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

2. 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.“

3. 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.
Key Findings

4. 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.”

5. 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.

6. 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

7. 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%).
Study Results

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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.
Conclusions and Recommendations

11. 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

12. 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.