The golf turf industry is small by most other industry standards, the advantage therein being a relatively tight-knit community among both practitioners and suppliers. So it was with a certain amount of unease that I noticed recently both Toro and BASF Professional Products having gone outside our little village to post point-of-sale and training videos on YouTube. I’m sure others are there too, but those two caught my eye.

One of our primary marketing strategies over the years has been very simple: keep building more value into our product so that at some point it becomes a “no-brainer” (if such a thing exists), where the obvious value outweighs most typical objections. This has been true with benefits targeted at superintendents (free webinars, TurfNetTV, job listings, used equipment buy and sell, etc) and our media partners.

So, rather than have TurfNet affiliate members go outside the fold (so to speak) to obtain free, wide-scale video hosting, we decided to offer it to you ourselves. Now, for free.

We’ll be revamping our TurfNetTV interface over the next few days to give product videos more of the spotlight. If you have videos you’d like us to host, contact me and I’ll provide you with FTP information to send them to us.

We’ll run them for a year (at no charge, of course) for TurfNet affiliate member companies with current advertising programs with us (at any level).  If there’s a catch, that’s it.

As the one charged with orchestrating TurfNet University webinar registrations and GCSAA education points for registrants, I thought I would share some statistics about our webinar viewers through October, 2009.

For the 16 live events held so far this year, 1063 webinar views were registered from among 417 unique registrants. Participation ranged from 21 to 129 people per event.

Participation ranged from 21 to 129 people per event…

For the archived, on-demand webinars, 177 unique registrants watched 377 webinar events through October. If the pattern from last year holds true, this number in particular will increase in November and December through the winter as northern superintendents and assistants have more time to participate.

The only difference between live and archived webinars is the ability to ask questions of the presenter during the live event. GCSAA Education Points are offered for both, although those for archived events expire at the end of the calendar year.

TurfNet University webinars are free to registered TurfNet members and their staffs as well as our affiliate members.  Non-members pay $25 per event.  All are accredited for 0.1 GCSAA education points.

Why not check out this new training and education platform for yourself? Affiliate members can access coupon codes for free admission here (login required – if you need help, contact me or Peter McCormick).

I always find it amusing when visiting with a client who in turn asks a question that has obviously been pollinated by rumor, misinformation or disinformation from a competitor of ours.

One example from just the other day:  ”Why should we advertise with you when you only have 1400 members? That’s a lot to money to reach those few people.”

Yes, we have approximately 1400 member clubs or courses.  Counting the assistant superintendents and equipment technicians who also have access to the Members Only area of TurfNet.com, we have about 2500 registered users.

But that’s just on the private, behind-the-firewall side of TurfNet.com.  In fact, because our members pay a premium subscription cost, we actually don’t have ANY advertising in the Forum or other areas back there.  On purpose.

TurfNet.com metrics, October 2009, Google Analytics

Stepping back to look at the bigger picture, even though our members do wander out into the public areas of the site like TurfNetTV, TurfNet University, and job and used equipment listings, they are just one segment of our overall site visitors.

For example, in October of this year, we had over 28,000 unique visitors making over 100,000 visits to TurfNet.com and generating over half a million page views during the average three minutes each visitor spent on the site (many are viewing new job listings, hence the short average duration).

That’s quite a different story from “only 1400 members”. In fact, it’s a great reason to invest in our very economical annual advertising packages to reach so many people!

When Stacie Zinn, president of Environmental Turf of Avon Park, Florida, approached us with a challenge, we accepted.  Her company, which specializes in the research, development, marketing and distribution of environmentally-friendly warm season grasses (notably Seashore paspalum, a salt- and drought-tolerant species coming into increasing favor on coastal golf courses) was planning a one-day live seminar, Perspectives on Paspalum, in Myrtle Beach in September.  She wanted to broaden the reach of the seminar beyond those physically able to attend.

The solution was to video the presentations of the speakers (a mix of university researchers and golf course superintendents experienced with growing paspalum), create an introductory trailer video and an overview panel discussion video to be hosted on TurfNetTV, and then a series of free, on-demand webinars with the entire presentations of the five speakers hosted on the TurfNet University webinar platform.

Done!  To bring it all together, we embedded a TurfNetTV player and webinar information and registration links in Environmental Turf’s TurfNet Affiliate Member Profile Page.

Now, one week since the full package has been posted on TurfNet.com, another 400+ folks have participated by watching the videos and sitting in on the webinars… in effect, quadrupling our exposure. We’re thrilled.”

“We had 100 people from all over the world attend our event, Perspectives on Paspalum,” Stacie said. “By working with TurfNet to video tape the event, post the videos on TurfNet and create webinars from the seminar speakers’ presentations, we’ve been able to extend the life of our event beyond just that one day. Now, one week since the full package has been posted on TurfNet.com, another 400+ folks have participated by watching the videos and sitting in on the webinars… in effect, quadrupling our exposure. We’re thrilled.”

So are we!

When was the last time you were “thrilled” with print advertising?

Lest no recognition (particularly that of one’s peers) go unexploited in today’s competitive arena, it’s only proper and appropriate to shine the spotlight on ourselves once in a while.

Falling under the category of  ”not exactly current news but never mentioned in this blog”, TurfNet had a banner year at the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) awards presentation held at their annual meeting in Puerto Rico back in May.

Our editorial and design work in 2008 was honored with four merit awards, four first place awards and one best-in class Gardner Award. The big winner of the night was the TurfNet goes to Ireland video series, which won four awards.

Gardner “Best-in-Class” Award

Photography, Video and Multimedia Publishing: “TurfNet Goes to Ireland” – Special Series – Jon Kiger.

First place awards

Writing for Web Site: “Water Conservation Pays Off in Georgia” – John Reitman;

Writing for Printed Collateral: “You Need a Village” – Peter McCormick;

Overall Company Web Design: “2008 Dog Calendar Showcase” – Peter McCormick;

Best Video/CD/Audiovisual Presentation: “TurfNet Goes to Ireland – Special Series” – Jon Kiger;

Merit award winners

Overall Company Web Design: “TurfNet Goes to Ireland – TurfNet TV Dedicated Web Page” – Peter McCormick;

Miscellaneous Special Projects: “TurfNet 2009 Superintendent’s Best Friend Dog Calendar” – John Reitman, Alison Fox;

Writing for CD/Audiovisual Presentation: “TurfNet Goes to Ireland Series” Preview Script – Jon Kiger;

The TurfNet Goes to Ireland video series (which we continued with four different courses in 2009 and is live on TurfNetTV right now) was filmed and produced in consort with Sleeping Warrior Productions of Dromahair, Co.Leitrim, in the northwest of Ireland.  The series was presented by Syngenta.

The Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association is a group of editors, publishers, vendors and public relations professionals who represent various sides of the green industry, including the golf, sports turf, and landscape and ornamentals industries.