This is the second in our series of Social Media Success Stories.

Jeff Ciecko is the Owner of CK Golf Solutions, which he founded with his wife in 2007 to provide business and management solutions to the golf industry.

Chris: When did you first integrate social media (blog, twitter, facebook) into your marketing mix? 

Jeff Ciecko: We started using Social Media about a year and half ago without any idea how it could be effective for our business.  The typical trial and error story.  Little did we know at the time that social media would become the only source of advertising that we use to promote our business.  What we have found to be most effective is the sense of community it has created.  There are not a lot of golf courses in B.C. who are using Social Media, yet we find them contacting us by email after seeing our blog or facebook page.  Being based in Vancouver and participating in Twestival’s, Tweetups and general networking opportunities social media creates is opening the door to new opportunities.

Chris: What attracted you to social media? 

Jeff Ciecko: To be honest we started blogging simply because we felt we had something to say and needed a forum to say it.  The blog started out as a golf blog about courses we played, golf news with a small dose of Canucks hockey mixed in.  It has really evolved into a blog about golf and life in Vancouver, B.C. and contains more of our experiences in life from dining to travel to arts and culture.  Of course there are still some golf and Canucks posts too!

Chris: What was your first impression of Twitter?

Jeff Ciecko: We were reluctant to try Twitter, in fairness we also didn’t really understand it either.  I think like a lot of people, in the beginning, we thought who cares what we had for breakfast, but Twitter really is much more than that.   As we mentioned, we have really met a lot of great people and made some fantastic business connections through Twitter and are constantly learning a lot from it.  There are a lot of great blogs, news and generally things going on that Twitter has opened us up to, especially if you follow active people in your own city or with your same interests.

Chris: What social media tools do you currently use? 

Jeff Ciecko: We use Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, You Tube, Flickr, Twitpic and of course our blog. 

Chris: How has using social media affected your business?

Jeff Ciecko: Only in a positive way; networking with like minded business people and even keeping up with some friends on a more regular basis.

Chris: Do you have a particular success story you could share? 

Jeff Ciecko: We were at a Tweetup a couple of weeks ago and chatting with someone we had just met, one of those meetings when you are standing beside a person and say hi that evolves into a good conversation.  After a bit of introduction of what we each did and of course a bit of talk about Twitter itself, the discussion turned to a marketing project the individual was working on that had a golf element to it.  We got home and had a new follower on Twitter and are having discussions about how we might assist in the project.  We believe we would never have connected or gotten the lead on a perspective client without social media.  We hear testimonials like this all the time from people who start with social media not sure what to expect and find a new prospect or lead that makes it all worthwhile. 

Chris: What has surprised you most about using social media?

Jeff Ciecko: Our biggest surprise now that we have been into it heavily for about a year is how many owners and operators in B.C. are not using social media or if they are, they are doing it on a very limited almost part-time basis.  There are about 300 golf courses in B.C. and at last count we believe there are about 12 or so who are using Twitter and about half of that are blogging or using facebook. 

Chris: On average, how much time do you spend on social media per day?

Jeff Ciecko: Probably about an hour and a half a day, about 90% of that time is devoted to our blog, eNewsletter and Twitter with the other mediums taking up the remaining time.

Thanks for taking the time to speak with us Jeff. I hope we get a chance to play a round with you soon.

Jeff can be found on Twitter as @CKGolfSolutions or you can check-out his website and blog.