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Marketing

6 Smart Steps To Grow Your Fitness Business With Social Media

Get organized and focused so that you can efficiently manage your fitness business’s social media marketing, without letting it take up all your time.

November 5, 2020

Even if you love interacting with your community on social media,you don’t necessarily have the time. You’re busy running your fitness business! Planning and creating valuable content, taking time to post it to your accounts, and following up and engaging with fans can be a full-time job.

When you’ve got a million priorities vying for your time and attention, social media management can be the first to-do to drop. Yet, with so many of your new and existing customers online seeking fitness content, now is no time to go silent on social.

Here’s how to get organized and focused so that you can efficiently and effectively manage your fitness business’s social media marketing without letting it suck up too much time.

Step 1: Create a posting schedule and stick to it.

One of the biggest differentiators between success and failure on social media is frequency and consistency. It’s so easy, yet most business owners fail to stay on track with getting enough posts out, on schedule. If you commit to post every day without fail, you’re going to be ahead of your competition.

Step 2: Create a content library of links and assets.

This takes some up-front investment of time and energy but will be well worth it in the long-run. Schedule time to collect and organize your content into documents and folders (Google Drive is a great, free resource). You’ll want to assemble the following:

  • A list of CTA (call-to-action) links such as your website’s most critical landing pages: Home, Pricing, Class Schedule, Online Video Class Library, Intro Offer, Instructor Bios, Customer Stories, Blog Posts. And make sure these pages are optimized so that customers can easily buy passes, register for classes and get involved with your community. .
  • A hashtag bank. Create a simple working document in which you list all the top hashtags for your specific fitness niche, the hashtags you’ve created for your business, and any “influencer” hashtags used by social media rock stars in your community.
  • All the classes, events, programs and announcements that you want to highlight over the next 30 days, with their descriptions and important links.
  • Photos. Use photos of your own community when possible, and fill in with stock photos where you don’t have images to illustrate your posts. If you have team members, make sure you ask them to upload their pics to the folder. This is a great way to collect both professional photos like head shots and candid shots of your community over time.
  • Videos. Post links or clips of promotional, instructional and personal “shout out” videos here. With Punchpass, you can host on-demand videos in your content library. Find out how.

Step 3: Create a social media calendar using Google Docs or Sheets.

A spreadsheet works especially well to maintain a comprehensive list of all your planned posts.

Here are some examples of common column headers in social media calendar grids to place them across the top of your sheet …

  • Date
  • Time
  • Facebook Copy
  • Facebook Image
  • Instagram Copy
  • Instagram Image
  • Stories Copy
  • Stories Image
  • Hashtags

If you want to get even more detailed in your planning you can color code your spreadsheet for different types of posts, such as:

  • Holiday
  • Introductory Offer
  • Promotion
  • Lifestyle
  • Client Success
  • Instructor Profile
  • Workout of the Week (WOW)
  • Workout of the Day (WOD)
  • Class Promotions
  • Workshops & Special Events
  • Community Focus/Service.

Step 4: Sign up for a scheduling tool

A scheduling tool can make your routine posts automatic. They’re a great time-saver — check out Buffer, Hootsuite or Sprout Social. Many tools are free for a basic account, and you can link your social media accounts directly to them.

Schedule 1-2 hours to enter all your social posts for the next 30 days. You’ll take all the posts in your calendar and cut and paste them into your scheduling software along with images or videos. Make sure to include clear CTA’s and links to where users can engage with you.

Step 5: Get Engaged without Getting Sucked In.

Once your content is scheduled, you can sit back and watch it automatically get posted. To maximize your reach and engagement, you’ll still need to jump in for live interactions with your community, but it only has to take a few minutes a day. You can also delegate this to a teacher or student in your community who loves social media.

If you set up notifications from your social accounts like Facebook and Instagram on your phone, you’ll get pinged each time a post goes live. Because platforms like Instagram optimize for real-time engagement, it’s important to get on and answer comments and respond to likes and loves right when your post goes live.

If you thank people for their likes and loves, respond with a quick reply to their comments and take a moment to like and comment on your students’ posts. That will put you ahead of the curve, and you’ll see your community grow.

Step 6: Once a week, post some real-time content that’s relevant to what’s going on in the moment.

Take a quick pic of yourself before or after class, doing your workout of the day or eating something healthy. Then upload it with an inspiring message and a question for your community.

Facebook and Instagram Stories are a great way to post short, sweet updates. Each video post is 30 seconds or less and you easily add stickers and comments with a few clicks. The more raw and real and less “produced” and perfect, the better.

The whole point is to have fun. Make sure you avoid getting stuck scrolling endlessly through your personal feed and stay focused on helping others.

Keep your posts centered on these 3 goals:

  • brightening someone else’s day
  • being generous in sharing tips and encouragement for getting and staying healthy
  • boosting the sense of welcoming and belonging in your community

The more you do these things, the more you’ll see an upward spiral of engagement and mutual support.