So, What Is Great Social Media Marketing In The Fitness Industry in 2018?

Do you know anyone who runs a business and says ‘yeah I know Social Media Marketing, I post, I boost.’ 

For a marketing person to put it in a fitness realm, it would be like a pimply, skinny 18 year old saying he lifts, bro.  Whether or not I was that 18 year old is not the point. 

Facebook’s ever evolving algorithm is in place to keep Facebook relevant.  To keep it cool.  What it does in a marketers eyes is it keep’s it exciting fun and challenging. 

It means that the way you once got the best response out of a targeted traffic ad changes month to month to it being more profitable through boosted post, an engagement audience, a lead generation, to a reach ad and so on. 

And it certainlymeans our content has to be A grade or Facebook won’t rate it, wont deploy it and we wont get sales or brand exposure.  

Here are 6 factors that we see as the absolute key to creating Great Social Media Marketing in 2018 in our industry;

 

1. QUALITY VIDEOGRAPHY & IMAGES

The rating you get from FB and hence deployment and success are so important.  The quality of the content drives this.  Movie making classes, photography classes, rewarding staff who do it well, whatever it is.  Foster this skill in your clubs.

2. CREATIVE AND FUNNY

What a horrible thing to say to staff.  Be creative, be funny!  But it’s so important right now.  Reward risks, and be as engaging as you can.  Your community has a lower attention span and a higher advertising filter by the day.  Breaking through clutter is harder than ever before, and it’s going to get worse.  

  

3. LIVE VIDEO 

Not much can compete with the reach and organic ability of Live Videos.  It’s been a rare constant with Facebook.  Engaging and long enough to become relevant in your communities feeds.  For those with low Social Media budgets this gives you more of a fighting chance.

 

4. EVENTS

 Every event now has to be a FB event.  It’s just such a great way of getting organic reach in your communities.  
Promote your Open Days, displays, local stalls, Community Days as an event, and beg for your members and staff to share, comment and click ‘attending’ and or ‘interested in’. 

 

5. POURING OVER ANALYTICS

Because Facebook need’s to stay relevant and cool they move the goal posts more regularly than Mark Zuckerberg buys an island. 

Tightly watching reach, frequency, click through, new message conversations and cost per click are critical. 

facebook analytics

analytics

6. SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM 

This is where we are lucky.  A creative, innovative and risk taking team is crucial to keep up with Facebook’s constant changes and the publics ever decreasing attention span.  

Here are a few quotes and tips from just a couple of key members of our Social Media team;

Keys to quality SM content in the Fitness Industry - “Strong & meaningful messaging. Being approachable and non-intimidating and uplifting & impactful.  With the ability to cut through the noise, engage and inform, quickly and clearly.

“Ask yourself what are you hoping to get out of social media and then design your content around that answer. If you want to sell more memberships then you need to set realistic goals and targets, develop a strategy including who your audience is, how you will engage with them, what they are interested in seeing and assign staff members to help you achieve your targets.”

On creating engaging content - “We are all guilty of mindless scrolling on Social Media so when trying to come up with fresh new social media ideas, I always try to think of what would appeal to the target market e.g my mum, sister, neighbour. What would spark emotion or intrigue or humour to them. Having a distinct point of difference is key but if all else fails chuck in a baby, a dog or a guy in a tutu.”

Grace Henskes – Marketing Manager – On Live Videos - “Filming unscripted would be my first tip. Of course you have a think about what you might say beforehand, and most definitely have a purpose to the video, but by filming and having no fears of slipping up on a word here or there will mean you come off more natural and easy to watch!

  

For any more information on Social Media Marketing or on how CFM can help your club, contact us on asiapacific@cfm.net

 

written by: Liam Robertson, Director, CFM.

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