Should Your Health Club Be on LinkedIn?

As a health club marketer, it’s likely your business has a presence on Facebook, Twitter and maybe even Instagram. But what about LinkedIn?

As a professional-oriented social media platform, some club operators may overlook the benefits of having a LinkedIn page for their business. But there are benefits — including positioning your gym as an employer of choice, and more.

Here, Newtown Athletic Club marketing manager Jen Yaeger shares her best practices for LinkedIn marketing.

CS: Why is it beneficial for clubs to have a presence on LinkedIn?

JY: I believe all businesses should have some type of presence on LinkedIn. I have worked in different types of industries and found that it is a great way to get information out to the community, members, supporters, donors and so much more.

LinkedIn’s most beneficial offering is the networking feature. You can connect to people all over the world that are in your industry.

Another amazing feature is increased exposure. Not everyone uses the same social media channels — even the millennial generation doesn’t use them all. If you single out one type of social media, you may be missing out on hundreds or thousands of individuals who want to see or hear about that information. You want to show the people in your community you are relevant and relatable by posting about success stories, improvements being made at your organization, new types of workouts, employees and more. The more you share, the more people are likely to trust your business.

The list of benefits can go on and on for LinkedIn including lead generation, trustworthiness and more. As the technology world is always changing, I am sure LinkedIn will, too.

CS: What are your goals for NAC’s LinkedIn page?

JY: LinkedIn is a great way to define your organization as an expert in your respective space. The goal of our page is to increase exposure, provide content and remain relevant in our community from both the consumer and business side. One way we do this is with press releases, articles and other types of external media, in various mediums, that the club has already created.

CS: How do you measure success? Are there any specific metrics you look at, or social media tools/technologies you’ve found helpful?

JY: I measure general KPIs and specific campaign related posts. I produce a monthly report that tracks our likes and reach on every social media site we utilize. I collect general likes, organic reach and then have a separate report to analyze each campaign and how each post performed that relates to that campaign. Then I share the numbers with the members of the marketing team to help us all make decisions for the next campaign we do; whether we change up our copy, the content, choose to do a video over a photo, etc.

CS: What are some tips you can share with other club operators for marketing/having a presence on LinkedIn?

JY: First, make sure that your LinkedIn business page represents your brand and mission, and ensure your “about statement” is clearly written and have the link to your website. Second, have your employees create their own profiles and list your business as their employer. This not only jumpstarts your following, but increases your integrity with engaged employees. Third, start posting content and don’t stop.

CS: Any other tips/best practices for LinkedIn you can share?

JY: Keep track of your data through a third-party application or an excel sheet (that is what I do). If you don’t pull data on a regular basis it can be extremely hard to find or totally lost. If you want to show your supervisor how many people you reached though free online media or predict the best time to post on LinkedIn, that is the only way.