First Steps to Social Media Marketing

IMAGE COURTESY OF SHUTTERSTOCK

Over the last decade, social media has become a key component of business marketing. As Forbes reports, 69% of marketers are using social media to cultivate a loyal fanbase for their brands. If your fitness center isn’t leveraging social media marketing — or you want to do so more effectively — here are three critical beginning steps:

1. Pick Your Channels

There are so many social media platforms out there, but depending on your club’s demographics, not all may be right for your business. For the fitness industry, start by evaluating these three major platforms:

• Facebook 
  • Despite recent scandals, Facebook is still king of social media, with over 2.2 billion monthly active users. Key benefits include the site’s ability to share images, videos, articles and “stories” on your page — not to mention, Facebook’s highly developed advertising services.
• Instagram
  • Instagram is a staple of workout culture. Fitness influencers love Instagram thanks to its emphasis on images — those gym selfies have to go somewhere, right? This platform is an excellent way to showcase your club’s culture, aesthetics and world-class facilities.
• YouTube
  • The premier video-sharing platform, YouTube is a must if you want to create video content. Workout guides, customer testimonials and virtual club tours can easily be hosted on a YouTube page, then shared through your other social channels.

2. Create Original Content

Creating content is an awesome strategy to build relationships with your members and prospects. Content adds value to your social sites for your followers. There are two main types of content you can create:

1. Educational 
   1. Content meant to teach viewers or readers fitness-related material, like workout demos or nutritional blogs. This content can be especially effective if it’s short and easily consumable.
2. Inspirational
   1. This content focuses on culture building, like member fitness testimonials, team member bio blogs, or recaps of club charity events. This content helps cultivate your fitness center’s identity and culture.

3. Engage, Engage, Engage

Foster growth for your social media by making connections with both your members and prospects, as well as your peers in the industry. Your starting goal doesn’t have to be achieving the largest follower count as quickly as possible. It’s a classic quality over quantity equation. One hundred highly engaged followers who like, comment and share your content are far more valuable than 1,000 disengaged followers.

Foster engagement with your followers by being responsive to any and all comments and messages received through your platforms — especially if the comment is negative. Additionally, produce content that sparks a conversation or asks interesting questions.

Follow industry leaders and fellow fitness-related businesses to increase your club’s visibility in the market. Share content produced by fitness accounts, but only if it’s valuable and factual. As you deepen business relationships, you may see your original content shared by other fitness accounts, giving you valuable exposure.

By Club OS. Learn more about increasing your club’s online visibility with our free Search Engine Optimization Best Practices e-book!

Written by Kevin Talley, digital content coordinator at Club OS. Visit www.club-os.com for more information.