In my previous post I highlighted how and why golf courses should incorporate social media in their media mix. What I forgot to write in that post, is how branding changed in the last couple of years due to technology and media changes. Namely, our brand is what our customers say it is. To answer to those who have doubt about the role of Internet in elder people life, everybody is connected somehow with the internet. So if your 60+ father who is unfamiliar with computers and internet, he will tell his experience in XY golf course, that you will tell your friend. With this positive/negative comment will spread with the speed of "word of mouth" that will end somewhere and somehow on a social networking site. Therefore the picture below is very instructive (source: Omniture/Jupiter Research LLC (white paper): Blogs, UGC (user generated content) and Social Networks). It shows us how display ads (banners), UGC, Google search results and websites (in our case, golf courses') are effecting our purchase or repurchase decisions. More positive experience and finds the likelihood will be higher that people either going to play on your golf course or become a member of the golf club.
