4 Tips To Leverage Social Media
Love it or hate it, social media is here to stay and it’s a critical part of your fitness business marketing plan. If you’re not using social media to build your authority, position yourself in the local market and communicate with your audience then you’re making things hard on yourself.
These tips aren’t going to turn you into the fitness equivalent of a Kardashian, growing 100+ million followers, but it will help you stay front and center for your local market.
Create Your Own Reality TV Show
Social media allows your audience to get a ‘behind-the-scenes’ look at your life as a fitness pro. They want to know what your day is like, what you’re thinking, where you eat, etc. Stories, especially on Instagram, give you the ability to create your own reality TV show.
Now, you may not want to let everyone in on your personal life. That’s okay. Show them what your gym life is like as you go through training sessions, share client successes, etc.
However, the more you can seem like a real person in your stories the more powerful they will be.
Set a goal to share 5-10 stories each day with your followers and give them a behind the scenes look at what life is like as a fitness pro.
LIVE with…
Creating live videos on social media allows you to connect with your audience in real time. This is one of the most powerful ways to share your content (and one I need to do a lot more!)
Stay away from live Q&As until you can figure out what to expect in terms of your audience engaging. Start off with sharing tips on nutrition, toning up your arms, tightening your midsection, glute exercises, etc. Whatever is most appealing to your target market, talk about that.
Be consistent and don’t get discouraged if you’re audience is small at first. It takes time to build a following and get them to engage.
Go live on each social media channel at least 1 time per week.
Do Your Research
This is particularly useful for Instagram. Using the right hashtags and locations in your posts are two of the most powerful ways to grow your local audience.
Following the right hashtags allows you to engage with your audience and enter into conversations that you may have missed otherwise.
For more info read this article on Buffer.
Be Social 🙂
Do you put up your post, scroll for a bit, maybe like a post or two and then jump right off social media?
If so, stop! Use social media to actually be social. (This is admittedly another area I need to improve on!) Comment on posts that you see, engage with your followers, DM or PM someone you haven’t talked to in a while.
The more you engage on social media the more it will give back to you, especially as a brand.
You can even use this to build up joint ventures by sharing and commenting on posts from other local businesses. This is a great way to get your foot in the door without cold calling.
Aim to reply to all your comments (unless you have 100,000+ followers) and DMs in a reasonable amount of time, comment on 3 posts each time you jump on social media and DM at least one person a day.
Don’t overcomplicate it!
Social media can become overwhelming and confusing. Don’t let it! Set a few simple rules for yourself, establish your behavior goals and then follow through. After 60-90 days evaluate if you feel like you got enough out of social media to keep with it or go back to the drawing board and find a new plan.
You don’t need tens of thousands of followers for social media to impact your business. All you need is a consistent plan to expand your reach and add value to your audience.
Here’s the cheat sheet if you skipped to the end:
- Post 1x per day with a video or picture
- Go LIVE 1x per week
- Reply to all comments and PMs
- Comment on at least 3 other posts per day
- Share 1 other business post per week
- PM one person per day
- Post to your feed 1x per day with a video or picture
- Go LIVE 1x per week
- Post at least 5 stories a day
- Research hashtags and locations to build your audience (and use them)
- Comment on at least 3 posts per day
- Comment or Repost another business post once per week
- DM one person a day
Using the tools you have your fingertips, mainly your smartphone, you can now share valuable content and be the first fitness pro your target market comes to when they are ready to change their lives.
And if you want more helpful tips for social media marketing then check out 8 Unconventional Tactics for Gym Owners to Boost Social Media Engagement.
