When it comes to creating marketing strategies and engaging with clients, social media is a necessary part of the plan. The reason being, that’s where your customers are likely spending time each day as they interact with friends, family and brands that they care about. For companies, including fitness studios like yours, the question then becomes, which social media platform do we join and engage in?
Understanding which platforms are right for your studio and the demographic will likely require a unique mix of platforms, but there is one that should be a part of your strategy today: Instagram. According to leading market research company, Forrester Research, “One social network absolutely blew the others away when it came to delivering engagement: Instagram. Our study found that top brands’ Instagram posts generated a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21%. That means Instagram delivered these brands 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook, and 120 times more engagement per follower than Twitter.”
Behind the numbers
With one billion monthly active users and 500 million daily active users on Instagram as of the end of March 2019, it’s clear leveraging this platform is a must. Beyond that, users frequently look to Instagram for fitness inspiration; for example, 180 million uses of the hashtag, “#fitness” reveal an audience ready to engage. So, how do you get involved with the conversation? It’ll take a balance of quality content (what you post), and the ability to be found.
Whether you are already active on Instagram, or are looking to get started, consider the following strategies for increasing engagement and followers:
Go beyond pictures with video
According to Vimeo, a livestream content platform, 82% of users prefer live video from a brand to social posts. What that means is, users want to do more than read about or see what is going on with your studio, that want to get a taste of the experience! Share a snippet of one of your classes with a particularly magnetic instructor. Think of it as a teaser or hook to get people excited and motivated to join a class. And, don’t just do it once – be sure to give ongoing posts that show a variety of classes and experiences that may incorporate different instructors, music choices, etc.
View our webinar, Why Fitness Videos are Your Secret Weapon on Social (and How to Make Them Yourself).
Share real-life transformations
As a part of increasing engagement at your studio, you may incorporate fitness challenges for your members and studio-goers. With their permission, leverage these real-life progress efforts and the transformations of those who achieved them using your gym and classes. People want to see what can actually happen; ‘Before and Afters’ give visual evidence of the impact your studio can have on them personally.
Encourage employee/instructor involvement
When your instructors and employees become spokespeople and representatives for your studio, your gym’s exposure increases exponentially. Encourage them to tag or incorporate their personal posts as it relates to the studio and the classes they are involved with.
Find and use the right tags
As you seek to build your following with engaging videos and information, you need to make sure people can find you when they are searching for the information and expertise you provide. You’ll commonly see brands use a number of hashtag terms all with the effort of being found when those terms are being searched by a user. Use every term that is relevant to your studio and be consistent when using them. Terms to incorporate: your location, specific fitness terms, gym name, etc. Also, incorporate hashtags that are unique to your studio – maybe phrases you make as a team or studio family. Just remember, tags provide identifiers for your studio – both with practical need-to-know information and for personality sake.
Get involved locally and regionally
Use the classic market strategy of community involvement to inspire your posts in the social media world. Become a part of larger conversations by piggybacking on events, news stories, causes, etc. that are relevant to your studio and those who are your target audience. Remember to leverage hashtags from those events, brands, etc. if they are being used so that users can see you are engaged in the conversation!
In the end, when you focus on providing information that is authentic, interesting and informative, all while making yourself easy to find, more people will discover you, engage and ultimately want to be a part of what you provide.
Find out how to grow your reach and traffic by joining the ClassPass community — contact us.
