As of January 2022, more than half of the world is using social media — that’s an incredible 4.62 billion people around the world scrolling through Instagram , TikTok and tweeting into the ether.
Perhaps it is little wonder, then, that social media strategies have become the most sure-fire ways that businesses can deliver their services to clients, and market themselves and their businesses in ways that really appeal to their client base.
This is true nowhere more than in the fitness industry. Take Instagram’s #fitness, a hashtag that has 180 million uses alone.
These are big numbers to crunch, and, frankly, there is a lot of information online for businesses that want to up their social media game, be that through how they provide services, or how they get new clients through their gym, club or studio door.
But with so much information out there — and much of it conflicting — it can be overwhelming to know where to begin. That’s why we’ve compiled our top tips for using social media in 2022, replete with the social media strategies that are guaranteed to help your business boom.
1. Create Your Community Hub
The clue is in the word: social media. Use your social channels to build a strong community hub because when your business is a community, your clients remain loyal and drive new people to you and your brand. Three key ways you might do this include:
- Live streaming your services
- Organizing challenges
- Utilizing leaderboards
One critical way to do this is to deliver your services to an online community. Setting up a YouTube or Instagram account is an effective way to live stream or upload pre-recorded workouts. By housing your content in one place, you can cross-post to your other social media channels.
Encouraging people to share, download, and comment on your videos can increase engagement and get people talking!
Plus, you can use social media to organize challenges and ask your community to film themselves and share it online! The idea is to have a solid social media presence and encourage members to interact with you outside the gym.
Another way could be to create leaderboards. Utilizing a leaderboard to celebrate your clients’ achievements is an excellent way to keep them engaged. Posting on social media about your clients’ milestones is also a casual way to do some online marketing and quickly increase your online visibility .
2. Use Social Media Strategies to Hire the Best Talent
Virtuagym recently conducted a survey amongst our clients worldwide, and one of the main things our clients have been struggling with this past year was attracting the right talent. In fact, some 10% of gym owners around the globe suggested that finding qualified personnel for their gyms and health clubs was their all-time biggest struggle.
The best way to reel them in? Show your ideal hire that you are the most desirable place in your location to work. This is best done by cultivating a compelling story that authentically captures your unique company culture. Identify how you will present yourself as an organization and create content that reflects these ideals.
Social media is the ideal place to do this. You can do create a brand story through memes, captions, videos, or images shared on your social media channels that capture who you are as a business and what it is like to work with you.
3. Try Out TikTok
TikTok is an often overlooked social media platform that can act as a highly impactful way to draw new people into your business — particularly those who are in the 16 - 24 year old age bracket. Even if this doesn’t hit your main target audience, with over 689 million monthly active users, you’re going to want a slice of this future prospective client base.
When it comes to create TikTok content, don’t underestimate the power of humor. Save your polished scripts for YouTube and embrace being authentic and personable.
If you’re not too sure where to start when creating humorous content, try making videos that poke fun at fitness trends or debunk popular fitness myths; this bridges the gap between the lifestyle of a personal trainer and that of their clients.
4. Create an Online ‘Attractive Character’
Have you heard of the ‘Attractive Character?’ And no, we don’t mean someone who looks good in yoga pants.
This term refers to a person with a natural charisma that attracts followers on social media.
It is the persona you share with your audience, and it can be an effective tool for building rapport with potential followers.
The 4 Elements Of Creating The Attractive Character:
- Your Backstory- Who are you?
- Parables– What stories can you tell?
- Character Flaws– You’re not perfect, right? So what makes you human?
- Polarity– You can’t make everyone like you, so have your own firm opinions.
These elements strongly affect the way people relate to you. All fitness influencers have cultivated an Attractive Character on social media – that’s how they gain followers!
In short, don’t be afraid to be the face of your brand; people connect to you before they connect to your product.
5. Keep Your Finger on the Pulse of Social Media Trends
Keeping up to date with the latest trends helps you to ensure that your content remains relevant and relatable. Trends change quicker than a round of interval runs, so keeping a keen eye on them is key to your social media strategies and your online success rate.
Get it right, and you can generate a whole load of brand traction. But be sure to remember that not every TikTok trend, Facebook challenge, and Instagram hashtag is right for your business, so choose wisely and keep your brand persona and client base in mind. Ultimately, effective social media strategies are those that remain true, and authentic to what their business is about.
6. Leverage Social Media Strategies To Close New Memberships
When it comes to using social media to boost your revenue, one of the best ways to do that is to make it as easy as possible for would-be clients to purchase a membership option with you.
Social media strategies can be used to promote your website and online memberships and help to boost website traffic. As soon as potential customers land on your website, give them immediate access to close membership sales. This makes this action much more straightforward. To simplify the steps, you could include a link to sign-up in your social media bio or as part of a ‘link tree’ — a website that allows you to post all of your essential links in one easy-to-access place.
7. Make Sure You Are Using The Appropriate Channels
Determining the most appropriate channels for your social media strategies will save you valuable time and increase the effectiveness of your message in the long term.
From Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn to TikTok, you have plenty of sites to choose from.
When choosing your channel, ask yourself:
- Does it reach my target audience?
- Does it fit my budget?
- Does it allow me to communicate my message effectively?
- Can I measure its performance?
- Does it work well with the other channels I have chosen?
It’s also helpful to review the performance of the channels that you currently have in use. You may want to include a new, innovative channel in whichever social media strategies you are implementing in 2022. Keep in mind that if the channels aren’t working for you, you can be creative, and switch things up at any time.
You can also always create a new space for your message that fits your goals. Sometimes, the boldest strategies are the most successful.
