Most successful health clubs have a fittingly successful club social media. It’s that simple.
It is without a shadow of a doubt the best way to directly connect with your members and find new customers, at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising. However, running a successful club social media campaign is a skill and like any skill, it needs training and patience to get it working for you and your health club business.
So what better way to get you up to speed than with our 11 step workout to get your health club social media in shape.
Why You Need A Good Club Social Media
Social media is an amazing way to interact with your audience. It helps you advertise, build trust and handle your customer service all in one.
Search engines also love social media. Being on social media helps your brand appear in more Google and Bing searches, giving you more places to be discovered online.
Plus, the numbers alone speak for themselves:
The Total UK Population in 2019 was 66.77 Million
The Number of Active UK Social Media Users in 2019 was 45 Million
That means that over 67% of the potential UK market are already using social media in some form
In the last 12 months alone, active UK social media users went up by 1 million, while the UK population only increased by only a third of that
Social media is a huge market and it’s only getting bigger!
When you put it like that, it’s hard to deny not only the cultural impact that social media has had on the UK market in just over a decade, but also the potential it holds for health club and gym businesses like yours.
But having a large base is only the start of tapping into the potential social media market. Running a successful club social media is a special art, so let’s take a look at how you can make your gym social media work for you.
Step 1: Keep Your Club Social Media…Social
Social media’s main purpose is in the name. It’s social!
Whenever you talk about your business, the temptation is to immediately go into advertising mode. It’s the biggest mistake companies make when it comes to their social media.
People don’t use social media to be advertised to. I’m sure you yourself can’t think of any companies that you follow who just show you adverts on your social feed. You have to talk to people on that level, and only post things that YOU would be interested in, if you didn’t know your gym existed.
There’s plenty of smarter ways to show people how great your business is than just telling them. Interest them! Interact with them! Associate your brand with great content and an approachable presence.
Think of things that you think people will actually pay attention to; not just something you want them to pay attention to!
Step 2: Choose Your Club Social Media Platforms Wisely
Not all social media platforms are built alike and people use them for very different reasons.
Take a look at what your club delivers and focus on the social media platform that gets that across best.
Focusing on pictures? Then why not try Instagram!
Want to offer social media customer service? Then Facebook is best.
It sounds simple but find out the strengths for each platform and play to them. Twitter has a character limit because it’s supposed to be short and snappy. Instagram is picture focused, so put your attention and effort on your imagery. Facebook has great connectivity between contacts, so focus on connection.
And keep it under control. Only put your efforts into 3 platforms max and don’t over exert yourself. Make sure your content is high in quality, rather than high in quantity.
And always be on the look out for new social media platforms. People thought Facebook wouldn’t replace Myspace, yet here we are. Snapchat, Pinterest, reddit and TikTok… the world is booming with potentially untapped social media platforms that your club can jump onto.
Step 3: Give Things Away For Free On Your Gym Social Media
It seems wrong, but giving away free things via your club social media will get you more customers.
If you have fitness regimes, advice or dietary information, then give it away. You may initially be scared that it’ll turn customers away, after all, if they’re getting the service for free, then why pay for it?
But this really isn’t how customers think and if people see how much you can add to their lives, they’ll be far more interested in using your service.
Try packaging your advice up in an easy to read infographic to make it more enjoyable to read. There are plenty of free platforms you can use, so try them out and get creative.
Step 4: Use Pictures, Videos And Visuals
People are very visual animals. More and more internet users are digesting their content through videos, infographics and visual media than ever before.
Make sure you catch your audience’s attention in the sea of their socials feeds with eye grabbing content that is interest, relevant and gets them watching your health club social media.
And make sure it looks good by making sure your images are the correct size for each platform. You can find information on the perfect image and video resolutions for any and all social media platforms here, so your content always look great and displays correctly.
Step 5: Retweet, Follow, Like And Share
We’ve already said that social media is all about being social. So get social!
Follow your audience, answer their questions, post questions and polls yourself. Start a conversation, share and retweet interesting things you see.
Make your audience enjoy seeing you pop up in their feeds and chats.
You can even make a list of sites and social media profiles that you can check if you need interesting things to share that day.
Step 6: Get Inspirational
Self improvement is a personal journey for everyone who embarks on it.
Your service as a health club and your club social media is designed to help people improve their lives and feel great about themselves. So help them feel great!
Be inspirational, share your wisdom and really get to the key core emotional place that your members are at when they decide to improve their health and bodies.
Why not celebrate your inspirational member of the month? Give out quotes, wisdom and targets for your members to aspire to.
And if you’re not a designer and want to make your quotes look nice, have no fear. Platforms like Canva allow you to make nice images, while connecting directly to all your health club social media channels.
Step 7: Run Promos And Competitions
People love a great bargain. If you have a promotion coming up, get it on social. If you want to give away a couple of months of membership, then host a contest on your social media.
Competitions are a great way to get people talking about you, liking your page and engaging with you, which means you’ll show up in even more people’s feeds.
You can even make people share your content or like things you post in order to be involved in a competition, so it’s a win-win for everyone involved.
And if you’re not sure how to handle this yourself, there are a services designed to automate the whole competition system for your club social media.
Step 8: Get Organised
Social media should be a key part of your health club’s business marketing strategy and you have to treat it with the same level of importance as any other part of your marketing.
Try out different post times and different types of content. Keep a note and see what is working and what isn’t.
You’ll quickly find out when your audience is online and what they like.
You can download a free social media calendar here in order to get more organised with your health club social media.
Step 9: Follow The Goldilocks Rule
You know the story of Goldilocks right?
Post too little on your social media and it will be dead.
Post too often and people will feel spammed.
Post just the right amount and people will follow you.
Be aware of how much you’re posting. However it does depend on the platform. For instance, Facebook should be once or twice a day, but Twitter can be way more.
You can check here to see how often you should be posting to each social media platform.
Step 10: Give Your Club Social Media A Boost
Facebook allows you to boost your posts so you can reach more people.
This is often the best way to reach a lot more potential clients who are already connected to existing fans of your page.
However, unless you know what you’re doing, don’t spend a lot of money on paid social advertising. But putting £5-10 every few weeks into boosting a post is a great way to expand your reach.
Think about adding social media boosts as part of your marketing budget, so you keep your spending official and under control.
Step 11: Be Patient With The Results
Social media is a slow burn but it is worth it if you stick with it. The more you post, the more you engage your audience and the more you’ll get from it.
But never expect instant results!
This is very important. Social media is all about finding your unique groove and sticking with it.
The important part is to enjoy it, make it fun, connect with your audience and you’ll soon see the benefits. But always be genuine and keep that in check always.
Download Our Free Club Social Media Workout Today
Speaking of free and helpful giveaways, please feel free to download our free Club Social Media Workout PDF, which includes links and examples to everything written in this blog, in a simple to read and understand format.
Ashbourne Membership Management is focused on helping gyms, health clubs, leisure centres and studios grow their membership with solid leads and retain loyal members with an all-in-one management service, to give members the best health and fitness experience around.
Enjoy the free downloadable, but if you want to know more, then contact us and one of our dedicated team will be in touch to help you discover the right club membership management product for you.