The invention of social media has made it easier than ever to connect with your customers on a more personal basis. Not only is it great for improving your customer retention rates, but business owners are also able to reach new customers much more easily. Simply put, social media marketing allows business owners to increase their interaction with existing customers while continuing to grow their customer base.
By using social media, you have the potential to grow your brand, drive traffic to your site and stay in touch with your members, all with just a few simple steps. Still, simply using social media won’t guarantee you business success. It’s important to invest your time and resources into the social media platforms that will provide the best return on your investment and to use them consistently and strategically. So, what are the best social media platforms for your fitness facility?
Facebook For Your Fitness Facility
Using Facebook is an amazing way to connect with customers, publicize events happening at your facility and advertise gym membership specials. Facebook is used by more than a quarter of the world’s population which makes it one of the most powerful social media platforms to promote your facility. In order to effectively use Facebook, your fitness facility needs to have its own Facebook page that you actively update. This is where you can share information with your existing and potential customers about the services you provide, as well as answer any questions they may have. Use your Facebook page to advertise the information your customers will be looking for — This could include your operating hours, your location, current promotions you are running, or customer reviews. When posting new content to your Facebook page, strategize the timing based on when your customers are likely to be using the platform. Typically Facebook users are more active after work hours and on weekends.
Twitter For Your Gym
Since Twitter uses a microblogging system, it’s the perfect platform to easily promote your facility updates, keep in touch with your audience in real time, reach a large number of people quickly and build relationships with your customers. To effectively use Twitter, it’s important to use relevant hashtags that will allow you to reach new sections of your target market. While it might seem simple to send out small updates throughout the day, it’s important to remain strategic about what you are posting and when. Another thing that can be done using Twitter is getting the attention of micro and macro influencers. Consider finding relevant influencers in the fitness industry to follow; tweet them with questions or positive comments and retweet their content in order to increase the chances of engagement. These days, almost everyone uses Twitter for its microblogging capabilities, so it’s a great way to potentially connect with high profile users. With so many ways to stay relevant, Twitter is a great social media marketing platform for gym owners to post updates, information and photos. It even has a live video feature so you can grab the attention of users as they scroll through their feeds!
Instagram For Your Gym
If you only have the budget to use one or two social media platforms, Instagram should be one of the main options you choose to pursue. Currently, Instagram has more than 500 million monthly users who share, post and engage with millions of videos and photos on a daily basis. One main advantage of Instagram is that it is a highly visual platform. This makes it perfect for posting high-quality images of your facilities along with videos of your various fitness classes. Many gym owners also post transformation photos to show a prospective customer what they may be able to achieve by using their services. Since there is a ton of competition within the fitness industry on Instagram, your content needs to stand out amongst the crowd. You may want to rely on apps like Enlight and VSCO to refine the lighting and quality of your pictures. You also many want to use a monetization app, such as Like2Buy to allow customers to shop for merch or memberships on your feed. Instagram is a great platform for posting content that your customers want to view on a weekly or monthly basis, such as new exercise routines, motivational messages or nutrition tips. You can then link the content you post to the appropriate pages on your website or blog to drive greater traffic.
LinkedIn For Fitness Facilities
Many people view platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as the best places for posting engaging content, and think of LinkedIn as being strictly business. However, LinkedIn can actually provide a more effective way for you to grow your fitness business than any of the other social media platforms. The reason for this is its sheer size and number of active daily users; LinkedIn boasts a user base of nearly 380 million people with 100 million of those users in the U.S. Although LinkedIn may have originally been for recruiters and job seekers, it has now become an important place for professionals to assert their expertise and gain credibility from their customers and fellow business owners. This gives you and your personal trainers the opportunity to market your abilities. Since LinkedIn is often seen as a more professional platform, use that perception to your advantage to become a thought leader in the industry. Used correctly, LinkedIn can help you to increase your sales, generate new leads, attract new clients and increase your overall reach.Yelp For Your Health Club
When potential customers are searching for a fitness membership, they are looking for positive user reviews, and lots of them. This is where Yelp can make or break your business. While it provides a wide range of other services, Yelp is best known and highly trusted for its user-generated reviews. Simply put, if you want to increase your customer base, you need to receive as many good reviews as possible on Yelp and other review sites. To do that, you not only need to run all other aspects of your business well, you will also need to stay active on Yelp and thank customers who give you good reviews. You should also make it a practice to respond to bad reviews on these sites and look for ways to mitigate any damage. Customers will appreciate this kind of care, ownership and attentiveness to their concerns. Try to keep your Yelp business page updated with information about your fitness facility, such as your contact information, hours and location. Be sure to also show off your facilities and equipment by posting high-quality images.While there are several social media sites that you can use to market your fitness facility, you owe it to yourself to do your own research in order to determine the platforms that will benefit you the most. Because of the differences in target markets and facility locations, one business may do well on Facebook while another does better on LinkedIn.
If you don’t know where to begin, try starting with one of the platforms listed above, keeping an eye on your analytics and building your social media marketing strategy from there. Happy social media marketing!