Committee - Social Media

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Scooby999

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Ok, I have embraced something that I vowed never to do......get involved in a golf club committee. Played with the Captain this week who is an ex police officer and a good friend ( I am a water squirter so the banter is good). Our club are embracing social media and as he knows I teach social media to Emergency Services managers he "suggested" (politely) that my help would be required. hence my first meeting next week lol

so here is my question, has your club embraced twitter/Facebook/instagram etc, have you had any positive negatives etc or could you point me to any really successful sites.

We really want to raise our membership in both the youth and 20-40 years demographics.

Any advice would be most gratefully appreciated.:smirk::smirk::smirk:
 
We have recently started to embrace Facebook to highlight some competition results and upcoming social events. Very early days but seems to be working ok, which for a club of old farts is amazing. Definately improves awareness of social events.

We still use HDID for all main competition and hcp stuff but I feel that social media could add something to the club. Interesting to take stock in 6mths, 12 mths etc..
 
There are some good clubs to follow on Twitter & FB. Camberley Heath & its manager are regularly on twitter and keep posting pics of Cambs differnt holes. it is pure golf porn.

People think they should have a 'social media strategy'.. the reality is that there is no such thing. Social media should be an element of your overall 'customer engagement strategy'. So sit down with team and ask them how do they or how would they want to engage the 20-40 demographics. Once you have that sorted, you can use the social media as one of the channels to implement it.
Having said that,
1) I wud also like to see some deals going on Insta/Twit/Face. #
2) Get the Pros to use the the club handle in their posts
3) Dont just let someone in the office be the sole custodian of the account. I would not particularly like to see tweets from Joe in Finance all the time.
4) It is about selling the dream - of wanting to be playing while the sun is shining
5) Finally... make it fun.
 
I wish my club would get involved with this - I think it's a must nowadays.

There are a few local clubs that do it, but not very well. I think the important thing is to keep the updates regular and meaningful. The way Hoylake have handled it for the Open this year is perfect.

As above - make it fun too!

Good luck
 
Our club has a website & online Forum but the forum is little used. We also have a Business Facebook page but people can only post in reply to posts made by the club. At my suggestion we are going to start an open or closed Facebook Group. I think this will be more popular than the Forum, which I think will just wither & die. Sure this is the way to go. I belong to a photographers' forum too but since the members started a Facebook group many more people use the group. I would say an open group on Facebook is the way to go.
 
Closest we come to a social media presence is a facebook page which has contact details, a link to the website and a link to wikipedia description
 
As others have said I'd say a presence on social media is essential for any business nowadays. Golf clubs should be easy to keep up to date as there's always going to be something happening, is the course open, what comps are on, results etc etc.

There is a danger it could be a duplication of what may be on on your website. But I think the advantage with social media is that people will be on facebook/twitter a lot anyway, so they will see whatever is posted. Where as if it's on the web site someone has to deliberately go there to see it, thus the number of people seeing it may well be lower.

The other thing is I'd say is the language and tone used in the posts/tweets. I think in addition to being on social media, you have to get the tone right. If you are aiming at the younger generation then formality and stuffiness will generally not be their thing . So try and get someone the right side of 40 (even 30 if you can find them) to post things.

And whilst he's not a club, I think Mark Crossfield is a perfect example of how golf can use and embrace social media.
 
My club uses it well, they regularly update you on what's happening at the club (social evenings, competitions, course maintenance, news and how our members are doing in events away from home, offers in the pro shop). Also, get the pro to have a twitter feed, and re-tweet between the two, and get members to re-tweet where practical.

The best thing I think is to use loads of photos, show how the course is coming along in the spring, shots of the best holes, any particular features that separate it from the rest.

Basically it's a way of informing the members and advertising to none members.

Plus, it's free.
 
I raised the matter of social media with the club manager. Unfortunately, his response was that certain large sections of the club prefer emails and so that is how it will remain. I think he has raised the matter a few times but the committees want to stick to emails only as that is what most people know and understand. They do no seem to see the wider benefits when it comes to raising the profile of the club beyond the existing membership.

Would like to see an article in GM about social media and golf. Something like that may just encourage a few more clubs to use it.
 
We have a website and a Facebook page, which I run,. The website has all the main club details, handicap lists, draw times etc. I try and keep the Facebook page a bit more lighthearted, I do post info about upcoming events and competition results but in general it's just for a bit of banter.
 
Just a quick update for those who replied, many thanks for the info.

We met this week and have fully agreed both our marketing and social media strategy for the next three years. This includes our branding, logos colours etc, signed off by the Captain/vice etc. We will use the branding on everything internal and external and ensure its consistent through the club.

with regards social media, we now have a core team of five who have admin access to our twitter/Facebook/instagram accounts. We have started putting up info/pictures/results etc and in the first three days of this we our interaction on Facebook has gone up by800%.

we have now agreed what events and promotions we are going to push and promote! it's going to be a long journey but at least we have made a good start.
 
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