Social Media Marketing in Golf Clubs: Can Social Media contribute to golf club business development?

Social Media Marketing in Golf Clubs: Can Social Media contribute to golf club business development?

Social Media Marketing in Golf Clubs: Can Social Media contribute to golf club business development? The Confederation of Golf in Ireland (CGI) teamed up with Carla Reynolds, MS.c student from Maynooth University to specifically outline if golf clubs are currently utilizing Social Media (SM) as a marketing tool and if so, how effectively are they using it. The CGI were interested in finding out if they should provide training and recommendations to Golf Clubs outlining good practice in social media, as previous research suggested that clubs may find this useful. The aim of this research was to - establish how golf clubs can effectively use SM to develop their membership and customer base. Objectives: 1. To identify how golf clubs are currently using SM 2. To detect if golf club SM administrators have a SM plan or policy in place 3. To establish what members and potential customers want/need from SM interaction and establish if clubs are currently meeting those needs. John Roche, Director of Golf and Business Development commented on the reasoning behind the research: A key remit of the Confederation of Golf in Ireland is to grow the game of golf on the island of Ireland and part of the strategy is to provide a wide range of support services to Golf Clubs. Much of the efforts focus on both participation and business support. Communication is key to membership growth and retention as indeed marketing is to membership and club development. Through various CGI surveys clubs have identified social media as an area of key interest. The research undertaken by Carla Reynolds will be key in the formulation of CGI support offerings to club. Merely providing generic social media information to Golf Clubs is not sufficient. We need to understand the use of social media and how it relates to golf and golf clubs. Typical Irish Golf Club have a broad demographic of players both Males and female, young and old and as such we have to understand how the application of social media relates to this diverse audience. We will also use the research to help demystify some of the issues surrounding social media such as privacy and security. CGI will use the recommendations to develop social media toolkits and templates to assist our clubs. We will also develop social media and marketing workshops for clubs. The research will prove invaluable in insuring our support offerings are fit for purpose and targeted at the areas needing support.

Key Findings With a large number of people partaking in golf across the country (and growth in younger players, particularly girls u18, along with increased use of SM as a whole in Ireland, it seems that the use of SM in golf clubs should be common practice, however at a glance it seems that this is not the case. SM marketing strategies are increasingly important as simply presenting products or services in an ad-hoc way will not target your markets needs and is likely to fail; enterprise SM needs to be embraced in order for an organisation to succeed and build a positive online reputation. Many sporting organisations (Golf Australia for example) state that SM as part of an over-arching marketing strategy can assist to enhance participation, increase engagement and improve sustainability through new income streams. However, the Irish NGB s of golf do not (at present) provide any structured guidelines on using SM to golf clubs. Numbers declining in certain areas has been identified as being down to the marketing of golf clubs and the game of golf in general. SM is growing among all demographics, especially among women. Users under 50 are most likely to use a SM platform however there has been huge growth in the number of older adults who are going online, using email and setting up SM profiles. Facebook still remains the most popular platform, however sites such as Instagram and Twitter are catching up and these platforms may be useful to access a sub section of the market; younger consumers for example. Each brand (golf club) should develop its own goals and metrics in order to gauge its success.

Study Methodology Paul O Neill Westport Golf Club commented at the interview stages: Certainly Irish Golf needs to promote its image. It really has to be far more customer service orientated. The days of members maintaining is gone, the footfall especially here in Ireland, we have a golden generation of golfers. For example on yesterday the leading sports story on Drive-Time yesterday was about Leona Maguire, number 1 amateur lady in the world in the British Amateur. Absolutely unprecedented for RTE to be leading with ladies golf, we need to shout it from the rooftops! Unfortunately we are competing with a lot of other sports, especially the GAA. Social Media is a growing forum in which golfs image can be improved, we still seem to have the reputation that it is a different type of person that plays golf and of course it couldn t be further from the truth.

Statistics/Findings Demographic of Golfers in Ireland: Men 135,260 Women 39,123 Boys (U-18) 22,224 Girls (U-18) 6,040 Biggest Social Media Platforms and number of active users: Facebook 1.4 billion YouTube 4 billion views per day WhatsApp 700 million Messenger 500 million LinkedIn 347 million Instagram 300 million Twitter 288 million Snapchat 100 million Pinterest 70 million Flickr 92 million All participants of the research (bar one) believed that SM has a place in the golf sector with 8 out of 9 interviewees believing that it could contribute to increasing visitor and membership revenue and 100% believed it could contribute to positive golf development. 44% of clubs interviewed had a marketing manager, however in 3 of those clubs the manager was not specific to marketing. 56% of golf clubs researched had a marketing committee and the same figure have an annual budget for marketing.

Study Results Survey Monkey was used for the quantitative part of the research. This tool not only collects the data but also produces results and analysis. It was an ideal method of reaching golf club memberships as the Survey Monkey link was simply sent out to all members of participating clubs and the data flowed in. There was a 22% response rate, 10-15% would be the average response rate (as noted by Georgetown edu) The graph below represents what golf club members would like to see from their Golf Clubs social media pages. Club competition results came out on top with 78.37% stating this as one of the things they would like to see this on social media pages. 59% of respondents stated they would like to see Professional shop sales. 50% would like to see club deals. 46% stated they would like to see restaurant events and deals appearing on their clubs social media pages 52% of respondents felt that the club they were a member of were active on SM, however 43% had never engaged with their clubs social media pages. The graph below represents the things that would encourage increased engagement by members on the clubs social media pages. 59% of respondents stated increasing the amount of interesting news would encourage them to engage more 45% stated increasing the number of photos and videos being shared would encourage them 31% felt that having more posts about club members would be of interest

Study Results The graph below shows reasons why those respondents who were not on SM did not engage with it. Lack of interest was the main reason (61.57%) however security and privacy issues accounted for a significant amount as 29.69% of respondents chose this as a reason for not engaging on SM. The types of SM platforms engaged in is age dependent. For those respondents aged 18-25 Facebook (95.15%), Twitter (78.62%) and Instagram (72.8%) are the most common. While those aged 55+ more commonly engage with Facebook (85.88%), LinkedIn (50.59%) and Twitter (32.35%).

Conclusions and Recommendations Age and gender: The game of golf spans across a wide demographic of players, male and female, young and old, however the weight of older males dominates currently despite growing efforts from minority groups. The majority of interviewees expressed this wide demographic as an issue when it comes to the successful use of SM in golf clubs. Email continues to be the most common use of communication in golf clubs however it is possible that this may not be as favorable if SM was to continue to grow, becoming widespread. Internet use is relatively widespread across all age groups but is especially common among younger users (Duggan and Brenner, 2013). SM use is similarly spread across age cohorts although is slightly more skewed towards users under 50 with particular emphasis on users aged 18-29. Facebook was found to be the most widely used platform across all demographics however other platform use varied across all ages and genders. The large response of males and older adults is attributed to the demographic of the game of golf (NGF, 2012; CGI Statistics, 2014). The literature suggests that women use SM more than men (Duggan and Brenner, 2013); however results of this study found gender use to be relatively equal suggesting that as SM is such a fast paced media it is possible that statistics collected in 2013 are now outdated. Recommendations It is a difficult issue to overcome however I feel that it is not impossible and there are activities that the CGI could recommend to clubs to help break down these barriers. Reverse mentoring may be a way for younger staff members to enlighten older staff members about the uses and skills involved in SM use. I believe that this could be used in a golf club setting among members also. A reverse mentoring system in a golf club where younger members showed older members how to use SM would empower the younger members of the club by advising older members in relation to online activity, it would also create a community environment in which older and younger members are working together for the good of the club. On top of this the younger members would feel more connected to the club in this way and would be more likely to continue their membership which would create more revenue for the golf club while sustaining membership for future generations.

Conclusions and Recommendations Privacy and security issues: Club managers fear ruining the brand image of the club with mistakes on SM whereas members, especially older demographics fear their personal information may be leaked and shared online. With proper education and training however it is possible that these fears will dissipate. The ASC express that the use of extensive risk management would allow organisations, such as golf clubs, to reap the benefits that SM can provide (Hume, 2015). It would be interesting to find out if the fear of SM use is limited to those who don t currently use it as research has found that those who use SM platforms such as Facebook are more trusting than those who don t (Hampton et al., 2011). It is probable that once non-users become users, this fear will be no more if SM is used correctly. Recommendations This theme may be due to lack of knowledge and practice in the area of SM on the part of both management and members of golf clubs. I believe that member engagement is a huge part of how successful clubs can be on SM and therefore I recommend that CGI develop a factsheet to be given to golf club members, similar to their other project posters. This factsheet would outline the importance of SM to the golf club, how it benefits the club and how it could benefit the members who become involved. I believe that if the members knew that their engagement was helping the club by increasing the reach of their SM profiles they would be much more likely to participate online. A separate factsheet could also be developed for club managers and PGA professionals outlining the benefits for them in using SM to develop their businesses, therefore incorporating the whole club and allowing them to buy in and create a habit of SM use within the club, growing and developing the clubs for the better.

Conclusions and Recommendations Organisational structure was noticed in all clubs. With an absence of cohesion across club activities it was found that a SM policy and plan would be needed in order to put all employees on the same page when it comes to SM marketing (Cairo, 2014). Marketing recommendations for golf clubs were found to be far behind recommendations provided to an average business (SME Marketing, 2015). It is important to note that SM is not a marketing replacement for current activities but when combined with a marketing strategy has the potential to boost a brand further. The structures and strategies were not found to be any better in clubs who had larger memberships, the clubs with the best structures in place were 2 of the small-medium clubs, however even these clubs have a lot of scope for improvement in this area. Outsourcing was found to be a potential consideration for golf clubs if up-skilling and training is not an option. Recommendations I recommend that the CGI develop a sample SM strategy template to which they can give to clubs. This template would allow clubs to clearly define their aims and objectives for SM use in conjunction with the overall aims and objectives of the business. Further research may be necessary before this could be rolled out fully in order to provide exact details of the content of this strategy. It might be considered to pilot this strategy template in a number of clubs that have already taken part in this research which would allow the CGI to collect feedback through their analytics for future projects. Secondly, it would be beneficial to develop a Beginners Guide SM toolkit and workshop for golf club managers similar to those of England and Scottish Golf Associations. This workshop and toolkit must be developed in coordination with the Regional Business Development Officers of the CGI with the relevant research of this project taken into account. Content should include uses for each platform, how to set up accounts, how to engage members and visitors, how to analyse what works well for one particular club and how to link the clubs SM marketing to the strategy and goals of the club are important to include. Clubs need to have a plan; if their goal for the next quarter is to increase their revenue through visitors then their SM plan for that quarter will need to emulate that. It needs to be specific and clear in its explanation as it seems that club managers are confused by the vastness of SM currently and need some direction on what is best for their business in the golf industry specifically.

The areas of budget, SM skills availability and time-management were expressed as resources needed for SM marketing success. Although increasing SM budgets has become a trend in the business industry (Paton, 2010), it was found that it may not be necessary to invest a vast amount in SM in the form of boosting and promoting pages as this collects dead likes that are not valuable to the 82 brand. YouTube was found to be an exception to this as some investment in the form of video production techniques is needed on this platform. Return on SM investment was found to not be of monetary value but instead specific metrics must be developed by each organisation as determined by their profile analytics (Peters et al., 2013). SM management requires a specific set of skills that were not found to be commonly available within golf club staff. It is concluded that SM training is needed for club managers and potentially members. Allocating time to SM marketing activities was found to be a difficulty within golf clubs. For example; sorting through the noise produced by the mass amount of information on SM and the ability for consumers to continuously communicate with the organisation takes up a lot of time when there are other jobs to be carried out within the business. This further establishes the need for strategies and plans to be implemented that will provide structure to SM marketing activities. Recommendations To overcome this barrier I recommend that specific role descriptions are created for marketing and SM roles in the clubs. If this is completed then clubs will know exactly what skills are needed which can allow them to either upskill, attend the CGI workshop or find a person with these skills within the membership of the club. Identifying a club member who has the relevant skills to advise on SM use will be beneficial to the club not only through the collaboration of ideas but will also save money as they do not have to source these skills elsewhere or employ another staff member. As a side note in terms of funding for marketing activities, sponsorship across SM platforms could be exchanged for revenue to be used in other areas of the club. Role descriptions alongside specific guidelines will also address the issue of time-constraints as the process will be broken down and will not appear as daunting as it is currently perceived

It is concluded that training for managers and members is the over-riding issue in most clubs. SM is very different from traditional media and this creates challenges due to its unknown use (Qualman, 2015). SM requires a different approach and the characteristics of each platform need to be clearly identified before clubs decide if a certain platform will be beneficial to them (Peters et al., 2013). All clubs agreed that training in the area of SM management would be beneficial. It is suggested that training can reinforce policies and structures however as the clubs studied have ad-hoc structures in place, this would be the first step in the training process. None of the clubs had formal training in SM marketing nor had they provided training to staff on its use. More women than men felt that training for club members would be beneficial. Further discussion as to what would be included in this training is discussed below in the recommendations section. A reverse mentoring including younger members training the older members as suggested by Cairo (2014) is one such example of a training technique. Recommendations Having already discussed the possibility of a training workshop for club managers in the Structure section I have further recommendations involving training for the CGI staff themselves. I believe that training should be provided for all staff in CGI so that they can adhere to the best practice of SM use which they will be recommending to golf clubs across Ireland. In particular it is important that the Regional Business Development Officers in the company are trained in this area as this will add to the offering they can give to clubs on first meeting them. This knowledge teamed with the CGI SM marketing toolkit and club manager training as well as the further recommendations that have been made will allow the use of SM to contribute to the growth of Irish Golf; the core mission of the CGI.