Watch the Golf Channel today, and you will continually hear from pros like Ian Poulter, Bubba Watson, Stewart Cink and many others talk about their Twitter accounts. They often brag about the amount of followers they have and even post updates in the middle of a tournament! Why is social media so important to them that they go as far as posting online while on the course, when they are supposed to be focused on executing their next shot and winning the tournament?

The reason Ian Poulter will post an update on Twitter while playing is the same reason a golf course should consider a social media strategy. The bottom line is that an effective social media presence will increase sales. Now sales is not the only thing social media can deliver: With a successful strategy, a golf course can improve on its brand, stay connected with customers, offer special discounts and, most importantly, provide customer service when its customers are away from the course.

I read an article a few months back in USA Today that noted how Ian Poulter posted on Twitter a picture of himself shaking hands with Prince Charles at the Ryder Cup. In this image, Poulter was wearing a white Power Balance bracelet, and shortly after his post, sales for the bracelet shot up. Poulter realized then that his sponsor relationships could be impacted through his online efforts. This is an example of the marketing power of social media. Though you are not Ian Poulter and don’t have sponsors that can benefit from your marketing efforts, you can still build your brand and help spike sales at your golf course.

Additionally, golfers who “friend” or “like” the profiles of golf courses can receive many enticing benefits, among them  access to discounts and specials that they wouldn’t otherwise have. True, there is Golfnow.com and many other discount sites out there, but many courses are offering the best values on their Facebook and Twitter pages. Along with the discounts, golfers will have inside access to what is going on at the course. It is almost as if they are a “member” of the course but without the cost! I encourage all golfers to do a search for all the golf courses in their area and “like” or “follow” them. They will find many opportunities to get deals and privileges as an exclusive member.

If you have any questions or want to learn more, please e-mail me at dennis@golfclubmedia.com

Click here to go directly to the article page.

If you are a business looking to be featured in the Florida Golf Central Magazine or my article, they have a circulation close to 50,000 in the state and are growing. Please shoot me an email and we can discuss how we can benefit each other!

Dennis Card

dennis@golfclubmedia.com

  ]]> http://www.golfclubmedia.com/featured-monthly-article-in-the-florida-golf-central-magazine/feed 114 http://www.golfclubmedia.com/3-steps-to-easily-create-a-free-customized-clickable-facebook-welcome-page http://www.golfclubmedia.com/3-steps-to-easily-create-a-free-customized-clickable-facebook-welcome-page#comments Wed, 24 Aug 2011 05:13:28 +0000 Dennis Card http://www.golfclubmedia.com/?p=113 Creating a “Welcome” or “Landing Page” on your Facebook page for your business is much easier than you think and it can be FREE!

There is no need to have any coding knowledge. Everything you need is just a Google search away. In this blog post I will explain the 3 steps and links you need to easily create a customized and professional looking Facebook welcome page.

Step 1: Create an Image File

Step 2: Utilize http://www.photobucket.com and http://www.image-maps.com to host and map links in your image

Step 3: Add the “Static HTML I-Frame” application to your facebook page and copy/paste.

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Step 1: Creating an Image File

This is probably the hardest step but it will depend on what kind of image you want. My suggestion is to keep it simple with at least one call to action. The one call to action you must have is to ask visitors to “like” your page. There are 700 million Facebook users but I doubt 90 percent of them understand how pages and the “like” feature works and sometimes you need to guide them in the right direction.

If you don’t have a photo editor like photoshop, my suggestion would be to use an open source version that is free. There are a number of them out there but my suggestion would be to use Gimp. Gimp is very similar to Photoshop and there are plenty of tutorials people have posted on Youtube that can help you out. In efforts to keep this post to an acceptable length, I will leave it up to you to learn how to manipulate images on Gimp, but if you need help, please email me personally and I will walk you through a couple steps to create the image you need. (dennis@golfclubmedia.com).

If you do not have the time to create the image yourself, you can always have a designer make one for you. This will obviously cost you some money and this post is about a free solution but it shouldn’t cost more than $100 for someone to do it. We at Golf Club Media have someone that can provide this if you need.

To download Gimp, please go to http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

* Make sure your image file is no larger than 525 pixels in width in order to fit on the Facebook page.

Here is an example of an image file I made for Florida Golf Central Magazine

Step 2: Hosting your Image File

Once you have created your image file, you will then need to host it on your website. If you do not have a website you can always use http://www.photobucket.com. Photobucket is a photo sharing social network that is free and takes two minutes to sign up. When you go to the site, just follow the directions to setup an account and then upload your photo.

After uploading your photo there, you will then need to go to http://www.image-maps.com. Image-maps is a image mapping tool website that will take your image URL and allow you to create links within the image and then provide you with the html or css code needed to paste into Facebook. The website provides good directions and fairly easy to figure out but if you need help working through this step, please feel free to contact me at dennis@golfclubmedia.com

*Be sure to utilize the create image from a URL instead of uploading it from your computer. (Use the URL from photobucket or your website)

*To get this URL, right click on the image on your website and go to “View Image Info” – you will find the URL listed in the pop up box.

*When you are done creating your links, check the box to the right that says “USE CSS For Facebook” and click “Get Code” – be sure to click on the tab above that says “CSS Code” and copy all the script.

Step 3: Add a “Static HTML I-Frame” Application

Once you have your code, all you need to do is log in to your Facebook account and visit this application http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=190322544333196. There are others out there, but this is the most used and the best one I have seen. From there, follow the directions to add the application to your Facebook Page (make sure you select your business page) and once it is added, go to the application and paste the CSS code you got from above.

Again, if you need help in any of these steps, please send me an email at dennis@golfclubmedia.com. You will find throughout this process there is plenty of direction and there are resources on Youtube to guide you.

Here was the finished product for Florida Golf Central. This took only 10 minutes!

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I know my answer would definitely be 5 best friends. These friends will support me, encourage me and back me on anything I do. I know that if I had a business, these friends would be advocates and care enough about me to spread the word about how great I am.

Now think of this in terms of facebook fans.

So many businesses focus on obtaining a large number of fans and when they reach a number that matches their email database, they think they are doing well. Unfortunately this is not true. Facebook has taken steps to reduce the overwhelming updates that pour into the news feeds of users. Check out this article about how recent facebook settings now default a user’s news feeds to only show close friends that they interact with most. Also, facebook users have the ability to hide updates from any specific page or friend they choose – http://www.insidefacebook.com/2011/02/11/edit-news-feed-settings/. This means all those 2000 facebook fans won’t even see your updates!

Along with this is something called an Edgerank. The higher your Edgerank of your post, the better chance it has of showing up in the “default news feed” or the “friends and pages you interact with most” I will save this topic for another post but Edgerank is an algorithm that facebook uses to determine the importance of your post.

If these facebook settings don’t explain why quality fans are more important than quantity then think of it this way – fans that are actually interested in who you are, are more likely to spread the word about how great you are. Ambassadors of your brand are far more important than how many impressions your brand receives.

Email me if you want to chat and learn more: dennis@golfclubmedia.com.

We can help you with your “News feed Optimization”. Contact us for more info.

1.  Decide what content you want to share, then Tweet and Post it on Twitter, Facebook and other networks you use.

• This can be a blog you just wrote, some interesting information you found on the internet, a current event about golf or your industry, a joke, a quote, just about anything that will be of interest to your followers and customers. You can even announce competitions and whats going on at your course or business.
• The important thing here is to keep the content absolutely authentic and interesting.
• DO NOT SELL! – this is biggest mistake every business makes when managing their Social Media. Please read our post about Selling on Social Media and when it can be done.
• Also, don’t be afraid to post interesting information from a competing company or another website. The key here is you are letting your customers know that you are the “Pit Stop” to get all the information they are interested in. They will recognize you as a resourceful provider of interesting information and they can always go to you to find what they need.

2.  Go to Twitter and start Searching and Connecting:

• Do a Twitter Search for keywords and phrases that your customers would use – this will pull up all those people that tweeted about your subject. For example: golf Lessons, golfing today, or your actual club or business name. *this is very important and I will explain why below.
• Start following as many of these people as you can, but be careful because Twitter looks negatively at aggressive following. See Rules and Best Practices but if you follow only those who are interested in your topic, then you should have no need to worry.
• Be sure to @reply publicly and re-tweet when you like something they wrote. Re-tweets are a great way to get noticed by them and it’s polite to show you care enough about their content to share it with your followers. @replys show up in their @mentions, where they can see that you included them in a tweet. Here is more information about how to use these tools from Twitter Help.

3.  Get on Facebook and do a search for the same keywords or topics:

• Facebook as updated their search capability and you can now search for “Posts by everyone”, “Posts by friends” and “Posts by Groups”. Posts by everyone will show status updates of people all over Facebook that you don’t know. Depending on their privacy settings you can “like” their comment or comment on it yourself. This will be time consuming, especially if you want to target geographically but it can be a great way to connect with others interested in your business. I just searched for “golf lessons” and about 30 people posted in the last 2 hours!
  

  Click to Enlarge

• Once you connect with these people, you can then request them to become a fan of your page. Click here for Facebook Search.
• Other Pages and Groups – Do the same search for all pages and groups about your topic. “Like” the Fan Pages and become a member of the Groups you find. Some of these may be competitors and that fine. Just contribute to the Page or Group by posting in them. If you can show you are more of an expert about golf or your business, people will follow.

4.  Go to blogsearch.google.com and find all blogs relating to your business or golf – Start reading them and contributing. Write comments and feedback to the blogger as well as other contributors. Be sure to leave your name and a link to your homepage every time. Don’t try and sell here. The Author of the blog will probably not be happy with it. Just write good content and feedback and people will take notice. You may go as far as asking to contribute blog posts to the site.

5.  Monitor your news feeds and responses to your tweets and posts – RESPOND TO EVERYONE YOU CAN! If someone cares enough to write on your wall or respond to a post you made, you better care enough to write back. The way to keep followers once you get them is to respond and participate.

If you want to build a brand that provides lifetime value and loyal customers, you need to engage your customers or as Gary Vaynerchuk likes to call it, CARE. Check out below, Gary talking about how Old Spice failed to to this with their famous marketing campaign in which they gained a 160,000 followers and fans by encouraging their customers to submit questions to Old Spice on the Social Networks. These customer questions were answered personally by the famous Old Spice Man (Isaiah Mustafa). This campaign was highly successful and produced information on 160,000 customers but Old Spice did nothing with these customers and engaged them only 20 or so times on Twitter. Here is an excerpt about it from Gary’s book called the “Thank You Economy” Why Old Spice Failed. Think of what Old Spice could have done with all this information that was wasted!

6. Start back at 1 and repeat.

*Searching for your “business name”, for example “Bunkers Golf Course”, will allow you to see what people are saying about your business. This is where you can really drive home customer service and thank them or do damage control if they write something negative. Using Social Media as a PR tool will be in another post.

Also, be sure to suggest becoming a fan of your page to every new friend you get on your personal page!

This is part Golf Club Media’s suggested daily strategy for our clients. To find out more, please contact us.

Where did these managers go wrong?

Selling VS. Conversating

Social Media is not an advertising platform or a place to solicit business. Now, I say this because Social Networks are like virtual bars and parties. People are there to socialize, find out what others are doing and take part in conversations. The last thing they want is to be solicited constantly to buy something. Think of it this way, if you were out at a non-business gathering and you had one guy that tried to sell you something every time he came up to talk to you, you would probably get annoyed and walk away. It’s the same thing in Social Media. Your Social Media Strategy should be centered around conversation and developing great content that your customers, or friends as they should be called, want to hear.

Mike Shultz, President of Rain Group – a sales training company, said it best in his article titled 8 Ways to Successfully Sell on Social Media. He explains how to “Boil the Frog” in which the old saying goes…if you boil water and put a frog in, it will jump out , but if you first put the frog in cold water and then turn up the heat slowly, the frog will stay in and eventually get cooked. http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/8-ways-to-successfully-sell-using-social-media/#more-9320.

“Boil the Frog” with your prospects on social media. Ease into conversations by commenting and retweeting them with praise. Offer up your expertise or knowledge and create a welcoming reason to follow you. The sales phrase of ABC, “Always Be Closing”, does not apply in Social Media. The new phrase should read “Always Be Conversating”. I wonder if Alec Baldwin would agree, given his famous speech on the movie “Glengarry Glen Ross”? Great speech though!

1. History of Social Media - socialcommercetoday.com

History of Social Media

2. History of Social Media -One Lily Creative Agency

History of Social Media

3. The History of Online Social Networking - socialmediatoday.com

The History of Online Social Networking

4. Social Media Monitoring -www.flotown.com

social media monitoring

5. History of advertising on Facebook – www.mashable.com

history of advertising on facebook

6. The value of being LinkedIn – www.onlinemba.com

the value of being LinkedIn

7. How to use Twitter -www.partyaficionado.com

How to use Twitter

 

 

 

 

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The main cause of these problems is an oversupply of courses and the economic recession.  NGF circulated a newsletter in 2009 stating that despite more than 800 closures of golf courses nationwide between 2000-2009, golf course supply actually increased by more than 500 18-hole equivalent courses.1 While the decrease in rounds can be described as minimal, golf course revenues are in a pattern of more drastic decline.  Merchandise, golf cart, and green fees are just some other revenue outlets that are suffering as well.

In order to compensate, the overwhelming strategy in the industry is to create discounts. I ask this question, if discounting is the answer, then how do we attribute an 11% decrease in greens fee revenue from lower income earners?   Discounting has not fueled more play but allowed those that would play anyway to pay less.

Discounting is a great perk every once in a while, but when a course constantly creates discounts it ruins the price integrity.   If not used properly, discounting can be a slippery slope.  The following chart highlights the perils:

If I choose to discount, which discount program is best?

The simple answer is that the best programs are those that:

1. Are sold at the least discount, i.e. 4 for 3 promotions.
2. Generate upfront revenue and are unlikely to be redeemed, i.e.  Groupon, which has only a 20% redemption rate, or annual pass programs that have a break-even exceeding 75 rounds.  Yes, the course will get “beat” by some golfers, but not in total based on the yield per round achieved (total revenue from season passes/total rounds played > revenue per tee time).
3. Sell tee times that are otherwise unlikely to be sold, i.e. Monday-Thursday between noon and 2 p.m., coupon books, newspaper advertising.
4. Attract new golfers to the facility, i.e., third-party tee time providers.

Unfortunately, none of the most popular discount programs meet all of those achievements.

Discounting alone will not increase your revenue.  As stated previously even if you create a discount in Groupon, there is only a 20% redemption rate.  However, if you are focusing on the loyal customers, you will more likely receive a higher redemption rate.

How can you relate to your customers?

Social media has been prevalent since the inception of MySpace, but it wasn’t used for business until recently.  Now businesses are interacting with customers, creating special discounts for their loyal customers, and dealing with specific issues that the customers bring to their attention.

A perfect example a successful social media marketing campaign can be seen by the Golf Exchange, a small new and used golf equipment store in Florence, Ohio.  Within two months after their campaign they saw a sales increase of 20%.  Read the whole article here: http://tinyurl.com/3ooog6x

Social Media can help a business if the right strategy is put into place.  If you are interested in learning more about social media marketing please contact us for a free consultation: dennis@golfclubmedia.com

Sources

http://www.golfindustryshow.com/newsroom/
http://www.tahoebonanza.com/article/20110119/NEWS/110119907
http://www.golfincmagazine.com/blog/worth-reading-whos-optimistic
http://www.ngf.org/

Golf Club Media is a social media consulting firm that offers a full solution for social media marketing.

So the next question for some would be what is social media?
Social media is media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. The term refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue.1

Many Businesses today have Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts, and even post the badges or ‘like’ buttons on their sites, but do not go any further than this.

Posting a badge on a website is just scratching the surface of social media.  Golf Club Media can help businesses utilize their social media to achieve short term and long term goals as well as increase revenue and customer satisfaction.

How can you measure the return of investment of our consulting services?  As we consult, we will also be keeping track of the social media analytics to keep track of your social media marketing optimization and progression.

Besides providing client solutions we will continually research and learn about new strategies and changes in communication trends. Our blog will be a resource for everyone interested in learning and staying up to date with the latest Social Media Trends.

Please check out our services page for more information on the services we have to offer, and feel free to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as well!