Where you are now
Three things stood out when we went through the site and the profiles. None of them are problems with the riding or the teaching — they’re all about how a stranger finds their way in.
The accounts have been chasing reach
Instagram follows more accounts than follow it back. That’s the shape of an account trying to grow numbers, and it’s the opposite of what a high-commitment school needs. Facebook has a smaller, quieter following and hasn’t posted in about a month.
There is no public proof yet
The Facebook page shows no reviews at all. For a school, that’s the single biggest thing standing between a nervous beginner and a booking — people will happily watch a reel and still not book, because a reel doesn’t tell them whether they’ll be looked after. This is also the easiest gap on the list to close, and it costs nothing.
The website still sends people to someone who has left
Every page footer, and the Facebook page, still list the old school contact as the person to reach for lessons. Anyone enquiring about a lesson right now is being pointed at an inbox and a number that isn’t being answered. Worth fixing this week, before any of the rest.
The two phone numbers on the site also aren’t tappable — they’re typed as plain text, so on a phone nothing happens when you press them.
tel: links on the site: 0The idea this plan is built on
A hundred true fans beats ten thousand followers, and for this business it isn’t close.
You are not selling something small and repeatable. A beginner going all the way to riding independently is a serious commitment of time and money, and a kite is a considered purchase on top of that. You do not need a big crowd to make that work. You need a group of people who know Stuart, know the instructors, know each other, and think of Molo as theirs. Those people come back, they buy their gear from you rather than online, they bring friends, and they are the ones who leave the reviews that convince the next nervous beginner.
So the target isn’t follower count. It’s a countable, real group. Here’s what we’d call a true fan, so it can actually be tracked month to month rather than guessed at:
- They’ve done a lesson with you, or bought gear from you.
- They’re in the Molo WhatsApp community.
- They’ve come to at least one Molo event.
- They’ve brought someone else along.
Someone who ticks all four is worth more to the business than a thousand people who watched a clip. The whole plan below is designed to move people down that list.
Instagram is the front door. WhatsApp is the living room.
This is the structural change, and it’s the one that turns content into a tribe.
Social media is where people find you. It is a bad place to keep them — you don’t own it, most of your followers never see any given post, and there’s no way to tell a regular apart from a stranger.
So we set up a Molo WhatsApp community and it becomes the actual home of the crew. Sessions get called there. Events get announced there first, before Instagram. Conditions get shouted there in the morning. It costs nothing, everyone in South Africa already lives in WhatsApp, and the number of people in it is a far more honest measure of the business than a follower count.
Every post on Instagram then has one job: make the right person want through that door.
Four things worth posting about
Every post belongs to one of these. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t go out. Each one has a different job — that’s the point of having four rather than posting whatever got filmed that week.
The beach
Van Riebeeckstrand, the wind, the light, what the bay looked like today. The Cape Doctor doing its thing. This is the cheapest content to make and the most repeatable.
The progression
Real students, named, going from nothing to riding. Day one on the beach against day three on the water. The moment it clicks. The wipeouts kept in.
The crew
Stuart, the instructors, the team riders, the regulars who are always down there. Names and faces, not anonymous silhouettes against the sun.
The gear
Flysurfer, and what to ride in what conditions. You represent the brand in South Africa and run a mobile test centre — that’s genuine authority almost nobody else has.
Three things a month that people actually attend
This is the engine. Content on its own builds an audience; events build a crew. The events also happen to solve the content problem, because they generate more material in an afternoon than a fortnight of trying to think of something to post.
| Roughly when | What it is | What it’s for |
|---|---|---|
| Early month | Sundowner session — end of day, everyone welcome, no skill bar, nobody has to ride. | The heartbeat. This is the one that makes strangers into regulars, and it’s the easiest to say yes to. |
| Mid month | Downwinder along the Melkbos coast. | The adventure. Gives the independent riders a reason to stay involved once they no longer need lessons. |
| Late month | Foil / wing day, alternating with a wave day. | The skill day. Sells the next lesson to people who already ride, and shows off the test centre gear. |
Once those are running steadily and the same faces keep turning up, they build naturally into camps — a multi-day trip, with the flat water at Langebaan as the obvious first one. Camps are where a crew becomes a proper thing, but they only work off the back of months of smaller sessions. There’s no rush to get there.
Why events do double duty
Every event is a day of filming with real people, real conditions and real reactions, which is worth more than anything staged. One sundowner gives you crew content, beach content and at least one progression story. The events feed the posts, and the posts fill the next event.
Who’s on camera
Most businesses have to invent content. You already have four different kinds of credible face, and they need almost no direction.
- Stuart — runs the lessons and the shop. The person people are ultimately deciding whether to trust.
- The instructors — IKO certified. It matters that beginners can see it’s a real school with real staff, not one person with a van.
- The team riders — sponsored rather than employed, and already posting. They’re the material that fills the gaps between the two planned posts a week, and it costs nothing but coordination.
- The students — the most persuasive people in the whole list, because they were nervous beginners a fortnight ago and the audience can see themselves in them.
The rhythm
Two planned posts a week
Made properly, planned in advance, spread across the four pillars. These are the ones that do the work. See the 8-week content plan.
Team riders fill the gaps
Their sessions, reposted, keep the account alive between the planned posts without anyone having to manufacture anything.
Stories most days
The wind call, what the bay looks like, who’s down there. Unpolished on purpose — this is the bit that makes people feel like they’re missing out on something happening right now.
Three events a month
Announced in the WhatsApp community first, then on Instagram. The community always hears about it before the public does — that’s what makes being in it worth something.
Reviews, starting now
The fastest available win, and it doesn’t need a single piece of content.
There are currently no reviews on the Facebook page. Every person who finishes a lesson and every person who comes to an event gets asked — not with a campaign, just properly, once, at the moment they’re happiest. A handful of real reviews from named local people will do more for a nervous beginner than any amount of footage.
We’d also get the Google Business Profile in order at the same time, so that somebody searching “kitesurfing lessons Melkbosstrand” finds a complete, current listing with people vouching for it.
What this plan does not do
Worth being straight about, so nobody is expecting the wrong thing.
- It won’t make the follower count jump. It isn’t trying to. If anything, following fewer accounts and posting for a narrower group will slow that number down. That’s the trade being made deliberately.
- We can’t promise a number of bookings. Anyone who tells you they can is guessing. What we can commit to is the mechanism: consistent posting, three events a month, a community people can actually join, and an enquiry that gets answered fast.
- It depends on wind and on access. The filming happens when conditions happen. Being based in Melkbosstrand is what makes that realistic — it’s a walk down the road rather than a scheduled shoot — but a flat fortnight is a flat fortnight.
- It needs Stuart on camera sometimes. Not often, and not performing. But a school is a person, and the trust pillar doesn’t work without a face.
What we’d need to get going
- The old school contact taken off the site and the Facebook page, and lesson enquiries pointed at Stuart. This one is urgent regardless of anything else here.
- Access to the Instagram and Facebook accounts, and the Google Business Profile.
- A quick intro to the team riders, and agreement on what they tag and when.
- Dates for the first month of events, so the first posts have something real to point at.
- Anything already filmed — old lesson footage, event clips, phone video. It doesn’t need to be good. It just needs to exist.
The next step after this is the enquiry side: making sure that when all of this works and somebody messages at eight on a Sunday night, they get an answer straight away rather than on Monday. That’s a separate conversation and it isn’t part of this document.