TALLINN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
School of Economics and Business Administration
Department of International Business
Chair of Marketing

Jan Lampenius
SOCIAL MEDIA AS A MARKETING TOOL MARKETING GOLF IN FINLAND
Bachelor’s Thesis

Supervisor: Eliis Salm

ABSTRACT
Golf industry in Finland lives in middle of the hard times. In many courses the money is no longer exist so the new solutions comes in value. This thesis will focus on finding the answers about social media as a marketing tool, what becomes to Finnish golf marketing. Theoretical references have user theory about social media, user-generated content in social media and viral marketing in social media. Theories will give the backup for the research and help to analyze the results the results had achieved thru an online-based survey. The survey was conducted using Facebook as a channel and there was received a satisfied amount of responses. This research concludes the result that social media is a marketing tool marketing golf in Finland and golf courses should put more effort to using it in marketing. Golf courses should also take the users more to account. They should use the social media channels more innovative and focus on more to interactivity among the other players.

Keywords: Golf-marketing, Social media, Social networks, user-generated content, Viral marketing

INTRODUCTION

Golf is in a new situation in Finland. Golf courses shares values are decreasing and part of the courses are in the situation that the value of the share is negative. It means that shareholders are willing to pay if somebody takes them share over. It is horrible situation for the courses because every shareholder must pay the consumption in every year and those who are taking money and share leaves those consumptions without paying causing huge damage in Finnish golf courses economy.
According to Finnish Golf Union annual report 2015 members of Finnish golf union is decreasing. It had been rise in every year but 2014 it started to decrease and now there is the question what should happen. According to information in previous chapter we can say that interesting towards golf is decreasing. One of the ways to increase players interests to golf courses could be increase the visibility and marketing. That is how people could get more information about the industry and interesting towards golf could be increasing. It is also easy to say that if there are more interesting people in the industry it will increase the demand which will affect the supply of the golf shares.
The problem that this paper wants to find the solution is that, does Finnish golfers see that social media as a marketing tool in Finnish golf industry and do they feel that golf courses should more actively use the social media as a marketing channel. Another problem is that do golfers feel that social media a new, innovative tool might be able to increase golf’s popularity in general and can it create some new demand on the industry.
Research questions of this paper are: Does Finnish golfers see social media as a marketing tool what becomes to marketing golf in Finland? What kind of marketing Finnish golfers wanted to see in social media or do they feel that social media is not the place for golf marketing in Finland? And the final question is Does Finnish golfers see that golf clubs should put more effort to their social media marketing?
Objective of this research is to reach clear answers for the main questions of the problem. This paper wants to show what Finnish golfers really think about social media and how they suggest that golf club should use social media. This paper also wants to create a discussion among the Finnish golf clubs about their marketing strategies and give them some solutions and suggestions according to their future marketing plans. It is very important that golfers as a consumer can say their own opinion and one objective of this research is to confirm that when Finnish golf courses make their future marketing plans there is results achieved about social media as a one tool of the future marketing.
To achieve the reliable results of these research questions I conducted internet based survey using Google forms. It was important for the research to plan the survey the way that it will give the solutions to the problems. To achieve the objectives the data had to process and analyze using Google form system which collects all the answers in clear tables.
Based on a personal experience as a golf course worker I will use in this research the consumption that social media can be counted as a marketing tool what becomes to Finnish golf marketing. The other consumption will be that the Finnish golfers feel that golf courses could use more social media and especially social networks to informing and marketing. These where the base consumptions that create the premise of this research.
Research object was Finnish golfers or the individuals that thought they should be counted as a “golfer”. Because the survey was about Finnish golf marketing and how the players experience that, it is clear that the object must be the golfers themselves. So in this survey there wasn’t any other limitation about defining the research object.
Methods that were used in this research was mostly quantitative but in four question there was also part “other” which was open question so when those answers were analyzed there was also qualitative methods used. I conducted an online-based survey that was spread to the individuals using mostly Facebook. I also mailed a few golf courses and two of them posted it into their Facebook pages.
First three chapters are theoretical part. The first chapter was about social media. It important for this research to understand the concept of social media and how different social medias and social networks work. First chapter also included the information about the Web 2.0 and World Wide Web which are the key factors when we discussing about Facebook.
The second theoretical chapter was about User-Generated Content in social media. It is required to understand the meaning of user-generated content to achieve the reliable analyzing with this topic. User-generated content is developed using Web 2.0 and it is necessary to understand the meaning of user-generated content to understand the logic behind the social media.
Third theory part was the viral marketing in social media. Understanding the viral marketing helps to understand what might be the effects of social media marketing. It also gives a short overview that what should be made when you are marketing on social media.
There it is the paper continues the methodical chapters. The first chapter will give the wide industry overview and describe the problems in Finnish golf industry. It also gives a statistical data for the players, ages, and shareholders. Industry overview is necessary component in this research because it helps to understand the research questions better.
Fifth chapter was the methodology where all the methods according to the research has reviewed. There is also presented the population, sample size and other statistical data related to survey. In the methodology there was also all the important knowledge according to the survey creating methods.
Third part headline is results, discussion, findings and recommendations. The sixth chapter itself is about results. There all the results for every survey question is told and percentages are presented in the clearest possible way. There is nothing analytical presented in results.
Seventh chapter was about the discussion where all the results for each question is analyzed. There is also connections between theory and survey results and also some conclusions and solutions for the problems.
Findings and recommendations chapter will present the most important findings. There is also clearly presented my own recommendations according to the research problem. It would also give specific solutions for the problems of the golf industry in Finland.
Last chapter is conclusion where is concluded all the methods, findings, survey and everything that is found thru this research. In conclusion there will be also solution for the research problem and how there is ended.
I want to thank my supervisor Eliis Salm who had helped and supported me thru this project. Without hers advises and help their research couldn’t be done.

1. TEORETHICAL REFERENCES

1.1 Social media

When we talk about social media it is necessary to understand term Web 2.0 first. The term Web 2.0 is next version of original World Wide Web even though there are not any significant improvements made compared to each other's (Kaplan and Haelein, 2010, 61). The difference between Web 2.0 and World Wide Web is the way consumers use the World Wide Web. In the past ads were directed to consumers without any interactivity, in Web 2.0 consumers are the ones who create the ads and consumes the World Wide Web as they want (Cambell et. al. 2011, 60). So the World Wide Web itself has not changed but the way it is used has changed for good. We can say that Web 2.0 gives consumers almost unlimited possibilities to variate what they wanted to consume using the Word Wide Web.
Kaplan and Haelen (2010, 61) use follow to define social media ”Social Media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content”. According to previous chapter and Kaplan and Haelen’s (2010) definition we can say that Web 2.0 is the base for the social media to exist. It is also tells that social media is not only one specific site. It can be more or less anything that fulfils the definition and gives consumers the authority to control what is been published on the internet.
Social media has changed the marketing forever (Walmslay, 2010). Hanna, Rohm and Crittened (2011) use some thoughts from the past that 21st century has proved to be myths, that will prove the fact that social media has changed the way people think. For example ”Companies use marketing communications to control their messages”, ”Consumers purchase products promoted by marketers” or ”Web is for finding information” (Hanna Rohm and Crittened, 2011, 266). All these sentences are afterwards proved to be myths but it shows that in the 21st century the way consumers behave and think is changed. Consumers are not necessary purchase products promoted by marketers any more. They might had sewn it in some social network channel generated by some other consumer and made the decision based on the user-generated content. There we can say that because of the social media, people get informed faster and better than the past. If companies are using some unreasonable methods in their marketing, information about that spreads thru the social media fast and it can cause badwill to the company.
According to Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy and Silvertre (2011, 242) social media using by consumers is the author what will be published and what’s not, so it is no longer in marketers and companies hands and they should take it to account while planning their activities in social media. The individuals have now power to publish anything they want in social media and it is now in the company's decision do they want to join the discussion or avoid it. One way or another it will have huge effects to everything (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy and Silvertre, 2011, 242.).
Leonardi, Huysman and Seinfield (2013, 19) wrote that social media have used in two ways. One is the more generally used way where individuals use social media to their own needs. The other new and not so generally used way in which companies has made social media as their inside communication channel. It is called”Enterprise social media” (Leonardi, Huysman and Seinfield 2013, 19). In enterprise social media the companies uses social media platforms to communication. They usually copy those popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter etc. and turn it into internal use (Ibid.). It is good to know that social media as a concept is not limited only for individual use. This finding proves that social media is spreading around the world and even large companies have started to use it in their own inside communication. The social media has changed the way communities, organizations and individuals communicate to each others (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy and Silvertre, 2011, 250).
Social media has also defined the tool which can have activities in two ways, when brands talk to customers and when customers talk to each others (Mangold and Faulds 2011, 358). That can be compared to previous chapter and the foundings about inside corporation social networks. When brands talk to customers and customers talk to each others it doesn’t mean that corporations’ discussions among the employees should be any different. It also shows that social media is everywhere.
So when we talked about social media we are not just talk about social networks or some specific web sites. We talk about the wide variation of different activity which are consumed thru World Wide Web. Brands and companies are no longer the masters of the marketing, consumers are took the role to themselves and it is all causing by social media and Web 2.0 which allows consumers to generate information fast and easy. According to previous text we can also say that every brand even if its golf course or some other brand it should be study the social media and learn how to communicate with the consumers in social media. That will give the advantage to them and they will receive more awareness and be more ready to head the future development.
We can say in this point that social media and Web 2.0 will be develop every day because of the users who modify and generate the media and contents around the clock. Still according to these text it feels impossible that technology, social media and Web 2.0. would take steps back and go back to the past where marketers was the masters and consumers just a targets without any possibilities to interactivity with the brand.
One of the main social networks is Instagram, the quickest growing social network was took the first steps in 2010 (Smart Insights, 2014 Appendix 3). 70 million downloaded photos per day and over 300 million monthly users that is the combo that will cause 2.5 billion likes per day (Business, Instagram, 2015). That is very impressive result for a business that has been just 5 years in the market. Facebook bought Instagram for 1 billion dollar in 2012 and it was the largest deal that Facebook has ever done (The Wall Street Journal, 2012.).
The other the most well known social network is Facebook that was founded in 2004 and it is the biggest social media site in the world. (Krivak, 2008, 1) According to Statistic Brain research made in 2015, there is over 1,3 billion active monthly users and people spent 640 million minutes in Facebook per month average. It also says that Facebook is turned in 70 different languages and 20 million app is downloaded in Facebook each day.
According to Ruiz-Mafe, Martí-Parreño and Sanz-Blas study in 2010, companies should pay more attention to outlay of their Facebook pages. It will help them to create more trust around the brand and positive word of mouth among the consumers that will lead to increase of the amount of visitors. There is also founded a significant proves that consumers-created data in companies Facebook pages will increase the customer loyalty and also make the content of the page more trustful (374-375). Ruiz-Mafe, Martí-Parreño and Sanz-Blas also says that companies should put something special for example special offers that you couldn’t get anywhere else, just to increase the amount of the visitors. (375)
Then there is Twitter which launched 2006 and have over 645 million users around the world 289 million of those are active users and they will generate over 58 million tweets per day (Statistic Brain 2015). The annual marketing worth of twitter was in 2014 over 479 million dollars (Statistic Brain 2015). In Twitter you try to collect the folloers who can see your “tweets”. You can create “tweets” that include maximum of 140 charactes and you can also add pictures. “hastags” are known just like in Instagram. (Forbes 2013)
The final social network that will be presented is Youtube. Youtube was launched in 2005 and have 900 million visits per day (Statistic Brain 2015). There is over 3.25 billion hours video watched during every month and 65 hours of video is uploaded in every minute (Statistic Brain 2015).

1.2 User-generated content in social media

”User Generated Content (UGC) can be seen as the sum of all ways in which people make use of Social Media.” (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010, 61) Kaplan and Haenlein (2010, 61) also says that everything which is out on the internet available for everybody and made by end-users can be called ”User Generated Content”. When consumers create information about brand’s using social media it is known as term ”social currency” (Zinnbauer and Honer, 2010, 50). According to Zinnbauer and Honer (2010), social currency which has noticed to affect the brand performance walks hand by hand with Bordieu’s (1977) and Coleman’s (1988) thought about social capital. (50,53)
Zinnbauer and Honer (2010) had separated social currency in six components: affiliation, conversation, utility, advocacy, information and identity (p. 51). Even thought they separated social currency in six different categories they didn’t found any support that brands should calculate all of them. It depends at the industry and the most important thing is that those different components fluctuate eater product categories or industries. (Zinnbauer and Honer 2010, 53)
Consumer generated advertising can be related to user-generated content. (Campbell et. al. 2010, 87) In user-generated content consumers creates information with a free will publishing whatever they want while consumer generated advertising consumers creates more brand-focused contests intention to give information about the specific brand (Berthon, Pitt and Campbell, 2008). Consumers trust more in user generated content than companies advertisements (MacKinnon, 2012, 20.) Brand should be aware of how they be presented in social media because user generated advertisements can have even positive or negative impacts to brands (Cheong and Morrison, 2008, 44). According to the previous text we can say that user generated advertising is powerful tool in good and bad. In right use it can give marketers outstanding advantages.
Cheong and Morrison (2008, 44) made a research where they interviewed college students about user and producer generated content and they found that even positive or negative user generated content is always more trustworthy than content generated by manufacturer. According to their research and last chapter this put the brands in difficult position. If producer generated content have less credibility that user generated content, brands can be very hard to get over the negative content created by users. That is why the brands and companies should always consider the possible consequences to their actions. One satisfied client can publish something in Facebook and cause serious harm to the brand.
Need for a self-enhancement is related to consumers sharing behaviours in social media (Taylor, Strutton and Thompson 2012, 13) According to Taylor, Strutton and Thompson (2012) consumers are sharing the videos which they think are interesting and create feelings. They also said that consumers usually don’t share the videos which they had already seen. If we compare Taylor, Strutton and Thonpson’s (2012) founding’s about video sharing to Zinnerbauer and Honer’s (2010) theory about social currency and six components of it, we can found that ZInnerbauer and Honer (2010) talked about identity which can be connect to these founding’s.
Advertisements should create feelings to be shared in social media as same as brands should have identity to create social currency and stand out of the mass. It can still be hard compared to User Generated Content because consumers don’t have to know the person who has created the information about the product they still think it is trustful information (Cheong and Morrison, 2008, 44). So brands and companies have to work harder to make the consumers feel impressed.
When we connected all the theory in one we can say that user generated content includes many different concepts but all an all it is very powerful tool for marketing. Consumers believe consumers and that is the thing that brands have to understand. You have to be able to create the ad or topic that interests people and make them share it to internet, which is how you will get the more likely good results about marketing (Taylor, Strutton and Thompson, 2012, 24).
According to the previous text we can say that companies and brands should consider user-generated content as a possibility. They should definitely find out which different options they have to use user-generated content and how to get the best out of it. We can also say that user-generated content is one part of using social media as a marketing tool. Brands for example golf courses should notify that consumers trust more user-generated content (MacKinnon, 2012, 20) so we can say that consumer generated advertising is more reliable that companies created advertisements so they should think the way how to get consumers generate the positive postings on social media and then get more goodwill and customers.

1.3 Viral marketing in social media

Viral marketing is method that brands use when they post their viral videos or new information about their products thru the internet (Ferguson, 2008, 179). Viral marketing can be used in many different ways. E-mail marketing where marketers send the e-mails to the consumers and try to get them share the message to their social network sites is one way of using it (Phelps et. al. 2004, 334). The other way is to create a post that will be passed on and ”shared” to the other consumers using social media platforms (Porter and Golan, 2010, 29). We can say that viral marketing in kind of a form of word-of-mouth which happens on the internet.
According to Porter and Golan (2010) in viral advertising individuals are the ones who make the work and create the word-of-mouth effect unlike in traditional advertising which is non-personal activity. When social media is the platform where users has ability to develop the contents (Kaplan and Haelen, 2010) and in viral advertising consumers spend the information like a word-of-mouth (Porter and Golan 2010) we can say that social media is a effective platform to create viral marketing.
According to Kelly, Kerr and Dernnan (2010, 18) there is three possible reason that might cause ad avoidance on the internet ”interruption of task, perceived clutter on Internet advertising and negative past experience with Internet advertising”. In that study they interviewed teenagers and they notice that ads are notice only when they are even entertaining or annoying (Kelly, Kerr and Dernnan, 2010, 21). Based on that study and previous writing we can say that brands should keep this in mind when they try to create viral marketing. It is the fact that entertaining advertisements can be usually shared and liked around the social media.
Viral marketing not always be as contagious as brans might hope. According to Leskovec, Adamic and Huberman (2007, 37) marketers should consider the needs of their customer and how to use social networks to get better results out of viral marketing. When we compare Kelly, Kerr and Dernnan’s (2010) founding’s to Leskovec, Adamic and Huberman’s (2007) founding’s we can say that the viral marketing is not so unambiguous. It is not always the amount of likes that make the viral marketing profitable. If the advertisement is entertaining it might get lots of word-of-mouth effect but if its weakly planned and don’t touch the target group marketers had thought the result might not be as good as they could.
In brands point of view social media and specially the chance to have viral postings in there is still a more chance than threat. Social media using is free so the budget for social media marketing is significantly lower that it would be to advertise some other ways. Specially for the lower marketing budget brands it is great chance to receive the visibility.
Adam and Huberman’s (2007) paper researched the viral marketing advantage to retailers. Even though they didn’t argue that viral advertising would always be profitable there can be concluded that viral advertises improves the visibility of the brand and in that way increases the brand awareness. Because the consumers themselves spread the advertisements around the social media we can also say that it is more effective and truthful because like Kelly, Kerr and Dernnan (2010) argue, consumers don’t share everything they recognize on the social networks. There must always be something that touches them and if some advertisement will receive the fame it would be some kind of memorable and touching.
Cheong and Morrison (2008, 44) wrote that consumers believe more user generated content that brand produced advertisements. In viral marketing the brands create the advertisement but the consumers share it on the social media. According to that and previous writing it can be concluded that viral marketing can be also more trustful that other marketing methods because even though the advertisement is created by the brand, consumers are the ones who share it. That builds the trust between the brand and the consumers and with that trust consumer are more willing to receive more awareness and positive word-of-mouth.

2.0 Industry overview and Methodology

2.1 Golf in Finland

2014 there was 142757 members in Finnish Golf Union (golfpiste.com, 2014). Since the Finnish Golf Union’s history the number of the members has increased in every year, in 2014 the number of the members decreased first time ever (Golfpiste.com, 2014). It started discussion about the future of Finnish golf and how to get the curve of players increasing again. Finnish Golf Association invited the golf courses CEO’s and other policy-makers of Finnish golf to create a ”Finnish golf strategy 2020” (Suomen Golfin Strategia 2020, 2014). According to the Finnish Golf Union’s review 2015 it is expected that the amount of the members decreasing all the time until 2020. The expected amount of decreasing is 20000 members.
Finnish Golf Union conducted research (2013) about potential golfers in Finland. According that research they found that 72% of adults has some experiments with golf, 47% of the adults regards golf in positive way and 38% thinks that golf is interesting. There was also found that there is 130000 active golfers but 1700000 who interested about golf. There were also asked adults describe golf in one word. The most common responses were that golf seems to be boring and targeted to the rich people, there was also said that it takes time so you are only able to play golf if you have lot of free time. We can say that there is a big market about golf if even 10% of those who are interested would start to play, it would be 170000 new golfers which is more that we have players today.
One of the main problems in golf is the median age of members and specially shareholders. Average age of the person who had received a Green Card which is license that is required to become a member to Finnish golf union is 35 The average age of the members of Finnish Golf Union is 45 and the average age of shareholders is 60. (Aluekierros 2015, 2015) It tells that the gap between persons who start golf to become a shareholder is 25 years. It is long time and something should be done. Of course the problem is not that bad as it looks because those shares inherit to children’s and they have to start to pay the substitute to the course (Yle.fi, 2012)
The Finnish Golf Union’s strategy 2020 was created to increase the popularity of the sport and also to make it more attractive to consumers. Strategy’s vision is that ”golf is going to become whole nation’s famous sport and activity” and the mission for the Finnish Golf Union is to be ”a actor and developer who puts unites golf in Finland” (Suomen Golfin Strategia 2020, 2014, 5).
When we analyse the mission and vision it gives a good overview the situation that informs in Finnish golf in 2015. Finnish Golf Union want to rise the fame of golf and at the same time Finnish golf courses are struggled with their finance (yle.fi, 2015). The financial situation is bad mostly because the Finnish golf courses share prices are mostly very low and in the worst situation even negative. It means that players are willing to pay to the buyer if he just took the share and pay the substitute. Most of the courses you have to pay the substitute it is enforced and you cannot get rid of it in any reason (Yle.fi, 2012).
Finnish Golf Union is not connected to Finnish golf courses in any means in financial perspective. So when those golf courses economy is in bad shape Finnish Golf Union don’t have interests to interfere the situation. They don’t support courses financially which is totally justified because most of the courses are companies. There is also few courses which are built in the land owned by the city and there is no shares so you can only be a member but not own a piece of the course.
Usually there are two different actors in Finnish golf courses. There is the company which owns the course, other facilities and employees work for the company. Then there is association which takes care of every activity happened on the course for example competitions. There is no played employees in associations those different task are based on volunteers. In those associations there are different commissions that had specified tasks. Usually there is competition commission, senior commission, junior commission, mid commission and lady commission.
When you pay your membership fee you are member of the club which is same as the association then you are able to participate for the events and other activities. If you want to play on the course then you have to either buy a share or rent the playing right from the company. In general language we only speak golf courses or golf clubs but it is important to understand that there operates two different authors.
The rules of Finnish golf union are said that every club must be a home course and each course can have only one association (Golf.fi, 2015). There is also long list other rules but the most important is that association must have right to use the course for the next 10 years. Of course the time will be longer and it is very rare that golf course would be expelled the club from the course.
The situation in Finnish golf courses has become too hard and something needs to be done, new innovative solution will be needed and every new or old approach to the problem should be considered. The potential to become a big sport in Finland is there. Now it only needs the right methods to achieve the targets. It is clear for now that there is no one simple solution and the road will be challenging.

2.2 Methodology

The method that was decided to use in this survey to receive the answers to the research problem was online-based survey.. An online-based survey was conducted in may of 2015. Survey was made using Google forms and it were spread out using different social networks focusing on Facebook. The reason why I ended up to choose the social networks and specially Facebook was that I felt that it would be effective way to get respondents and it worked as it was planned and at the first day my questionnaire received 50 respondents.
Facebook has normally thought a bad channel to spread the survey. In right use it can still be more effective and the respondents can be more into the field than the survey that was spread thru the email. I also got lots of visibility by using Facebook which was good for the data-collection.
There was two golf clubs which had accepted that the survey can be shared on their Facebook page. Then I also mailed few other golf courses that could they also put the questionnaire to their Facebook page. Survey was also posted in to the other Facebook pages subjected to golf.
The reason why I choose quantitative methods to solve my research problem is that the population where 142 757 golfers in Finland and I wanted to know the answers mostly in simple yes or no questions. I felt that quantitative method is more justified in this contests. There was 15 questions in my survey and I got 85 responses in the time period of 4 days. The limitation of the time period will cause little higher error margin but at the end I don’t expect it to cause any problems according to my survey.
After I had received all the answers and the planned sample period was up I started to process the data. Because the survey was made by using Google forms all the statistical information of the survey was available without any other data processing programs. Google forms presents the result in clear charts and all the percentage information is available. That made the processing of the responses easier and at the same time it made the analyzing more effective. In this contest I can say that Google forms worked perfectly. The way that Google form process the data and gave the statistics was very helpful according to survey analyzing. It also helped to draw the graphs between the questions when basic charts where available easily.
Data processing was effectively produced. The survey was planned to be as simple as possible but still the way that it would give the solution to my research problem and all the research questions. There was 15 questions total and 8 of them was simply Yes/No or I’m not familiar with the field of this question. 6 of the question where multiple choice question and age was only open question. The survey outline was designed to the way that it would take as little time as possible. There was also chance to suggest the own opinion in some questions with choosing the open part “Other”. That gave the chance to respondents to write there something what they thought was the right or better answer if they felt that none of the suggested answer options wasn’t close to their own interest. In my data processing I read all the responses received into that “other” part and analyze it by comparing them to their options and making conclusions why some people had thought that their suggestion is better than the other answer options in the survey.
That’s how I had chance to make the analyzing more reliable. It would give more perspective for the discussion and also the data will help the future research. When analyzing the open ended questions it was also important to have tried to receive the idea what participant had tried to say. Not always the open question are hard to analyze but there must be considers the original idea what there had tried to message.
The survey was conducted in Finnish language because the target group where Finnish and it is more understandable to re respondent if native Finnish people can answer with their mother tongue. Other reason was that the results are more trustful because we can say for sure that every one who had take part to the questionnaire understood the questions. It is also easier to receive responses when Finnish people will have a chance to answer in Finnish. I didn’t want that the language issues would be a problem or cause for declining to answer this survey.

3. Results, Discussions, Findings and Recommendations

3.1 Results

This survey's results are shown below. There was made some interesting findings which will help Finnish golf clubs for the future social media marketing plan. Results gave a comprehensive description Finnish golfers relationship to social media and the situation of Finnish golf marketing. The results also gave the believe that there was an order for this survey because so many of the respondents had a same opinion in many of the questions.
Results shown that there were 74 answers in total collected.
In the first survey question can be seen that the gender was divided so 86.5 % where male and 13.5 % were female.
In the second question was the age of the respondents. The average age was surprisingly high 41. There was three respondents that left the age empty. The age was varied between 15 and 67 and the median age was 40,5 years.
Third question there was asked that how often respondents are playing golf. 64.9 % of the respondents said that they are playing golf once a week or more, 13.5 % once in a two weeks, 8.1 % said that they play 1-2 times in a month, 6.8 % few times a year and the rest 6.8 % rarely. The question was presented the way that the Finnish winter is not taking to account and the average playing activity is counted only the period of time when golf courses are opened in Finland. The results we can see that the most of the respondents are actively golfing people which also make this survey reliable according to the topic.
Fourth question was that are those respondents familiar with social media and everybody answered yes. So 100 % of the respondents said that they know what is social media. It is impressive number even though not surprising. According to that result we can concluded that Finnish golfers are familiar with the technology and had adapted the social media as a term.
Next there was asked about the social networks, which of them are familiar and which not. 100 % of the respondents were familiar with Facebook, which is not surprising. YouTube was the second well known with 75.7 % of the respondents was familiar with it. What was more surprise was that Twitter and Instagram was familiar only for little bit below 40 % of the respondents. That might be explained by high average age. Twitter end even more Instagram is more popular among younger adults or teenagers. 10.8 % of the respondents choose also the “other” and there was presented Google+ and LinkedIn. Those two channels part was still relatively low according to other networks.
Next question was about golf marketing had people sawn any golf advertisement in social media during the previous week. 74.3 % said that they have sawn and rest of the respondents 25.7 % said that they hadn’t. This shows that golf courses are advertising in some level but still almost a third of Finnish golfers hadn’t saw any advertisement during the week and it is quite a high number according to the fact that now is spring of 2015 and the time that survey gone out should be the high marketing season for golf courses.
In the seventh question were asked does the player follow any golf club in social media. This answer can be connected to previous question because 71.6 % follow the golf courses in social media meaning that 28.4 % don’t follow and the numbers are almost the same than the previous question. So it can be concluded that there is a connection between following the brand and receiving the advertisements, those who are follow golf courses will see the advertisements more often.
Next was asked that does the golfers feel that social media in generally is a good platform for receive the golf topic advertisements, news, info’s etc. It was very clear that golfers think that social media is effective platform according to result which said that 90.7 % thought that social media is a good platform for golf marketing. 1.8 % thought that it is not and then 8.1 % didn’t had any opinion about the question. This result shows us that golfers themselves thinks that social media is a good marketing channel and also that social media should be exploit in marketing.
There had been lots of discussion that should golf courses put more effort to the social media marketing and according to the survey they would. 94.6 % thinks that golf courses should put more effort to social media marketing. It is very high number and actually if we compare it to those players who are follow some courses in social media, this number is almost 20 % higher so even the golf players who are not follow those courses in social media thinks that courses should put more effort to social media marketing.
The 10th question was which kind of marketing consumers wanted to receive via social media. 58.1 % thinks that user-generated ratings and contents are good marketing, 79.7 % thinks that advertisements and discounts are good way to advertise in social media, 71.6 % was more with the newsletters and original news and thinks that those are the best ways marketing golf courses in social media. Option “other” didn’t receive huge popularity and only 9.5 % of the respondents had chosen it. But all the respondents that had chosen option “other” suggested that there should be other user-generated contents in golf courses social media channels like blogs, ratings, opinions and some satisfaction statistics available.
In the 11th question of the survey was asked what the consumers think is the most valuable social media marketing channel. There was four options available and all of those where social networks, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. There was also chance to choose option “other” and put own opinion if they felt that any of these four networks wasn’t great. Also the respondents has possibility to chose the option “I don’t feel that social media is a great marketing channel” but that received 0 % of the answers. 83.3 % of the respondents thought that Facebook is the best channel. 10.8 % was chose Twitter to the best marketing channel. YouTube got 2.7 % and Instagram 1.7 %. So the popularity of the answers didn’t spread equally and the Facebook was the most popular and the cap between the first and second was 72.5 %.
In the 12th question of the survey was asked that what kind of advertisement is for them the most effective. 77% said that pictures with text is the best and 13.5 % was thinking that video is the most effective way of marketing golf in social media. Pictures received 5.4 % of the responses and option “other” 4.1 %. Options “only text” and “none of the above” received 0 % of the responses.
13th survey question was that does golfers feel that user-generated content was more trustworthy than golf courses produced advertisements. 51.4 % Said that they trust more in user-generated content. 37.8% was thinking that content created by golf courses is more trustful that users-generated content. 10.8 % didn’t know the topic so well that they could had been answered.
In the 14th survey question was asked if the golfers themselves were ready to share the updates and advertisements of the golf courses if they would receive some privileges or discounts for that. 66.2 % said that they would and rest of the respondents 33.8 % they would not in any reason.
The final question of the survey was that according to the previous questions after this survey do they feel that social media would be a good marketing tool for Finnish golf courses. 95.9 % said that yes, social media would be a great marketing tool for Finnish golf courses in the future. 2.7 % think that social media is not good marketing channel for golf and 1.4 % hadn't a opinion about the question.
Based on the results we can say that the results are reliable. The error margins is relatively high but in the other hand most of the results were so clear that error margins will not affect to results in any circumstances. In the reliability will also affect that all of the respondents can be counted as a golfers and when this survey was targeted to golfers we can say that the results are reliable.

3.2 Discussion

The gender of the respondent was divided unequal. According to the Finnish golf industry we can say that this percentage is not response the actual gender distribution that is currently in Finnish golf industry. The reasons why the gender divided so unevenly might be many but one of the main reasons might be that females are not so interesting about golf researches and they don’t have the same emotional concerning. The sample size which was relatively low might also be the reason for the unequal gender distribution. We can still say that this will not affect the reliability of this research but the females low interesting is still surprise. By using mostly Facebook for the channel to conduct this research and according to Business Insider (2014) article about Facebook users we can say that women’s use Facebook more than men’s do and that make the result even more interesting. What becomes to second survey question and average age it was not generally high if you compare it to golfers’ average age in Finland. This age question I wanted to confirm that my methods are not cause too low average age and that how become unreliable compared to Finnish golfers average age in generally. Also my distribution channels by conducting this survey were in social media and I think that there was the risk that the average age will be lower and I’m very privileged that the age accumulation is realistic. According to Finnish Golf Unions the middle age of the golf club members in Finland is 45 (Aluekierros, 2015) and the surveys average age was 41 that improves the other questions responses to be more reliable to describe the current situation of Finnish golf.
Respondents were mostly active golfers meaning that they said that they are playing golf more than once in a two weeks. Actually almost 80 % of the respondents will do that and because this research main problem was to find the solution the question “what Finnish golfers think” we can say that the results are answering reliably those questions. There can be also concluded that active golfers are more interesting the researchers targeted to golfers. It is not surprise that golfers are interested in golf related surveys but now it is also proved by the statistic.
That result the all the responded felt that they are familiar with the social media describes the current situation very well. According to the theoretical part of the research we can say that for the marketers in this case the golf courses it is a great situation where the golfers are recognizing the social media and feel that they are familiar it. It will give those courses a confident to put more effort to social media marketing. Of course this question is not tell the story that do the golfer use social media themselves.
But when in the next question there was asked the most familiar social media sites there was showed that all 100 % was familiar with Facebook. Of course the result is not that surprising because this survey was conducted thru Facebook. But also YouTube achieved high percentage of fame. Over 70 % is a high number and golf courses should take it to account. Also the knowledge that one minute video will be a worth of 1.8 million words instead that picture will be worth of 1000 words (The Guardian, 2014) should put the golf courses marketing managers to think the YouTube and specially video marketing thru social media as future possibility. In the same question Instagram and Twitter will recognize 35 % of all the respondents. Twitter and Instagram is more popular among the young adults and teen agers so this result can be explained with that.
Few percent had put their own suggestion and Google+ and LinkedIn was mostly presented. This probably will not give the right percentage for all the people who would recognize the Google+ and LinkedIn because those two wasn’t an option and respondents had to write those answers by themselves.
The next question 71.8 % says that they had sewn a golf advertisement in social media during the week. According to the fact proved in this question that every responded uses social media, this number is relatively low. According to the fact that golf is a summer sport in Finland because of the cold weather spring should be the high marketing season. Still only 71.8 % of golfers had recognized a golf advertisement in social media during the week. Compared the result to the fact that social media advertising is very cheap it would put up the question, where do those golf courses advertising.
The explanation for the previous question low percentage is founded in the next question. 72.8 % of the respondents say that they are follow golf courses in social media. So the result is straight comparable the result received in previous question. After analyzing this questions I came up with the conclusion that of course the general advertising is deficient in this moment but also the advertisements have to be too boring and uninteresting because golfers are not that interested for the updated that they would follow the courses. According to Kelly, Kerr and Dernnan’s (2010) theory that advertisements should be entertaining to wake up the interest this funding will prove that golf courses advertisement are not that entertaining that it would cause the following activity.
90.8 % of the golf players think that social media is a good channel for golf marketing but still only 72.8 % of the golfers is currently following some golf courses in social media. This also tells the fact that golf courses should try to collect more follower and create more positive activity around their brand. There should be also add the result where 92.9 % of the respondents says that Finnish golf courses should put more effort to their social media marketing.
According to the previous results and information received we can concluded that even though most of the golfers follow golf courses on Facebook and have recognize a golf add in social media the percentage could be way more higher. In results can clearly being recognized the fact that Finnish golfers want’s that golf courses put more effort to the marketing and put it the way that players sees it attractive.
What becomes to ways and methods to be used in marketing there is many different options. The highest percentage (80 %) was in offers and discounts. Like Ruiz-Mafe, Martí-Parreño and Sanz-Blas (2010) said it in their research brans should put more so called attractions to their social media sites to receive higher amount of visitors. They suggested special offers and discounts and in this result we can see that the golf players are thinking the same way. Also newsletters and news receive little over 70 % of the votes. User-generated ratings got only 58.8 % of the votes but in open ended option “other” there was suggestions for example blogs and players experiences. So we can say that golf courses should adapt these methods to their use.
When survey participants had chance to choose only one social media channel that they think is the most effective for marketing use over 84 % chose Facebook. Little surprise was that Twitter was second with little over 9 %. It is little surprise because Twitter was one of the less known social network in previous question. It shows that peoples who are familiar with twitter likes it and thinks it an effective marketing channel. Still the popularity of Facebook is way over the others. This can be little explained with average age but in the other hand it tells that golf courses should give special look to their Facebook pages.
Little over 77 % thinks that photos and text are the best advertisements. Videos received only 12.9 % popularity but on the other hand there had to be chosen only one opinion. This gives golf courses the information that will help them in the future. In the result can be made a deduct that golfers appreciate fast information without any activity that takes time. They prefer more the information that is collected looking a picture and text than video.
49 % keeps user-generated content more trustworthy that golf courses created advertisement. 14 % hadn’t idea the topic that the question was all about. According to that most of the golfers think that user-generated content is better but the cap between those who think that golf courses advertisements are better is only 12.9 % specific. So not that significant that might thought according to the theoretical part about user generated content.
Golfers 65.5 % would be willing to share golf courses updates to receive discounts in change. There we if we take the previous result that 80 % of the golfers thought that discounts and offers are the best marketing method there can be seen that golfers will like to receive discounts without making any favor to the golf course.
Last question was that do the golfers see that after answering all the questions above they think that social media is good marketing channel marketing golf in Finland and the result was 95.3 % think that it is. So the last question gives the end argument for the thought that had been in the air for the whole research. Social media is a marketing tool for Finnish golf courses and Finnish golf courses an industry should use social media more effective in their marketing. Golf courses should also put more effort to the outlay of the advertisement and focus to collect the followers at least in Facebook and Twitter.

3.3 Findings and Recommendations

First finding was that golfers are familiar with the social media so the starting point for the social media marketing is there. When you start to design the marketing plan it is important to have the confirmation that the target group has possible to receive using the channel you are planned.
The other interesting and important finding in this research was that receiving golf advertisement seems to be related to the followers. Those who are not follow the golf courses don’t receive golf topic advertisements. So what golf courses should do according to the result is that they need to increase the amount of the followers. Good ways for that would be the more entertaining and emotional advertisements. The main idea is that consumers will get some kind of feelings and create a relationship with the brand in this case golf course. It would also be the best if those advertisements were pictures and text or videos.
Over 90 % felt that golf courses should put more effort to social media marketing. Especially Facebook advertisement with discounts and offers had received popularity. According to that we can concluded that golf courses marketing managers should take the account the fact that even though they might think that their marketing is in a good level the players think different. When over 90 % thinks that there should be put more effort to the marketing there have to be the truth. I suggested that marketing managers should get to know the social media and learn how to use it. According to the theory of the research it is not only the postings to the Facebook page that will cause the positive reactions among the consumers. There has to be emotion, interactivity and consumers in these case golfers must take account and allow them to be part of the marketing process. It would also be suggested that golf courses trains one “social media specialist” to their course who's responsible for every activity happened in websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other networks and medias that are used.
Golf courses should also put little bit more effort to user-generated content. In the survey almost 50 % was thinking that user generated content is effective way using social media as a marketing tool. There was also the approximately 14 % who didn’t know what is user-generated content so the possibilities are there. According to theoretical part of this paper user-generated content in generally had proved to be very truthful and powerful way of marketing. I suggest that golf courses are open the discussion more in Facebook pages pick up the best postings and starts some writing competitions for example with topic “How I experience this golf course”. Whatever the content is it doesn’t matter the top thing is that players are taking to account and gave them a chance to spread the knowledge and personal experiences of the specific golf course.
Last finding must be the finding that over 95 % thought that social media is a good marketing tool marketing golf in Finland. The percentage impressive and leaves no question about social media as a marketing tool in Finnish golf. That is supporting result for the whole research and will give the base on the future research.
We can say that social media is a marketing tool marketing golf in Finland. We can also say that even though Finnish golfers thinking social media as a marketing tool they will require that golf courses put more effort to the social media marketing. Golfers like to see pictures and text in the advertisements but the way that it wakes up emotions. That’s how golfers will feel connected to the course and it will cause longer customer relationship.

4. Conclusion

This research was conducted to find the answers to specific research questions. There was conducted an online-survey thru the Facebook which main goal was to achieve the research objectives in this case Finnish golfers. Facebook seemed a effective way to receive the answers fast. There were also used two Finnish golf courses who were able to post the survey to their Facebook pages and increase the amount of answers.
The survey itself included 15 short questions were 8 of those was simply yes or no questions. Few of the question had also a chance to choose I don’t know or option other that allowed respondent itself to write the own thought for the question. That gave the survey more credibility and made the results more reliable.
The survey was out for four days receiving 85 answers. The answers were processed and analyzed using Google form. There was possible to see the straight percentage of each answer and that made the analyzing reliable and fast.
The average age of the survey was 41 which is very close to golfers average age in Finland so the survey will give a reliable overview for Finnish golfers thoughts. The gender was divided little bit more unequal and there was 62,4 % more males than females. Both of the genders were given an equal chance to participate the survey.
There was found that Finnish golfers are using social media. All of the participants were familiar with the Facebook and Facebook became the most popular social network channel among the participants. The survey also showed that golfers who are not like any golf courses social network page will not receive advertisements as easy as those who had liked.
Almost all the golfers thought that golf courses should put more effort to social media marketing. According to the results of the survey the answer to the research question: “Does Finnish golfers see that golf clubs should put more effort to their social media marketing?” where found. The interesting fact was that approximately 70 % said that they follow or like some golf courses in social media but over 90 % thought that Finnish golf clubs should put more effort to social media marketing. Even the golfers who are not actively follow golf courses thinks that they should put more effort to marketing.
Finnish golfers think social media as a marketing tool marketing golf in Finland. There were clear results found to respond the research question. Almost all the responded answered the question in the way that there can be seen the result. This result will help the golf courses to their consideration about social media as a marketing tool.
Third research question was what kind of marketing people wanted to achieve in social media. The answer can be founded in the results. Discount and offers where the best topics for the advertisements. Also newsletters and news were popular topics among the golfers. There should be considered some kind of advertising campaign with related to the information above.
This research defines the key problems that are related to Finnish golf marketing in social media. With the survey this paper also finds the answers for the problems. This paper will give the golf courses reliable and useful information about the social media marketing.

5. References

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6. APPENDIXES

6.1. Survey questions in English (translated in Finnish)

1. Gender? Male/Female 2. Age? (open ended) 3. How often do you golf in average? Once a week or more, once in a two weeks, 1-2 times in a month, few times a year, rarely than that. 4. Is social media familiar to you? Yes/No 5. If yeas, Which of the following social networks are familiar to you? (you can choose more than one) Facebook, Twitter, Instagram YouTube, None of the above, Other? (What) 6. Do you remember to sawn any golf advertisement in social media during the week? Yes/No or I don’t use social media 7. Do you yourself follow any golf courses in social media? Yes/No and I don’t use social media 8. Do you feel that social media is a good channel to share golf clubs advertisements, news, newsletters, ratings, and other needed information? Yes/No, I don’t no, Other (what?) 9. Do you feel that Finnish golf courses could put more effort to social media as a marketing tool? Yes/No. No understanding of the field 10. Wich of the following you feel is a good ways to marketing golf in social media? User-generated ratings, discouts and offers, newsletters and news 11. Which of the following is the best channel to golf marketing in your opinion? Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, I don’t feel that social media is a good channel at all and Other (What?) 12. Which types of advertisements are the most effective in your opinion? Videos, Texts, Pictures, Pictures, None of the above and other (what?) 13. Do you feel that user generated content is more trustful than golf courses created advertisements? Yes/No and no understanding of the field 14. Are you willing yourself to share golf courses advertisements in social media if you will receive a discounts and offers for that? Yes/No 15. After this survey do you feel that social media is good marketing tool to marketing golf in Finland? Yes/No and I don’t have knowledge if the field

6.2 Survey in original language