Golf Social Media: How to Use Hashtags

Introduction to Golf Social Media:

Instagram is a photo-sharing app that is ideal for companies who have scenic photos to share. Some golf courses have taken advantage of this platform, but not all understand the proper usage or how to optimize their golf social media account. Hashtags and posting frequency are two easy ways to improve golf social media usage. Hashtags are keyword topics that help social media platforms know what the photo is about and help other users find photos and videos from certain subjects. In the last article, we discussed what golf courses are doing wrong on their golf social media accounts. This article will detail what hashtags are and why they work so well.

Golf Social Media: Hashtags

Hashtags are an integral piece of the Instagram puzzle. Hashtags are what identify a photo as a certain topic for people interested in that topic to find.
The most common hashtags used in the study were #golf, #golfaz, #golfing, #golfer, and different variants of the golf courses name and the location (#golfscottsdale, #tucsongolf). Golf courses also hashtag their golf course. An example is John Doe Golf Club uses #JohnDoeGolfClub or #JohnDoeGC. It’s important to identify which hashtag should be used and only used. The golf course Instagram account should be the guideline for guests to know which hashtag to use.

A good rule-of-thumb for hashtags is you want hashtags that are popular, but not so popular that 5 minutes after the post is published, no one could find your picture. #golf has more than 10 million images and videos (and growing) whereas #golfaz has 3,891. Even though potentially fewer people would see the post, it’s a more qualified and segmented audience for golf courses in Arizona.

The image below shows the post amount per hashtag location in Arizona.

What golf courses should learn form this image is that #golfscottsdale is a lot smaller than #scottsdale, but you will have an easier time being found on the smaller post amounts and have a better chance at being one of the “Top Posts” on that hashtag.

The image to the right shows the post amount for each golf-variable hashtag, which is a long-tail identifier of golf and it’s relatable words. A long-tail hashtag is two or more words put together to create one topic, similar to a long-tail keyword.

Take a look at the hashtags #instagolfer and #golfstagram. These are popular Instagram inspired tags that are an excellent way to find the eyes of young adult Instagrammers.

If the photo you want to post has a recognizable brand, hashtag it and tag the brand in the picture. It’s a great way to get your photo shared by these larger brands and grow in reach.

The Relationship Between of Hashtags and Followers.

Golf courses that use 5-15 hashtags per post see a direct impact on how many followers they have and how many likes are on their posts. Golf courses that use 5-15 hashtags have 4-21 followers per post whereas golf courses that use 0 to 4 hashtags have 0-4 followers per post. There are some outliers. Like TPC Scottsdale uses no hashtags but their publicity stems from the Waste Management Phoenix Open and their “like” amount per post is average.

Posting Activity:

To be considered active on Instagram, an account must post at least once a week. If the management and branding teams agree, not all the content you post has to be created by you or of your golf course. Reposting funny golf memes or guest’s photos is a great way to reward your followers and will help your company be recognized as a brand leader for golf.

Remember:

Hashtags are topic identifiers for a social media platform to know what a photo is about. Hashtags help related users find your social media page. Remember, having a popular social media page will not instantly result in more profits, but your golf course will become more relatable as well as a trustworthy leader in golfing knowledge.