Niche social networks: new drivers to customer experience


By: Patrick Rahme September 28, 2015


As I promised last week, today Patrick Rahme the Co-founder & CEO of All Square Golf will share with us his thoughts about niche social networks’ role in driving favorable customer experience.

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Hearing what customers say about your golf course or brand on social media can be an invaluable asset, but how can you make the most of customer feedback?

It is interesting to notice that 67% of consumers have used a company’s social media site for servicing, compared to 33% for social marketing (J.D. Power and Associates). Same time 33% of users even prefer to contact brands using social media rather than the telephone (source: Nielsen).

You may already have Facebook or Twitter accounts for mainstream networks, but the tendency is to target customers in niche social networks where the audience is more akin to your services and message. The chance of getting a better conversion rate in your marketing campaigns is higher if you focus on a more specific audience. A golf social network is the most segmented place to interact with golf fans.

Here are three tips to enhance customer experience on social media:

1. SHOW YOUR APPRECIATION

61% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase decision. Golfers are the same. They choose their next best golf course to play reading friends’ recommendations and reviews. We are all looking for opinions of like-minded people or friends to make sure we take the right decisions and enhance our overall experience. User reviews are proven sales drivers, and something the majority of customers will want to see before deciding to make a purchase.

All reviews are valuable, and a mix of positive and negative reviews helps to improve consumer trust in the opinions they read. Encourage feedback. Engage with customer feedback. Reviews from golfers are great to understand your strengths and weaknesses. Let your members and guests tell you why they visited in the first place and what they want to see improve.

2. SEO BENEFITS OF REVIEWS

Improving conversions and customer experience should be the main purpose of user reviews, but let’s not forget the considerable SEO benefits. Google reports an interesting trend of queries in the golf category.

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As online queries grow, you want to make sure you rank well in search engines. More and more consumers are searching for the name of a golf course plus the word ‘review‘, or related words such as ‘ratings‘.

Google has officially updated its algorithms to favor websites that look and perform better on mobile devices, making them appear higher on search results. Many golf course managers have not yet adapted to those technological changes and new user behaviors, which in turn cause many lost business opportunities.

Always make sure your golf course is well listed and appealing on golf specific social networks and online course guides.

3. CREATE ENGAGING CONTENT

Social networks are simple, you update your wall and people will gather to your page and engage. That is the dream that every business owner believes before they get started. However, there are proven methods to increase engagement at no cost such as using questions, posting at the right time or using images.

Questions are a great way to trigger conversation with enthusiasts. It is probably the simplest way and one of the best methods to get people to respond to your posts. Timing is extremely important when it comes to posting on any social networks.

Imagine updating your wall post when everyone is at work or sleeping. It would be better to post after work or when people are in transit. Finally, we’ve all heard the saying; a picture is worth a thousand words. On social networks, a picture is worth much more than that…