Five Years a Blogger
I can’t believe it either! I’ve been doing this for the last 5 years! Doing what? Well writing the blogs for our website (and Facebook posts and tweets) and all the other stuff an I.T. and Social Media volunteer gets up to at Silverdale Golf Club.
Blogs
When I took over this role in the summer of 2017, the website was largely unused and out-of-date. I remember thinking that there were things happening at the Club that would have been interesting to the membership but were not being reported. My first ever blog was “Lady Captain has hole-in-one”. Our Lady Captain at the time was Angi Middleton and she had her ace while playing in a match at Wilpshire. https://www.silverdalegolfclub.co.uk/single-post/2017/07/19/Lady-Captain-has-hole-in-one
That’s the thing about writing blogs for a website, they are there forever! One of the most difficult things is to think up a heading. Our website provider is Wix and when you click on the “create blog” button, the first thing you see is “Add a catchy title”. I’ve been adding catchy (and not-so-catchy) titles for all this time and I’ve got to admit my favourite was “Its Double Diamond!” Our Rabbits team gave me the chance to write that one when they won the Diamond Trophy for the second year in a row in 2018. https://www.silverdalegolfclub.co.uk/single-post/2017/07/22/its-double-diamond
One thing I’ve realised is that you need to keep it “interesting”. I know what’s interesting to some may not be to others, but if every blog was trying to sell you stuff, people would just switch off. The big question you ask yourself is “I wonder if anyone is reading this”? Thankfully Wix provide all sorts of statistics to suggest they do!
Facebook & Twitter
Facebook is very much like marmite, some love it and some hate it. But it’s a very important social media outlet and especially so at Silverdale Golf Club. I don’t pretend to understand the Facebook algorithm, but one thing I’ve realised is that size matters! In the summer of 2017 when I took over, our page had 634 likes – if you look now you will see we are closing in on 1200 likes. To get someone to like your page you have once again “keep it interesting” and you have to keep the posts coming!
I know even less about Twitter than Facebook but I’ve kept our Twitter page going and I’ve been told by various tweeters that we must always keep it alive at Silverdale Golf Club. In my time, I’ve had many Facebook posts and tweets that were very successful (nothing went viral!), but by far the most successful tweet was when our local World Champ paid us a visit in 2019. https://twitter.com/SilverdaleGC/status/1278723754017935363
Over 1500 people saw this tweet (over 2700 saw the equivalent Facebook post)
Signing off
If you think that this blog has an “end of an era” feel to it, you’d be correct – I’ve decided that doing this voluntary work for 5 years is long enough and now it is time to pass the baton on to someone else, maybe someone with a younger outlook who can take us into the Instagram age? So this will be my last ever blog.
I really hope that someone steps forward and whoever it is, I will give them any assistance or training that they ask for. Also, like me, they will be able to ask Neil Harvey if they ever get stuck. Neil has helped me on many occasions over the last few years and I thank him for all his help and encouragement.
Finally, the last lesson I’ve learned while writing blogs is “keep it brief”! If you are still reading this, thank-you – it has been a privilege to write blogs for you.