How are golfers and golf courses using social media & mobile?

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Permalink Reply by Jerome Harrison on November 5, 2009 at 11:42am

Pat I'm sure you already have a substantial list of Golf Courses using Twitter, but here are a couple anyways:

http://www.socialsearchmarketer.com/1689/follow-friday-golf-courses...

http://www.danperry.com/blog/twitter-golf-courses/

Most of the promotions I have seen on Twitter are for discounts on Greens fees and Tournament fees. Occasional discounts on apparel. The following tweet is an interesting way to drive people to the golf course's website for booking tee-times:

http://twitter.com/StonebrookeGolf/status/2211317119

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Permalink Reply by Ian Hall on November 5, 2009 at 2:40pm

I think the GPS-enabled golf course navigation projects are incredible. Products like Skycaddy that provide all types of location-based benefits on the course seem to be taking off, and I'm always envious of people in my group who are using them. They're not cheap ($200+ for the device as well as an annual fee), which is why I think the golf navigation iPhone app (and others to follow) are so attractive. Although they don't have all the bells and whistles of products like SkyCaddy, I believe it's about $30 for the app - money well spent for the avid golfer without having to lug around another device. Mobile greens fees "couponing" is interesting to me, as long as I'm getting a better deal than I would on-line. This typically isn't an "impulse buy", so I can certainly wait until I'm back in front of my computer if the benefit is the same.

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Permalink Reply by Aslan Avdi on November 5, 2009 at 8:09pm

Hey Pat,

I've never been one to know what's cool/hot, but an interesting stat is that more people around the world now access the internet via their cellphones/mobilephones than by their pc's/laptops/notebooks etc.

So to aid and capitalize on this process, 'dot mobi' (.mobi) was created by a bunch of people, including Google, Sony and Visa to name just a few.

.mobi sites, (unlike .com, .co.uk etc) are optimized for mobile web access.

Thus making golf sites with a .mobi address the most obvious way to access golf stuff online.

Here are just a few golf .mobi sites: (and for transparency - I have nothing to do with any of them. I don't get a nickel.)

http://www.prosessiongolf.mobi
http://www.metrogolf.mobi
http://www.phoenixgolf.mobi
http://resortgolf.mobi

And you'll see a range of other sites here: http://www.mobisite.org/famousbrands.html

I wish you well for your gig.

Ciao,
Aslan

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Permalink Reply by Gijsbregt Brouwer on November 6, 2009 at 3:05am

Pat,
the future of sports is in the mobile area and the gyrometer/accelerometer add to the fun.
Best golf example on the iPhone is this: http://bit.ly/1va3Ky
It lets you play golf where ever you are, like the Wii but then with the iPhone. Be careful not to let is slip in the middle of the swing though...
grtz

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Permalink Reply by jim Orenberg on November 6, 2009 at 7:09am

Pat,
Although this may not help with the "social" portion of the question, I thought this was pretty interesting. Golf Digest, in their October issue used Microsoft Tags to allow users to interact with the print on their mobile phones. A picture of Tiger with a code next to it. Scan the code with my phone, get to see the video. Pretty cool stuff.

http://www.golfdigest.com/magazine/ms_tag_help_section

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Permalink Reply by Jason Peck on November 6, 2009 at 2:14pm

Bubba Watson just joined Twitter in September and seems to be doing a good job with it (http://twitter.com/bubbawatson) - engaging fans, responding to them and posting informal pictures and videos (http://tweetreel.com/bubbawatson) to help fans get to know him better.

Stewart Cink (http://twitter.com/stewartcink) appears to be doing a great job on Twitter as well (joined in February and has over 1 million followers).

The USGA did some great things around the US Open Championship--including letting employees tweet from inside the ropes. You can read more about some other things they did with digital technologies here - http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/jun2009/bw20090618_57...

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Permalink Reply by Amy Martin on November 12, 2009 at 2:52am

Pat,

I represent a few PGA golfers from a social media standpoint and have recently formed social media endorsements with the athletes the I rep (some of which in PGA) and national brand clients. Please reach out directly if you'd like more info. Amy@TheDigitalRoyalty.com

Also, one of my clients (athlete) and I we'll be streaming live at the Ping Factory this Friday . . .

Best,
Amy

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Permalink Reply by Miklós Breitner on November 16, 2009 at 4:12pm

The usage of social media in product communication is not a novelty for golf industry, especially for golf equipment manufacturers. However very few golf courses (e.g. Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort) are adopting social media as a communication channel. The reason why golf courses should consider and implement social media is the fact that customers/consumers will continue gain more power over content. Fewer will pay for the content they want to consume. Thus it is not a big surprise that golf and other magazines' circulation number and subscription numbers are declining.

It is more important than ever to reach consumers where they want, when they want and how they want. Therefore, we should micro-segment our target audience. For younger target audience, age 18-34, we can use heavily social networking sites, user generated content sites (UGC). (Source: http://golfbusinessmonitor.typepad.com/golf_industry/2009/10/golf-c...)

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