2020 has brought its share of challenges to fitness facilities in the United Kingdom and around the world. The good news is, you still have some great options for connecting with your exercisers in new ways that will allow you to keep in touch and maintain a loyal customer base. Implement these ideas to help make your facility’s social media presence engaging, valuable, and influential during this impactful time.

Allocating Your Time

Between Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and all the other social networks out there, it can be hard to figure out where to spend your time and energy. Don’t feel like you need to be active on every single social media platform. It’s better to focus on doing a few things right versus doing a lot of things poorly. Find the top two or three social networks that fit your facility’s current goals and that resonate best with your members. You’ll want to concentrate your efforts there. For the importance of connecting with your members during this critical time, we would recommend most facilities focus their efforts on Facebook and Instagram.

Setting Goals

Set attainable goals for your social media profiles, making sure they are realistic, measurable, and timebound. For example, if you are a fitness facility that has typically posted 5 times a week, it would be a big jump to set the expectation to post 50 times a week (feed and Story posts included). Concentrate on breaking this larger goal into smaller, more attainable goals like posting on the feed once a day and the story once a day, and grow from there. The goal now is to stay consistent and active to stay connected and engaged with your members.

Creating a Content Calendar

Create a social media content calendar for each social network and plan what content your followers will find relevant, valuable, and insightful. Establish a schedule and once you’ve established your social media content, you can schedule posts in advance, ultimately saving you time. That being said, always be flexible and when unexpected things come up like our current situation with COVID-19, be prepared to shift your direction and approach to stay relevant. Good content to share now is:

• At-home workouts (bodyweight, limited equipment).
• Daily fitness challenges people can do at home, and then share and tag you and their friends in.
• Mindfulness, stress relief, and nutrition tips.
• Motivational content so people do not give up on their goals just because their daily schedule has to change.
• Live group training classes.
• Takeovers from your trainers or live events to get members up and moving.

Finding Content Inspiration

Check out what other companies, influencers, and reputable fitness experts are posting. Scroll your newsfeed and check out the Explore pages on your platforms to see what is trending now. Encourage your members and staff to tag you in their posts, which creates a great opportunity to repost this content on your page as well. Reposting this sort of content during a time like this can serve as excellent motivation for other members and followers, and in turn can help build up your community feel. Once you start looking, you’ll find that there is plenty of great content waiting to be leveraged by you.

Using Paid Advertising

Consider paying for advertisements. Social media sites offer the option of promoting or "boosting" your posts. These options are relatively cheap for the amount of people you have the potential to reach. Keep in mind, though, to not always advertise offers and sales, or your target audience may ignore them. You want to boost exciting and relevant video content or news pieces that are going to catch follower’s attention and make them want to engage with your brand and potentially become members down the road.

Use Instagram and Facebook Stories 

Stories on Instagram and Facebook are a quick and easy way to engage with other users and followers. They allow for the freedom to post a variety of content without having to worry about throwing off the “theme” or “aesthetic” of your Instagram feed. Some examples of excellent Story content during our current conditions are:

1. A daily workout
2. Virtual group classes
3. Tips on exercise form
4. Q & A sessions with trainers
5. A sneak peek behind-the-scenes of enhancements or actions you are taking to prepare for the doors to open again at your facility
6. A trainer takeover on your Instagram or Facebook story
7. Sharing content that others have tagged you in to help motivate, inspire, and build up your community

Utilising your stories allows you to engage with your audience regularly and in real time. But keeping followers engaged takes time, commitment, and effort. It’s important to understand how to best communicate with your audience in order to effectively engage with them on social media.

Some ideas are:

1. Set up a poll. Setting up polls on Instagram Stories encourages audience interaction and helps increase engagement. It’s also a great way to gather information and to see what your audience and followers like (or don’t like).
2. Ask questions or let your followers ask you questions. The “Ask Me Anything” feature for Instagram Stories is an effective way to interact with your followers. The great thing about this feature is that your followers get to learn more about your business or brand, and in return, you get to learn more about your followers. It’s a win-win situation!
3. Tag other people. Just like how you can tag other users on your Instagram posts in your feed, you can do the same with Instagram Stories. Tagging other businesses, brands, or influencers increases the chances of your brand to be seen. This is effective because when you tag others in your Instagram Stories, they have the option of reposting your story - ultimately, this helps maximise your reach.
4. Get on and talk to your followers to share daily tips, motivational quotes, or even a workout of the day! Show them that there is “REAL”ness behind your brand.

Consistently posting a wide variety of original content will help keep your profiles relevant and engaging. Create content that will keep your followers coming back for more!

Essential Stories Tips and Tricks

1. Tell a story.

The best Instagram Stories are just that – stories. Clear and simple. Use this feature to piece together an experience with a beginning, middle, and end.

2. Be authentic.

Authentic content is honest, both in message and execution. It’s imperfect, real. People trust real, so just be you and have fun!

3. Provide value.

Social media audiences want to be provided with information and/or entertainment.

4. Get creative.

Instagram Stories offer plenty of features that enable us to share content creatively. Make sure you are taking advantage and using the features discussed above.

5. Plan ahead.

If you know you will be hosting a takeover make sure you are pre-planning what you want to share. Sure, some content will be done on the fly, but make sure to have a general layout in mind.