Golf Course Social Media Content
This post is very specific to the golf industry and explains why we think it is important for your golf course superintendent to be part of your communications strategy. This includes social media but also other forms of communication that you may use such as electronic Newsletters or even printed ones.
Let Your Super Speak
We have heard the saying a few times ‘superintendents are like goalies – unique, different and in their own world’. Whether this is the case or not your Superintendent can greatly improve your communication strategy.
What is the one thing that golfers care most about? Course Conditions. What is every golfers favorite question? Why are they aerating again?! Even on regular golf days your players are talking about the speed of the greens, the sand in the bunkers, the length of the rough and a host of other course conditioning topics. In order to get in front of all of these conversations your Superintendent should have a voice.
1. You must include a Superintendents report in your monthly newsletter. Even a few paragraphs describing one of the above mentioned topics gets a message out about why something is the way it is.
2. Let your Superintendent post a daily conditions update. This is where social platforms come in. Facebook works well for this but it can even be done on a specific page of your website. The key is that it is done everyday first thing in the morning. The update should be short and the same format every day unless there is a special grounds update to convey. Promote the platform you choose through notices in the golf shop, clubhouse, groups, newsletter etc and you will be amazed at how many people start to visit the updates every single day.
3. If your Superintendent is on social platforms give him/her access to the golf course’s account. A good majority of golf course comments on Twitter, Facebook, Yelp and other platforms are positive feedback about your golf course. How great would a player feel if they got a response from the super? A nice ‘thanks for playing and enjoying our course – Mike the super”. This also puts the super in a position to respond correctly and with great information to any negative feedback about course conditions.
Time Best Spent
Many of you are thinking that this is not possible due to time and other constraints of grounds crew operations and we do agree that it is difficult in many facilities. But not in all. Some Superintendents are in more management positions and doing less maintenance work than others. We do know of two golf operations in BC that have a Superintendent sharing posting duties with other staff members. The super posts a daily update, any special reports and answers other posts occasionally as time permits. If done correctly this approach can add content, depth and an important personal connection to your communications strategy.
Interesting idea… Our course superintendent is not too interested in computers, but that doesn’t mean someone else on the staff should not do it.
I think the key here is consistency. We do get postings on Twitter and FB about conditions, but not on a daily frequency – and that is clearly something to think about.
I love this concept. I had my Super start a blog last year and it was well received. He is in the process of expanding it to a wordpress template to provide updates for the crew.