Here is the 2nd part of the social media presentation that I did at Innisbrook for the Golf Inc. Conference. I am joined by Justin Smith (GM @ Olde Homestead GC) and Ricky Lee Potts (content specialist for IMAVEX) www.rickyleepotts.com. This guy is a master blogger and you should check out his site. Follow them both on twitter. I will post the last 7 minutes of this presentation tomorrow. How is your social media campaign working? What are you doing? Fee free to share your story or link up your blog. I am always anxious to learn something new. Feel free to share this but clicking on one of the social media buttons at the bottom. Leave a comment below and check back later for the end of the presentation.
Check out our website at www.danarader.com or call to schedule a lesson with the Guru @704-542-7635
This is first few minutes of a presentation that I did with Justin Smith, GM at Olde Homestead GC in Pennsylvania at this years Golf Inc. Conference. Ricky Potts with Imavex was the moderator. John Graham and Sara Dickson were also on another panel that took part in these sessions, highlighting how we use social media to market our facilities, brand ourselves and grow our business. It was a great experience and spending time with these leaders in our industry was priceless. If I get more video of the presentation I will post it. This was just the first 10 minutes of an hour presentation.
This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to speak at the Area vi spring meeting of the Carolinas P.G.A. A big thank you to Woody Allen our area director for asking me to present to the group. I was very excited to share with my fellow professionals some of the things that I have learned in the past few years in the realm of instruction and also how to use social media and marketing to help their business and themselves grow. I have to thank a few important people who helped me construct my presentation and gave me outstanding feedback and ideas on how to deliver this important message. First to my lovely wife, Tiffanie who helped me with my Powerpoint and made sure that I had the presentation that I wanted and also for putting up with my long hours on the computer and on the phone with my mastermind crew. I don’t deserve her but without her support I would not be where I am today. To my mastermind crew who allowed me to bounce ideas and gave me great insight on the information that I was presenting: John Graham (johngrahamgolf), Rob McGill (golfprorob), Jason Helman (jasonhelmangolf) Jay Reid (jayreidgolf) and Scott Fossum (scottfossumgolf). Special thanks to my student and friend, Gene Casiola for helping me with my opening. I have a lot to work on with my public speaking but I wanted to share the video and allow my peeps to give feedback on how I can improve. I really enjoyed my time and I appreciate everyone who came up after the talk to thank me or ask for advice. If you ever need to ask a question or if I can help any of you in any way feel free to email me @jasonsuttn@aol.com or hit me up on twitter.com/onplanegolf. I broke the presentation into 5 parts because it was about an hour and 15 minutes so if you don’t get to all of it I will house it on my corporate speaking page. Let me know if I can be a speaker at your function or group. Enjoy the video and please leave a comment below or share with someone. I appreciate your support and your feedback:
See you on the lesson tee. To schedule a lesson please call 704-542-7635
In honor of his National award, Canadian Teacher of the Year, I thought I would re-air this Guru TV special. Now I can say that I knew him before he hit the big time. Congratulations my friend, you are the best. I can’t wait for the sequel. Also a rare appearance (on my lesson tee) from one of the most versitile training tools on the market, THE SWINKEY. Twitter building friendships at its best. If you are not on twitter, What are you waiting for?
As the 2011 PGA Show comes to a close, I wanted to reflect and give my experience from my week in Orlando. For those of you, pros or just avid golfers alike, you must go at least once to see just how massive this things is. I heard on the radio that if you walk all of it, you will have clocked around 10 miles. I walked every bit of it and some of it several times so I definitely got my exercise. I think that this was my best Show that I can remember and I am going to tell you why. As I have posted in some previous blogs, the main reason that I go is to get around people who I find interesting and that I can learn from. The gadgets and products are great and I will get into that but it’s the people you meet and spend time with that make the trip a success. I will break this down diary style since my laptop has currently died and didn’t make the trip or I would have been blogging as I go like my good friend John Graham http://www.johngrahamgolf.com).
Sara Brown, Derek Radley and Me
Thursday (Day 1): Twitter has definitely made the world smaller and has allowed me to meet some great people along the way. The day started out by meeting up with Jason Helman (jasonhelmangolf.com) my friend and teaching pro from Canada. We walked the show for most of the morning to check out the new gadgets in the world of teaching. We met up with my good friend Derek Radley and his girlfriend Sara Brown (big break star and Rookie LPGA player), We had some lunch with her dad and the commisioner of the Futures tour. It was like walking around with a rock star as everyone recognizes Sara from TV. After a great meeting with my Callaway rep, Tim Garrett, to order my new clubs for the year, I ran into Rob LaRosa, Head Professional from Sterling Farms CC. We then made our way over to the Aimpoint booth to meet up with John Graham (@johngrahamgolf). We all walked over to the Swinkey training aid booth to
Swinkey Time
meet the boys http://swinkey.com and discuss the product and take a few pictures. So day one was just feeling out the location of the stuff we were interested in and meeting a few of the tweeps. After the show is when the good stuff happens if you are there. For those that follow me already know about the TWEETUP. This is a gathering of guys and girls that know each other on twitter. John Graham was nice enough to put it all together so about 30 of us met at Millers Ale house that night. Here is a list of some of the guys that I met: David Wurzer, Jason Helman, Dan Carraher, Ricky Lee Potts, John Randle, Dennis Sales, Claude Harmon, Joe Hafera, Nick Clearwater, Sean Lalley, Rich Hunt, Todd Halpen, Bobby Siravo, Jamie Donaldson, Mark Sweeney, Bernie Najar, Ralph Perez, Andrew Lewis, Sara Dickson, Kirk Oguri, John Dochety, TJ Yeaton and Mario Bevilacqua. I wish I could have spent more time with everyone but I managed to get an idea of everyone’s teaching philosophies and backgrounds just by observing and listening to their conversations. I apologize for not taking more film as this one would have made a great reality show and surely would have went viral in an hour, but didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable. I wish I would have taken pics. I was so busy talking that I forgot to eat. No one got hurt although Doc (John Dochety) almost hit Ralph (gotham golf blog) with a front side chop as they battled over a #4 accumulator discussion. At the end, they hugged it out and we all made it home safe. I thank all of you for being willing to share all of your brilliant golf info so freely as this is what is going to help our industry grow and make us better coaches. It was great to finally put some of the names with the faces (and twitter handles) together. I also got to spend some time with two of my mentors and top 100 teachers, Chuck Evans and Charlie King which was great. I always learn something after spending time with them. I ran into new top 100 inductees, Charlie Sorrell and Mark Steinbauer and congratulated them on their accomplishment.
Jason Helman and John Graham at the show
Friday: The day started with checking out and getting more info on training aids. I know you all are waiting on my reviews so you can run out and buy or hopefully take a lesson from me. I will be doing video reviews as I get to use them in the coming months but here are my list of aids that I found interesting:
1. Swinkey(www.swinkey.com). One of the most versatile aids on the market for sure. I saw many swinkeys in the hands of people walking around the show so I think Todd and the boys did well. I highly recommend this product for any serious golfer who wants to improve. I would do a video review on it but unfortunately I don’t have an aid. I think I will check with Jim McLean and borrow his as I heard he got one for free, (just messing with you Todd). It was great to meet Disco Stu as well, he made his way around the show displaying the product with his cool World Cup jacket on. (great idea by @jasonhelmangolf) This company has a bright future for sure. Right On!
2. The Medicus Vision Stick: (www.medicuscatalogue.com) Endorsed by my good friend Chuck Evans and I look forward to using this one for path and low point training
3. Tour Striker:(www.tourstriker.com) Not a new product but I picked one up because I love the idea of helping players with impact and forward shaft lean. You have probably seen the infomercial on the golf channel.
4. Power Lag + Flat Wrist Pro(www.Powerlagpro.com): This is a devise that fits on your lead wrist and the back of your trail wrist to help feel the correct angle on your downswing. Developed by Sam Shah who invented the pivotpro. I will let you know how this works
5. The Perfect Release: (www.perfectrelease.com) An interesting aid that Martin Hall used on his first show on the Golf Channel. It is a bungee cord that connects your trail arm and the club shaft.
Possible candidates:
1. Drain-O Instant Pro Putting Fix -(http://www.drain-o.com/). A putting path aid made up of two tripods and a curved wire. I did shoot some video on this one. Might get one in the future.
2. Putter Master(www.puttermaster.com): A bar that is positioned across the wrists and helps keep your forearms square.
So the day ended with the an excellent putting seminar with my good friend Todd Sones and he was joined by Mike Shannon, the putting instructor from Sea Island. These two guys and who I learned how to teach putting and I always learn something new when spending some time with them.
Saturday: Last day at the show concluded a great week. I caught up with my new running mate from Ontario, Jason Helman and we caught a couple of short seminars on the main stage. I enjoyed the one with Suzy Whaley and her junior golf program with stations and fitness games that got the kids excited. Definitely the wave of the future of junior golf. Creating young athletes and then teaching them to play golf. I hit some of the new Callaway equipment on the trackman which was pretty cool. It got me excited to get back and play some golf when it warms up. Mr. Helman and I met John Graham and a friend for dinner to spend some more time before the week ended which was cool. I got back to the hotel and thought my night was done and then it happened. I get a call from TJ Yeaton, John Dochety and Mark Walder and we realized that we were staying in the same hotel so we met for drinks. For the rest of the night I was schooled in the world of Mac Ogrady’s MORAD system and some great stories about their experiences as only doc can describe it. You will be hearing from these guys as they are some of the brightest golf swing professors that I have ever met. There is so much more that I could tell you but you will have to get that from me on the lesson or a phone conversation. I want to thank Jason Helman for putting up with me all weekend and John Graham for allowing me to meet so many new friends. Let me know if I can do anything for any of you as I am in debt to you all. What a great way to kick off the season.
In this current economy, many businesses are looking for ways to cut costs, yet still get the most out of their marketing dollar. Advertising budgets are being cut and people are being laid off as to just keep the business afloat. It is no different in my business as a golf instructor working for a top 25 golf school. We are a small business trying to maintain our piece of the instruction pie while maintaining our brand recognition as well as our current standards of service and golf instruction to our customers. I don’t care how good you think you are at your craft, if you don’t get yourself in front of and stay in touch with your customer, they will find somewhere else to spend their discretionary income. The days of waiting for the phone to ring and setting back and doing what you used to do to drive business is over. The way I look at it as we enter the second year of this recession, is you can choose to be in one or two camps. 1)continue to do what you did the last 10 years and get walked on or 2)grow and move with the latest and most efficient way to market/advertise and communicate with your customer……...SOCIAL MEDIA/MARKETING!
A year and a half ago as we started this downturn, I knew very little on this subject. I look at every adverse situation as a time to grow, learn and get out of my comfort zone. You know me, I am always uncomfortable with complacency and am always looking for the next big thing to learn and grow as a person and a professional. So I went on a quest to figure this stuff out and see how it can help myself and my golf school. So I did what I always do when I don’t understand something…..I bought some books to read and started scouring the internet. The first book I bought was “Crush It” by Gary Vaynerchuck which got me fired up to try some of this stuff. So here is a small synopsis on what I call the four corners of social media and how I think it can help you in whatever business that you are in.
youtube.com
YOUTUBE.COM – This is where It all started for me as I encourage you to always listen to your customer. I used to send out a weekly newsletter with a golf tip to my students. I then started taking pictures of me doing the tip. This evolved into me linking up a professionals swing demonstrating what I was talking about. One of my students commented, “I think the video is great but it would be better if you were doing the tip,”….AHA! So I bought a flip cam, created a TV show called Guru TV. I currently have about 50 videos that I have filmed in the last 10 months. One of my videos “How to drive a golf ball straight” just went viral and youtube is now paying me for the video (very unexpected). Create an account, which is very easy and start filming. You can use your vids as an advertising tool or just a way to get information to your customers or future customers. the main thing is to connect with people. People will subscribe to your channel and you can link it to the next 3 corners that I will discuss.
FACEBOOK – probably leads the way in connecting friends and/or people who don’t know each other. Great way to keep up with customers or post updates on specials that are going on at your company. If you are using it for strictly business, I would recommend starting a fan page. Drive customers to your page through your email marketing or twitter, youtube or word of mouth etc. The more fans you create, the more eyeballs that get to see what you are doing in your business. The more eyeballs, the more chance to cultivate new customers. Using the direct message or the IM feature allows you to communicate with people in a private setting.
TWITTER .twitter.com is the newest craze, even though it about 5 years old. Most people who know about twitter get the wrong idea of how to use it for business. Even though you can only type messages of 140 characters or less, there is great opportunity to reach out to people and communicate ideas. I have met so many outstanding golf professionals and people who just love the game, by using twitter. You can post messages that you want everyone to see (your followers), or you can send a direct message that is just between you and the other participant (similar to a short email). The key is to get followers so more people can see your posts. This is a great way to promote your website or notify your followers of a new blog post…..which is my 4th corner of social media.
WORDPRESS BLOG – This is the biggest reason for the other three avenues…..DRIVING PEOPLE TO YOUR BLOG OR WEBSITE. A blog is another way to promote your business and share information through text or hook up your videos that you have shot on youtube.com. Blogging has become a great venue for many people to share information about a subject of their choice. I use my blog site to share information that I think will help my students and also to create more opportunities for golfers that don’t know me or the golf school to learn more about me. There are many other blog softwares to choose from. WordPress is very well-known, easy to use and had all of the functions that interested me. I would suggest doing your homework, reading other blogs on subjects that interest you and start writing. The cool thing about blogging is you don’t have to be perfect, just write whats on your mind or vlog (video blog) and be prepared for comments. Again, you can link up youtube, facebook and twitter to notify people who you have a blog or have a new blog post.
Click on the links to view my personal facebook, youtube or twitter pages. Friend me up or follow me if you would like. There is plenty of room in Guru Nation. This is just an overview as if I went into detail we would be here all day. The coolest thing is that all of this stuff is FREE!!!!!!!! All it will cost you is your time. If you are willing to put in the work and the hours as I have, I can promise you it will pay off in the long run. Most of the people who criticize Social Media, 1) are too closed-minded to learn something new or 2) Don’t understand it so they bash it.
All I can tell you is that if you aren’t using it (and there are plenty more tools out there), You will be left behind.
So this is the Guru signing off and I AM LOOKING FOR THE NEXT TWITTER……WHOS COMING WITH ME?
The Golf Guru Show 