#GolfChat – How to Build a Genuine Community Online by Jeremy White CEO of Connect Golf

Jeremy White, CEO of Connect Golf, Genuine Community

Jeremy White, CEO of Connect Golf

Marketing is, at its simplest, working out what people need and communicating that your product can serve them. Given the barrage of marketing messages, most people are switched off to traditional mediums, so it’s key to build the awareness first and that happens best in places where people are engaged. Mostly online communities. Only then might they switch on and start listening to what you’re saying.

You don’t need a college degree to figure it out. Common sense is all that’s needed and you’ve got that in bucketloads. Plus the courage to actually get out and give it a shot. No doubt there are plenty of history teachers and others who have a good idea to fill a niche, but they never have the guts to quit their jobs and carpe diem the heck out of their idea.

When I started building Connect Golf, I knew it needed to be attached to a community, but also knew communities were, understandably, suspicious of brands. It is also difficult to find communities without agendas. They exist, but it none represent the greater golfing demographic. The bigger social media platforms have some large communities when you look it on pure member numbers. However you can’t filter out the brands and individuals doing not-so-subtle self-promotion stuff or even the randoms posting pics of themselves on their latest golf holiday. Let me rephrase that, you can filter them, but you can’t be bothered. Most members aren’t even active and a post’s visibility is questionable to say the least.

It’s quite a coincidence, but true all the same, that I came to the view that a Twitter chat for golf was needed to solve most of the issues noted above – excepting the occasional and to be honest quite brilliant moderator stunts involving surprise female pro golfers and car brands (I’m a huge marketing cynic, but was happily tweeting with @lexus mentions). I realised that being a wannabe brand, doing it myself would probably lack credibility with participants, but the very next week I came across month 2 of #Golfchat. Problem solved!

Your role, experience, podcast, website, Twitter account etc. is based around the personal brand of Zeb Welborn, so while most people get that part of the exercise is to grow your own brand, they’re fine with that because they can see, hear and read the story behind it. Done for the right reasons and you’re building a no-nonsense community with golf at the core.

At the door to many online golf communities you have to read a heap of rules about what not to do on those platforms or forums, but with #GolfChat there’s none of that, yet people instinctively know how to behave. Yes we all want more business or more subscribers or more readers or more impressions or whatever, but the #GolfChatters generally understand that the way to build a brand via social media is to participate. Just participate and not sell. Pure and simple, we just talk golf and that’s cool from the perspective that we’re not in our usual sales mode. As John from @golfbloggercom would say, we’re just sitting at the #GolfChat bar and talking about the sport.

I’m usually your one paragraph email kinda guy who has a hard time not communicating a sense of rudeness due to brevity, but I look up here and have written a fricking novel about the things you’re doing right. I truly believe that what you’re doing is the best strategy to bring all the golf influencers together on a single platform for discussion.

Sincerely. Well done mate. Two thumbs up.

Jeremy White, CEO Connect Golf

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Natalie Gulbis, Lexus, The US Open And Chambers Bay On #GolfChat

#GolfChat is this Tuesday, June 23 at 5pm PST | US Open at Chambers Bay Part II

An Exciting #GolfChat Last Week

If you missed #GolfChat last week, you missed an exciting one.  Natalie Gulbis joined #GolfChat to give away free tickets to the US Open at Chambers Bay.

@UWedge and @Front9Back9 won free tickets but were unable to go.  I know @UWedge gave his tickets to @YourVideoPros who was able to attend a few days of the event.  And they also gave me tickets for Sunday so I gave them to my best friend, a Black Hawk Helicopter Pilot who lives in Tacoma, WA.

Lexus contacted me the day after our #GolfChat on June 9 with an idea to get Natalie Gulbis to join us and give away free tickets to the US Open.  And I thought it would be awesome.

I’m excited to see what the future has in store for #GolfChat.  If you have any ideas on how we can make it better, please let me know.

And thanks again to Natalie Gulbis, Lexus, and all of you for participating in #GolfChat.

May your next round be filled with RAKES and alcoholic beverages.

Do You Have Any Suggestions for #GolfChat Questions?  Share Them With Us!

#GolfChat

Join us weekly for #GolfChat, every Tuesday at 5pm PST!

For more information about how to participate in #GolfChat, please check out this article – How to Participate in #GolfChat Twitter Chat – http://19thholemedia.com/how-to-participate-in-the-golfchat-twitter-chat/

#Q1 submitted by @aspittle: What is a divot? The hole or the piece of grass? #GolfChat (Straight from a discussion at the US Open)

#Q2 submitted by @UWedge: Do golf courses “produce” champions or does the field? #GolfChat

#Q3 submitted by @oneputtblunder: What did you think of FOX Sports coverage of the US Open? #GolfChat

#Q4 submitted by @ReGripped: What do you think about the greens at Chambers Bay, ever play on something like that? #GolfChat

#Q5 submitted by @Front9Back9: Does the USGA take course setup too far in trying to “identify the best golfer?” #GolfChat

#Q6: When attending a major golf tournament. What makes a great spectator experience? #GolfChat

 

What should the golfers in #GolfChat call themselves?

  • The Gallery
  • Golf-o-holics
  • Golf Chatterers

Do you have updates to share with the #GolfChat community.  Email me with the cool things you’ve been up to and I’ll be sure to share those with our #GolfChat members!

Comment below if you have any comments, questions, or ideas as it pertains to #GolfChat.

Learn more about some of my Top 82 Golf Twitter Accounts to follow in 2015 – http://19thholemedia.com/top-82-golf-twitter-accounts-follow-2015/

Want to get more involved with #GolfChat and be notified via email about upcoming #GolfChat’s and opportunities.  Sign up for the #GolfChat newsletter!  – https://welborn.leadpages.net/golfchat/

#GolfChat News:

We got a shout out from @Avgjoegolf on his blog, Average Joe Golf, when he wrote:

It seems that this question tends to linger in the background of golf regardless of the many efforts being made to “grow the game”.  Twitter has provided a vehicle for #golfchat (the brainchild of Zeb Welborn) on Tuesdays at 5 pm PST that stimulates conversation based on user submitted questions about the game of golf . . .”

Read the article here: Is the Game of Golf Still to Elite?

Interviewed Jay Blasi, a member of the design team with Robert Trent Jones II, during the design of Chamber’s Bay Golf Course on my podcast, The Defining Success Podcast.

His episode is titled, Episode 120: Break the Rules if There is a Compelling Reason To Do So | Jay Blasi

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