Page 17 - GBC winter 2015

Phil Mickelson is a proponent. At the official media launch for Calgary, Alberta’s Mickelson National Golf Club of Canada, the five-time major champion refer- enced simulator technology as a key consideration for the project’s future business plan.
“Part of this club, I feel, should have an all year round experience so one of the things we are doing is putting in an indoor practice facil- ity, with a range and nets, putting green and chipping area as well as simulator bays, and mini coffee shop,” Mickelson said. “Golf is seasonal in Canada. This can open up new possibilities to play, prac- tice, and have junior academies. It will allow members to enjoy the clubhouse year round but not have the main part of it open during the slow winter months.”
‘Social media is not about the exploitation of technology but service
to community.’
- Simon Mainwaring, award-winning branding consultant
If you are attempting to market your facility without a social media platform you are behind your competitors – miles behind. Fortun- ately an increasing percentage of Canadian courses are now utilizing it as an important pillar of promotion.
However, if you are not, here is why you must. Twitter and Face- book are no longer words used only by your kids. Social media is instantaneous, interactive, power- ful messaging that can be tailored to fit operational needs, engage members, push promotional offers all while speaking directly to your target demographic. If you don’t know how to do it you need to hire someone who does. If you don’t think you’re doing enough, you’re probably not.
“ ‘You are buying a small business with a simulator,’ says Neil Pasteris, vice president of sales for Visual Sports.”
“People in the golf business sometimes forget what business they are in,” says golf industry marketing expert Andrew Wood, CEO of Legendary Marketing. “We are in the entertainment business. You have to play up the entertain- ment value of the game but we do not tell people that near enough. Social media gives you the means to do that every single day.”
If resources for social media content creation are an issue for you or your club, a new free NGCOA Canada program, ‘golf- social’ can be a bridge to a more dynamic social media presence.
It takes advantage of curated web content and applies it to member pages engaging your followers with informative, enter- taining and relevant material for a facility’s Facebook page. Editorial support for golfsocial is supplied by Golf Canada and Integram Marketing.
Golf Business Canada 17