-Keys to Leveraging Facebook for Your Fitness Career
Facebook.com has surpassed 250 million active users worldwide – users spanning every demographic. The Facebook phenomenon is growing so rapidly that it is difficult to stay on top of the trends in a truly quantitative manner.
In 2009, many experts have reported that the fastest growing segments of Facebook users are adults age 35-55, even though the site was started primarily as a social networking community for college students. Since we are discussing a rapidly moving target, I’ll weigh in with my own take: my guess is that 70% of personal trainers viewing this already have a Facebook page. The real question, however, is do you use it for your business, and if so, is it effective?
While preparing for this article, I spoke with a variety of trainers, clients and friends in the technology field to get suggestions on what to consider when using Facebook for business and marketing purposes. The following are some key thoughts and tips:
- Use yourself, peers, parents and friends as a no-cost focus group to determine if and how they are using this platform today. Be sure to ask if they even knew what Facebook was two years ago.
- Gather feedback from your clients before creating a Facebook page. Ask them to be specific about their needs and how they currently use social networking sites. This should be a very simple and short conversation. Do they use Facebook? If so, what would they want from you and how would they want to interact with your services? This is the ultimate “voice of the customer” information that is most important for you and your business so listen carefully.
- Post value-added content that you believe would truly assist your clients and increase their success rate. The robust set of tools that Facebook offers enables you to post video clips, photos, articles and micro-blogs, as well as develop client sharing features and discussion groups. (Clients can network through your site to motivate and have dialogues with each other.) You also have the ability to send short communications including reminders about anything that is important when they are not physically with you.
- Share fitness-related content. Remember that in our time-starved culture, clients would enjoy information such as where to find the latest Food Pyramid or Physical Activity Guidelines, sources for fitness equipment and apparel, health and fitness tips and similar content.
- Write your own content. Facebook notes are a perfect feature to write “espresso-sized” articles with your views on an emerging trend, piece of equipment, or recent fitness news. This can take the form of a review, or simply a short summary that includes your take on a particular topic.
- Feature your availability. Consider using your page as a way of updating your schedule, vacation time and even post open times for new clients in your practice.
- Showcase your credentials. If you’ve just completed an advanced or specialized training course, or earned a new certification post it so that your clients know about it.
- Incorporate a client feedback section. Being face-to-face can make it difficult for some clients to be open. Allowing them to provide feedback electronically on your page can be extremely valuable.
- Feature client success stories. Help clients connect with each other and gain motivation from like-minded individuals with similar fitness goals.
- Keep your page fresh. If you do maintain a professional site, update it weekly. No one wants old information and you want to keep people coming back for more.
- Find partners that align with your philosophy and direction. These partners can be a resource for your clients and a referral source for you. By cross-linking to each other’s sites and Facebook pages, this can provide a good networking opportunity.
- Think about your future clients. Moving forward, think not only of your current clients, but your future clients as well. The “millenials” and the younger generation following them use this technology multiple times daily in many aspects of their lives.
Andromeda Wuebker, a technology expert who has helped many companies commercialize their technology puts it best by saying, “your clients will increasingly rely on tools like Twitter and Facebook for all aspects of their lives. For your future clients, these technologies are already baked into their daily routines. You can gain tremendous leverage and get ahead of the curve by starting now with a Facebook page for your business that is flexible and responds to your client’s needs. This space will evolve quickly and you want to begin experimenting now to find your rhythm and what works for your current and future clients.”
So, how many of you are using Facebook to promote your fitness services? What tips can you share? Tell us below when rating this article!