OUR INSTAGRAM JOURNEY

Our first post was of 6 year old Riley teeing it up Carswell golf range (pictured). It received 31 likes and 1 comment. I had no idea what I was doing but it really didn’t matter, this page was for me and me only. I didn’t share the page to my friends or colleagues and had no real objectives for the page other than to post some pictures of us playing golf together.

I really didn’t have a clue what I was doing at the beginning. My editing skills were woeful and my feed was full of picture collages, logo’s and text (all no no’s) and I was way too scared to use other features such as stories. We had little to no engagement on the account, but it didn’t matter. This page wasn’t for anyone else and we had started our little online diary of golfing moments together. This became our USP and would forge the backbone of our Instagram journey.

The first 1000 follower landmark didn’t arrive until 18th January 2018; almost a year after starting the page. Although the page had been setup for personal reasons, it was soon apparent that talking to the golf community and engaging with each other made the platform a more desirable place to be. We had joined our first InstaPod; a place where like minded people get together and talk all things golf and share the odd story, a bit like a WhatsApp group. Funnily enough we are still in the first pod we joined and consider these people genuine friends. I think the first year can be summarised as raw and we were definitely still finding our feet.

Year 2 we found some momentum and the page started to develop and grow in popularity. We starting making ‘Insta friends’, people who share similar interests and passions. This developed into meeting people through the platform; pictured is us meeting Lloyd (@oneputtlife) at golf sixes in May 2018. We have been great mates since, he even helped me develop this web-page; so make sure you check him out!!!!!

By the end of year two, Dad had started to understand Instagram a little bit more. Riley has started showing some promise winning a weewonder’s event, shooting 2 over Par at Broome Manor GC (9 holes) and even my golf was going in the right direction after making inroads to representing the Royal Air Force following a shot reduction in my handicap (down to 4).

In May 2019 we hit 5000 follows on the page and had our first experience working with a brand. Although not tied into any contract, we worked closely with Bunker Mentality and enjoyed a great relationship with the British apparel manufacturer. This was the first time we realised the marketing power of the Instagram platform. This was also the year that the page really started to grow…

In 2019 we decided to change the page name from @father_son_golf_journey to @father_son_golf. The former was a bit of a mouthful and it allowed us to design a new logo. We tried to stay consistent with the content, making sure that the page is all about us and the up’s and down’s of our journey. I did venture into ‘review posts’ but this didn’t really work and the long caption for each post was likely read by 1% of our followers. By the end of 2019 the page was gathering momentum and we had started to receive excellent engagement on our posts. This was key to the growth of the page and although we had no ‘big hitting’ posts or collaborations we maintained a steady growth until hitting the big 10k.

On 3 March 2020, after 3 years of genuine graft, we hit 10k and earned the swipe up feature; the holy grail of Instagram. This is huge as you can basically provide a call to action to swipe up on your story posts which will direct people to a product or page. Although we didn’t want to lose the basis of our page, we did see the benefit of working with specific brands as it helped bolster our content ideas. For example using the Flightscope Mevo for yardage challenges.

2020 was huge for FSG. I think the fact the world was in lockdown meant that people turned to social media for inspiration, an outlet or just to pass by some time… We didn’t really change anything up and found that us going out, having fun was the perfect recipie for the channel (and Riley’s well-being). In an attempt to improve our content I did invest in some better equipment (DJI OM 4 and Canon M50 camera) and did some research on how to improve my photography skills. I also started to utilise the features Instagram has to offer. In particular, I made sure we were active on stories and IGTV became massive for us. It allowed us to put together videos greater than 1 minute and for whatever reason became extremely popular. From Father vs Son challenges, to playing golf holes or just how we play certain shots. The numbers went crazy. We have over thirty IGTVs with over 20,000 views and five with over 80,000 views…. One IGTV went absolutely crazy and stopped at 154,700 views; we have no idea why, it was just us playing a 60 yard approach shot. Our top 40 videos have now surpassed 1.8 millions views.

The end of October 2020 was probably the highlight of our page so far. Sir Graham Wylie, owner of Close House had seen our page and invited us to play Close House. We took the whole family, stayed in the beautiful pavilion and enjoyed rounds on both the Filly and British Master’s Colt course. To top it off Riley and I had an hour with Lee Westwood; 2020 Race to Dubai Champion and European Tour player of the year. When I started the page I could only dream of giving Riley experiences like this.

On 10th November we hit 20k and by the end of February 2021 expect to surpass 25k. In the grand scheme of Instagram these numbers are mediocre, we’re certainly no Mrs Kardashian. But lets face it, we are just a father son duo playing golf and our target audience is limited. I am proud of the page, what it stands for and the opportunities it has presented. This will never be a #roadtothePGA as I genuinely believe that at such a young age the only thing Riley can do is enjoy the game. However, in a few years, if Riley does still want to play and do something in the game I am hoping this little page will give Riley the opportunities to live out HIS dreams. Whether it’s trying to play on tour, becoming a successful golf coach or venturing into the golf media industry such as YouTube??? Who knows… It’s for him to decide.

The truth is, Instagram has given us some opportunities that we never thought possible. It’s definitely not been easy and can assure you planning content, creating videos and posting content is hard work. However, the juice is definitely worth the squeeze; imagine being one of the first people in the UK to get their hands on FootJoy’s new shoe for 2021. This season is extremely exciting for us as we try to build on the page and try to create more special moments together.

This bring us up to date on our ‘Insta Journey’ and some are probably thinking, why build a website and a blog? The reason we started this blog is to try and communicate with our audience on a deeper level whilst also sharing the lessons we have learnt during this journey. Some may find our future articles on what worked for us on Instagram helpful, whilst others may enjoy reading about how we got Riley into golf and more importantly, how we make sure he keeps enjoying it. This is a totally blank canvas and we just want to try and add more value to what we do.

So thanks for reading, we definitely appreciate your feedback and would love to know what you would like us to talk about in the future (use leave a reply below) or sign up to our newsletter to make sure you get first sight of our bi-monthly article post.

Andy (Dad)