GO Indoor

SOCIAL MEDIA 101 by Pat Hade, USIndoor Media Manager What if I told you that you were going to coach a game on your home field, but coach it from your office? You couldn't talk to your players or have contact with the referees. Your only knowledge of the game would be what you can see from your desk. OF COURSE THAT'S RIDICULOUS. In order to coach well, you have to be on the field, observing how the players interact, determining what's working well and what isn't. You have to be with your players. You have to be in the game. Today, social media is that field, and your customers are playing on it. If you're not on the field, you're not in the game. Social media represents a major change in marketing. The numbers of users on various social media are staggering. • Facebook has over 750,000,000 users, and more than half of them check their Facebook page at least once a day. • Twitter has 200,000,000 users. • LinkedIn has 12,000,000 users. • YouTube has about 49,000,000 users. • Other social media sites account for more than 65,000,000 users. Among these people, you will find your current customers and many potential customers. Get your message into the virtual space where your customers are spending more and more of their spend time. Your website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc., are all part of the digital mix. Think of your website like a formal dinner party at an exclusive restaurant. Plan your web entries with great care. Edit text and choose interesting images. Invite your customers to see you at your best. LinkedIn is the business lunch. Your behavior is professional but not necessarily formal. Facebook is a block party. Everyone has common interests, but you may not know each other. The atmosphere is relaxed. Twitter is a hotdog and beer on the boardwalk. You talk to people you know and chat briefly with strangers, finding out interesting things out about them as they find out about your business. FACEBOOK TIPS AND DEFINITIONS Don't assume that every one of your fans is going to see what you posted in a timely manner. "Facebook Insights" provide information for administrators, including how many weekly or monthly active users you have, which is important because you can have 10,000 fans but only have 100 active monthly users. While the public thinks you're rocking because of your fan numbers, your message may only be reaching very few. Like web site analytics, these numbers help you determine the effectiveness of posts. Forty percent of our target population primarily uses mobile devices to access the internet, and the number is rising! Facebook recently added to its mobile platforms, so that pages are easily accessible on mobile and tablet devices. Some facilities have their websites enabled for mobile, but our survey of USIndoor members shows that most do not. Use Facebook's investment to go mobile without paying for mobile app development. Put your schedule on a page, send out notifications of events. Let those mobile users into your world. Give your audience consistently good content, and they will pay attention when you announce a new tournament or a new program. Use pictures of athletes (with permission), and you'll find their friends 18 and relatives pay attention to your brand. Facebook posts need to be planned in advance and tied to the events at your facility. Make them part of your marketing. Posts don't have to be original. Shared content from other sites can also lure your audience, for example, with interesting video content that fans often share. TWITTER BASICS Twitter can be a quick way to communicate necessary information, for example, surrounding special events, cancellations or game results. Typically, your tweet stays in front of other people for a minute or so. Depending on how many people you follow, your "wall" may show a hundred tweets or more in just a few minutes. However, anyone who wants to see all your tweets can search for your name. "@Mentions" shows every tweet thathas mentioned your twitter name. "Retweets" shows your tweets that have been re-tweeted by others. Since posts are limited to 140 characters, Twitter is the most reciprocal of the social media. A short Twitter name will encourage more retweets of your brand. You have to give before you get on Twitter. You have to "follow" people before they follow you. Generally, you will have about 25 percent followers for all your tweets, so if you have tweeted 1,000 times, you should have approximately 250 followers.

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