For a lot of members, the idea of talking to a personal trainer (or anyone in the gym) is intimidating. Whether it’s a fear of asking questions, a shy personality or just not wanting to invest the time in a one-on-one conversation, the reality is that members aren’t getting the complete value that chatting with a trainer could provide.
Facebook, however, is a different story.
People are much more open to the idea of asking questions from the comfort of their own home, which is why, about a year and a half ago, Snap Fitness started hosting a monthly Facebook “Ask the Trainer” Q&A.
The premise is simple: Each month, our Director of Personal Training, “Jodi the Trainer,” spends one hour on the Snap Fitness Facebook page, inviting members (and non-members) to ask health, nutrition and fitness-related questions on our Facebook wall and get an answer in real-time. The response was overwhelmingly positive right out of the gate, and the number of participants has grown each month.
While we host our chat on our global Facebook page, this is something that any fitness club of any size can replicate. It’s great to have a Facebook page, but hosting a chat is a way for you to engage members, improve your following and establish yourself as a fitness expert in the community.
Before You Begin
First things first — before you host your own Facebook chat, set up a profile for the person who will be answering questions, much like we did for “Jodi the Trainer.” This should be a real person (not just a fictitious character you’re creating for the sake of the chat), and you can use the profile to highlight his or her industry credentials.
It also goes a long way having the profile listed as a person who offers advice, as opposed to just the “club name” answering questions. In our case, for example, Jodi’s profile is “Jodi the Trainer,” which has more of a personal feel than “Snap Fitness.”
Promoting Your Q&A
Once you pick a date and a time for your chat, start promoting it at least two weeks prior to the event. I would recommend offering it during a time when people are likely to be at the computer (which means 8 p.m. on Saturday night might not be the right choice). Create flyers to display in your acrylic sign holders throughout the club. When it comes to promoting the chat, you should also include bullet points of what types of topics you’ll be discussing. Sure, the conversation may very well end up going in a multitude of different directions, but you should let people know that they can ask about everything from weight loss to building muscle and beyond.
Preparing Questions
In a perfect world, members will be asking so many questions that it’ll make your head spin. However, you should be prepared with some questions ahead of time, in case you need to get the ball rolling yourself.
One way to do this is to ask your Facebook fans what questions they have in the weeks leading up to the chat, or to create a drop box in the club for members to submit questions.
Conducting the Chat
Now that you’ve done the prep work, it’s time for the main event! Log in using your new profile and head over to your club’s Facebook page. You can either start it up yourself by posting something like, “Hi everyone, this is Jodi the Trainer and I’m ready to start answering your questions! Post them to the wall and I’ll answer ASAP!” or you can have a different moderator introduce you through the page.
From there, the questions will hopefully start rolling in, and you can comment back. From personal experience, I can also say that setting a clear-cut time window for the chat is a good idea, or the questions may just keep coming forever!
Once the chat is over, you can reuse these Q&A topics on the bulletin board inside the club, or on your Facebook page moving forward. Best of all, members now know who you are, and see you as a fitness expert. This means, it will be easier to sell training as you no longer have to get through the introduction and validation stage.
By Patrick Strait, communications manager for Snap Fitness.
