The Golf Industry Embraces Social Media...er, no they don't!

I was at the Golf Inc. Conference last week at the Innisbrook Resort. Since being taken over by Sheila Johnson and her Salamander Company the inside accommodations at the Tampa resort are dramatically better, though the outside of the buildings are as dreary as they ever were. (more on that in another blog)

The conference was a 2 1/2 day affair and many of the movers and shakers from the public and private management side of the business were present. There was also a smattering of superintendents and architects and some outliers, marketing folks like me! (oh and Charlie Rymer, who was as vocal as ever). One subject that came up again and again was social media - I must have heard the expression 50 times in a number of presentations.

Is the golf business about to adopt current communications tools and technologies that other industries have been using for a couple of years now? No, of course they aren't. But man, do they like to talk about it. Over the years we have heard about the game embracing women, juniors and now social media as the new silver bullet to cure golf's ills. There was nodding and shaking aplenty that FaceBook and twitter will enable struggling clubs (and there are plenty) to pull themselves out of the mire. Surely by simply signing on and pressing send will do the trick right?

Wrong...it won't. There are two main reasons why. One, the golf business loves to talk about embracing new ideas and then it gets back to the norm - focusing on club technology, traditional print advertising and then continuing to ignore the consumer and developing a relationship with them. And two, the key is not communicating more...the key is creating communications that connect.

We enjoy helping companies in and around golf make these connections using social media as well as more traditional marketing communications tools. And, we don't just talk about it - we make winning connections for companies with their customers and if that sounds interesting to you then please call us.