The Importance of Your Recreation Center’s Online Presence

There are many factors that can lead to the decline in popularity of a recreation center. While it can sometimes be the result of poor management, poor staffing or insufficient planning, other times it can happen unexpectedly due to unavoidable consumer and cultural trends.
There is possibly no better place to catch up on, or even preempt these trends, than on the internet. At the Sports Facility Advisory, we are aware of the risk of ignoring the internet for a recreation center and we can offer you advice and guidance on how to use it for your benefit.

Stay Current

It is almost impossible to stay up-to-date with every single new or emerging trend. In the era of social media and widespread connectivity, new pastimes, hobbies, and trends will snowball with incredible speed. Some of them will even be over before you knew they existed.
This applies as much to sports and general recreation as it does to anything else. The best way to maintain your numbers and awareness of your recreation center in your community is to stay on top of anything that relates to what you provide.
The most effective way to do this is to use regularly updated sources for the internet, especially social media. This requires some ability to filter out things that will end up being irrelevant to you, but getting familiar with it will give you a better eye for what might be useful.
Follow news and blogs related to sports or activities that you cater to, or potentially new ones that you could provide. Look for hobbyist forums and online discussion hubs to see what people are talking about and what they are interested in, and consider whether or not you can cater to them. Just make sure it is always relevant to you.

Stay Social

It is essential now for any public-facing business to have a presence on social media. Too many businesses fall victim to discounting the usefulness of social media and risk being lost in a sea of more savvy competitors.
Maintaining an online presence can benefit your recreation center in a number of ways. The more communicative you are, the more comfortable your users will feel using your facilities. It also means that you can keep everyone else updated on any new developments at your center.

Stay Open

Many independent, smaller businesses play up the fact that they are family-owned. The reason they do this is simple: it works. Users of any service feel infinitely more comfortable in a relaxed atmosphere with approachable staff. Extending this out to communications, marketing and customer relations online is an effective and inviting way to keep the people using your recreation center coming back. An immediate, friendly response online goes a long way.

Public Relations for Recreation Centers

This kind of outreach might sound simple, but it can be demanding and time-intensive. Consider hiring some staff to specifically deal with this aspect of your recreation center or use an outside agency you can trust.
The internet has become an every day (often every hour) fact of life. Neglecting to make the most of it while other sports complexes and recreation centers jump at the chance is taking a considerable risk.
If you have any questions, or just need some more guidance moving forward, contact our team at the Sports Facilities Advisory today.