Realize you need to get more active with social media but feel overwhelmed?
Jerry Kane, an associate professor of information systems at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, contends there are ways for less tech-savvy course operators to overcome their fear and/or ignorance. The first is to “cut through the BS” and focus on the basics.
“Once you parse away the jargon and the buzzwords, the concepts can be pretty simple,” he says. “Many social media tools are not much more complicated that using email, but I see a lot of the same fear towards them as when the Internet was first coming on line.”
As an example, he says golf course operators could think of Twitter as a virtual 19th hole where golfers can easily share news or tidbits, perhaps even during their round but certainly after it. “Golfers love to talk about golf and their accomplishments,” Kane says. “You could use a Twitter hash tag to give them the means to do that.”
Finding out how to do that can be as simple as “sitting down with a 22-year-old,” Kane says. “Younger people are very good at the nuts and bolts. But then you’ve got to immerse yourself in it for a period if you want to understand how these technologies can be used to your advantage.”