Let’s take a little time and talk about hashtags and why you need to designate one for your golf course.
Every now and then, I catch myself saying things that sound strikingly like something my grandma would say. One of the biggest ones being, “I don’t understand the phenomenon of the hashtag.” I’m sure my grandma would insert sonny somewhere into that sentence, but I think you get what I’m sayin’.
What’s that? A gray hair??? Am I officially old?
But seriously…
What is a hashtag and why do you need to care about knowing?
The best part about a hashtag is that it serves as a method of searching things that people say about your golf course on social media platforms. You can search even when you don’t have an account with that platform.
I know you’re curious. Go ahead.
Stop reading right now and type in your search bar Twitter #nameofyourgolfcoursewithoutspaces
Mind Blown!
Yeah. I just heard your mind be blown. I can remember the first time that I searched my course and I was completely blown away by all of the cool pictures that my golfers took while out on the golf course. Yes, there were some that I didn’t really want to know about, but overall, I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
In case you’re wondering…
The hashtag doesn’t just work on Twitter, it’ll work on Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, and basically every other social media site available.
If you simply type in #nameofyourgolfcoursewithoutspaces into google, you’ll come up with all of the places where someone has used that hashtag. If that doesn’t convince you of the power of the hashtag, then you can just keep on preaching the pound sign (and counting those gray hairs).
Etiquette of the Hashtag
Don’t try to over complicate the hashtag! Keep it something simple for your golfers to remember. #DemoCourseRyderCup or #DemoCourse
I, personally, like to capitalize all of the first letters to make them easier to read. That’s probably the English teacher in me, though. #IThinkThisIsEasierToRead as opposed to #thisisalittlemoredifficulttoread
TIP: Your hashtag CANNOT have any spaces in it.
Why They’re Important
Now that you know the purpose of the hashtag, it’s important for you to designate one for your golf course. This will make it so that you definitely find the posts and pictures that you want to share on your own business page. Designate your hashtag and include it in your marketing. Place it on your cart signs, scorecards, flyers and information around the clubhouse.
You can search a hashtag and thank a golfer for coming to play. You can share an instagram picture or FB post as part of your overall marketing strategy.
It’s also a good idea to create separate hashtags depending on the event and then advertise that hashtag. Each golf outing should have its own separate hashtag, so all of the pictures and posts are easily searchable.
Just announce the hashtag before the golf outing or put it on the scorecard, leader board, flyers, etc.
You can also search your own Facebook page with hashtags. Maybe you’re trying to locate a post or something that someone said, you can put the hashtag in the search bar of your Facebook page. This will make it more likely that you’ll be able to locate that long lost post.
Contests
Now that you know the wonders of the hashtag, you can use it to have some fun contests with your golfers. You can have a picture of the week or a sunset contest. Create a hashtag for each event, so you can track people who participate. Give away a $1 off coupon or create a gallery of the images in your clubhouse.
Golfers and people love to be recognized. Searching with a cool hashtag makes it easy to reach out to them and say, “Thanks!”
Not to mention, you just suddenly became the cool grandma.
