DAYTA EBOOK. Social Media Strategy in 8 Steps

Transcription

1 DAYTA EBOOK Social Media Strategy in 8 Steps DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com

2 Table of Contents We ll review eight vital steps to develop a comprehensive social media strategy for your golf course: What are people talking about? Who s on your team?... 4 Who s your audience?... 7 What defines you?...10 What s your personality? What s the point? How do you know which platforms to post on? How do you define success?... 19

3 STEP 1: What are people talking about? Main Idea: Social listening is a buzzword that is often referred to in social media strategy, and for good reason. If you aren t familiar with it, it s basically searching the Internet for what s being said about you, your competitors, and your industry. There is already a conversation taking place - your customers, your potential customers, industry leaders, your competitors...the nature of social media allows you to be the fly on the wall. What are they saying, what messaging is working, what does your audience want? Social listening not only will inform your social strategy, but it can help you improve your business by addressing the conversation already taking place. You can also improve your customer service, attract new customers, generate leads, drive innovation, get feedback on your course and so much more by knowing what people are saying. How: There are several tools (Google alerts, Mention, Twitter advanced search, etc.), but the keywords you re choosing are very important. Make sure to think about your brand (and potential misspellings), your competitors, specific words (product names) and broad industry keywords and/or service terms. DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 1

4 YOUR TURN: Write down a list of some keywords that pertain to your business and target audience. Brand Related (consider potential misspellings): Competitors: Product Names: Broad Industry Keywords: Product/Service Terms: DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 2

5 CASE STUDY: Social Listening SENTIMENT ANALYSIS A public golf course in Minnesota conducted a Sentiment Analysis, they paid close attention to negative and positive feedback. This allowed them to learn what customers liked and didn t like so they could make changes on the fly. Here s what was being said: Negative: Website didn t clarify what is considered twilight golfing so customers were left guessing. Positive: Challenging layout. Based on this feedback, the course made the following changes: Created a description on their website that clarified the details for their Twilight Golf Night, informed their staff to keep flags on course until the last group was finished. GOOGLE+ REVIEWS 4 Stars: I had heard some terrible things about it in the past few years, so I finally decided to check it out myself. It was in just as good, if not better, shape than the other public courses in the area. Great layout that challenges you to control your shot. 2 Stars: Their website doesn t clarify what is considered twilight and evening so you are left guessing and they do weird things like take all the flags in before everyone is done playing in the evening. Included in their marketing communication that their course layout was challenging so golfers knew what to expect the first time they experienced the course. DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 3

6 STEP 2: Who s on your team? Main Idea: Nobody should be the sole owner of social media in your organization... and for a few reasons: 1. Social impacts everyone in your company, so each department should be given an opportunity to engage in the strategy development (you can determine how much they engaged, but hearing their voice is important!). 2. A silo mentality can be detrimental to your organization s ability to accomplish your business objectives. 3. There are people outside of your marketing team that are interested in your company s brand could bring added value to your strategy. This is a trend across the industry. In Spredfast s quarterly report on social media trends, they discovered that 62% of today s marketer has 4 or more teams/departments on their social planning team. And this makes sense: as social has matured from a nice-to-have to a mandatory part of any organization s marketing budget, more stakeholders are bound to become involved. 1 How: Bring together a team of diverse expertise. There are likely people across your company who can come up with great ideas about how social can help their department achieve their goals you just need to seek them out. For example, forming a team made up of your Food/Beverage Manager, Event Coordinator, Golf Pro, and Superintendent will give you a well-rounded mix of content. DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 4

7 YOUR TURN: Write down a list of people within your club that you would want on your team. First, write down a few people that you think would jump on board right away. Second, write down a few that you think it would take some selling to get them on board. Your job is to talk with them the next time you re in the office. Who s your go-to team? DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 5

8 CASE STUDY: Social Media Team MALL OF AMERICA The Mall of America launched their command center in This brings together their social media, digital media, security and telecom to serve their visitors. They strive to enhance the visitor experience. They provide tips on Twitter, directions on the phone, and even run campaigns where they seek out people that use a specific hashtag and surprise them with gift cards. They work with retailers throughout the mall for promotions and in-mall security/police to ensure it stays a safe environment. So, obviously MOA is huge. How do we apply this to the golf industry? Learn from their innovative approaches. 1. Their ideas. They think outside the box on how they can use social media to engage and interact with their visitors. Having a team will help you generate new, creative ideas. Bring together employees to develop ideas & content - such as the food & beverage manager, event coordinator and your grounds crew. 2. They are reaching outside of their walls when working with retailers. Your team can connect with organizations you partner with to collaborate on social media. For example, if a photographer is shooting a wedding at your venue, collaborate with them to promote their pictures across multiple social networks. 3. They are reaching outside of their marketing department. This goes hand-in-hand with thinking social. Your marketing team can t be in all places at once to share what s happening. When the team is out and about - conferences, tournaments, or speaking engagements, providing services to customers... have them snap pictures. Share them. DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 6

9 STEP 3: Who s your audience? Main Idea: The ultimate goal of every communication should be sending the right message to the right people. Anything less than that isn t 100% effective. Social media is no different. To do this, you need to understand your audience. Who do you want to interact with on social media? What are their characteristics? Who s your ideal customer? It s important to note that you aren t shutting the door on everyone else. You re simply using your greatest efforts to reach your ideal customer. You don t want to waste your resources going after an audience that isn t going to be a good customer for you. If you go back 20 years, this was the mentality for direct mail. You would target as precisely as you could and then only mail the piece to that audience. How: As a business owner, you likely already have your target audience defined. Determine the demographics and psychographics of your target audience. DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 7

10 YOUR TURN: Define your target audience. Personify them - give them a name, describe their behavior, define their attitude. If you have more than one primary audience, do this for them as well. Lives In: Age: Gender: Interests: Education Level: Buying Motivation: Job Title: Income: Relationship Status: Interested In: Language Spoken: Buying Concerns: DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 8

11 EXAMPLE: Target Profile Increase your Junior Golf League participation by selling to moms similar to this persona: Name: Lindsey Smith Live In: Minneapolis, Minnesota Gender: Female Interests: Shopping, Sporting Events, Fitness, and Golf Education Level: Bachelor s Degree Buying Motivation: Pride and Prestige Job Title: Stay At Home Mom Income: $125,000 (household income) Relationship Status: Married with kids Language Spoken: English Buying Concerns: Cost, Location, Available Times DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 9

12 STEP 4: What defines you? Main Idea: Now you have a handle on your ideal customers and your competition, it s time to start building your messages. To build a message, you need to know what defines you. There are a couple of ways to spur your thinking when it comes to this step: 1. What are your competitive advantages? What sets your product apart from others? What are the benefits of your club? Example: Are you family-friendly? Do you have the most challenging course within a 200 mile radius? Avoid things that other people are saying (the best customer service). What type of customer experience do you provide? 2. What do you want to say? Beyond your business, what do you want to be known for? Example: If you are a course that wants to be known as more than just great golf, you should equally be sharing information about your restaurant, night-time activities, room rental services, etc. 3. What s your secret sauce? Your product or service offering only goes so far. If you don t have a compelling reason for people to do business with you, they won t. They ll find a course that sells the story they want. How do you connect emotionally to your audience? Example: Augusta National isn t just a golf course, it s the home of the Masters. DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 10

13 YOUR TURN: What defines you? Answer these three questions: 1. What sets you apart? What are your competitive advantages? 2. What do you want to be known for? What is your positioning? 3. What makes your audience want to connect with you? DAYTAmarketing.com 11

14 STEP 5: What s your personality? Main Idea: This step is informed by the previous. After you know what you want to say, you have to determine how you re going to say it. A great mentality to keep in mind is that Social media is about people, not logos. Jay Baer. You are competing for your audience s attention versus their friends and family. Your course has to be personified, you have to act like a person, not an entity. How: Just like we personified your audience, personify your brand. Define the personality. Are you upbeat? Quirky? Inspirational? Bold? Easy-going? DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 12

15 YOUR TURN: Describe your brand s personality. Are you upbeat and inspirational? Witty and bold? DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 13

16 STEP 6: What s the point? Main Idea: What are you hoping to gain through your social media efforts? There are probably several reasons, but what s the primary reason? Website Traffic? Customer Loyalty & retention? Brand reputation? Brand awareness? Customer service? How: Pick one or two social media goals you are trying to work towards. DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 14

17 YOUR TURN: Be purposeful. From a business perspective, what can social do to help your business? What are your challenges? Circle all that apply: LOW WEBSITE TRAFFIC LOW CUSTOMER LOYAL TY STRONGER BRAND BRAND AWARENES S CUSTOMER SERVIC E DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 15

18 STEP 7: How? Main Idea: Only after you know why you re active in social and what your social media goals are, should you turn your attention to the how of Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and the rest. Don t just join a network to be on it. You should be able to justify your presence on every network. Here s 30,000 foot view of each of the networks and what kind of businesses fit on those networks: Facebook: Every golf course is a good fit for Facebook. The ad platform alone provides reason to engage on this network. You re able to whittle the enormous 1.3 billion user database to extremely precise segments. Twitter: Twitter is a great channel for a variety of reasons - it is great for live events when you re using a common hashtag. You can share announcements, updates, see how golfers are doing, etc. Pinterest: Pinterest is a visual pinboard - a visual take on a social bookmarking site. With over 100 million daily active users (mostly women)...if you host weddings on your course - Pinterest is the network for you. DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 16

19 LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the go-to B2B networking platform - although it s great for B2C as well. With paid options, groups, and business pages, you are able to showcase your course to a business-minded audience. This is a great platform if you have corporate memberships. Google+: While Google+ doesn t have the active user base like other networks, it does have unique other features that make this a great fit for every golf course. It allows you to build your reputation through reviews, get found on Google Maps, and enhance your SEO efforts (of course, it s Google). Instagram: Looking to increase rounds played by millennials? Instagram is a great fit. The audience on Instagram is highly engaged - of the 300 million users, 59% of them are on the platform daily, including 35% who visit several times a day. How: Determine where your target audience is, analyze if that network is right for you, then research best practices for that specific network. DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 17

20 YOUR TURN: Circle the top three networks you think you should be on, then study up and get going! DAYTAmarketing.com 18

21 STEP 8: How do you define success? Main Idea: Let s talk goal setting. A study by Dominican University showed a 33 percent increase in the completion of goals among those who wrote their goals down, created an action plan, and shared with a friend. They achieved 76 percent of their goals by having a specific goal-setting strategy. 2 So goals are important. How are you going to determine whether your social strategy is actually making a difference in your business? What key measures will you use to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy? How: By being SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, results-oriented, & time-bound). How are you going to measure your customer loyalty? How are you going to measure your sales? Here s an example of a brand awareness SMART goal: Example: Grow our Book Now click-throughs on our Facebook page from 10 to 50 by July DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 19

22 YOUR TURN: Once you know what you want social media to do for your brand, you need to establish a way to measure how well it s working. First be SMART with your goals. SPECIFIC MEASURABLE ACHIEVABLE RESULTS FOCUSED TIME-BOUND State exactly what you want to accomplish (who, what, where, when). How will you demonstrate and evaluate the extent to which the goal has been met? What steps will you take to achieve it? How do you know that you can achieve this goal? By when do you want to achieve this goal? Second, utilize measurement tools to track the metrics and goal progress. Know what you re measuring and why. Free: Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, Pinterest Analytics, Twitter Analytics Paid: Cyfe, Iconosquare, Raven Tools, Hootsuite How are you going to determine whether this is actually making a difference in your business? DAYTAmarketing.com info@daytamarketing.com 20

23 Thank You For Reading! Request a FREE online assessment which includes: 1. Social Media Audit 2. SEO (Website) Report 3. Online Listing & Review Sites Report We ll take a deep dive into your current social media presence, and let you know the 5 areas you can improve upon. REQUEST FREE ASSESSMENT 1: The Smart Social Report: Volume Three. Spredfast. Web. 18 Apr : Goals Research Summary. Sid Savara. PDF.