Your club posts a photo of the sunrise over the 18th. It gets 41 likes. Thirty-eight of them are from members who were standing on the 18th at the time. Next week you post another one, because what else is there, and it gets 39.
Meanwhile the club eleven miles away posted a 22-second clip of their greenkeeper explaining why the greens were slow last week, and it reached 14,000 people, 90% of whom had never played there.
The difference is not the camera. It is what the content is for.
Why the course photo stopped working
Course photos are the default because they are easy, they are pretty, and nobody complains about them. They are also, from a platform's point of view, almost content-free. Every algorithm on every network is answering one question: will showing this to someone who does not follow this account keep them on the app?
A landscape photo of a golf hole gives a stranger no reason to stop. It has no face, no tension, no information, no story. It is a lovely postcard to people who already know the place — which is exactly who it reaches, and no further.
Everything below is designed to give a stranger a reason to stop. They fall into three groups, and a healthy club feed runs all three.
People first: 7 ideas
People watch people. This is the group most clubs under-use and it is where the reach is.
- The greenkeeper explainer. Sixty seconds on why the greens are hollow-tined, why the rough is longer in June, what happens to the course in a frost. Members stop complaining and strangers find it genuinely fascinating. This is consistently the highest-reaching content format we see at UK clubs, and it costs nothing.
- The fourball that has played together for years. Find the group that has met at 08:10 on a Saturday since 2009. Two minutes of them taking the mickey out of each other on the first tee is worth more than any brochure. This is what "community" looks like when it is shown rather than claimed.
- New member's first round. Follow someone who joined last month. What surprised them, what they were nervous about, who spoke to them first. It answers the exact fear every prospective member has: will I be welcome?
- The pro's 30-second fix. One tip, one camera angle, no preamble. Chipping from a tight lie. Getting out of a plugged bunker. The pro gets lesson bookings, you get reach.
- Behind the bar. The person who has pulled pints there for fifteen years and knows every member's order. Every club has this person. Most have never put them on camera.
- Junior section takeover. Hand the phone to the juniors for a Saturday. It will be chaotic, badly framed and by a distance the most engaging thing you post that month.
- Captain's year, documented. A short clip each month across the year. It builds a genuine narrative, which is the one thing social platforms reward most and golf clubs use least.
Useful: 7 ideas
Useful content gets saved and shared, and saves are weighted heavily by every algorithm. It also does quiet work answering the questions that would otherwise arrive as phone calls.
- Course condition update. Weekly, honest, with photos. Includes the bad weeks. The credibility you build by saying "the 6th is soft, take a buggy path" is enormous.
- How to play the signature hole. Drone line, where the trouble is, what the members actually do. Visitors love this and it makes them feel like they have insider knowledge.
- Rules explainer. Sixty seconds on the one rule everyone gets wrong. Free relief from a sprinkler head. Playing a provisional properly. Endless material, permanently relevant.
- What is on this week. Comps, socials, quiz night, junior coaching. One graphic, posted every Monday, no exceptions. Boring and effective.
- Green fee and visitor info. Prices, how to book, whether buggies are available. Yes, really — post the practical information. It gets shared into WhatsApp groups planning golf days, which is precisely where you want to be.
- Course care. How to repair a pitchmark properly, why you should rake the bunker. Slightly nagging, hugely shareable, and it improves the course.
- Weather call. "Frost delay lifted, first tee at 09:30." Real-time, useful, and it trains people to check your page — which is the whole game.
The information that feels boring to you because you deal with it every day is exactly the information a stranger needs. Green fee prices, how to book, whether they can wear shorts. Clubs systematically under-post the practical and over-post the pretty.
Sellable: 7 ideas
You are allowed to sell. The rule is roughly one selling post for every four that give something away. Break that ratio and reach collapses; never sell at all and you have an expensive hobby.
- The offer with a deadline. "Twelve two-ball slots, Tuesday, includes coffee and a bacon roll, £X." Specific, scarce, time-bound. Never an open-ended discount.
- Society day package. One graphic with the price, what is included and the dates you actually have free. Post it in January, not June.
- Membership: the honest version. Cost, categories, whether there is a waiting list. Post the price. Clubs that hide it get more enquiries and fewer members.
- Member testimonial. Ninety seconds of a real member answering "why did you join here rather than anywhere else?". Unscripted beats polished every time.
- Pro shop drop. New kit, new club range, demo day. Show the product on a person on your course, never a supplier's studio photo.
- Winter membership. Sell it in September when people are still playing, not in November when they have put the clubs away.
- Gift vouchers. Post them in the first week of December and again on the 20th. Genuinely, that is where the money is.
A four-week rhythm you can keep
The best content plan is the one that survives a busy August. If you are a team of one — and at most clubs the person doing social also does the tee sheet, the comps and the bar rota — plan for four posts a week, not fourteen.
| Monday | Wednesday | Friday | Sunday | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | What's on | Greenkeeper explainer | Course condition | Member story |
| Week 2 | What's on | Pro's 30-second fix | Offer with a deadline | Fourball feature |
| Week 3 | What's on | Rules explainer | Course condition | Behind the scenes |
| Week 4 | What's on | Signature hole guide | Society or membership | Junior / social |
Two practical notes. First, film in batches — one hour on a Wednesday morning will produce three weeks of clips if you have the list in front of you. Second, shoot vertical. Everything. Even if you also want a landscape version, shoot vertical first, because that is where the reach is.
How to measure it honestly
Likes are the least useful number on the dashboard and the one every committee asks about. Track these four instead:
- Reach from non-followers. The only number that tells you whether you are growing or talking to yourself. Target: over half your reach.
- Saves and shares. The strongest signal that content was genuinely useful.
- Profile taps to website. Intent. Someone wanted to know more.
- Enquiries that mention social. Ask on the enquiry form. It is crude and it is the only line that connects a reel to a green fee.
Review those four monthly, kill the formats that flatline, and do more of whatever spiked. Within a season you will have five or six formats that reliably work for your club specifically — and at that point you have a content engine rather than a chore.
One last thing. The reason the greenkeeper video works is not that greenkeeping is fascinating. It is that a real person is talking about something they care about, on camera, without a script. That is available to every club in the country for free, and almost nobody uses it.
