Private Club Radio Show

438: Your Club's Digital Footprint-The Importance of Knowing What Members and Prospects See Online

• Denny Corby

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In this episode of the Private Club Radio Show, we roll up our sleeves and shine a spotlight on something most clubs think they’ve got handled—but probably don’t: what shows up when someone Googles your club.

We walk you through a no-nonsense, step-by-step guide to auditing your club’s online presence. From Google to TikTok, Yelp to AI tools, we cover the platforms your prospective members, employees, and even the media are using to check you out—before they ever set foot on property.

Here's what we get into:

  • Why incognito mode (and calling in a favor from your cousin in another state) matters
  • What to search for besides just your club name—and why those extra keywords matter
  • How to spot outdated or questionable content floating around out there
  • The magic of Google Alerts for staying ahead of the buzz
  • Why human, thoughtful responses to reviews (even the spicy ones) are key

This isn’t just about damage control—it’s about owning your narrative, showing up the way you want to be seen, and maybe even spotting some hidden marketing gold along the way.

🎧 Give it a listen, then go Google your club. What you find might surprise you.









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Speaker 1:

Hey everybody, welcome to the Private Club Radio Show, where we give you the scoop on all things private golf and country clubs, from mastering leadership and management, food and beverage excellence, member engagement, secrets, board governance and everything in between, all while keeping it fun and light. Whether you're a club veteran just getting your feet wet or somewhere in the middle, you are in the right place. I'm your host, denny Corby. Welcome to the show. In this episode, I want to propose a question, maybe a scary question, and that is what shows up when somebody Googles your club A prospective member, a prospective employee, a current member, somebody of the media. What happens when somebody Googles your club? And have you Googled your club recently? Do you know what's out there? Do you know what's being said? Do you know what's being seen? And that's what we're talking about today. We are pulling out a flashlight, putting on our detective hats and searching how your club shows up on the internet.

Speaker 1:

I would not like to admit how much time I spend looking at clubs, just because when I go perform at clubs, I like to. Well, you know, I'll Google where it's at and just see how far away from either it's my house or the airport, hotels, all that and I just do a lot of searching on Google and there's just a lot of things. I see that I'm not 100% sure if clubs know that is out there about them. So this episode is a full walkthrough on how to audit your online presence, from Google TikTok to AI tools and why this episode and doing this, spending a little bit of time on this today, this week, this month, can be one of the simplest and smartest things you can do this quarter. So, real quick, what I think you should do is, just at a bare baseline minimum, just Google your club, get off your Wi-Fi, don't use your Wi-Fi, you know. Just Google your club and Google, maybe even Safari. Do both, actually. And just Google your club name and just type it in and see what happens.

Speaker 1:

And then what you also want to do is, when you Google and you type in your club's name and you hit the space bar, there's going to be additional searches that pop up. Hit those searches, see what pops up when you click those. I'm looking at a club right now. I typed in the club name and I typed in reviews, because that was one of the things, and there is a website that says pros and cons of this club name? Do you know if that's out there, about your club? Just throwing that out there? And what is being said? Is it truthful? Is it up to date? Do you have better amenities or better things than what's being said? Are they saying good things? Are they saying bad things? That's what this is about is just double checking, seeing what is out there. There's different tabs, so there's images, news, forums, short videos, videos, maps. Hit all of those tabs as well with the same searches.

Speaker 1:

You're going to want to keep going through, type in your club name and then reviews and then cost, and then just start playing around going through Google, not just the first page. Keep on going. Go five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 pages. It's probably going to be irrelevant, it doesn't matter. Just go and search what is being seen.

Speaker 1:

Now the next step is, after you do this, you're then going to go into incognito mode. You're going to go to your Google Chrome Safari, whatever You're going to type in, you're going to do that all again in incognito mode to see if you get some of the same results. All that does is it just shuts off your location and all of your data and history and stuff, so it doesn't have any pre-judgment, so to speak, based on the searching, then you're going to do that whole thing again. And then, if you want to take it a step further, ask a friend not a colleague, maybe a friend, a family member, not in the state, and see if they can search some of these same things on their devices and see what pops up. Have them send screenshots, or they can do a screen record and you can just watch it quick just to see what pops up in other states and other areas. Because, as we all know, google is an algorithm and it will give you results based on what it thinks you want to see.

Speaker 1:

When you type in your club's website is, or when you type in your club's name, is your club's website the first thing that pops up, or is it a different website that might pop up? I've seen it happen. I'm looking at one right now as I'm Googling here, doing the episode and just taking note and just seeing if anything looks out of place as you're going through all of these searches, especially images, especially videos. It's all about looking, seeing and if all is good, great, keep it going. And if maybe there's some stuff that I don't know, if your outdated old HOA lawsuit is ranking higher or right up next to your official website. There are services that can help get that down or get that lower or make sure other stuff pops up up.

Speaker 1:

And, as a little reminder and call back to one of my previous episodes, as a little pro tip alert, if you haven't already set up a Google alert for your club name and your employees and your members, I think that's a big missed opportunity. What a Google alert is is you, as you Google, just put in Google alert and set it up. You can have it. Say any specific or generic name, phrase, anything. Anytime it shows up on Google, it'll send you an email with a summary of where that name pops up. So anytime. So I have one for myself. So anytime a news article or something pops up with my full name in it, I get an alert. You can do it with you, your name, your club's name, your members, your employees.

Speaker 1:

I mean you know, thinking out loud as a club professional, if I had a Google alert to my work email of all of the members' names and their businesses and let's just even say your membership and your communications, and your whole team gets these alerts also, and you know, wouldn't it be a cool spot for the club to be to maybe get a Google alert for an award that maybe one of your members has won or their business has won, and maybe it's a unique, niche-y industry award. Wouldn't it be cool? How cool would it be for the club to send them a congratulations or invite them out for a meal on the house? Or, hey, get a free bottle of wine or a free glass of champagne as a celebration. Hey, here's a special offer to bring your team in to celebrate. I don't know, my brain just goes in really weird ways and to me, that's where a Google alert can be really cool and really show value.

Speaker 1:

Now, since we're talking about all this Googling and searching, google is only 5% of the internet and I learned that from our good friend and show partner, paul Dank over at Kennis Member Vetting. A quick thing, a quick shout out to Kennis Member Vetting, membervettingcom, the authority when it comes to fact-based member vetting. When we are looking at who is coming into our clubs, who are these applicants? Are they who they say they are? At Kenes Member Vetting, they make sure the applicants are who they say they are on their application and who belong in your club, but your club is also showing up other places and people are using social media platforms as search engines also.

Speaker 1:

I think it's important to go into the social media platforms TikTok, youtube, youtube Shorts, facebook, instagram. Go into these platforms, type in your club name and search just like you did in Google. But search in these platforms and when you're searching, just the search, also search hashtags, check location tags, see where you're tagged, see where you're mentioned. What's showing up Maybe is it good stuff, bad stuff, maybe there's great photos that people took at different events. See what is popping up, what is showing up when people search your club and while you're at it, I think a cool search just to see where you're at, just to see where you show up, is just in an incognito mode browser. Just type in private clubs near me or country clubs near me or country club, insert city name, private club, insert city name and just see what shows up, especially in incognito mode. Asking somebody else to do it too, from outside the area, also helps just to get a real judge on what an organic search looks like and see where you show up. Are you showing up first, second, third, fourth? Are you even showing up on the first page. Are you showing up as part of the Google review listings on Google Maps? Because that's also what pops up. Little pro tip.

Speaker 1:

Side note I also did an episode on Google reviews. How are you showing up? How is your club showing up on Google reviews? Do you have a little? Do you have a lot? Do you have a good rating? Do you have a bad rating? But if you have less than 100, I think you've got to get at least 100 reviews for your club. Look at the reviews. Engage with the reviews in responding to every Google review that somebody puts, whether they are mad, upset Hopefully they're not mad, but I see a bunch. You can tell some people are upset, for whatever reasons or others, but respond to every review in a human way, being human. I hate when I look at Google reviews and you can just tell it's a copy and paste and it's okay to have a copy and paste response. Maybe have a couple different responses or humanized responses or a couple different ones that switch it up. Show humanity and respond in a way and respond graciously, even if something is maybe not said. Well, you know, respond to everybody, engage.

Speaker 1:

I was chatting with my friend, sean Blyle, about this episode and he had a really good point, and that was using AI, chat, gtp and other engines that people use or are popular, or whenever you're listening to this, but using AI to search and research your club for you. Hey, what are people saying about insert club name in chat GTP? Hey, act as a journalist researching club name. What would you report? What comes up? I mean, that's kind of like hiring a brutally honest digital assistant or PR person, because AI pulls from public patterns and web data and you'll get that perspective fast. That was a really good nugget from Sean. That's probably the golden nugget of the episode there.

Speaker 1:

Edit and not just google re reviews. But going into yelp, you know, where are you showing up? How are you showing up? What are people saying? What are these reviews saying? Are they true, are they not? Is it something that you really have to take serious? Is it stump, something that you know is maybe something that you've been putting off, that needs to be addressed? That's maybe being said in some of these reviews, but, uh, it's important to see what's out there, what's being said, and taking action on it.

Speaker 1:

This is something I think maybe clubs should be doing twice a year, once a year, you know, putting it on the calendar, making it a you know to do. Just having somebody spend an hour, an hour a year, two hours a year, let's just even double it four hours a year to making sure your online reputation is good, I think is not much to ask. So, google your club. What shows up. Do you like what you see?

Speaker 1:

So, as we wrap up, this is just a quick service announcement Google your club, see what pops up. Do you like what you see? And, if not, change it, can you do something about it to make it what you want it to be? And also, if you made it this far, while you're at it, google yourself, see what shows up when you type in your name, your name and your profession, your name and your city. Uh, just, and at the same stuff we're doing for the clubs, just do do it for yourself. It's just about knowing and seeing where and how you show up and if it's consistent among all the platforms.

Speaker 1:

Now listen, if you got something from this episode, if you thought it was good, you can do me a solid, share this with somebody. And guess what? Maybe it's not even the episode, maybe it's just telling them to do what this episode is about? Just hey, have you Googled your club recently? I just think that that's the most important. It's just making sure we all show up the best way we can. That is this episode. Until next time. I'm your host, danny Corby. Catch you all on the Flippity Flip.

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Denny Corby

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