This month we sat down with Kory Angelin, the chief operating officer for Volofit, about social media marketing.
What are the benefits of social media marketing, and what are your goals?
Some benefits include:
Cost effective. Creating organic content on your own is a far less expensive way to promote your brand. Follow the 80/20 rule: 80% of your content should be organic as people relate on a more personal level with organic content. And 20% should be stock photos and videos.
Brand recognition. Using a social calendar for consistency will help to attract more followers. Introducing members of your staff like trainers is a great way to build your brand at a gym or studio level. These are the rockstars of your business.
Insights. Social media is a great way to understand your demographic and who you are attracting. Reviewing your analytics is a key benefit to social marketing.
The goal for social media is simply to create a community. People want to be engaged and educated especially when it comes to health and fitness. Creating a community on social platforms enables you and your business to both interact with a larger population, as well as potentially increase your membership base from a business and sales standpoint.
Which social media platforms do you find the most beneficial?
Instagram. This is a no brainer for most but creating content in the right format is key. Some important best practices when creating posts on Instagram are:
- Start with a catchy title that engages thought.
- Lead back to your gym/studio as a solution and have a clear value proposition when you do that.
- End with a call to action that has a sense of urgency like, “Register now” or “Limited spots available.”
YouTube. I believe this will be the wave of the future when it comes to marketing. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. Although many fitness influencers use this platform, there aren’t too many gyms/studios that use it well. I believe you will see more and more big-box and boutique studios take advantage of YouTube in the future. It is a great way to put out longer format content that will help build your brand. Keep your videos five to 10 minutes in length.
What are your favorite metrics or reports for measuring engagement?
Likes and shares are the simplest way to gauge and measure success. It gives you a quick sense of how many people are viewing your content. Additionally, click through rate helps to measure the success of your online advertising campaign. It is the ratio of users who click on a specific link to the number of total users who view the page.
What are the biggest challenges to social media marketing?
The real challenge to social marketing is most people aren’t experts in social media. The challenge is for them to take the time to educate themselves or to leverage someone on their team that is knowledgeable about social marketing. Be consistent in your posts and do not be afraid to be organic. You do not need your content to be filmed with a $1,000 camera. Put yourself and your brand out there, and you will be surprised how engaged people get.
Kory Angelin’s Tips to be Successful at Social Media
1. Put someone in charge that both understands social media and is active themselves.
2. Create a 30-day social media calendar each month. This helps to organize what posts you want to film/create and when you want to post them.
3. Try to create a compelling headline that engages an audience or provokes a question or thought.
4. Create a Linktree on your Instagram account.
