Leveraging Your In-house Influencers

Everyone knows social media marketing is important. It’s the largest, most cost-effective medium around and leveraged by successful businesses worldwide.

One of the hottest trends in social media is the advent of the “influencer.” The term gets thrown around a lot and the definition is straight forward — someone who can influence the decision-making of a large audience of followers — but the questions surrounding them often outweigh the answers: “Who are they? How do I find them? Which social media platform do they use most? Should I pay them to promote my brand? If so, how much?”

With all the other things that need tending to inside the four walls of your club, untangling this social media web can be an intimidating and time-consuming task.

The good news is those social superstars who seem so impossible to find are hiding in plain sight — as your personal trainers and group fitness instructors.

Some may already have a massive following, but much more often they fall into the category of “micro-influencers” — users with a few hundred to a few thousand followers. What makes micro-influencers so valuable is their audiences are much more local, relevant and actionable than the wide swath of users someone like The Rock might reach. Sure, he’s got millions of followers, but how many of them live close enough to your club to come in and try a new class or buy that first pack of personal training sessions? Probably very few.

On the other hand, not only are the networks of your trainers and instructors filled with users who are much closer to your club, and they have a vested personal interest in sharing about your club on their social networks — and if they don’t, they should.

Building a personal brand is step one for any trainer or instructor who aspires to reach a high level of success. While word of mouth can go a long way toward that, amplifying those words through the sharing of client success stories on social media can help fast track any career.

Not only can those kinds of posts increase your social footprint, they can also act as both a new business driver and retention tool. What better way to prove people should be working with you than to show it firsthand? What better way to keep a client coming back than to show them just how far they’ve come?

Most importantly, empowering the members of your team to build their own brand through social media comes full circle to benefit you as an owner. When people search for your club on social media, they should see post after post of reasons why they should be working out at your club with your trainers. As your group fitness classes fill up day after day, and your trainers’ books of business grow, so does your revenue.

Your trainers and instructors are already influencing members in your club — now it’s time to get them to influence your social media network.

Austin Smith is the Director of Enterprise Accounts (Fitness) at UPshow. He can be reached at austin@upshow.tv or visit UPshow.tv.