The Digital Golfer

Golf Marketing Services

How To Use Social Media Profiles & Covers Effectively

It’s all about the VISUAL impact!

The online world that your golfing customers inhabit is increasingly visual. The emergence of picture sharing sites like Pinterest and Instagram are testimony to that.

Research shows that over 40% of people respond better to visual content than text content, and that 90% of information that comes to the brain is visual.

© hoyasmeg - Flickr.com

What looks better?

Both of these Facebook posts contain the same text.

But which one do you think stands out and will get noticed?

Just in case you were wondering. The image and text in B was created using PowerPoint and then saving the image as 403 pixels X 403 pixels. About 2 minutes work!

A

B

You do use social media – don’t you?

So, as nearly all your customers (by that I mean people who play golf) are on social media, it’s probably best that you take advantage of the tools on offer.

All of your social media profiles provide you with an opportunity to create and deliver great imagery related to your golf club, golf event or equipment brand.

Which network?

If you are thinking that it’s simply a case of grabbing the latest photo and just posting it up, then you would be wrong.

This presentation is not about naming and shaming those who have got it wrong.

This is all about sharing some great examples, and hopefully giving you some ideas about your own social media profile and cover images.

Every network!

I have chosen 12 golf based social media profiles that I think not only use great imagery to connect with golfers, but use these profiles to communicate the other social media platforms that they are using.

12 Great Examples

© eMaringolo - Flickr.com

Remember, it’s not all about Twitter and Facebook.

Facebook

Did you know that…

  Facebook has over 1.5 billion active users

  223 million users in Europe

  179 million users in north America

  71% of social media users who earn more than £30k / $45k use Facebook

  48% of Facebook users are over the age of 30

Still not sure about Facebook?

1. Solheim Cup 2015

1. Solheim Cup 2015

This cover image works on so many levels, capturing the excitement of the event, and the unique format that provides fans to follow a team.

The graphic also very neatly promotes the event sponsors as well. In my view it could be improved by changing the profile image.

Adding those 4 lines of text at the bottom of the profile image has meant that the beautiful trophy is almost lost.

The text below the profile image needs editing as well. It should contain the text from the profile image for maximum impact. A great example of what to put can be seen in the next profile that I have chosen.

2. Ryder Cup Team Europe

2. Ryder Cup Team Europe

Just like the Solheim Cup 2015, this Facebook cover image captures the excitement of the event with a beautiful aerial shot of the 2014 venue overlaid with a victorious Paul McGinley.

The profile text also displays a link to the Twitter account which is a clever way of letting your customers / fans know that you are using that platform as well.

3. Ryder Cup Team USA

3. Ryder Cup Team USA

The graphical style of the USA Ryder Cup team is very different. Having lost the last few tournaments, the message here is that whoever steps up to the 1st tee on the 23rd September 2014 at Gleneagles will have the power within themselves to become a golfing legend.

The tightly cropped flag and cup create a strong visual call to arms. I also like the way that the profile is using text and the page Apps to promote other social media platforms.

4. BMW Championship PGA Tour

4. BMW Championship PGA Tour

I like this cover from the BMW Championship for two reasons.

First off, the sponsors logo is bang up front in the profile image. The logo also appears in the cover image – no way can you be left wondering who is sponsoring this tournament.

But the main reason why I included this in the list is because of the text overlay. Here’s a social media account that is clearly being updated daily, at the very least, as indicated by the message that there is 1 day to go.

This is a great way to build excitement, every time you update your cover image, all your followers will get a message. This is a simple tactic for building engagement with your audience.

5. Loudmouth Golf

5. Loudmouth Golf

The team at Loudmouth Golf seem to have a simple philosophy – don’t take golf too seriously. And I think this cover image does the trick nicely.

Placing the images of the latest collection in thumbnails overlaid on a course photograph is a neat trick, as is the use of the only image of a golfer as the main focus.

I also like the profile image which just reinforces the concept that Loudmouth stands for FUN!

Twitter

Did you know that…

  There are 36 million active accounts

  53% of Twitter users are female

  6% are over the age of 45 (great for connecting with the juniors!)

  71% of users are from North America and the UK

  That’s about 25.56 million people – some of those play golf!

Still not sure about Twitter?

6. Royal Liverpool Golf Club

When compiling this review it was surprising how few Twitter accounts that I looked had created anything of real interest.

Using this iconic image of the final leaderboard at the 2013 Open Championship is a great way of connecting Hoylake with their hosting of The Open 2014. I also like the use of hash tags within the profile text to aid their performance in search results.

7. Volvik

This cover image for Volvik is simplicity in itself. Volvik make a range of brightly colored golf balls. That’s what they do.

If you are left in any doubt after viewing this account you probably need glasses.

YouTube

Did you know that…

  YouTube gets more than 1 billion visits per month

  More than 1 billion hours of video watched every

  One UK based golf pro has:   15,145 subscribers to his YouTube Channel

  188 videos uploaded

  1,312,884 video views

Still not sure about YouTube?

8. The First Tee

This is possibly my favourite of all the social media cover images in this review. The First Tee is a golf foundation that aims to introduce kids to golf, and teaches fantastic life lessons, and they get to play a sport too.

This image captures the excitement and fun that kids can have, though if that was my boy in orange on the left, I think I might be a bit upset! Whoever set this account up on YouTube has also cleverly connected other social media accounts to the profile – the icons in the bottom right corner are live links.

9. European Tour

The European Tour channel on YouTube has delivered just like the BMW Championship account on Facebook.

Here is a well managed account that is updating the cover image on a regular basis. This one is bang up to date as the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is being played at the time of writing.

As with First Tee, the profile settings have been updated with links to a number of social media accounts.

10. Ladies European Tour

The Ladies European Tour YouTube page has a great cover image.

Not only have they updated it with a image that invokes the recent victory in the Solheim Cup, they have cleverly cropped it, so that the tour logo appears neatly next to the live links to their website and other social media accounts.

A neat trick in telling a story and encouraging the visitor to discover more on other platforms.

Pinterest

Did you know that…

  There are over 70 million Pinterest uses

  Pinterest images are now delivered as search results on Bing

  Average spend per order via Pinterest $160

  Average time spent on Pinterest per visit 14.2 minutes

  Pinterest is the 4th largest provider of site traffic, after Google, Facebook and Twitter

Still not sure about Pinterest?

11. Callaway

The reason that I have selected this account is that if you look closely, many of the boards have a cover image that contains a Callaway product / logo.

12. Not In The Pro Shop

OK – hands up, I’m a bit biased on this last suggestion because Not In The Pro Shop is a blog that I run.

The reason why I have put this forward is that I’m using a ‘sticky’ pin to provide an extra layer of branding for people who discover my pins.

There is not a lot more that you can do on Pinterest, but it’s surprising how frequently this simple trick is over-looked.

Profile & Cover Images Templates

Social media marketing can be confusing at the best of times, this simple guide has been created to help you understand the range of sizes and options across the different social networks.

You will see that the image sizes are given in pixels and centimeters. If you want to do some image creation or editing yourself, the centimeter measurements will come in handy when working with images and text in PowerPoint.

Twitter Profile

User Interface

Recent Images

90px x 90px Tweet

140 characters

Profile picture 81px x 81px 2.14cm x 2.14cm

Header Image 520px x 260px 13.76cm x 6.88cm

Visible area dependent

on screen resolution

90% of viewers see this 78 pixels

67% of viewers see this 204 pixels

43% of viewers see this 247 pixels

21% of viewers see this 284 pixels

Pinterest Profile

Pinterest Board

Profile

Profile text = approx 200 characters including spaces

Image 160 px x 165 px

or 4.23 cm x 4.36

cm

Big thumbnail 220 px x 150 px

or 5.82 cm x 3.96 cm

Thumbnails 50 px x 50 px

or 1.32 cm x 1.32 cm

LinkedIn Cover

Cover photo 646 pixels x 220 pixels

17.09 cm x 5.82 cm

Horizontal logo 100 px x 60 px 2.64cm x 1.58 cm

Thumbnail 180 px x 100 px 4.76 cm x 2.91 cm

Shared link title 230 characters of editable text

LinkedIn Careers

Careers cover photo 974 pixels x 238 pixels

25.77 cm x 6.29 cm

LinkedIn Products & Services

Products & Services banner 624 pixels x 220 pixels

16.51 cm x 5.82 cm

Products title = 100 characters Product description = 2000 characters

Product image

100 px x 80 px or

2.64 cm x 2.11 cm

Facebook Cover Image

Cover photo size 851 pixels x 315 pixels

22.51cm x 8.33 cm

Facebook Cover Image

210 pixels 5.55 cm

App Images

111 x 74 pixels

2.93 x 1.96 cm

Profile text = max 255 characters including spaces

Profile image 4.23 cm x 4.23 cm

Upload as 4.76 cm x 4.76

cm

Google+

Cover photo size 851 pixels x 315 pixels 22.51cm x 8.33 cm

Profile picture Circumference 120 pixels or 3.17 cm Square content 84 px x 84 px or 2.22 cm x 2.22 cm

Use this space to put your call to action

Profile picture Circumference 83 pixels or 2.19 cm

This is the bottom 12% of the responsive cover photo

YouTube Branded Channel

Video Thumbnail 288px x 162px

7.62cm x 4.28cm

90% of viewers see this

Title Description

Channel Information

Mapable Header 970px x 150px

25.66cm x 3.96cm

Profile image 55px x 55px or 1.45cm x 1.45cm

Featured Video 640px x 390px

67% of viewers see this

43% of viewers see this

Sometimes when you play golf you need a caddy to select the right clubs

Social media marketing can be like that – think of us as your caddy

We help you make the right selections

The Digital Golfer team are specialists in using social media and digital marketing to create awareness and generate demand.

Our range of services will help you build a stronger marketing presence and deliver greater results for you and your partners.

David@TheDigitalGolfer.com | Phone: +44 330 7000 100 | Web: TheDigitalGolfer.com | @GolferMarketing