Golf Business Canada 32 Golf Business Canada 33 Jeff Ciecko Jeff and his wife, Tara, are the Co-Owners of CK Golf Solutions. Their company provides business, marketing, and social solutions to the golf industry. Contact Jeff at ckgolfsolutions.ca, 604-506-2226, or on Twitter @CKGolfSolutions. We recently moderated a panel at the 2013 Golf Business Canada Conference & Trade Show, “Victory in Victoria.” It was fitting that the three sub-themes the NGCOA Canada was offering were “Navigate New Tools • Sail to Profitability • Anchor Your Success.” While we can agree customer service, engagement, and interaction are still the cornerstones of our busi- ness; we wanted our session to fo- cus on takeaways. We hoped for an open discussion about actions that golf course owners and operators could take and implement at their facilities immediately. The key focus of our session was “making more money” with social media. ENGAGEMENT AND CONTENT Social Media engagement is about how you interact with your customers and your potential customers in the social space. It is most effective when done without selling or push messaging your customer and it can often be very effective if you ask your followers what you can do for them and then provide them with that content. When is the last time you shared one of your followers’ posts, joined a conversation or asked a question? Engagement is still King and before you can monetize Social Media you need your followers engaged. Did you know that there are more than 92,000 articles posted on the Internet each day and that these articles result in more than a billion engaged minutes from individual people? And that is just one day! [Source: Chartbeat & Social Media Today] Think about this… on an average visit to a web page, users only read 28% of the words. [Source: Nielson Norman Group] How many words does each page of your website have and is there a distinct “call to action?” What makes your Tweet, Facebook, or Google+ post, blog or newsletter so unbelievably fantastic and filled with awesomeness that someone is going to take the time to read it? Think about the way you are crafting your content. If engage- ment is King, content is Queen! Develop a social media content calendar that is unique to each platform. Take the time to customize your content for the platform you are posting to. Tweets are different than Facebook posts which are different from Google+ posts. Pinterest requires an awesome photo. Each and every post on a platform should be unique. ENGAGE CONVERSE PROFIT How to Monetize Social Media
Transcript
Golf Business Canada 32 Golf Business Canada 33
Jeff CieckoJeff and his wife, Tara, are the Co-Owners of
CK Golf Solutions. Their company provides business, marketing, and social solutions to the golf industry. Contact Jeff at ckgolfsolutions.ca,
604-506-2226, or on Twitter @CKGolfSolutions.
We recently moderated a panel at the 2013 Golf Business Canada Conference & Trade Show, “Victory in Victoria.” It was fitting that the three sub-themes the NGCOA Canada was offering were “Navigate New Tools • Sail to Profitability • Anchor Your Success.” While we can agree customer service, engagement, and interaction are still the cornerstones of our busi-ness; we wanted our session to fo-cus on takeaways. We hoped for an open discussion about actions that
golf course owners and operators could take and implement at their facilities immediately. The key focus of our session was “making more money” with social media.
ENGAGEMENT AND CONTENTSocial Media engagement is about how you interact with your customers and your potential customers in the social space. It is most effective when done without selling or push messaging your customer and it can often be very
effective if you ask your followers what you can do for them and then provide them with that content. When is the last time you shared one of your followers’ posts, joined a conversation or asked a question? Engagement is still King and before you can monetize Social Media you need your followers engaged. Did you know that there are more than 92,000 articles posted on the Internet each day and that these articles result in more than a billion
engaged minutes from individual people? And that is just one day! [Source: Chartbeat & Social Media Today] Think about this… on an average visit to a web page, users only read 28% of the words. [Source: Nielson Norman Group] How many words does each page of your website have and is there a distinct “call to action?” What makes your Tweet, Facebook, or Google+ post, blog or newsletter so unbelievably fantastic and filled with awesomeness that someone
is going to take the time to read it? Think about the way you are crafting your content. If engage-ment is King, content is Queen! Develop a social media content calendar that is unique to each platform. Take the time to customize your content for the platform you are posting to. Tweets are different than Facebook posts which are different from Google+ posts. Pinterest requires an awesome photo. Each and every post on a platform should be unique.
EngagE ConvErsE Profit How to Monetize social Media
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Do not cross post on all platforms and if you are using the same content be sure to spread it out across the platforms on different days and different times. No one wants to read your Monday morning early bird special on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc., at the exact same time across all their platforms. This is Social Media spam! Share information that your readers will find interesting. Think of all the phone calls you get every day at your club. Things like…how’s the weather, what tee times are open this afternoon, when does Twilight start, etc. Use your social media platforms to become an expert at communication. Spend less time making demands of your customer with “buy now” type posts and more time providing valuable information. Ask for an opinion or take a vote. Use questions that seek out a response from your customers. In addition, be a regular participant in the social spaces you use and be consistent with your voice. How you tell your story represents your course or club. Be informative, entertaining, relevant, and different. Above is a sample content calendar for Facebook.
THE USE OF HASHTAGS Hashtags are a great opportunity to find and engage with current customers and seek out potential new customers. A hashtag is a word or phrase that begins with a hash or pound symbol (#). Hashtags are clickable hyperlinks (web URL’s) and will open a new web page to allow you to see all the relevant content from a particular platform.
9 Tips for Getting Started with Facebook
1) Search Facebook for Pages to determine if there is a Page already registered with your company name. If you find multiple Pages determine if your club has access to them. If so, you can delete the old ones. If you do not have a Page, create a new one. Older Pages will soon fall off Facebook search.
2) Create a Page. (Make sure it is a Fan Page, not a Personal Profile). Fill in as much information as possible and be sure to include your city, province, and country. Add your website URL. Be sure to include both a cover image and a profile picture (logo).
3) Go to Facebook.com/username and claim your Facebook URL. You can only claim this URL one time and it cannot be changed so be sure you think about your selection.
4) Post additional photos on your wall and in albums. Post several introductory posts about your facility and/or upcoming events. Be sure to include links to your website.
5) Suggest your Page to your personal Facebook friends. Ask your managers and staff to do the same. Post a notice in your staff area (or on your pay stubs) with the URL.
6) Respond to any comments posted on your wall.
7) Follow the 75% / 25% rule. Engage and converse (comment, like, share) 75% of the time. Put up promotional posts 25% of the time or less.
8) Test some third-party applications such as Hootsuite and Facebook Pages for Mobile that can help you with link shorteners, timers, analytics, and more.
9) Remember four words to be successful: Thank You and We’re Sorry.
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During the Golf Business Canada Conference & Trade Show, the hashtag #NGCOACanada was used to allow owners and operators to find, follow, and engage with each other on Twitter and Facebook. It was great to see the large numbers of interactions that were going on. Hashtags are commonly used for cities (including the use of hashtags for airport codes to save characters), sports teams, conferences, and events. Take the time, at least once per week, to check the hashtag for your city (and the airport). I think you will find there is a potential conversation occurring that you can join and engage with new people. The goal is to convert these conversations to a loyalty that leads to a transaction. One of the hashtags we use during Vancouver Canucks games is #Canucks. It puts us in the same social media stream as hockey fans following their favourite team. Most of the people that would be following this hashtag will be local. Hockey fans (many of whom are golfers) will see us (and we will see them). This allows us to follow, engage, and establish a connection to potential new customers. Hashtags are also great for running social media contests. During the Golf Business Canada Conference & Trade show, the NGCOA Canada used the hashtag #NGCOAJackLinks to run a photo contest on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Jack Links is a beef jerky brand and partner of the NGCOA Canada. Their mascot is a Sasquatch! During the Conference there was a number of small Sasquatches placed around the Fairmont Empress in Victoria. Delegates were asked to take a “selfie” with one of the Sasquatches and Tweet, Facebook, or Instagram it using the #NGCOAJackLinks hashtag. The winner was randomly
selected and there were some pretty funny photos. This contest engaged the delegates and provided Jack Links with a way to find new potential customers.
HiGHliGHTS OF THE Q & A PEriODWe were fortunate to have an excellent panel that was selected based on their current use of social media, their strategies, and their openness to share their “inside” information on using social media to generate revenue. Each panelist brought different strategies based on their varying types of operation. The panel included: Slade King, General Manager, Play Golf Calgary (GlenEagles, HeatherGlen and Blue Devil Golf Club), Calgary, AB; Michael Mather, General Manager, University Golf Club, Vancouver, BC; and Don MacKay, Owner/Operator, Muskoka Highlands, Bracebridge, ON. The following are some of the highlights of the Q&A period:
What About Content? How do you find it? Who posts it?Slade: “The content has to be personal and the responses have to be quick because social media moves fast. You have to be monitoring your social channels multiple times per day. We use Hootsuite (a third party social media management tool) because it allows our staff to contribute to our social channels. Having all of our team involved is a key component of our operations. Another great aspect of Hootsuite is that you can give your team access and take it away just as easily without having to reset all your passwords.”
Michael: “We are finding that Pinterest is predominately a female platform. That content for us is different from typical golf posts on this platform. On Pinterest we post mostly “boards” that are flowers, wedding cakes, room set-ups, food, and wine. Our interaction with our female customers through Pinterest has definitely increased.”
Delegates were asked to take a “selfie” with one of the Sasquatches and Tweet, Facebook, or Instagram it using the #NGCOAJackLinks hashtag.
Golf Business Canada 38Golf Business Canada
Don: “As an owner/operator I am using Facebook and Twitter. I have found that having a mascot, my dog, and sharing his activities on social media creates engagement for us. The photos of him around the club and on the course seem to resonate with our golfers. The other thing we have done is given our beverage cart staff access to our social media accounts and asked them to post photos of golfers on the course. This has created some great content at the human level for us. They are going to be on their phone anyway so you may as well make them work for you.”
KEy ElEMENTS TO SUCCESSAt the end of the 45-minute Q & A session the panel was asked what one or two points each panelist would like to ensure that everyone could takeaway.
Don: “You must be passionate about your topic. Be creative, consistent, and passionate and people will want to hear what you have to say. I try to use topics that are always interesting and engaging to my readers.”
Michael: “You have to be on social media platforms. You cannot ignore it. Find someone or more than one person in your organization who wants to do it and empower them, but remember content should be a collaboration of departments. You get out of it what you put into it.”
Slade: “We have had good success with Google Ads. It is easy to use and I can measure my return for every dollar spent with how many dollars were brought in. We have also experimented with Facebook ads, but have not seen as much success. Google+ has been important for us, although there is not much traffic there yet. As stated earlier, if your team is engaged, you will get more out of it.”
9 Tips for Getting Started with Twitter
1) Register a profile on Twitter.com. Fill in your profile in full and be sure to include your city, province, and country. Add your website URL. Be sure to include an image.
2) Use Twitter.com/search to find people in your region and follow them.
3) Spend time listening to the conversations in your Twitter stream.
4) Join a conversation by providing useful commentary or an opinion on a subject. RT (Re-Tweet) lets others know you are listening and willing to share their content.
5) DO NOT use 140 characters. Save room to allow people to RT your message (max 119 characters) and even better - leave space to add a comment (max 100 characters.)
6) Engage and converse 75% of the time. Promote 25% of the time or less.
7) When you send a promotional tweet, link back to a page on your website that is visually appealing and accurate on a desktop, and also available in MOBILE format.
8) Check who is following you on a regular basis. If the followers are in your region and/or discussing a topic related to your business - follow them.
9) Test third-party applications such as TweetDeck or Hootsuite that can help you with link shorteners, timers, analytics, and more.
Date: 27 January 2013Client: Links BridgesFile: lb-gbc-full-feb2014Publication: Golf Business CanadaAd Size: Full Page BleedTrim Size: 8.125” x 10.875”Bleed: 0.125”Fonts: LatoScreen: 150lpi
