Zeb Welborn Discusses The Social Golf Course on Golf Talk Live

Had a blast being interviewed by Ted J. Odorico on Golf Talk Live about my book, The Social Golf Course on March 13, 2014.

Listen to the interview here – http://www.blogtalkradio.com/golftalklive/2014/03/13/mar-13th-2014–coaches-corner-plus-guest-michele-trimarche-zeb-welborn

Golf Talk Live with Ted Odorico

Golf Talk Live with Ted Odorico

Golf Talk Live happens every Thursday starting at 6pm PST and Ted interviews “some of the best teachers, club makers, and golf industry types around the world.

Ted’s show starts off with an interactive segment between golfer and teacher. It’s an opportunity to talk with some of the best instructors in golf like:

  • Clint Wright – PGA Teaching Professional at R3 Golf Academy.
  • Stan Moore – PGA Teaching Professional  at BocaRatonGolfLesson.com.
  • Brian Dobbie – PGA Golf Professional at Montclair Golf Club, New Jersey.

He then transitions to a call in session from 6PM – 7PM CST where golfers can get some great tips from the “Coaches Corner” panel.

Later in the show, Ted interviewed PGA/LPGA Class A Professional – Michele Trimarche . . . And last, but certainly not least, me, Zeb Welborn to discuss the launch of “The Social Golf Course”.

During the interview we discussed The Social Golf Course, a book co-authored by Zeb Welborn of 19th Hole Media and John Hakim of Greenskeeper.org.  During the interview I was able to share my thoughts on social media, golf and the golf course industry.  Ted had some questions about his social media presence too and I was able to help him out with that a little bit as well.

All in all, I had a blast being on Ted’s Golf Talk Live and would encourage you to take a listen!

Mar. 13th, 2014 – Coaches Corner plus Guest- Michele Trimarche & Zeb Welborn

Ted Odorico interviews Zeb Welborn on Golf Talk Live

Ted Odorico

 

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Zeb Welborn Featured on Golf Life

Immediately after releasing my book, The Social Golf Course, I connected with Golf Life a website devoted to anything and everything golf.

Golf Life is a national television program that started in the late 90s, Golf Life is seen by 600,000 viewers each month who are watching in some of the 90 million homes we reach across the US.

Zeb Welborn author of The Social Golf Course interviewed by Golf Life

Golf Life

The article is pretty straight forward with questions about me and The Social Golf Course and my responses to those questions.  Thanks to the people at Golf Life for the post on their website.

“Golf Life got the chance to talk with author Zeb Welborn of 19th Hole Media about his new book The Social Golf Course: Increasing Rounds with Social Media that he co-wrote with John Hakim from Greenskeeper.org. The book is a basic introduction to golf course marketing with social media. Let’s learn more from Zeb Welborn.”

Please check out the article from Golf Life on Zeb Welborn, 19th Hole Media and The Social Golf Course.

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The Social Golf Course | Now Available in Amazon

The Social Golf Course

The Social Golf Course: Increasing Rounds with Social Media by Zeb Welborn from 19th Hole Media and John Hakim from Greenskeper.org

The Social Golf Course

Download the eBook on Amazon for Free (Tomorrow Only)

John Hakim and I, Zeb Welborn are excited to announce that our new book, The Social Golf Course: Increasing Rounds with Social Media is now available on Amazon.

We are giving the book away for free tomorrow, Wednesday, February 26.  To get your free downloadable copy, please click on the link – The Social Golf Course.

The Social Golf Course Tournament at Los Serranos Country Club on March 14, 2014

To promote the book, we are having a hard launch on March 14, 2014.  We will be holding a book signing and golf event at Los Serranos Country Club in Chino Hills, CA.  If you’re interested in playing in the tournament, it will be $60 which will include a round of golf and a signed copy of our book, The Social Golf Course.  You must RSVP to attend this event by contacting Zeb no later than March 1, 2014.

Phone: 909 973 9089
Email: Zeb@WelbornMedia.com

Additional Information on The Social Golf Course

John Hakim was a guest on the Defining Success Podcast on July 22, 2013 when we discussed creating this book for the golf course industry.  It’s been a lengthy and rewarding process to create this book to help educate golf courses on how to use social media to reach more customers.

David Kramer, from Los Serranos Country Club wrote the foreword to our book and in the foreword, he wrote, “I’m certain owners and operators of businesses in other industries will find an inspiring introduction to the practical benefits social media can provide for improving your relationship building with your marketplace and patrons.”

A special thank you to my Dad, Larry and my Mom, Annie for helping to edit the book.  Your expertise and insights were invaluable.  And to my sister, Lacey for designing the cover, formatting the book and assisting in the editing of the book.

Lastly, I’d like to thank you for being involved with us.  I encourage you to download the book, rate and review it in Amazon.

Thank you!

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How Do We Get More Younger Golfers Playing Golf?

How do we get more younger golfers playing golf?

One of the biggest reasons why the golf industry has been struggling in current years is because we’ve become complacent and lacked innovation.  Our times have changed over the past couple of decades and the golf industry, as a whole, has been slow to adapt.

Junior golfers are an important component toward growing the game.  As older golfers leave the sport, we need to be inspiring more younger golfers to take up the game to fill in the gaps.  In order to do this we need to communicate with a younger generation . . . the way they prefer to communicate.

Traditional media like magazines, newspapers and television ads are not viable options in todays internet and social media age.  Young people are using platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, YouTube videos and a variety of other to connect and communicate with one another.  They are also using those mediums to connect with their passions.

We are not giving young golfers the opportunity to connect with local golf courses and people in the golf community because, for the most part, local golf courses are not socially active online.

We’re missing out on the biggest opportunity of our time and are giving it up to other recreational sports and activities that are seizing this opportunity.  If we are to grow golf, we need to connect with younger golfers and speak their language using social media.

At 19th Hole Media, we’re helping to get the word out about social media and the impact it can have on the future of the golf course industry.  Please contact us to learn more about how we can get younger golfers playing at your golf course . . . Or, just to connect with us!

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California Golf Course Owner’s Association (CGCOA) Presentation on Social Media

The California Golf Course Owner’s Association (CGCOA) invited John Hakim, owner of Greenskeeper.org and myself, Zeb Welborn to speak to their members about the importance of social media on October 23, 2013.

California Golf Course Owner's Association CGCOA

California Golf Course Owner’s Association CGCOA

During the presentation we discussed the importance of social media and the impact it’s having on our economy and our golf courses.  We also gave a lot of practical examples on how to use social media effectively at the local golf course level.

We had a lot of great feedback from our webinar and were asked to come back to present again at another date in the future.

The California Golf Course Owner’s Association (CGCOA) is dedicated to the stimulation of market growth for California’s golf course industry. They promote collaborative advertising and promotional advertising programs encouraging more rounds of golf throughout California.

John Hakim and I love sharing our knowledge and expertise with the golf course industry.  If you’re in the golf course industry and you have questions regarding social media, contact me.

Zeb Welborn

Zeb@WelbornMedia.com

(909) 973 – 9089

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New Marketing Methods for Golf Courses

The Golf Course industry as a whole is way behind the curve when it comes to promoting the game and encouraging others to play it.  As a community, we need to work together to help grow the sport and encourage others to take up the game.  We have developed new marketing methods designed to help grow golf by implementing social media policies at local golf courses across the country.

Social media, in particular, Facebook can have a substantial impact on the growth of the game at the local level.  Local golf courses need to create a buzz and excitement around the events that are happening at their golf course.

If more golf courses can encourage more golfers in their local areas to take up golf, the golf industry will thrive for decades to come.  If we continue to market and promote the game like we have in the past, we will be killing the game we all love so much.

Other recreational sports are using Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms much more effectively than other sports and the golf industry is missing out on opportunities left and right.

Contact us to learn more about how we can help your golf course reach more customers and reach more customers more effectively than other traditional forms of advertising – email me at Zeb@WelbornMedia.com.

I’d also love to hear your thoughts on the video we created for 19th Hole Media – New Marketing Methods for Golf Courses.  Please visit our Facebook page to leave your comments for us to see how we can improve our presentation for future videos.

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Social Media Golf Marketing Outperforms Newspapers and Golf Magazines

As the golf industry has declined so have the budgets of golf courses trying to reach new customers.  It’s an endless downward cycle resulting in fewer rounds being played at golf courses and fewer people taking up the game.  Social media golf marketing outperforms newspapers and golf magazines in reaching more golfers, in targeting golfers and in engaging golfers more often.

Golf has been slow to react to the wave of new technology that other industries have been jumping on.  Social media is one area in particular where golf courses at the local level are lacking which is failing to encourage new golfers to take up and play the game because they can get more added value from other, more socially active activities.

To grow golf, it is essential to continue to promote the game at the local level.  Golf courses in every community should be working hard to encourage the members of their community to take up golf.  As people who love the game it should be our duty to share the love we have with the game with so many others.

But, it needs to be affordable, it needs to be easy, and it needs to have an impact.  Social media outperforms magazine and newspaper marketing in every imaginable category and the more time invested into a social media golf marketing campaign, the more impact your golf course will have on golfers.

Lets compare:

A local daily newspaper has a circulation of 119,000 people.  The cost for a 3 x 5 ad is $340.  To have your ad show up every day you would be $2,380 per week.  The cost per thousand impressions is $2.86.

  • It does not target your market
  • There is no opportunity for follow up
  • Circulations are declining

A local golf magazine has a circulation of 50,000 people.  The cost for an ad is $1,700.  The magazine goes out once a month.  The cost per thousand impressions is $13.60.

  • Targets golfers, some within your geographical region and some outside of your geographical region
  • There is no opportunity for follow up
  • Circulations are declining

19th Hole Media (Welborn Media) worked with a local golf course in Southern California for 18 months.  At the end of our tenure we were reaching 77,136 people every week.  We were being paid less than $250 per week.  We were posting daily to their Facebook and Twitter pages and created blog posts and videos at sporadic intervals.  The cost per thousand impressions was $0.88.

  • Targeted golfers within 50 miles of the golf course
  • Connections can last a lifetime
  • Number of impressions increases at a constant rate
Social Media Golf Marketing is better than golf magazine ads or newspaper ads.  Welborn Social Media 19th Hole Media

Golf Magazine vs. Newspaper vs. Welborn Social Media (19th Hole Media)

In a side by side comparison of the advantages of social media marketing versus any other form of marketing, 19th Hole Media blows them out of the water.  We reach more golfers, we cost less and we reach your golfers more often.

Let us show you what a social media golf marketing campaign can do for your golf course.  Contact Zeb Welborn today at Zeb@WelbornMedia.com to schedule a free consultation for your golf course.

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Bunkers Paradise – An Online Golfing Community

For those of you that don’t know, I’m the host of the Defining Success Podcast, an online, interview-style radio show that aims to interview people from all walks of life to determine what it means to be successful.  In Episode 9, we talked with Ken Lee, the Editor-in-Chief at Bunkers Paradise, an online golfing community devoted to everything golf.

In the interview with Ken we discussed a variety of topics, but mainly focused on the impact social media has had on growing Bunkers Paradise and how he’s effectively managed to grow an online golfing community.

Ken Lee from Bunkers Paradise on Building a Golfing Community

Ken Lee

The online golfing community is set up to give golfers the ability to learn from other golfers who enjoy and love the great game of golf.

Ken, and the people at Bunkers Paradise like to have fun.  They make unique golfing videos, they review golf equipment and all in all just have a great time connecting with other golfers.

Social media has been critical to the success of Bunkers Paradise.  Their enthusiasm using social networks has encouraged more and more golfers to partake in online golfing activities, connect with other golfers and play more golf.

“Social media has been our forum for success,” Ken said.

Online Golfing Community - Bunkers Paradise and 19th Hole Media with Ken Lee on the Defining Success Podcast

Bunkers Paradise

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Building an Online Golfing Community

We met Ken Lee from Bunkers Paradise while we were managing the Twitter account for Los Serranos Country Club in 2012.  Ken is helping to build an online golfing community at Bunkers Paradise to help promote the game of golf and encourage more golfers to take up the game.

At the time, Bunkers Paradise had just begun to develop its online following and had really just started utilizing social media. Today, Bunkers Paradise is now getting recognized by almost every single major golf company. Everyone is interested in having the Editor in Chief of Bunkers Paradise try out there products and share their findings with their following.

In the following interview with Ken Lee, we learn how he was able to build a strong golfing community and how he’s used that to reach more golfers and generate value for his organization. By building and managing his following online Ken Lee has created a resource where golfers feel comfortable connecting with one another and sharing their ideas and opinions. And, as a business, Bunkers Paradise has prospered.

The previous interview was taken from the Defining Success Podcast, managed by myself and is devoted towards changing the way we view success. The podcast features interviews from people who love what they do, are good at it and are using their skills to help others.

We can help you build an online golfing community at your local golf course. Ken Lee discusses the importance of quality over quantity and we couldn’t agree more. We can help your golf course reach more customers, encourage golfers to play more rounds and generate more sales for your golf course. If you’d like to find out more about what we do or how we’ve been able to help golf courses across Southern California, please contact Zeb Welborn by email at Zeb@WelbornMedia.com or by phone at (909) 973 – 9089.

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Do Golfers Use Social Media???

Do golfers use social media? Read this excerpt from an article we wrote on Welborn Media

Originally posted at WelbornMedia.com by Zeb Welborn

I recently spoke with a General Manager at a golf course who said, “Most of our golfers are 55 and over . . . Do you expect me to believe that golfers over the age of 55 are using Facebook?”

The short answer is YES, golfers over the age of 55 are using Facebook on a regular and consistent basis. In fact, according to a Pew Internet study, more than 57% of Internet users between the ages of 50 and 64 are on social networking sites. To go further, 74% of people making more than $75,000 per year use social media sites and 74% of college graduates use social media sites.

The largest growing demographic on Facebook is the 50 and over crowd. As my 89 year-old grandmother, Lenore Welborn said, “I joined Facebook to keep in touch with my grandchildren. It’s how I keep tabs on them and know what they’re doing.” The over 55′ers began using Facebook to keep in touch with their grandchildren, but are now using Facebook to connect with their interests and are using social media to pursue their own hobbies.

Bob Pouliot and friends

One example is golfer Bob Pouliot who retired years ago and now plays golf almost every day of the week. He connected with our golf course through the Los Serranos Country Club Facebook page and became highly active. Bob contributed 12 articles to the 19th Hole Stories found on the Los Serranos Country Club blog. He encouraged his family and friends to visit each one of the stories he had written about playing golf at his home course. These stories helped to connect him more deeply with the golf course, connected new friends to the course, contributed to an active and vibrant community and increased sales as Bob and his friends began playing at Los Serranos Country Club more and more often.

The General Manager, in the before mentioned comment, is also explaining something very telling of the golf industry as a whole. Golfers are frequenting golf courses less and less often and the response seems to be to cater to the older generation as they are the ones who are playing golf the most right now, but if the golf industry is going to thrive that strategy needs to shift. We need to be thinking about new ways to expose new golfers to the game. We need to start reaching those people in the language they speak and today’s language is social media marketing.

Spend any time with someone under the age of 40 and you’ll understand why social media marketing makes so much sense. Advertise where the eyeballs are.

The younger generation will not be picking up a newspaper or flipping through a magazine, they will be looking online to find out about the things that interest them and if you’re not online you’re missing an opportunity.

As a 31-year old golfer who loves the game of golf, I know how important it is to change the way we reach new golfers . . . By being active on social media and the Internet we can increase play at golf courses all over the country . . . Getting each golf course to implement a social media strategy designed to promote, encourage and enable young golfers to take up the game should be the first and foremost responsibility of any community golf course. Teach the younger generation to love the game and you’ll have customers for life.

If you’re still not sure that social media or Facebook marketing is important for your golf course take a look at the Facebook ”Check-Ins” for your course (even if no one in your organization ever created a Facebook Page for it your golf course will still have one). The “Check-In” feature on Facebook is for Facebook users to indicate that they are currently at your golf course through their mobile phones which then is relayed to all of the family and friends who are connected with them through Facebook.

According to Marketland.com only 10% of Facebook users actively use the “Check-In” feature, so multiply the number of people you’ve had check in to your course since your Facebook page started by ten and that will give you a rough idea of how many golfers at your golf course use Facebook. The number will most certainly surprise you.

At our golf course, a nearby location with a similar name as the golf course severely limited our Facebook page “Check-Ins”, but within 18 months, our sample golf course had 3,202 people “Checking-In” at the golf course. Which, according to the 10% rule, means more than 32,020 Facebook users had physically visited this particular golf course.


Any way you slice it, golfer’s are using social media and more and more golfers will continue to use social media in the upcoming years. At golf courses, we have an amazing opportunity to use social media to develop strategies designed to build a better, more engaging, more interactive sport. Social media will help us to connect with users of all ages and help bring them into this game. While many people consider golf to be an individual sport, the most fun comes from the interactions that occur between people. As David Kramer, Senior Vice President at Los Serranos Country Club once told me, “Golf was the first form of social media,” and in a way, he’s right.

People golf because they can hang out with friends, tell stories and become part of a community. Social media can do that better than anything out there today. If you want your golf course to thrive, you need to build the game of golf, to build the game you need to increase exposure and there’s no better way to increase exposure than by using social media.

So . . . Do golfer’s use social media? According to the National Golf Foundation, 71% of golfers use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter . . . and that percentage is only getting higher.

If your golf course could use a boost with a stronger social media presence contact Zeb Welborn at (909) 973 – 9089 or by email Zeb@WelbornMedia.com. You can also sign up for our email newsletter which will provide additional tips and advice on how to increase your online presence by filling out our Welborn Social Media Newsletter Sign Up Form.

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