STICK/HACK SOCIAL MEDIA GROWTH PLAYBOOK
SITUATIONAL CAPTURE
Stick/Hack is a golf membership program created in 2019 and is described as “the world’s greatest golf club (without the course).” While offering entertainment by means of a podcast, written pieces, and some video content, Stick/Hack also provides a virtual communal environment for those who make the decision to join their membership. As nearly all statistics show, social media is currently essential in building the image and name of a brand. Considering Stick/Hack is a fairly new business whose current focus is to increase brand awareness to generate higher membership acquisition, their presence on social media is detrimental to the success or failure of their company.
While Stick/Hack currently has a social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, their numbers are currently significantly less than those of their competitors. Why is this? Contestants such as No Laying Up and Random Golf Club are extremely active on all of the platforms listed above. Each understanding what types of content and times of publishing said content will receive the highest level of engagement with their target audiences. Although Stick/Hack shares similar characteristics of their competitors, in terms of general idea of a “virtual golf course” and the types of content they produce, Stick/Hack gives this general idea a different angle and therefore should be using this to their advantage on all of their social platforms.
Following the branding questionnaire, it is evident that Adam and Chad’s long-term objective is “to become the #1 golf media platform in the world.” They plan to succeed at this through entertainment that “connects people together,” with golf as “the medium, not the purpose.” While Stick/Hack currently has a social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube as noted above, they are failing to take advantage of the clear social media tactics which can be used to optimize their levels of engagement with their desired target audiences.
Thriving on social media networks is simple. All it takes is knowing who the audience that’s trying to be reached is and catering to their interests and time schedules when posting content. According to the data found in the Claritas, Stick/Hack is trying to reach the Generation Xers. These people are normal, everyday, boring people. Currently, the majority of marketing campaigns are aimed at reaching Millennials or Boomers. Despite this fact, however, Generation Xers are active social media users who currently make up 31% of total income dollars in the U.S. economy. Thus, resulting in a huge margin of people (around 65 million) with economic prominence who have been completely forgotten about. According to “Marketing Gen X: How Your Ecommerce Strategy Can Successfully Convert Them,” “A stereotypical Gen Xer will be family-oriented, financially responsible, and self-reliant.” These are the people Stick/Hack need to reach on social media. Considering Stick/Hack aims at creating a community environment for both men and women through their love or interest in golf, when marketing on social media, they must keep this in mind. In crafting posts that foster engagement between Gen Xers as a whole, and specifically targeting family oriented, sports lovers in various posts, Stick/Hack would combine all of the interests of the main people they are likely to reach, thus translating into a higher number of members.
After partaking in research on what Gen Xers desire in terms of social media, they are drawn to brands who have some sort of positive social impact, are personal and authentic with their marketing techniques, and add elements of nostalgia from time to time. Use of videos is also preferred, as 45.8 million Gen Xers consume digital videos. Being that Stick/Hack is a membership program, this opens up plenty of opportunities to use their members to create humanistic, community-based posts to draw in new members. Centering posts around current members would also aid in producing the feelings of comradery and social connection that a real-life golf course provides. Focusing on these elements and showcasing them by means of video, and utilizing Adam’s long background in video creation, Stick/Hack has the chance to generate essentially the perfect kinds of posts to attract their target audience.
However, simply creating the right types of posts is not enough to succeed at the highest level when concerning the science of social media. Each social media platform is vastly different, and therefore there are different tactics to consider when posting to a particular one. There are certain days, times, types, and levels of engagement that are necessary in order to find success for each platform. Those platforms being Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The pages below will identify the specific needs to prosper in each platform, while showcasing the tactics used by competitors who have found success and comparing them with Stick/Hack’s current social media situation. From that information, a plan can then be formulated for the betterment of Stick/Hack social media moving forward.
According to Pew Research, 69% of US adults use Facebook. Of those that do use the platform, 74% visit the site at least once a day. 74% of users make $75k or more a year and have college degrees. These numbers align perfectly with the demographic of people Stick/Hack must reach. But just because these people are visiting the platform, does not mean that they will necessarily come across businesses such as Stick/Hack if they are not posting at the particular days/times or the types of posts that foster the most engagement.
For Facebook, experts say that the best days to post are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays anytime between 9AM and 2PM, and they advise only posting once a day, up to 5 days a week. Videos also seem to do the best on Facebook, generating the largest amounts of engagement amongst users. Stick/Hack’s present posting schedule follows the recommendation of only one post per day. However, they are inconsistent in terms of the time in which they post their content.
When looking at Stick/Hack’s Facebook page, they tend to post a short video clip from their latest podcast episode twice a week. Usually this is posted at 6 AM… not a prime posting hour. Regardless of posting hours though, these posts are not set up to foster much engagement. While they do direct viewers to listen to the podcast, the visual elements are not very strong and therefore leaves little reason for viewers to want to share. These clips also fail to tag the people in them, which means they are missing an opportunity to create more engagement from followers. This user/brand engagement is the key to followers feeling the sense of a community environment Stick/Hack is longing for.
Other than the podcast video clips, the only other consistent posts are links to recent blog posts and the weekly comic strip artwork. While these posts are definitely necessary, as they each include links to drive users to the Stick/Hack website, the timing at which these are being posted is not ideal. Competitor, Random Golf Club, posts the same types of content as Stick/Hack, except nearly all of their posts are published at 9 AM, which as stated earlier is an ideal posting hour for Facebook. Random Golf Club also is known to create high-level videos, something that Stick/Hack can easily accomplish given Adam’s background in video production. However, the main people Stick/Hack are trying to reach are different than the types of people Random Golf Club are. Thus, other than creating videos and posting at the appropriate times, there are no major takeaways from Random Golf Club that Stick/Hack should make use of.
As mentioned in the earlier paragraphs, Stick/Hack has the opportunity to easily reach Gen Xers through the content that they post. The idea behind their membership program is nearly perfectly catered towards Gen X, and therefore their content should reflect this. The mission of Stick/Hack is to connect and entertain people, by creating a family-friendly, virtual golf community. The things posted should correlate with this. By creating videos that are member focused, and are visually appealing, engagement is sure to follow. The more engagement, the more traffic to their page, leading to the greater chance of that user becoming a member of Stick/Hack.
Not only should posts themselves be fostering engagement, but administrators on the account should be interacting and commenting on posts of people who fall in the target audiences of Stick/Hack. This means sharing their content, responding to related posts, and collaborating with them on posts. Callaway, one of the leading brands in the game of golf for example, has 1.6 million followers between Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. They use the “constant engagement strategy,” as director of Marketing Scott Goryl says. He describes that they’re “always listening, responding and interacting with golfers, and although constant engagement can be as exhausting as it sounds, we’ve seen great results by being consistent and natural part of golfers’ digital consumption habits.”
Stick/Hack should be treating their Facebook page as the gateway to truly connecting with potential members. Just as a golf course is an area for people of commonality to interact and form relationships, so should Stick/Hack’s social media accounts be a meeting place for people to truly connect. In a real-life conversation, it should not be one sided in terms of who is speaking, social media interactions should be the same.
As Stick/Hack’s current Facebook community is compiled of 965 followers and 903 likes, they have a steady following already without using the necessary tactics to succeed. Therefore, by using the recommendations of posting content once a day, five times a week, between the times of 9AM and 2PM, showcasing the personal community of Stick/Hack through video-based content, and engaging with their followers and target audiences by commenting and sharing their content, all while continuing to promote their podcast episodes and blog posts (just at the right times), Stick/Hack will be able to reach far more than they are currently. Thus, increasing the number of potential new members.
Unlike on Facebook, Stick/Hack’s network on Twitter is not nearly as large. As of now, Stick/Hack only has 186 Twitter followers. This is more than likely due to the fact that they only are tweeting once or twice a week, maximum, when research shows that business accounts should be tweeting every day for up to 20x a day. The best times to tweet are Mondays or Thursdays from 9 AM to 4 PM. However, as mentioned above, the more tweets the better in order to truly prosper. Although there are not as many Twitter users in the world as there are Facebook users, there’s still 22% of adults out there who use the platform. While this is not the largest number in general, it should not be ignored. Especially considering that for sports organizations it is a fairly popular platform to “promote teams, increase fan engagement, build relationships and drive revenue.” Stick/Hack may not be a team, but they are trying to create the feel of a true community of golfers, and therefore can utilize the functions of Twitter in the same way that sports organizations do.
One of the main tactics used by sports organizations on Twitter is to use real-time events to interact with members of their fan-based community. For example, live tweeting games, providing a game-specific hashtag for fans to publish to, or gathering fan feedback through polls. Stick/Hack clearly would not do these live events to the extent that the organizations running them would, but any chance to partake in conversation with potential members is a chance Stick/Hack must take advantage of.
One key thing that Twitter experts advise is to interact with influencers in the particular industry that you are trying to target. In the case of Stick/Hack, this means engaging with brands like PGA, Barstool, Yeti, Callaway, etc. as well as professional golfers, commentators, clubs, even other virtual golf courses potentially. This also would include responding to tweets of followers and those that are already members of the Stick/Hack community. Comparable brands such as No Laying Up and Foreplay do exceptionally well with this, responding and interacting with followers and popular golf brands throughout the day. They also are sure to comment on trending topics on Twitter in general. These companies are tweeting a minimum of about 3 tweets per day, but often far more than that, and as informed above, with Twitter, the more tweets the better.
Stick/Hack as stated several times throughout this paper thus far, is trying to create a virtual community of people who relate to each other through golf. Using Twitter to showcase this, by engaging with current and potential members is just another way to increase brand awareness and lead to member acquisition. Again, just as with Facebook, this takes much time and effort. Often involving constant researching and updating feeds in order to keep up with the latest trends and responding to them for each chance for engagement that would arise. Stick/Hack must look at responding to tweets like they would look at talking to someone at an actual golf course. If Stick/Hack can’t be an in-person, physical golf community, they must make up for this through maximum social media use.
Currently 63% of Instagram users login in at least daily. While the majority of Instagram users are Millennials, 47% of Gen Xers are active on the platform. Although Instagram is second in popularity for Stick/Hack’s target audience, Stick/Hack has the ability to expose themselves to the portion of their audience where they lack a following from currently… women. Women currently account for 43% of Instagram’s demographic, with only 31% of users being male (not including non-binary people).
As of present, Stick/Hack has 772 followers on Instagram, posting fairly consistently at around 4 or 5 times a week. These weekly posts are practically the exact same as the ones found on Facebook. While this is normal for businesses to do, Stick/Hack must remember to keep in mind that different platforms require different posting times for maximum engagement. For Instagram in particular, posts do the best Mondays - Fridays from 12 PM -1 PM.
In terms of number of posts, Stick/Hack is where they should be. However, when concerning types of content, tweaking is necessary. As mentioned previously, content that highlights the people behind a brand do the best. According to Hootsuite, “More than half of consumers get frustrated when brands offer no human connection.” Just like with Facebook and Twitter, Stick/Hack has the tools and the ability to do this through their posts, it’s just a matter of doing so. Not only do Gen Xers as a whole prefer brands who show the people behind them, but women in particular most actively engage and are interested in brands that cater towards their sense of belonging through the use of personal storytelling. This “emotional sell” is key to communicating with female customers. Considering Stick/Hack is one of the few, if not the only virtual golf course that has female writers as a part of their staff, they should showcase them in some of their posts. Sharing the humanness of these women, who they are, what they represent. Posting photos of them in their everyday life is another way to form connections and create the type of “community” feel that Stick/Hack is aimed at creating. If the audiences seeing these posts gather a sense of who these women are, that often will make them more likely to read their articles, thus directing people to the Stick/Hack website.
Another form of connecting with followers on a personal level through Instagram, is by the use of Instagram stories. Considering stories are short, informal video clips or pictures, this is an easy and simple way to highlight who the people behind the brand really are. This is another way in which to showcase current members as well. Sports organizations in particular do this in order to remove the “corporate” feel of sports content online and keep their brands “fresh in the minds of their followers.”
Through various updates with links being posted to the Instagram to transfer followers onto the Stick/Hack website, paired with engaging their audience by telling the stories of the people behind the brand Stick/Hack in a more personal way, Stick/Hack should be able to increase their reach, especially if said content is posted within the appropriate time frame of 9 AM-4PM during the weekdays.
YOUTUBE
As for YouTube, 73% of US adults use the platform, the 35+ and 55+ age groups are the fastest growing demographic currently, and 75% of adults visit YouTube for nostalgia over tutorials or current events. Stick/Hack now sits with 206 subscribers to their channel. Again, posting the video version of their podcast consistently, with only posting “Stick/Hack Shorts” once or twice a month at most.
As with their other social media platforms, Stick/Hack is lacking post variation. Considering Adam has a video background already, he should be taking full advantage of this, ESPECIALLY on YouTube. Time is also an issue once again. YouTube videos tend to do best when published on the late afternoons (2-4) of the weekdays.
Another key tactic for succeeding on YouTube, or any social media platform for that matter, is through using hashtags that even somewhat have to do with the post within the description or caption. When clicking on a hashtag, a viewer discovers all of the other posts that hold that exact hashtag. Thus, videos that hold hashtags often receive more exposure. The more exposure a video has, the greater chance that video has at going viral, hence in the case of Stick/Hack leading to more brand awareness and higher member acquisition.
Random Golf Club in particular seems to be fairly successful on the YouTube platform. With 153K subscribers, Random Golf Club produces high-quality, vlog styled, videos. These provide insight to him as a real person, allowing his viewers to connect with him. However, Random Golf Club’s target audience is not necessarily who Stick/Hack is targeting really at all, and therefore Stick/Hack has the opportunity to present themselves in a different light than their competitors.
Stick/Hack is a community for normal, everyday people, often who have families. Stick/Hack should be creating vlog-styled videos that exemplify this to viewers. Incorporating current members is another way in which to do this.
SOLUTION
The social media practices discussed above all require large amounts of time, planning, and effort. Considering Adam is now responsible for the production and distribution of all social media content, it is for this reason that the solution to Stick/Hack’s present social media lack of success may be to hire someone to manage their content, or a Content Specialist. This person would be responsible for a multitude of things. The first being distributing content, at the appropriate times across each platform for maximum reach. The content specialist would also be constantly researching potential pieces for the future, keeping findings in a content folder for later use if Adam is in favor. Finally, this manager would be continuously engaging and responding to followers and members of the Stick/Hack target audience, as well as keeping up on current trending topics across the board and deciding whether Stick/Hack could potentially use said topics for their own social media usage. Managing social media at it’s best is a full time job. Hiring someone to manage Stick/Hack content would allow Adam to mainly focus on creating the high quality content he is fully capable of. This paired with appropriate posting times and high levels of follower-account interaction, Stick/Hack will be able to increase their social media following, which could translate over into their number of members increasing.