Social media is now a vital part of NCCGA's growth strategy and twitter is a key tool to grow a club golf team's presence on campus. Our goal is to significantly expand each of the NCCGA teams so that there are more than just 12 elite players on the club team, but also have recreational golfers in the club who are still able to play affordably with CollegeGolfPass which partners with over 300 golf courses in 26 states that offer college students discounts on greens fees. Read on to build your club team's presence on campus with twitter...
PROFILE PICTURE:
After creating your account, a good place to start is with the profile picture. When selecting a profile picture, you should try to select an image that makes your club golf team distinguishable and recognizable to students on your campus. If you have not already created a team logo, now would be a perfect time!
Something to keep in mind when designing your team’s logo is that when your followers are viewing their newsfeed, this is the only part of your profile that they can see. This is why choosing a recognizable image is vital! For the same reason, your profile picture should “stand out in a crowd” so to speak. It’s not uncommon for college students to follow well over 1000 profiles on Twitter, creating a very competitive newsfeed!
HEADER IMAGE:
When beefing up your profile, the header image is step #2. There are two common practices for selecting a header image: you can design one of your own or use a pre-existing picture. Whichever you decide to do, remember that the header image should aesthetically complement your profile picture.
For those of you trained in Photoshop, designing a header image might be the best way to go! Your Twitter profile is like your own personal billboard; all of the image options and black spaces in the page margins are opportunities to further market your team, so take full advantage!
BACKGROUND IMAGE:
The final step to personalizing your profile is the background image; the meat and potatoes of any Twitter profile. Often times, the difference between a professional looking page and an account that no one wants to follow is the background image. Simply tiling a scenic picture of a golf course that you took from your phone will not be enough to legitimize your profile.
An effective background image will be able to stand alone and tell visitors of your page what your team is all about before they read a single tweet. Additional team logos, the address to your team’s website, and much more can be included in your background image. If this is the first Twitter background image you have designed, you should take the time to search for a good example. There are thousands of professional looking Twitter accounts; find one that inspires you!
NEWSFEED CONTENT:
Believe it or not, Twitter is more than just a media platform where people complain about the summer heat and post pictures of everything they eat. While the appearance of your profile is very important to the success of your account; your team’s newsfeed is the reason you made a profile in the first place, right? The information that you provide to your followers is your greatest asset; treat every tweet as if it were a professional news release.
INTERNAL CONTENT:
This category of newsfeed content covers items that are directly related to your organization. For example, you may tweet about your team’s upcoming qualifying round, exciting news from one of your club members, or anything else that serves as beneficial material to your team.
EXTERNAL CONTENT:
Posting the link to someone else’s blog article or tweeting about a PGA Tour event can be very helpful resources. During the off season, the burden of finding information to tweet about can be difficult to deal with. This is a great way to keep your profile active when there is not a lot going on within the club.
CASUAL CONTENT:
While every tweet you publish should be professional and informative, it is a good idea to occasionally provide content that is not related to your team or golf altogether. This will widen the appeal of your account to reach out to more students on your campus.
80/20 RULE:
Posting information onto your team’s Twitter account should involve a strategic plan. For businesses and organizations, the 80/20 rule should be your rule of thumb. External and casual content should make up 80% of your newsfeed, while the remaining 20% should consist of internally created content (stuff about your team or school specifically). This is a sure fire way to increase your account activity while also increasing your appeal.
TWEETING AT OTHER USERS:
A great way to develop a strong network is to contact other accounts directly. Try to connect with users that have a large following that match your target demographics. Golf equipment retailers, PGA Tour professionals, and accounts related to your campus or university are a few great examples. If the information that you tweet at someone resonates with them, they may retweet to their follows, giving your team additional publicity.
HASHTAGGING:
Many Twitter users are not aware of the fact that hashtagging serves a functional purpose. Slapping a random symbol in front of a run on thought is not the right way to use the hashtag feature. Including a hashtag in your tweet will link you directly to other tweets using the same hashtag.
Hashtagging can be a very power tool for reaching new followers and strengthening your network; however, it must be used correctly to be effective. This is why “#ilovegolfOMGgreatestsportever” does NOT make sense.
RETWEETING:
A very subtle form of tweeting external content is retweeting. This is another way to diversify your newsfeed and build your appeal. Not only that, but it is very flattering for one of your tweets to be retweeting; the account that you retweet might feel inclined to return the favor.
Lesson Learned
Whether you know it now or not, branding your club golf team on Twitter is a very powerful marketing strategy. If you are able to create a strong social media network, your team will benefit from seemingly limitless possibilities. Direct interaction with team members and fans, the
