Why an Engaging Social Media Presence is Essential for a Golf Club
By: Brendan Stasiewich, PGA of Canada Managing Director of Digital Content and Communications
The golf landscape has changed drastically over the past several years, and so has communication and the way your members, public golfers, and perspective members absorb online information.
An NGCOA Report from 2023 found that rounds played in the country are up 23% since 2019. The rise in players has been accompanied by an increase in eyes on the sport, especially when it comes to digital content.
If you’re like most golfers who use social media, particularly Instagram, your home and explore pages are often flooded with golf influencers and clubs sharing content that garners millions of views and daily engagements; many of these accounts have thousands, some even hundreds of thousands of followers.
In 2024, according to the NGCOA report, public clubs were projected to spend an average of 2.6% of total revenue on marketing while private clubs were projected to spend 1.4%. Putting some of this budget towards a social media strategy or content hire is essential.
The Pulpit Club in Caledon, Ontario, is an example of a club that is doing all the right things in terms of digital content strategy, prioritizing high-quality imagery and engaging content.
Gabi Best, Communications Manager at The Pulpit, explained how the club separates itself and why promoting their brand online, as a private club, is so important. To see the full interview and some examples, click here.
“Being active on social media is important because we are building a brand here and want to make sure we are putting our best foot forward… we want to make sure that we are always presenting ourselves in the best way possible,” said Best, who manages the Pulpit Club’s Instagram account, which has over 7,000 followers.
Rob Roxborough, the General Manager at the Club from 2020 until this past month, when he accepted the role of GM at Cabot St. Lucia, originally hired Best in 2021 and quickly witnessed the power of a solid social media strategy.
“What we did in such a short time is remarkable, and the people that follow the club that aren’t even golfers is even more remarkable,” said Roxborough. “People follow the stories and what we are doing. Social media has been such an important part of our trajectory, I can’t state enough how important it is to who we are now.”
When it comes to determining what content to produce, Best often relies on analytics. The algorithm promotes engaging content rather than information. While a website is a great place to share things like tee time information, hours of service, cart-path rules, etc, this is not content that will thrive on your main feed, because the number of users that may come across your content far outnumbers your number of daily players.
“When we look at our analytics, we like to see what has gotten the most reach,” said Best. “Because it might be somebody who does follow us or doesn’t, but we want to make sure our content is of interest (either way).”
One Instagram reel in-particular was seen by nearly half-a-million users. The video had aesthetics shots around the club on a rainy day. While the video was shot on a point-and-shoot camera, the content could be executed with a piece of equipment as simple as a smart phone.
“We focus on getting the macro details that people might not see,” said Best. “It’s like thinking that you’re on a walk somewhere and if you take a moment to look around and see everything around you, if you capture those moments and show it to other people, they feel like they’re on the walk with you.”
One thing Best focuses on in-particularly is creating content that both avid-golfers and casual viewers find compelling.
“I enjoy golfing, I would call myself a golfer, but I also understand the needs of people who aren’t huge golfers,” said Best. “They like to see things like turkeys running across the fairway, while golfers like to see the 15-foot putt getting sunk… I want to make sure we have followers that aren’t just our members – our membership is 1,000 and we have 7,000 followers – so it is interesting to see that people are following us for our content and not just because they want to know what is happening.”
For a private club, while sales might not be the main goal of a content strategy, it is a way to keep the golfing public engaged with the club.
“Communicating with your members is one thing, talking to the general golfing public and public at large about what is happening is an important part because we look at social media as a vehicle to onboard, if not now, down the road, because you’re keeping up with what we are doing and we are keeping you engaged,” said Roxborough. “If you are a golf club and you aren’t active on social media, you are absolutely a step behind.”
While private clubs like The Pulpit Club mostly focus on the perception of the club and their brand image, public clubs often take a different approach. One example, Rock Hollow Golf, has over 7,000 followers and has produced multiple viral videos reaching hundreds of thousands of users, taking advantage of viral trends like this.
TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley has also excelled since putting more emphasis on their social media presence, with nearly 10,000 followers thanks to a dedicated communications strategy, staff management, and high-quality video and imagery.
Some clubs elect to outsource some of their content, with the communications/content manager at the club using marketing budget on photography or videography, while some clubs fully outsource all their social media management.
Par Six Golf has helped many of the top clubs in the country, both public and private, that have elected to outsource social media help.
Since the inception of the Sagebrush Instagram account, Par Six has helped the club gain over 5,000 followers in the span of three years thanks to high-quality content and social media acumen.
In five months of working with Mad River Golf Club, average post reach has increased from 783 to 5311. That means that over 5000 people have their eyes on the golf course each post, all because of an increased social media focus.
The perception of your club matters, and social media is an incredible way to showcase your club to the world.