So where dose Golf fit in the world of Social Media? Will more golfers coming online help golf survive? Where would a golfer new to this viscous jungle called the Internet enter and not get discouraged?
All of these questions I am being asked and I ask others often. Some I have answers and others I am still looking for an absolute answer.
In order for golf to survive more people will need to learn to play golf and more golfers will have to come online. These two different solutions seem to be contradictory to each other because a golfer cannot possibly learn how to play golf online, but once the golfer learn offline how to play golf they more than likely are going to need to go online to full fill the rest of their drive to play golf.
I am certain that the golf industry stands ready offline to help people learn golf, but is the internet ready for golfers? Right now, No, it is not. But with the advance of effective methods of using social media in golf starting to surface it should not be long before golfers will feel comfortable being online.
Lets take a look at what is causing the problems the internet is having with deflecting golfers from feeling comfortable online and how things are changing.
Professional Tour Golfers
The Professional Tour Players coming starting to come online..well, we hope they are the real person and not a hired gun PR person. Anyway, it is a good sign to see the real golfers taking a higher visible stance online where the rest of us real golfers can reach out to them and keep in touch.
What is even better is these top players of the professional golf world are reaching out and touching back..yes, they are talking to you and me. Twitter seems to be the baseline for a few of them but a few smarts ones are looking for safer digs to talk to their fans. More on where those places are later.
For years now most top golfers have their own web-sites that they post a blog or two a month..or at least we hope it is them writing their own blogs and not some PR person hired to be them. (Humm, is there a theme of deception starting here?)
Now these more outgoing professional golfers are jumping off and entering groups. That is a very good sign..it means they are figuring out how the internet works. All this is good for golf.
Golf Bloggers
Everyone who has swung a golf club more than twice has a story to tell. Even if that story is just comparing their first swing with the second time they swung the golf club it still is a story. People who play golf are a smart bunch, and in this failed world economy many are looking to make a buck out here in La-La-Land. Blogging is what they hear the most about as being the way to make a bucket full of money.
So they enter the internet fueled with advice they paid $1500 to get from some internet marketing expert who’s claim to fame is he knows how to spell ‘Scoble’ and spout out terms like ‘monetization of your time on Twitter’. These golfers new to the world of social media then go out on Blogger and start up a blog..FAIL. They take an entire hour to write their stories about their love for golf and post it expecting from the advice they paid dearly for to get a few thousand hits within a minute they post their blog in the morning and by the afternoon be offered a dozen $4000 a month advertising ads to place on their site.
For those who survive more than a day with that valuable advice they eventually find none of that expensive advice was true. It may work for Tech and Widget/gadget sites, but for golf..’it aint gonna happen’. So, they feel they were scammed and either leave the internet in discuss with a new mission to now to publically bash anyone who uses the internet as a scammer or a fool,… or if they are fortunate to find someone like me who have made it their mission to help people like them avoid the potholes of the information highway, may hang on to learn that watching how golf fits in the deceptive world of golf social media is how you learn to use the internet for golf. But I am not here to talk about me..I am here to tell you where golf fits out here.
Those golfers who make it out of the depression caused by being swallowed up by the many aggressive marketers of unproven methods of marketing golf online or who do find people of sound mind to help them get started, will usually calm down and take a job at the drive through window of the ‘Jack-n-tha-Crack’ so they can afford to blog about golf. Yes, that is how they should look at making money online with a golf blog because blogging for doe with a golf blog ‘ain’t gonna happen’.
However, there are a few who do make a buck or two or thousand. How? Well most have hooked up with large mega sports magazines or online sport blogs and blog for the sport of golf. There are a few who stand alone but usually have to cover their sites with so many ads that it looks like a NASCAR car’s side panels.
Hopefully, this is going to change because golf needs bloggers. Golf bloggers just need to know that they shouldn’t leave their day job to blog professionally about golf until they have been out here for awhile. Golf blogging is an excellent social media tool. A good golf blog mixed with personal and professional articles paints the best picture of the person who is blogging.
Just reporting the Blah-Blah of the golf swing and promoting a book is not going to provide anyone a picture of the person who is talking. Can hey be trusted to be telling them something worthwhile. More has to be revealed on who the person is, what they think, what do they know that is part of blogging. this builds up the following of people who come back to learn more…humm, that sounds like trust doesn’t it?
If this is not produced then a lack of trust starts building that the blog is nothing but a commercial..and there are too many commercials out here for golfers to check out.
Golf Groups
If you have been out here more than five years then you know and have heard the claims of the mega social networking sites that they have trillions of members…well, millions at least. They might at well say they have trillions because they just don’t have as many REAL people who are members of their groups as they want to admit. Saying you have a million sounds better than a few hundred and since it can’t be verified, why not say a trillion? See how the number games out here are played?….geez What has this got to do with golf? Well, there are many claims that there millions of golfers online. Really? Then where are they?
Back in the hay day of golf groups there were more than 50 different golf social groups that I could find, and I am sure there was probably a few more that my three year long daily search did not pick up. Many of those groups have died out or are left stagnant. Others that are still around are should active, but is the activity in the forums they post from Real Golfers? Hopefully, but from reading the thousand of discussion in a few dozen golf groups that all start out with..’Hey, check this out’..and then be lead to a MLM for an energy drink for golfers…I wonder if these groups really house that many REAL golfer. Remember that trust factor that bloggers need to build..golf groups have to do that even more.
Taking for granted for a moment that the golf groups online are filled to the brim with Real Golfer, I roughly figure from the numbers I can get a hold of off these sites that those groups memberships represent about 200k golfers. Far from the tens of millions marketing firms want you to believe. Still taking this figure for granted the question now becomes..
’How many of those estimated 200,000 golfers are still online, active and using the internet more than trying to find a date?
Golf groups play a part in social media especially for businesses who have a product or service to market to the group. Unfortunately, the businesses quickly find what I found..there are not that many real golfers online. Still, if more control is given to the environment to make the group safe from the people online out to muddy the water or market something, then the social media for golf would strengthen.
Unfortunately, most of the golf groups still alive today are not willing to cull out anyone since they are playing the number games with advertisers. Fortunately, the advertisers are not interested in playing the number game anymore and are looking for places that have Real People to market to and not to an unverifiable number.
Still, golf groups, if organized correctly, hold the future to golf’s survive, online and offline.
Golf Social Media
The bottomline for all of this is there just is not enough real golfers online. There is a very large number of internet marketing people who are online, who are very dominate online and have figured out that to get out of the overly saturated market of the tech, affiliate sales and gadget industry that dominates the internet they have to look to new markets. Golfers are the New Meat of the internet for these people who feed off promoting people, places and things on the internet.
To lure in golfers and the golf industry these non-golfing, or non-golfers, place golf as keywords in their business profiles knowing that the search engines of the world are going to pick that up and display them when someone is looking for a golfer..waha-la..trillions of golfers…another game played out her in La-La-Land.
All of this makes using social media for golf a near impossibility. I say near because there are cracks in the mantel of deception that is used widely on the internet that has created the opening the golf industry needs to get online and thrive. To widen this opening GOLF has to take a foothold online and display the trust, integrity and honesty that is part of the game of golf as how golf is promoted online.
The true core of social media has to do with being personable. The onslaught of the ambassadors of the game of golf, the PGA and LPGA members, coming online is a start to making golf more personable instead of a commercial. In order for golf to survive more real golfers have to come online and in order to draw them online more safe places have to be offered so they can get a feel of what it is going to take to survive and fend off the predators lurking around the popular social networking sites.
Of course, the Business Golf Country Club was designed to be one of those safe places for golfers to join and get their feet wet learning the ropes of Social Media before they head out into the abyss of La-La-land. The BGCC’s mission is the find ways for golf to survive and one of the many ways the BGCC is doing this is developing a viable community for golfers to join together, network and soon enter into educational opportunities that teach golfers how to use the internet to meet their needs.
For everyone who is out here for the golf, to do business for golf or to market to the golfers of the world, social media is a must. Learn how to use it correctly, find a community to belong to and show people who you are before they learn what you do for a living is how golf is part of what it is going to take to help golf survive. Sounds simple doesn’t it?
It is the least I can do..let me know how I can help
