Media: How To Surf Your Way to Sales And Marketing Success
GolfBoard is not only a perfect vehicle for golf, it’s an ideal vehicle for social media.
If you want to know exactly what photos and videos you need to take to execute a successful GolfBoard social media strategy read this post, then DOWNLOAD the free document: The 8 Photos/Videos You MUST Have To Promote GolfBoard On Social Media
Want to know what drives millennials to take action? Create a compelling, new and social golf experience.
Top Golf is a perfect example of this phenomenon. It’s new, socially engaging and unique. You can create opportunities to be a destination golf course by bringing something new to your golf course to attract golfers who wouldn’t play it otherwise.
GolfBoard is the perfect product to drive rounds and revenue at your golf course and increase social engagement, but you have to promote it well. Below are some tips to improve the promotion of GolfBoard or you can Hire 19th Hole Media.
19th Hole Media has a GolfBoard Social Media Program that we can perform for your course. To find out more, click the button. LEARN ABOUT OUR GOLFBOARD SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRAM
Prior to writing this article we looked at courses across the country who are using GolfBoard and their social media promotion of the boards is, quite frankly, hugely lacking – one or two Instagram post a year doesn’t cut it.
Here’s how you can promote GolfBoard to your social audience to increase rounds, memberships and revenue.
GolfBoard at Indian Wells Golf Resort
The proof is in … the purchasing!
That’s exactly what Indian Wells Golf Resort did with its GolfBoard fleet after 19th Hole Media assisted them with their program launch in 2016-17. They doubled their fleet to eight boards for the 2017-18 season.
For those unfamiliar, GolfBoard is a surfboard-like motorized scooter on which golfers carry their clubs and traverse the course in a manner similar to surfing, skiing or skating. Those who participate in those sports usually find mastering GolfBoard a breeze.
The rest of us?
We sometimes need a little help, but a driver’s education session on the range and a few holes on the course usually does the trick.
As a social media challenge, GolfBoard presents a similar education curve that revolves around two questions: What is it? How do you use it?
The good news is social media is ideally suited to answer these questions and draw new golfers, new revenue and new excitement to your course! Here’s a look at the case study for the launch at Indian Wells Golf Course and the blueprint for promoting GolfBoard at your course.
Step #1 – Create a GolfBoard Press Release
The first thing we did at Indian Wells was to write a press release announcing GolfBoard and promote it on Facebook. The response was incredible. Without boosting, the post had more than 10,000 views and 100 likes and many enthusiastic comments that show that showed the interest and awareness of GolfBoard. Sprinkled amongst those comments were some questions about GolfBoard use and safety that were easily addressed.
This post was published weeks before the arrival of the boards to not only stir enthusiasm but early rentals. You should have a waiting list at your course by the time the boards arrive.
Step #2: Educate GolfBoard Safety with Social Media
Another critical part of the pre-launch is to introduce the one-time safety waiver that has to be signed and video that has to be viewed at each course before using GolfBoard. This also presents a great social media opportunity for promotion and education and to answer more questions about them and build engagement.
You’ll quickly learn that photos of the boards stir interest but also raise questions. Seeing videos of the boards in action flip the switch for people and drive them to rent them. Why? Because they’re fun!
Step #3: Create GolfBoard Content for Social Media
Which brings us to the next step. When the boards arrive, you want to start creating content around them as quickly as possible. Take photos of them at course when they arrive but then get them active on the course and start taking videos of golfers using them. This is your best marketing vehicle for GolfBoard and where 19th Hole Media can help you most. We’re experts at GolfBoard video and creating videos that showcase the boards and your course, which is the best of both worlds.
Watch this video at Indian Wells Golf Resort –
GolfBoard can be rented solo or in groups, but you want to start booking groups as soon as possible. GolfBoard is a great group learning experience and golfers enjoy mastering the boards together.
Facebook and Instagram are the best social media vehicles for promoting GolfBoard, but Instagram is particularly effective due to the ease of loading video and the existing community of GolfBoarders and courses that use GolfBoard that already exists. Eventually the goal is for your GolfBoarders to start sharing their own videos on your social media, and you should be encouraging these. These are self-generating testimonials for use of the boards!
The boards are seen as a draw for millennials, but you’ll quickly find that the boards will impact all demographics of your course when promoted properly, which for older generations means allaying safety concerns. The best benefit is that you’ll find new golfers discovering your course out of curiosity or because they’ve experienced the boards elsewhere and this is their preferred way to play.
GolfBoards at Maderas Golf Club
Prior to joining 19th Hole Media, Corey Ross, our Content Strategist, worked on the GolfBoard launch at Maderas Golf Club in San Diego and created the social media program for promoting them.
In the first year of the boards at the course, they generated nearly 1,000 rentals and we’re credited with generating an additional $100,000 for the course! That’s the kind of impact GolfBoard can have for your course if promoted properly and consistently.
One thing we see consistently is an underpromotion of GolfBoard by the courses that have it.
GolfBoard gives your course a competitive advantage and social media helps you capitalize on it. You’ve already paid to rent or buy the boards. It’s only a little more to make sure they’re marketed properly! Let us help and show you how to Surf the Earth on social media!
We want to help you succeed at bringing more golfers to your golf course to use GolfBoard. That is why we created this FREE download that shares the 8 Photos/Videos You MUST Have To Promote GolfBoard On Social Media:
Use the information in the download and the tips in this post and you will likely be well on your way to expanding your GolfBoard fleet.
We created a program specifically to promote the booking of GolfBoard at your golf course. Learn how we can create social media campaigns to get new golfers to your course and sell out on your GolfBoard rentals.
19th HOLE MEDIA GOLFBOARD SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRAM
Eight Ways To Improve Your Golf Course’s Chances Of Luring More Weddings Via Social Media
Is your golf course doing everything it can through social media to attract brides to your facility?
Weddings are special occasions full of beauty, joy and love. People decorate the space, they get all dressed up themselves and join together to witness love and to have a good time. Which means a public visual outlet, like social media, is the PERFECT vehicle to promote your facility and to attract customers.
Yes, you have wedding staff in place, but we know from experience that sales and service come first. Marketing comes somewhere after – if there’s extra time in the hectic schedule of a golf course’s wedding coordinator. We’ve yet to meet a golf course wedding coordinator who doesn’t appreciate help when it comes to courting prospective couples online.
We’ve had some great experience working with courses to promote their wedding venues. In fact, with our marketing plan detailed below, Maderas Golf Club had their two best wedding years EVER. Hire 19th Hole Media.
19th Hole Media provides wedding venue marketing services that we can perform for your course. Right now we have a special on our 90-Day Online Marketing Services for Golf Course Wedding Venues. To find out more, click the button. LEARN ABOUT OUR WEDDING VENUE MARKETING SERVICES PLAN
Give Weddings Their Own Social Media Accounts
Frequently asked question: Should my event facility have it’s own Instagram account, Facebook page, etc?
The answer is definitely YES!
Why?
Think about it from the perspective of the bride and groom who are evaluating your venue. For them seeing the dedicated accounts is easy and efficient. They can get a quick idea of what their wedding day experience would be like at your course and can picture themselves getting married there. You want them to ask for more details or inquire about a tour. Having a readily available gallery of high-quality images on Instagram or Facebook or the website helps to do that.
Segmenting your audiences is important in today’s digital marketing age. Promoting your golf course to brides or your wedding venue to your golfers results in less engagement which leads to less reach on all your social channels.
BUT you should still cross-promote your weddings on the main account for your course every so often. The main account is likely to have more followers and you want to leverage that large audience.
Celebrate Your Couples
You want to showcase the beautiful couples who begin their new lives with you. It not only thanks them for their business, it is also a fabulous first impression for couples who come across the post when they are in the planning stages.
Let satisfied brides recruit future brides for you. Take their best wedding photos and post them on your page.
Photo from Wedding Chicks
A Wedding Photo Win-Win: That photo that perfectly showcases the happy couple and shows off your beautiful course.
It makes a definitive visual link between your gorgeous golf course and the perfect unique setting for the viewer’s special day.
Pro Tip: Don’t just share a massive wedding gallery. Make conscious content choices of what to share and include thoughtful captions.
Gather Galleries
In the shareable age we live in, it’s quite common for wedding photographers and/or couples to post their wedding gallery straight to Facebook.
Don’t be shy about pursuing galleries from photographers who’ve recently worked at your venue. You can bet they want their work promoted. During the height of wedding season many photographers can get VERY busy between meetings, shoots, editing sessions and booking weddings. They may not have the time or staff to get their photos posted in a timely manner. Reach out to them and request photos.
Trust me, it’s worth it. For all the photographers that come through your venue, you never know when one will have that unique capture that can be spun into social media gold for your course. For instance, we had a unique shot of a bride at Maderas being helped into her shoe. My social media spin: “Might Maderas be the perfect fit for your special day?”
Visuals drive the bus in social media. You want to be working with the best.
High Definition Video
At Riverwalk Golf Club we helped identify and reach out to a wedding videographer who allowed us to use a wedding video to promote the Riverwalk Wedding Venue. With paid advertising, the post itself had:
179,247 impressions
80,286 people reached
28,000+ video views
3,016 clicks
251 likes
21 shares
37 comments
The numbers were great, but that wasn’t even the best part. The best part about the video were the shares and comments!
Commenters suggested the wedding venue to friends, expressed their desire to have a wedding there and, probably most importantly, received social proof from commenters who used the venue before and loved it. These comments can then be used to continually market the wedding venue at the golf course.
Here are some examples of the comments left by Facebook users who saw the video ad we posted and advertised on behalf of Riverwalk Golf Club:
It’s easy to see how a good video can go a long ways on social media and help draw people to your venue.
Wedding Wednesday
Weddings have their own day on social media. It’s called Wedding Wednesday.
Is your course participating?
It’s a great opportunity to put your best content forward and show how you compare to the competition. It never hurts to set an expectation online and give people something to look forward to. Newspapers and magazines have operated on their expectation principle for decades. Carry the concept over to social media and plan your content accordingly.
Promote Promotions
After great visuals, the next thing most likely to lure online attention is a great offer. Don’t be shy about letting couples know about ways they can save with your course. You want to make use of every avenue available to get the attention of potential brides. Which means we’re not just talking about Facebook and Instagram, we suggest you also include your website and your course newsletter.
We had one course client who offered a military discount that flew a bit under the radar. We shined a spotlight on the discount with a steady stream of posts on social media. We had another successful promotion sharing early-bird discounts for New Year weddings that we posted and enhanced via Facebook ads.
Celebrate Your Vendors
The easiest job Corey had at Maderas was to snap a shot of the fresh flowers rotated weekly in their atrium by two of their floral vendors. Corey would take a photo, tag the vendor and post a compliment about the arrangement. They were happy to have the recognition – every time!
Praise your vendor partners and you both benefit. They benefit from the increased exposure to your social following and you benefit from their increased likelihood to promote and recommend your venue.
There’s still nothing better than word of mouth. Today’s word of mouth includes online conversations available for the world to see. Testimonials self-generate in social if you give them a place to happen. We’ve seen it time and time again!
Give Them A Reason – or Ten
When Corey first started creating content for Maderas, the initial objective was to write a blog post to support each entity of the club – golf, food and beverage, pro shop, weddings, etc. – in the first few months.
Corey’s first wedding post was titled, “Five Great Reasons To Get Married At Maderas.” He used a local wedding planner as a source. The post initially drew modest traffic and dropped off his radar – until he did an audit a few months later on the performance of the initial posts. Corey discovered the wedding post outperformed every golf post written in a similar time frame.
After more time with the facility Corey became more familiar with the entire wedding operation and he expanded on the original post to include ten top reasons to get married there. The best reasons to get married at your course is an evergreen blog post that EVERY course should have.
You can get INFINITE use out of a such a post AND re-purpose it for your own marketing purposes.
Don’t make brides deduce why you’re the best choice for their special day. TELL them!
We want to help you succeed at getting more weddings for your golf course wedding venue this year. That is why we created this FREE guide that shares exactly how we go about promoting golf course wedding venues:
Follow the steps in the guide and the tips in this post and you will likely be well on your way to having one of the best wedding years ever at your course.
BUT, if you need help to execute our 90-Day Content Strategy Guide for Golf Course Weddings…
19th HOLE MEDIA WEDDING MARKETING SERVICES PLAN
19th Hole Media Top 10 of 2017 – The Best in Golf for 2017
Corey, Lacey and I sat down to go over an amazing year for 19th Hole Media. And we wanted to share the top 10 things that happened in 19th Hole Media in 2017. Thank you for being a part of it.
Here is our top ten from 2017!
#10 Palm Springs Golf Trip
We made several trips to Palm Springs in 2017, but Zeb got the chance to spend three days in Palm Springs, playing and visiting some great golf courses including Indian Wells Golf Resort, PGA West, Desert Willow Golf Resort, Monterey Country Club, Shadow Mountain Golf Club, Indian Springs Golf Club and several others. It’s never a bad thing to play three rounds of golf in three days in Palm Springs.
#9 Great Players at Great Courses
Two of our clients have some golfers who have been making waves on the PGA tour and beyond.
This year we signed on Bernardo Heights Country Club who boasts Xander Schauffele, 2017 PGA Rookie of the Year, and winner of the 2017 PGA Tour Championship.
Our longest tenured client, Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club is home to Michael Block who has been winning tournaments left and right getting the opportunity to play in numerous PGA Tour events including the upcoming Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
We also interviewed Michael Block several times throughout the year about his golfing successes and career. You can check those videos out on the video section of Arroyo Trabuco’s Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/pg/ArroyoTrabucoGolf/videos/
#8 Shooting GolfBoard Videos at Indian Wells Golf Resort
Indian Wells Golf Resort approached us just prior to 2017 to help them market GolfBoard via social media. One of my greatest golfing moments of the year was playing a round with Corey and shooting some GolfBoard videos which got some major traction throughout the year.
The golf season for Indian Wells lasts about six months during the winter. We did so well promoting the GolfBoard they doubled the size of their GolfBoard fleet and brought us on this season to do Facebook posting for their golf course, restaurant and wedding venue.
Check out one of their most popular GolfBoard videos here – https://www.facebook.com/IndianWellsGolfResort/videos/10155673915042366/
#7 GolfChat
A few years ago Zeb Welborn started #GolfChat, a twitter chat for golf fans and golfers.Who knew it would grow on to become its own wonderful little corner of the internet. #GolfChat took place every Tuesday on Twitter at 5PM PST with the help of @golfbandwagoner and @ConnectGolf. If you’re invested in golf, you should join us in 2018.
The chat has sparked some great conversations and debates prompting the establishment of #GolfChat Authors. #GolfChat Authors have contributed articles on golf to give their thoughts and opinions on ways to improve golf. #GolfChat is the place for knowledgable and thoughtful golf experts to share their insights on the golf industry. Check out GolfChat Authors, Click Here.
One of the highlights of the year was having Ron Sirak, award winning golf writer and, Brandel Chamblee, analyst at the Golf Channel, jump into the chat. Looking to make 2018 another great year for #GolfChat.
#6 The Social Golf Course in Scotland
No one has been more supportive of us and this business than our parents. They are the best! This year they had some wonderful adventures including a trip to the very heart and soul of golf, Scotland. They brought copies of the book The Social Golf Course written by Zeb Welborn and delivered the book to key individuals at St. Andrews, Royal Dornack, Brora and Elie.
It’s great to see The Social Golf Course at the Home of Golf.
#5 Working with NextLinks
We started working with NextLinks when they first began as REALiTEE Golf in the beginning of 2015. We have been fortunate enough to be involved with a company leading the pack on integrating technology and golf.
NextLinks is providing technology solutions for golf courses and venues to help incorporate golf and technology and are doing in a variety of unique ways.
Early in 2018, the Indian Wells City Council approved a plan to have NextLinks design a one-of-a-kind putting experience at Indian Wells Golf Resort. Their plan is to use lasers to create a nighttime experience for golfers and non-golfers in the Indian Wells area.
To see their plan watch their video – NextLinks – The Future of Indoor Golf – Goes Outdoors.
NextLinks is also working with the Silver Reef Casino in Washington to develop a unique golf experience and with the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field. It’s going to be a great year for one of our favorite customers.
#4 Wedding Video Promotion for Riverwalk Golf Club
At Riverwalk Golf Club we helped identify and reach out to a wedding videographer who allowed us to use a wedding video to promote the Riverwalk Wedding Venue. With paid advertising, the post itself had:
- 179,247 impressions
- 80,286 people reached
- 28,000+ video views
- 3,016 clicks
- 251 likes
- 21 shares
- 37 comments
But the best part about the video was the shares and comments. Commenters suggested the wedding venue to friends, expressed their desire to have a wedding there and, probably most importantly, received social proof from commenters who used the venue before and loved it. These comments can then be used to continually market the wedding venue at the golf course.
Here are some examples of the comments left by Facebook users who saw the video ad we identified, posted and advertised for on behalf of Riverwalk Golf Club:
We are creating a package specifically for wedding golf course venues. If you’d like to learn more about our golf course wedding venue marketing packages sign up for our email list here – http://eepurl.com/OTrhf
#3 19th Hole Media Clients Win CGCOA Awards
Sometimes businesses think social media is just a marketing tool, but it’s so much more than that. It helps with customer service, customer retention, customer feedback, develops new business opportunities, creates PR opportunities, etc.
We are proud to announce that the California Golf Course Owner’s Association’s Awards were won by several organizations involved with 19th Hole Media. You can watch videos of these CGCOA Award Winners here:
- Dad Miller Golf Course won the Golf Course of the Year Award
- Indian Wells Golf Resort won the Community Environmental Award
- Ron Zraick, Who Hired Us at Cinnabar Hills Golf Club, Won the Distinguished Service Award
- John Hakim, Who Co-Wrote the Social Golf Course, Won the For the Good of the Game Award
#2 Viral Golf Videos
Several golf videos we created this year went viral. One was a video of Zeb Welborn interviewing John Powell, from Los Serranos Country Club, about his world record-breaking round of golf where he shot 22 strokes under his age.
John Powell’s video was picked up by several major golf publishers throughout the country and he got lots more publicity for his remarkable accomplishment.
It was great helping get John Powell be recognized, he loved the attention he got from our video.
The second viral video was an interview I had with Bruce Loman, one of the first members of the Callaway Golf team. He’s seen Callaway become one of the biggest brands in golf and he shared the story regarding his experience with the company.
The interview came about purely by chance as Bruce recognized me coming off the 18th Hole at Strawberry Farms Golf Club. He was open to doing an interview right then and there.
Want 19th Hole Media to shoot and promote videos like these for your golf course? Sign up for our email list here and we’ll be in touch – http://eepurl.com/OTrhf
#1 Southern California Charity Golf Classic
The 3rd Annual Southern California Charity Golf Classic was held at Los Serranos Golf Club on July 29.
This year we had 132 golfers play in our golf tournament and raised $14,401.87. Combined, we have raised more than $33,000 in the three years we’ve hosted the Southern California Charity Golf Classic. Thank you to everyone who organized, sponsored, donated and played in the SCCGC!
In more exciting news, we wanted to share some new things that happened in our personal lives in 2017 too.
Birth of Our Darling Niece
Just about a year ago our brother Rocky became a father and we got to meet our niece. She is simply amazing. An animal lover who enjoys food, she is already very good at sharing. We are so excited to see her grow and to be a part of her life!
New Baby Coming in 2018
We’re happy to announce that Cindy, Zeb’s wife, is pregnant with their second child – a girl. 2018 is going to be another great year full of joy, laughter and excitement. Sebastian is super excited to become a big brother.
Sebastian’s Getting a Little Sister
It is not lost on us how fortunate we are to be able to do the work we do with people who never fail to be interesting and passionate. So many people have helped us get to where we are.
We have a lot of plans for 2018 and are looking forward to another memorable year. We hope you all have an absolutely amazing 2018!
Thank you all for everything!
Zeb & Lacey Welborn
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7 Quick Tips to Add Followers for Your Golf Courses Social Media Accounts
Gaining followers on your social media accounts is no easy task.
You need to set up your account, post regularly and follow along with comments. Most importantly, you need to have a strategy to add followers to your page.
Here are some quick tips on ways your golf course can add more followers to your social media channels:
On-Course Social Media Promotions
The easiest way to get followers to your social media accounts is to tell your golfers to follow you with on-course promotions. Some ways you can create on-course promotions to get golfers to follow you on social media are:
- Clear Signage – include signs on your course, in the clubhouse and in the golf shop that tell your golfers you’re using social media.
- Selfie Spot – Identify a popular picture taking spot on your golf course and include signage letting your golfers know this is a great spot to take a photo to share on social media. They will likely follow and share their experience at your course with their friends too.
Photo by Tom Prince
- At the Point of Sale – Train your staff to let your golfers know to follow you on your social media channels for special offers, updates and course conditions.
- Include a Scrolling Feed: Use a scrolling feed to show your golfers what you’re posting and what your golfers are posting on social media in your golf shop or clubhouse.
Engage on Other Social Media Pages
With more than 1.1 billion users, it’s possible to reach and connect with people from all walks of life, especially golfers. Local community pages, local golf-related pages, and local business pages are a great way to reach out and connect with your community and get more people following you on social media.
- Local Community Pages: Regardless of where you live, there are social media accounts set up to engage your local community. In my town, Chino Hills Connections is a go-to resource for members of our community. Be sure to engage in local discussion to raise the profile of your social media pages.
- Local Golf-Related Pages: You may have seen golf trick shot videos, golf equipment review sites, and golf course aficionado social media posts all over the internet. Connect with these influencers to raise the profile of your golf course and add to your follower count.
- Local Business Pages: Local businesses are a great resource for golf courses to reach out to. Not only are they great prospects for events and tournaments at your golf course, but the people that visit those pages are likely people in your community.
Social Media Advertising to Target Golfers
An easy way to add followers to your social media channel is to use Facebook Advertising. With Facebook Ads, we recommend targeting golfers who live within 30 miles of your golf course.
- Ads for Likes: You can run ad campaigns to target people who would be most likely to like your page. This will help increase your follower count.
- Ads for Sales: We typically don’t recommend using ads for likes unless you’re just starting your social media account. What we suggest instead is using Facebook Ads to drive potential customers to a sale. While doing this they will be aware of your social channels and be more likely to follow.
- Ads to Your Prime Market: With Facebook Ads, you can target golfers who are on your email list, who have visited your website in the past 90 days, or are the most engaged on your Facebook page. This high level of targeting insures that you’re reaching the right customers at the right price.
Use Hashtagging
Most social media sites use hashtags to help identify topics of conversation or categories of posts. Using hashtags in your posts will help add followers, specifically on sites like Instagram and Twitter.
- Straight-Up Hashtagging: Example = #Golf – Using a hashtag like this makes your content usable on the various social media search engines. #Golf in Instagram as an example has more than 10,717,779 posts.
- Local Hashtagging: Example = #SoCalGolf – Want to be searchable for a higher target market. Use local hashtags to be found by golfers who are more likely to play your course. #SoCalGolf in Instagram as an example has 7,304 posts.
- Golf-Related Hashtags: Example = #GolfLife – There are tons of golf-related hashtags that can help your golf course get found by golfers all over the world. #GolfLife in Instagram as an example has 476,967 posts.
Run Social Media Contests
Run contests through your page to help spread word of mouth. They can get golfers to share your posts which can drive new golfers to your social media accounts. Some examples of contests you could run to gain followers are:
- Photo Contest – Have your golfers submit a photo to your social media channel. The photo with the most likes wins. This will encourage your golfers to take a picture at your course, share it with their friends and invite them to your page to see it.
- Share This Post with Your Friends Contest – Ask your followers to share a post. Randomly choosing a winner from the participants.
- Majors Contest – Host a social contest during the major golf tournaments. Give your golfers a contest they’re happy to share with their friends.
Use Emails and Website to Promote Social Media Channels
Include your social media accounts in your emails and on your website. You can do this by:
- Including your social media accounts in all employees’ email signatures
- Sending an auto-responder email when they complete a round to ask them to follow your social media accounts
- Having social media buttons on your website
- Including a live social media feed, showing your actual social media posts, on your website.
Post Authentic, Engaging Social Media Content
The more engaging and authentic the content on your golf course is, the more likely you’ll have people want to follow you.
Think of your social media accounts as your own personal newspaper. The more subscribers you have, the more customers you’ll get.
Want more tips on how to get more golfers playing your golf course more often using social media? Sign up for the 19th Hole Media email list.
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Do Facebook Marketing Right for Your Golf Course
Last month, we covered the top six mistakes golf courses are making on Facebook. Those mistakes were:
- Being overly promotional
- Just posting flyers
- Posting infrequently
- Not engaging golfers with comments
- Posting the same thing over and over
- Not analyzing your efforts
For the full article please visit – The Six Biggest Mistakes Golf Courses Are Making on Facebook.
Now that we’ve covered the mistakes let’s talk about how to do Facebook right.
Ask Questions
The purpose of social media is to develop relationships with your customers outside of the golf course. It requires engagement. One easy way to do this is to create posts that ask a question. Engaging questions prompt your audience to answer which gives you an opportunity to extend the relationship even further.
Here are some questions we’ve posted for golf courses in the past which tend to get a lot of engagement:
- Do you repair your ball marks?
- What ONE thing would you add to the golf carts at our golf course?
- You’re teeing off on our 167-yard Hole #12 with a pin in the middle of the green. What club is in your hands?
Just asking questions is not enough, you need visuals to go along with them.
Use Visual Content
Visual content draws the viewers into the post and, as a result, gets higher engagement. Golfers are twice as likely to comment on a post that has a picture or video than a post without. Facebook algorithms also show visual content to more of your followers.
Visual content can be in the form of photos or videos.
Using the above examples we could use:
- a picture of a ball mark on one of our greens before we ask the question
- a picture of one of our golf carts next to the clubhouse
- an aerial video of the 167-yard 12th hole at this golf course
Once your golfers start engaging with your content it’s a sign that you’re beginning to do things right. Take it to the next level by engaging with your audience.
Engage Your Audience
Once your golfers start to comment on your Facebook posts you need to respond. Provide responses which try to extend the conversation. Don’t post a throw away comment that is easy to ignore.
The Facebook algorithms show your posts to followers more often when they have more engagement. If you focus on building engagement, your Facebook posts will show up to more people more often.
If you want to see great engagement in action check out our friend, John Hakim’s Facebook Page at Greenskeeper.org.
The more engaged your audience is on Facebook, the better job you’re doing with your social presence. To ensure your audience is engaged in your social efforts you need to be authentic.
Be Authentic
It’s easy to tell which golf courses outsource their social media marketing to a firm who doesn’t specialize in golf. For the most part, they try to use stock photos, funny videos and memes to drive engagement at your golf course. But, they rarely do.
Golfers follow your Facebook page to find out what’s going on at your golf course.
To be authentic:
- use actual photos of your golf course
- pose questions that only your golfers would know
- update them on course conditions, course improvements and special promotions
- highlight your staff members and golfers
Know of any other ways you can be authentic at your golf course? Add them in the comment section.
Be Consistent
I see it all the time. A golf course will pick up their social media presence only to let it slip in and out of dormancy. Consistency is important to continue to drive engagement and to make more of your golfers aware of the activities taking place at your golf course.
Inconsistent posting results in less engagement and, therefore, less exposure for your club.
Our average Facebook posts reaches approximately 1,000 people. Daily posting insures that our golf-related Facebook posts are being seen more than 30,000 times per month. Being inconsistent substantially drops the amount of daily exposure your golf course could be receiving.
Analyze Your Efforts
A successful campaign on social media depends on how well you analyze your efforts and can adjust accordingly. Facebook Insights is a part of every Facebook page and it is a great tool to help you monitor your efforts.
Facebook Insights can give you valuable information about:
- Reach
- Engagement
- Likes
- Promotions
- Page Views
- Post Performance
- Demographics
- Local Information
The metric we tend to look at the most when analyzing our efforts is how our posts performed. Each post shows how many Facebook users our post reached, which actions took place and how many people clicked through to the website. This information is critical in terms of catering your content to your customers. The more you analyze your efforts the more you’ll find what resonates with your audience.
Conclusion
In our last post you learned what not to do with Facebook marketing for your golf course. In this post you learned what to do with Facebook marketing for your golf course.
To establish a strong Facebook presence for your golf course you need to ask questions, use visual content, engage your audience, be authentic, be consistent and analyze your efforts.
These tips are designed to help you build a strong online presence for your business, but there is so much more that Facebook offers to help you get more golfers to play your golf course and play more often.
Thanks for taking some time to see how to do Facebook right for your golf course. We will be sharing more tips like this soon, Including a big one: The Difference-Maker in Facebook Marketing Today. Join our email list to ensure you learn even more about how to be successful on Facebook for your golf course:
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The Great Golf Course March Bracket
Conference Championships are here and March Madness is next. There’s always a ton of buzz around the tournament and people are thinking about their brackets.
Let your golfers embrace bracketology to choose their favorite hole at your course via an exclusive contest through 19th Hole Media.
We’ll set up and run a contest using your 18 hole handicaps as “seeds” to slot your golf holes into a bracket. Your golfers will choose their favorite hole at your course after five weeks of voting!
What better way to get in the spirit of March and stir golf sentiment at your course leading up to the Masters!
Contact us for details and pricing and then look forward to stirring sentiment and buzz at your course with us!
Email 19th Hole Media Call Zeb at 19th Hole Media Share This Article!