|
Part
2 - Five Time Saving Tips for Tennis Professionals
Social media
provides you with a great opportunity to reach and engage with
more potential members and clients than ever before. A successful
social media presence can benefit your club or your programs
in a number of ways. But if you waste too much time or money
on ineffective tactics, then it doesn't matter how efficient
you're being.
Part 1 was all about the effective use of social media in your
club, published last month. Part 2 points out 5 time saving social
media tips for tennis professionals.
Tip #1. Reverse
Engineer Your Success
The single, most common reason people struggle with social media
is because they don't have a clear direction. Social media can
benefit your tennis business in 3 major ways:
- Increase awareness
Social Media provides a much better reach into your community
than other communication and promotion vehicles. Increase awareness
of your club membership specials, your clinics and lessons program
faster, better than with other methods.
- Reduce cost
Money usually spent in member acquisition and advertising your
club and / or programs.
- Increase participation
+ retention
Increase participation in your programs and improve member retention
through social media communication
Going through social media to spread the word is definitely faster
and cheaper than print ads or direct mail campaigns. The conversion
cost comparison for new members shows social media a clear winner.
And social media engagement is nowadays a significant factor
in member experience and therefore member retention. Not only
will you be more effective in hitting your goal, but you'll also
save a lot of lost time that would have been spent chasing down
ineffective tactics or distractions.
Tip #2. Funnel
New Members from Other Sources
Successful marketing always requires filling the top of your
funnel with potential leads and prospects. In social media, that
means acquiring new fans, likes, or followers on a regular, consistent
basis. So once you've tapped out your small circle of friends,
family and close customers… how are you going to do this?
The best way
to grow ANY social network is to funnel fans from an existing
resource. Some of these you might "own" (like your
street traffic, website traffic, or email list), and some of
these you might "borrow" (like cross-promotions or
advertising).
Incentivize
your (member) fan database with "free stuff" like a
free lesson or clinic, if they leave you a review on Yelp. Or
you could get more Facebook fans by identifying business partners
and running a joint Facebook promotion and cross-promotion.
Example: When
I was managing a tennis and fitness club in the LA area I had
an arrangement with a smoothie store close by. Our members got
a nice discount in their store and we promoted them on our Facebook
page.
In the long
run you need to be careful about driving people to something
you don't own (like your Facebook page) instead of something
you do (like your house email list). But in the short run, funneling
fans through Facebook for quick growth is the best bet.
Tip #3. Chunk
and Divide Your Time Effectively
There's an old adage that says if you want something done, then
give it to the busiest person you know. Whether that's true or
not - who knows.
But it does raise an important point about setting constraints
and prioritizing your time.
There's almost
never a reason to spend longer than 20 minutes on social networks
at one time. Schedule your updates automatically using Hootsuite,
for instance. Use time tracking software to keep yourself accountable
(Rescue Time or Toggl are such time tracking applications. With
so many distractions and possibilities in your digital life,
it's easy to get scattered. They help you understand your daily
habits so you can time yourself and focus and be more productive).
You'll be more active throughout the day, and each time you check-in
you'll have a purpose because you have no time to waste. Rescue
Time and Toggl have free versions as well as low-cost paid versions.
Tip #4. Let
Data Be Your Marketing Guide
The best way to be successful in marketing is to do more of what
people like, and less of what they don't. And the best part about
digital marketing is that you can see -- and track -- exactly
what people do and don't like. So stop guessing about what to
say or do, and use more data to glean insights and drive action.
For example,
Facebook Insights gives you a wealth of information about the
audience on your Facebook page. You can drill down into their
demographics to understand who they are. Or you can dive deep
into what they "Like" and click to see what motivates
them.
After consulting
this data, you can come up with conclusions about what to do
next. And you won't have to guess or post something random to
"feel" like you're being efficient. Because in social
media (and Facebook especially), it doesn't matter if you have
millions of fans. It all depends on how many of those people
you can actually reach and if they're paying attention or not.
That's why engagement is so important.
Tip #5. Start
at the Top, Not the Bottom
There are basically two different ways to build up a social media
presence…
The first
is to "start from the bottom" and get new fans on a
one-to-one basis. This approach works (slowly), and takes hours
upon hours of effort.
If you can work from the top down, and reach a lot of people
at once then you can accelerate your results.
For example,
find other partners that have influence over many of your target
audience. By reaching large numbers of highly targeted people
at once, you'll drastically multiply your results while minimizing
your time investment. They could be other websites, communities,
organizations, blogs, or influential people.
You want to
reach those influencers. For instance, if you ask me to LIKE
your Fan Page, a whole bunch of others will see what I just liked
and many may follow. All of a sudden you have accelerated your
fan count.
And figure
out what you can give those influencers that they don't already
have. Do NOT ask them for a favor. A media website probably wants
content, while a nonprofit wants volunteers and donors. I'd appreciate
if people who ask me for support subscribe to my (free) weekly
newsletter WTATP
Tour Notes,
the Executive Summary of what's going on at the WTA and ATP Pro
Tour level on a weekly basis.
If you can
identify and provide what they need, then it will be easy to
get what you want.
Questions?
Contact me at Rich at TennisMediaGroup.com |
