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    An Evaluation of Social Media Use in A Golf Club

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    Jonathan Bishop
    Citation: Jonathan Bishop (2016). An evaluation of social media use in a golf club. The 17th International Conference on Internet Computing and Internet of Things (ICOMP'16), 25-28 July 2016, Las Vegas, USA. Abstract: This article looks at the social media strategy used in a golf club, namely Pontypridd Golf Club. It compares what it was like prior to the advent of social media and afterwards. It does this through interviewing one of the club’s former golf captains, who was involved on both occasions. The study finds that one of the factors most affecting whether the golf club took up social media was the skill of the officers that ran the club. It was expected that a technology office would exist in order to update the website. It was not expected that officers with a particular portfolio would update the parts of the website within their own remit. Understandably, systems like WordPress were deemed complex, but even Facebook was updated by an individual rather than the officers concerned. The study concludes that increasing digital literacy will be essential to making social media use common in golf clubs and potentially any social or recreational group

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    An Evaluation of Social Media Use in A Golf Club

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    Jonathan Bishop
    199 views2 pages
    Citation: Jonathan Bishop (2016). An evaluation of social media use in a golf club. The 17th International Conference on Internet Computing and Internet of Things (ICOMP'16), 25-28 July 2016, Las Vegas, USA. Abstract: This article looks at the social media strategy used in a golf club, namely Pontypridd Golf Club. It compares what it was like prior to the advent of social media and afterwards. It does this through interviewing one of the club’s former golf captains, who was involved on both occasions. The study finds that one of the factors most affecting whether the golf club took up social media was the skill of the officers that ran the club. It was expected that a technology office would exist in order to update the website. It was not expected that officers with a particular portfolio would update the parts of the website within their own remit. Understandably, systems like WordPress were deemed complex, but even Facebook was updated by an individual rather than the officers concerned. The study concludes that increasing digital literacy will be essential to making social media use common in golf clubs and potentially any social or recreational group

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    Citation: Jonathan Bishop (2016). An evaluation of social media use in a golf club. The 17th International Conference on Internet Computing and Internet of Things (ICOMP'16), 25-28 July 2016, Las Vegas, USA. Abstract: This article looks at the social media strategy used in a golf club, namely Pontypridd Golf Club. It compares what it was like prior to the advent of social media and afterwards. It does this through interviewing one of the club’s former golf captains, who was involved on both occasions. The study finds that one of the factors most affecting whether the golf club took up social media was the skill of the officers that ran the club. It was expected that a technology office would exist in order to update the website. It was not expected that officers with a particular portfolio would update the parts of the website within their own remit. Understandably, systems like WordPress were deemed complex, but even Facebook was updated by an individual rather than the officers concerned. The study concludes that increasing digital literacy will be essential to making social media use common in golf clubs and potentially any social or recreational group

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    199 views2 pages

    An Evaluation of Social Media Use in A Golf Club

    Uploaded by

    Jonathan Bishop
    Citation: Jonathan Bishop (2016). An evaluation of social media use in a golf club. The 17th International Conference on Internet Computing and Internet of Things (ICOMP'16), 25-28 July 2016, Las Vegas, USA. Abstract: This article looks at the social media strategy used in a golf club, namely Pontypridd Golf Club. It compares what it was like prior to the advent of social media and afterwards. It does this through interviewing one of the club’s former golf captains, who was involved on both occasions. The study finds that one of the factors most affecting whether the golf club took up social media was the skill of the officers that ran the club. It was expected that a technology office would exist in order to update the website. It was not expected that officers with a particular portfolio would update the parts of the website within their own remit. Understandably, systems like WordPress were deemed complex, but even Facebook was updated by an individual rather than the officers concerned. The study concludes that increasing digital literacy will be essential to making social media use common in golf clubs and potentially any social or recreational group

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 2

    An evaluation of social media use in a golf club

    Jonathan Bishop
    Centre for Research into Online Communities and E-Learning Systems, Swansea, Wales, GB.

    Abstract - This article looks at the social media strategy used


    in a golf club, namely Pontypridd Golf Club. It compares what
    it was like prior to the advent of social media and afterwards.
    It does this through interviewing one of the clubs former golf
    captains, who was involved on both occasions. The study finds
    that one of the factors most affecting whether the golf club
    took up social media was the skill of the officers that ran the
    club. It was expected that a technology office would exist in
    order to update the website. It was not expected that officers
    with a particular portfolio would update the parts of the
    website within their own remit. Understandably, systems like
    WordPress were deemed complex, but even Facebook was
    updated by an individual rather than the officers concerned.
    The study concludes that increasing digital literacy will be
    essential to making social media use common in golf clubs
    and potentially any social or recreational group.
    Keywords: Social media, golf clubs, Facebook, WordPress

    Introduction

    Social media is a term used to refer to social networking


    services that are based primarily around user-generated
    content. Comparisons can be drawn between current social
    networking services that use a single-tree structure and those
    that use a two-tree set-up. Single-tree websites are those that
    are either content-based or community based, whereas twotree websites are those which mix content with community [1].
    The earliest social networking websites, namely A Guide to
    Robin Hood and Northern England (1999) and Llantristant
    Online (2002) were two-tree, but were not popular [2]. The
    buddylists on the first were manually populated and on the
    second were user-generated, which was the same with
    Facemash and Facebook respectively [3].
    Facebook became popular when it opened for non-student use
    in 2006, which was the same year as Twitter. At this point
    ADSL was taking off as the main means to connect to the
    Internet. Social media could thus be considered to consist of
    post-modem social networks, on the basis that services like
    Twitter and Facebook did nothing that the social networking
    services from the 1990s and 2000s hadnt done previously, but
    which were popular in the era of ADSL and optic fibre-based
    routers, as opposed to dial-up modems.

    Evaluation and Analysis

    The evaluation and analysis consists of an investigation that


    analyses and evaluates the use of social media practices within
    a golf club.

    2.1

    The organisation and interviewee

    The organisation chosen was Pontypridd Golf Club. The


    gold club was chosen because the researcher designed and
    built a website for it prior to the advent of post-modem social
    networking services, such as Twitter and Facebook. It was
    therefore possible to have a convenience sample in the form of
    an interviewee that was involved with the club at the time and
    still active within it.

    2.2

    Methodology

    To investigate Pontypridd Golf Clubs use of social media


    and interview methodology was used. This involved designing
    a semi-structured interview around the criteria known to assist
    with the effective marketing of websites, namely online
    servicescapes [4, 5].

    2.3

    Results

    The investigation showed how the use of social media by


    the golf club has been used or not used to aid the
    organisation and its communication with members of the
    public and members.

    2.3.1
    Practices
    Asked why the content management system adopted prior to
    Facebook was not successful it was suggested it was a human
    resource issue. I think at the time, they had a secretary didnt
    they?, the interviewee suggested. And she wasnt very
    technically minded, she couldnt use the Internet or
    anything. For a long time, it was the norm that anything to do
    with IT was done by a technology officer, rather than the
    officer responsible for a portfolio. A membership officer
    might expect an IT expert to post a membership newsletter
    online rather than do it as part of their role. This was
    confirmed by the interviewee, who said that the secretary,
    didnt have the capability and eventually even though the
    website gave them some presence, they werent able to do it

    themselves and that he thought that was the only reason


    really, that they needed something that was simpler.
    The interviewee made clear this made a big impact on the
    adoption of the earlier website. [T]he reason was the club
    didnt have the digital capability it has and thats why the site
    failed.
    2.3.2
    Effectiveness
    The effectiveness of those social media practices adopted by
    the club was an issue. After the original content management
    system was abandoned, the club then turned to another web
    designer. The former captain interviewed said that they came
    along and offered to do one again for them, and that was
    when [they were] gone from there and thats when they had
    nothing but trouble from that company. This shows how the
    problems of low digital literacy can impact on an
    organisations success, especially when it comes to their use of
    social media. The former captain said how even now he was
    still responsible for social media, rather than each club officer.
    They dont bother to update it (Facebook) and Ill do it for
    them, but theyve got a website now havent they?
    The interviewee was asked why the club is not using a system
    like WordPress. Well I dont know if they, uh, the website is
    WordPress, but a lot of us dont understand, I dont even
    know how to use WordPress, he said. Ive not looked into
    it; you know they say its simple, its only simple if somebody
    shows you how.

    Discussion

    This study has looked at the social media policies of a golf


    club between 2004 and 2007, and what has happened since
    then. It found that a big problem in the adoption of social
    media was the technical skills of the office holders. Even
    today, with platforms like Facebook and WordPress, the

    person with IT skills is doing the job that a dedicated office


    holder should do as part of their role. If they can do something
    offline one might think they should learn to do that online.
    Without digital literacy being something everyone has, this
    study has shown that the burden of using social media will not
    be shared, but continue to lie with one person responsible for
    IT, rather than the person who would do the offline equivalent
    of the task.

    References

    [1] Derek M. Powazek. "Design for Community: The Art of


    Connecting Real People in Virtual Places". New Riders,
    2002.
    [2] Jonathan Bishop. "Evaluation-Centred Design of ELearning Communities: A Case Study and Review". The 2nd
    International Conference on Internet Technologies and
    Applications (ITA'07), Wrexham, GB. 6-9 September 2007,
    V. Grout, D. Oram & R. Picking, Eds. University of Wales
    Press, Wrexham, GB, 2007. , 1-9.
    [3] Jos Van Dijck. "Facebook as a tool for producing
    sociality and connectivity"; Television & New Media,
    1527476411415291, 2011.
    [4] L. C. Harris & Mark M. H. Goode. "Online
    servicescapes, trust, and purchase intentions"; Journal of
    Services Marketing, 24., 3, 230-243, 2010.
    [5] Antje Cockrill, Mark M. H. Goode & Daniel Emberson.
    "Servicescape mattersOr does it? The special case of
    betting shops"; Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 26., 2,
    189-206, 2008.

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