Fernanda Guerra, Member Experience Coordinator, has been with The Hills Country Club for just over a year. During this time she has increased social media impressions by 59% and engagement by 11%.
Guerra focuses on gaining brand awareness through social media and attracting prospective members. Although she does have creative freedom to add her own personal twist to the social posts, Riley Holman, who oversees the social media and influencer strategy for all Invited Clubs provides a framework and strategy for social media.
Fernanda Guerra, Member Experience Coordinator, The Hills Country Club.
Riley Holman, Social Media Specialist, Invited.Holman and Guerra dive into what makes a good social media strategy, how to capitalize on trends, the importance of making a club’s presence known on social media and more.
Content planning and strategy
Holman says the number one goal for social media across the more than 150 Invited Clubs is to get in front of new people and prospects.
“Back in 2022 we rebranded the business from Club Corp. to Invited and the reason for that is because, historically, country clubs can feel unapproachable, stuffy or unattainable,” says Holman.
Having a wide variety of clubs allows for different communities that prospective members can join.
“Our number one goal is to look inviting and feel approachable, but we still hold onto the tradition and the history that clubs or the game of golf offer,” she says. “It’s the perfect marriage of being progressive and forward and applying what will get the interest of new prospects piqued and into our clubs, but still having a high respect for the tradition and history of the game of golf.”
Holman reminds her team that when someone does land on one of their social media channels, they take less than 10 seconds to already pass judgment on who the club is, which is why she also focuses on clarity.
“We want everything to be crystal clear from the moment someone lands on our page so they know who we are, what we offer, and what the club offers them,” she says.
The other half of Invited’s social strategy is to retain current members.
Members get club information like event calendars on social media. Members also like to see recaps from past events.
“Last week, we did a par-3 challenge for Masters week, and our clubs do a great job of recapping photos and moments from those events,” says Holman. “And members love to re-share those with friends and family, putting more eyeballs on our pages.”
What’s working on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn
Holman says she wants her teams to be on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. She believes these platforms have the most potential for quality membership leads and it’s the right demographic for who Invited is trying to reach.
“Twitter or X is a great platform, but you have to be so active in order to see any growth or engagement,” says Holman. “I think it better suits live updates for things like sports or news, where we don’t necessarily have updates that would fit in that category.”
With the three platforms that Holman encourages her teams to use, she says they are treated differently.
“For Instagram, I tell our team we want to be more creative and can step outside the box more,” says Holman. “We can be more lighthearted, participate in viral trends, and be more lifestyle driven. It doesn’t have to be something so professional and buttoned up.”
When it comes to LinkedIn, Holman advises team members to do the opposite by being more professional and focus on business initiatives and employee-focused content.
“We’ll have employees that may be recognized, highlight golfers of the year or chefs of the year,” she says. “When it comes to employer or people recognition, LinkedIn is the spot for that.”
Facebook is viewed as a platform that reaches different demographics and audiences. Since Meta owns Instagram and Facebook, Holman encourages cross-sharing on the platforms.
Guerra agrees that Facebook can hit different audiences and is more casual with analytics showing that users enjoy seeing real-time photos straight from an iPhone. Whereas on Instagram, content is more curated and designed to capture attention and stop the scroll.
Content planning is casual as well. Holman and her team provide member experience coordinators like Guerra with a monthly calendar based on holidays, key events, key dates, or key programming.
“For example, all clubs had a par-3 contest last week for the Masters, so in the calendar we will have a reminder to put up a recap of the event,” says Holman. “My team will provide those general content planners and it’s up to the team to adapt that content plan and also apply boots-on-the-ground content.”
The big E’s
Guerra attributes The Hills CC social growth to centering posts on telling the club’s story and showing followers who the club is.
“I focus on the big three or the big E’s—engage, entertain, and educate,” says Guerra. “Those are my core elements when I post to our social media.”
Guerra says before she puts something on social media she asks herself how it impacts followers—will it entertain, engage, or educate them?
“Capturing their attention is important too so they actually stop scrolling and can achieve one of those pillars, so visually it has to be appealing,” adds Guerra.
Guerra relies on analytics on the social media platforms to see what times are most active for her followers and to better understand the platform algorithms.
She also utilizes the platform’s tools to post in certain ways to not oversaturate a follower’s feed with a constant stream of posts.
“We have so much going on across the club that I make a judgment call if something is feed worthy or story worthy,” says Guerra. “If it’s an item that could have a call to action it usually goes on our stories with a link that drives people to our website. On the feed, I focus on items that almost give our followers FOMO (fear of missing out) and want to participate in the next event we put on.”
Guerra says social media is a digital bridge between the audience and the brand.
Making the most of social media
Guerra says when in doubt, post about members.
“Members love to see themselves on our socials and they want to share that they were posted on our account which increases our shares and engagement,” explains Guerra.
Highlighting employees is another tactic that works well for Guerra. Members are able to get accustomed to employees and the work they do around the club.
“It’s all a part of familiarity and feeling like you’re part of a family here at The Hills,” notes Guerra.
Holman agrees and says that participating in social media trends is another popular type of content.
“Adding simple, trending phrases to our posts and pairing it with high-level, fun content featuring people consistently performs well,” says Holman.
“There is one trend right now where the prompt is like ‘In your 20’s someone will try to convince you to…’ and you fill in the blank and say ‘It’s important you say yes.’ One of our clubs put their own spin on that trend and said ‘At some point in your marriage, your spouse is going to ask you to join a private country club and it’s important you say yes.’ That post generated over 2.5 million views.”
Storytelling and behind-the-scenes posts are popular among followers as well and Holman utilizes storytelling by posting two-minute videos talking about the history of certain clubs while walking around the property.
Holman and Guerra advise not overthinking your social strategy and are noticing a shift in people being more interested in seeing organic content rather than polished content.
Holman also says posting everyday is what she encourages her team to aim for.
“I’ve noticed that accounts that post daily are favored by the platform’s algorithm and grow more quickly,” says Holman.
“Social media is great because you can try new things with little to no repercussions. I always tell my team to just try things and see what happens because a lot of times things could out perform your expectations.”
