I will admit it has been a long time since I have seen this many new interneters who are golfers coming online. However, in tracking down some golfers I have not heard from lately I found that the ones coming online today are just taking the place of those leaving the internet out of discuss.
New and Old online golfers alike have the same interests. They come to the internet to find other golfers and to find golf communities to socialize within. What is taking place is their efforts are being blocked of finding what they are looking for by finding instead all the things they do not want. I could expand on this to say the same thing is happening to more than just golfers.
What is making golfers leave the internet? Well, if you take a walk through where some of my old friends I talked to lately have been online I think you can find out why they left.
Since the launch of the Business Golf Country Club this past January I have been reaching out to golfers on my contact list I have made over the past five years. Along the way I have meet new contacts who golf. My efforts have resulted in finding that as many golfers just now coming online are matching the number who are leaving the internet. The reasons they leave are not surprising but are concerning that if something is not done then efforts of many like me to bring more golfers online will not gain any ground. This will do noting but hurt the marketing efforts of the golf industry who now is forced to the internet to survive.
Yes, I have seen the recent reports of the number being up for PEOPLE hitting the big golf sites, but are they PEOPLE, real people? Or just places and thing created by the crafty ones online to appear to be real people? Nonetheless, what I am finding out from talking to real people is all the elaborate hype and outlandish promotions for things of little interest to golfers is turning them off. Compound that with the many predatory internets who cruse the internet freely and we have more golfers leaving the internet than coming online.
Over 40% of the contacts I have not heard from in over a year I have found to have packed up and moved back offline. The remaining 60% I have heard from third person that they were so scammed by people online they have completely covered their existence so it cannot be traced. The ones I have been able to talk to all state fatigue of dealing with Scammers, Schemers and Spammers as the main reason they left the internet entirely. The constant badgering of people who want them to ‘Check out my eBook”, “hey, can we talk on the phone” or “outright just send one sales pitch after another” was just a few of the reasons I was given why they left the internet.
True, we all have to deal with the “SSS’s” of the internet. However, for golfers their tolerance level of the misfortunes of being online is not very high since the nature of their interest in life and profession is based offline and not online. Everyone I have spoken with stated they came online to become part of what they thought would be a robust environment to meet new friends to play golf with, learn more about the latest and greatest of the golf world or network to making business connections.
I found it interesting that 50% of the new contacts I have made since the first of the year are all starting to ask the first question that leads to their withdrawal from the internet…
Is all this really worth it?
As I drilled down into where and what these people were dealing with to make them decide to pack it up and leave I found some of the same remarks were made about some of the same places all of the golfers were told by others, mostly non-golfers, as the places to go online to start their quest. Some of the places most people usually go and methods of socializing on the internet were found by many of my golf contacts as what was causing them to leave the internet.
The most astonishing remarks made by some of the old timers of the internet had to deal with the advice they received when they first came online from so called internet gurus that…
If you are planning on being ‘somebody’ or meeting ‘somebody’ online you have to join Facebook.
Over 80% of the golfers I contacted, new and old, reported that Facebook was why they left the internet. The constant barrage of requests to join a group that had nothing to do with golf or to engage in the endless games or ‘apps’ that FB members feel are funny really became ‘”tiresome”, “a waste of time”, “insulting” and many more remarks describing discuss towards the Facebook environment that has gotten out of hand.
Many felt that Facebook was not a friendly environment to meet new people and report that most of the other golfers they found on FB were in their own clicks or just would not respond to anyone outside their friends or family. The energy spent by golfers there to find REAL golfers produced nothing in return. Many reported on finding plenty of Facebookers who said they were golfers but later found that it was not true..usually after hours of conversations and other socializing activities online.
99% of the contacts, new and old, I have spoken with since the first of the year who have left the internet all were previously on Twitter or spent a lot of time on Twitter. What turned them off about Twitter was the overwhelming amount of worthless information offered by businesses and people only out to capitalize on themselves. Other Twitterizums that forced them to leave was the SPAM Auto-DM’s they received by the hundreds. This is probably turning a lot of Tweets off, but again, people who are avid golfers have the interest of playing golf that overrides their interests of being on Twitter.
Social Media
Those I visited with who had web-sites for their personal blogging or business endeavors pulled back their efforts, or dropped them all together. They reported that they were not producing what they were intended which was to direct other golfers to make personal or professional connections. What their sites were luring were the opportunist of the internet who see golfers as an high end income patsy for their scams.
So, their efforts to use social media, blogging and social networking was not producing anything.
What the overall tone of these hundreds of people I have talked to is their impression of the internet is a place to…
“…house all of the misfit misguided individuals who only want to sell you something of no value and could never survive in the mainstream of the offline business world’.
I have to admit, what these people report is out here and is happening. I also understand that it more than likely will remain the way of life out here until a better platform of internet can be developed. Until then to keep golfers online more has to be done to meet golfer’s needs and interest. Places that are safe from the dark-side of the internet need to be created so more golfers can learn what the internet has to offer before ditching it.
This is why I created the Business Golf Country Club so golfers can socialize and discuss business in a safe environment that is overseen and managed. I am doing my part to bring more golfers online, hopefully you will join my efforts and join the club.
