Here's a followup to an insightful National Golf Foundation study about golfers' social technology participation. Summary on this recent blog post.
It's a foreshadowing of what's to come in the golf business. Remember golfers are not in a vacuum. They are using social media in their businesses, while buying cars and electronics and are talking to their peers.
Consider this report from Forrester social media expert Josh Bernoff that reveals that social media participation is growing rapidly. Bernoff uses his Social Technographics Ladder to segment customers' social behaviors.
The report and table below show that social technology participation "has grown rapidly," and highlights:
1.Inactives -- people untouched by social technologies -- have "shriveled" from 44% down to 25% of the online population.
2. Spectators -- those who read, watch or consume social content -- have "ballooned" from 48 to 69%.
3. Joiners (social network participants), Critics (those who react to social content) and Collectors (those who organize social content) show a "nice healthy jump."
4. Creators grew only slightly (18 to 21%) but this doesn't reflect participation interest but the reluctance to be an extrovert by blogging, creating web pages or uploading video or audio. Bernoff expects this group to grow as participation is much creater in Korea and China.
5. Growth in online consumption is coming from "older, middle aged" people. Social activity is way up among 35 to 44 year olds, especially as they are joining social networks and reading and reacting to content. And even among 45 to 54 year olds, 68% are now Spectators, 24% Joiners and 28% Inactives.
I love Bernoff's implications: grandmothers might read more blogs than emails; social content is going mainstream, social content ranks high on search engines because it changes regularly, gets linked more often and more online adults are becoming exposed to it, accepting it and embracing it. Check out his profile tool page for fun and free.
So, golf marketers, no matter who you target, you better start paying attention and acting. Social media is here and growing.
