Social Media and Fitness Businesses - a perfect fit?

by Ryan Hogan | Monday, January 16, 2012

There is no question that businesses both in and outside of the fitness industry are embracing social media as a cost effective and efficient way to communicate with their customers and stakeholders. Every magazine you read, conference or workshop you attend will feature somebody talking about how social media will change your business, and should be adopted by everybody, whether you are a sole trader, mid size or large corporation.

At a recent small conference I attended one thing did stand out for me. One of the speakers coined the phrase: "Whether you like it or not, your business will have a presence/space on social media. The difference is whether or not you, your customers or a random person own that space". I really believe this statement drives home the need to have a strategy for social media, so that you can do your best to own the space as much as possible.

Your strategy really should focus on two simple objectives:

1. Market your business to new prospects and,
2. Communicate more effectively with your existing customers.

Although I realise I'm most likely over simplifying - in my mind, there are three things that are easy enough for you to do to engage your customers and possibly generate some new ones. And the best part? It's all free and will only require some of your existing staff's time. If they are Gen Z or Gen Y they will intuitively understand how to manage these platforms so go ahead and use them!

Facebook. As a business what you want to do is set up a Facebook "page" which is very similar to a personal profile but is easier for people to connect with as it doesn't require friend requests. You can create the page using your personal account, and then set it up with some logos and a few photos of something interesting at your facility. (group ex launches, bootcamps, etc). You can then post links to fitness news, articles of interest, fit tips of the day or even a promotion or two! Before you know it you will have your members following you and communicating with you through this medium, even more-so than email. And by answering quickly and with a photo next to your club name, you make it much more personal. Full instructions on how to set it up can be found by clicking here.

Twitter. A Twitter account works very much like a Facebook page, but stripped down to bare bones. Once you set up a profile you can begin to publish quotes and even short ads which people will choose to react or not to, depending on how interesting they are. In my opinion Twitter is useful for pushing out links to articles of interest or maybe changes at your club, opening hours etc. You can also link Twitter to Facebook so whatever you tweet gets published on your page wall - saving time! A lot of businesses are now monitoring twitter and answering members queries through this medium as well. For full instructions on how to set up a Twitter page click here.

Foursquare. A unique platform built around the concept of "checking in" to places and getting points based on your check in. As a company, you can own your foursquare location and offer promotions to people as they check in. Restaurants and cafe's do this very well overseas, by offering small extras or discounts to people as they arrive. In my opinion the fitness business is possibly one of the most check-in orientated industries out there as we want our customers to check in every day! Why not offer somebody a prize for the most check ins during a period? Or run a competition? Justin Tamsett from Active Management wrote a great post on foursquare which I encourage you to read by clicking here.

Do you or your organization have a social media strategy in place? And if so what is it? Please post using the comments box below and share with your fellow fitness pros.

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