A Quick Start Guide for Golf Brands
Instagram is so much more than “selfies”. This social media tool can serve as a great visual extension of your story.
The key to success with Instagram—or any golf marketing for that matter—starts with understanding what it is your audience loves about your brand.
Is it how your product feels? The emotions it evokes?
How you impact their game?
Is it the action you inspire?
The experience they had with you/your product?
Take these messages and translate them into visual content that is relevant, engaging, and will capture the attention of for your current and potential followers. You can help drive their perception.
Examples of content include:
The production process.
Show your product in action.
Show your product in action—by your customers.
Capture the emotions of someone using your product, a close-up of the face of your customer after they just hit a great shot, sunk an unbelievable putt, etc.
Transparency. What is your golf company doing to make a difference?
Personalized content geared to specific dates/holidays/events.
Contests. These are a great way to gain followers, especially if you make “following” your company product a requirement to participate in the contest.
A “#”, or hashtag, is an opportunity for you to create a unique forum, in a sense, for your product, or to create context around your images and videos and connect your visual content with other users. Hashtagged content is an opportunity for you to push out content, as well as to pull follower content. Let them talk about you. Choose specific hashtags related to your business/product rather than generic terms, and just like keywords on your website, hashtag content should be meaningful, relevant, and remembered. For example, a search of #golf images trending on Instagram pulls up more than three million results, where a search for #golfmarketing pulls up far less. Utilizing your own SEO data is a good place to start when developing hashtagged content on your site, and will most likely involve some fine tuning as you learn what your audience is searching for on Instagram.
Video
Instagram has recently added video sharing to the app as well. Like the posts you share with the public, your videos will appear in your feed and on your profile, and can vary in length from three to 60 seconds. Videos longer than 1 minute can still be posted but will require the help of an app like CustStory which segments long video into multiple clips which then can be added with Instagram's slide feature [select multiple]. With millions of videos being added daily, this is an opportunity for your golf company to be a part of the conversation. Consider adding both your golf marketing campaigns as well as quick, authentic content such as:
Customer testimonials
On the course shots of your product in action
Q&A session
Instruction
Tips
Contests
Product reviews
Be Direct
Another feature of Instagram is Instagram Direct, which allows you to send specific photo or video messages to a smaller, specific audience you choose rather than publicly broadcasting an image. With this, you could send special offers to select followers, invite followers to use a unique hashtag to gather information or to provide a forum for discussion, or launch an exclusive campaign first to your Instagram followers.
Connect
Connect your social media efforts. Include the Instagram icon on your web site and other social media channels to cross promote your efforts. You can connect your Instagram account with your company Facebook page to share photos, drop a customized widget on your home page to share your Instagram feed or share on Twitter.
Your social media channels, including Instagram, provide you with an opportunity to bring a personality to your brand. Are you snarky? Hip? Old school? Find your voice, stay consistent, and communicate with your audiences in the matter with which they speak and understand. But, it’s not just about talking. It’s about listening. Pay attention to what your followers are saying about your golf company—and be a part of the conversation.
Pay to Play
Since Instagram is owned by Facebook, reaching potential followers and fans on Instagram is a snap. Facebook allows you to extend your current Facebook ad campaigns to Instagram - this will expand the reach of your ad efforts and will result in more followers on Instagram. Ads that are served up on Instagram are also 'clickable' so that means it's more than just a static image or video getting attention- you can now move Instagram followers right to your website or landing page.
Ready to show your story on Instagram?
We can help. Connect Here
