Is your Health Club making the most of Instagram?
Instagram is an immensely popular social media platform. After Facebook, it is the network which receives the most engagement, it boasts 1 billion active monthly users and 64% of those are between ages 16-34.
Content-wise, it’s impulsive, easy-going, straightforward and captures activity in-the-moment.
Like any marketing channel, there are lots of things Health Clubs must consider if they want to get it right. In this post, I hope to make it easier for you to understand some simple do’s and don’ts.
Understand the purpose of Instagram.
Instagram is just one part of your wider Marketing Plan. In isolation, it is unlikely that it’s going to drive an array of members to your door on a daily basis. You need to respect this.
In the past, I’ve talked about the 4’s of Marketing for Health Clubs, which are ‘Recruitment, Retention, Revenue and Reputation’.
To be brutally honest, Instagram ought to be viewed as a huge platform for your ‘Reputation’ piece and if done properly, it can also contribute to the other three R’s.
Does this mean Instagram holds any less weight than a marketing channel which does typically convert more prospects? Not at all, your reputation is one of your most valuable assets and this is a great platform to protect it and build it.
For Health Club Operators, Instagram can help build your reputation with your members in a way like no other, which is why I also believe it dips into the ‘Retention’ area.
With a better reputation among members and prospects, ultimately, you’ll be in a better position to increase your ‘Recruitment’ and ‘Revenue’.
If you’re on board, and you can appreciate how this will help your brand, you need to ensure the content you are putting on Instagram is conveying the correct message about your brand and the imagery you choose is portraying you in a positive, likeable, and realistic manner.
User-Generated Content vs Marketing-Generated Content
As you decide on which types of content you’ll use, you may want to decide between sharing User Generated Content (UGC) vs Marketing Generated Content (MGC). UGC involves the reposting of your members content whereas MGC posts are the ones which your brand produce.
Here are examples of both by JDGyms.
While you may think that the second one is better because it has JD Gyms logo on and if you put your logo on designs it will ‘get your brand out there’, you don’t need to worry about that, because everyone can see your name and logo when you post your content.
I recently touched on the advantages of User Generated Content in a post about securing Marginal Gains for your Health Club. As I made clear on this article, your members are scrolling through Instagram to see what their friends are up to, not to be sold to. A great way to naturally blend into people’s feeds is to utilise authentic, real User Generated Content.
I also stated in the article that User-Generated Content builds trust. As your members don’t really have anything to gain from posting a photo within your gym, your followers are likely to treat a UGC with more integrity than an MGC branded up post with fancy quotes and logos. Which would you be more likely to trust?
Finally, I mentioned how cost-effective UGC is as you don’t have to rely on a whopping marketing budget and a heavy-skilled design team to make it work effectively. If you want to cut costs, then this type of marketing is surely for you.
Now think about what your audience will prefer, not what you want.
For me, User Generated Content wins, but if you’re still not buying it, there are clever ways you can use both UGC and MGC, which I’ll raise throughout this post.
Only post images of high-quality
With UGC, some of the original posts made by the member may not have been taken on a high-resolution camera, so if you screenshot and repost it may come out as a low-resolution JPEG compared to the original.
As a rule, if you like the look of a photo, always ask the member to send you the original version, and use apps like Snapseed, Prisma, Adobe and the native editing features within Instagram App to make the photo look cleaner and crisper, but still real.
It kind of goes without saying but ensure you don’t select any posts from members which are blurry images or contain bad lighting as these will be harder, if not impossible to edit.
The idea is you want all your posts both on your story and your feed to be in the same resolution, with equal brightness.
If you’re struggling to collect imagery with such high standards from your members, I would suggest that you hire a photographer for a week to take ‘natural’ looking shots of your members. If you’re after that polished look, this may be the way for your Health Club to go on a regular basis. Here’s an example from Virgin Active UK who did just that.
I’ll discuss why it’s important your posts are consistent next.
Consider your theme
When initially conjuring up your content strategy, you’ll want to think about how your overall ‘Grid Layout’ will look.
You’ll also want to ensure your ‘Stories’ are categorised and displayed neatly too. See the example from PureGym below…
While you may have mastered the edits and filtering of one particular image, it is the aggregate of all your posts together which matters more both on your Grid and within your Stories.
As a user goes to follow your account, they will see your Grid Layout first, this will determine whether or not they want to follow you. If your Health Club follows a particular theme and looks attractive, more people are likely to press that elusive blue follow button, and perhaps more importantly, the website link which is situated just above on the Instagram App.
Here are some themes from various Industries, including one from our own (thank you Barry’s Bootcamp), which you may wish to consider below;
The Checkerboard
Vertical messaging
Horizontal messaging
Building the bigger picture
You don’t have to choose one of the four themes above as it certainly requires more care, time and effort to upkeep for what you may consider as ‘little reward’. Remember though, this is your shop window, and at the very least upon uploading each image you ought to decide whether its look and feel fit the overall vibe you’re going for.
One way that your gallery and story section may be themed is through the actual content itself you post, especially if it possesses a lot of variety and a consistent blend of colours and filters. Take a look at 1RebelUK here, who always ensure their posts have similar dark colours and light green tones, so overall nothing looks out of place.
There are tools out there like ‘Later’ which allow you to check what an image would look like on your Grid before posting, which may be useful for your Social Media Team.
As for your ‘Story’ section, I would keep it simple and ensure your story cover photos all look consistent.
I’ll go into more detail about the content you can post next.
Consider ‘scheduled’ content vs ‘on the fly’ content
If you know anything about running social media for a business, you’ll appreciate that it can be useful to have a ‘content calendar’. This is basically where you allocate a different topic to each day of the week.
An example and one you often see within the fitness scene is;
#MondayMotivation – A post with a fitness quote.
#TransformationTuesday – A post showcasing a member transformation
#WorkoutWednesday – A video of a Personal Trainer doing a mini-workout
#ThirstyThursday – A post featuring a member with a protein shake
#FitnessFriday – A health tip or image showing members of your gym working out
#SaturdaySweat – A post featuring members working out in the gym
#SelfieSunday – A post of members taking a selfie within the gym.
While this strategy is by no means terrible, it would be more original and innovative for your brand buck trends and shoot for something completely different from the rest of the competition.
Think about what features really encapsulate your Health Club and go from there. Don’t worry about the day of the week in your hashtag if there’s no clever to be alliteration to be made, people will appreciate your content if it’s unique, personal and appears more ‘human-like’ than anything too brand heavy or a motivational quote which is pulled straight from Pinterest.
Once you’ve decided on what content may really be best for you, you can then work on your Grid Layout theme.
The reason many Social Media Managers use ‘content calendars’ is because traditionally that’s what was considered best practice on Facebook and Twitter when companies first started using them.
While having an idea of the type of content you want is handy, Instagram thrives on ‘day in the life’ images and videos of real people doing things in the spur of the moment, for example, a member achieving a Personal Best or a class goer attending their 100th ever class.
You need to be mindful of these magical moments, and I believe this is how you can boost your presence on Instagram in the best way possible.
I would capture all the spontaneous activity such as Classes and Small Group PT sessions within your Health Club on Instagram Stories, I would also allow your Personal Trainers to host Instagram Live Stories and episodes on IGTV, as both these approaches resemble what humans do and like on this platform.
You should try and find an appropriate time within that day to post such impromptu content on your main feed too, especially if it has the right colour balance, resolution and follows the content plan and the Grid Layout Theme you are striving for.
With Instagram being very much a live platform, especially the story feature, if you are a multi-site operator, it may be wise to employ someone from each gym to look after your Instagram and wider Social Media or at the very least have a ‘content ambassador’ within that facility who takes photo’s and videos and sends them to your team at your Head Office.
Just make sure any team members who are on board know what content they are looking out for, which is what I’ll delve into next.
Share moments which connect with your audience
When you’ve settled with what topics, subject matters, features and attributes you’d like to focus on with your Instagram, I would strongly advise they all share a common denominator, that the content is relatable to your audience.
While the majority of Instagram users are under 34, if you are a Health Club which is passionate about attracting an active ageing audience, it may be wise to ensure that at least one or two pieces of content per week show pictures of this demographic. Perhaps the best way would be to share a picture of an elderly member training with their daughter, as the parent and child bond is something everyone can relate to.
For any clubs which are passionate about attracting the younger Millennials and the up and coming Generation Z, (who are becoming increasingly difficult to advertise to), then Instagram should be your go-to platform.
If you are a Health Club Operator which has a wide array of facilities, you should try to ensure your Instagram is representative of your Health Club as a whole.
While featuring members in the pool, sauna, jacuzzi and health spa may prove exceptionally challenging on Instagram, you can definitely concentrate your efforts on showing Boxing, Zumba, CrossFit, HIIT and Functional Training if that’s what your Health Club offers.
In other words, don’t just re-post constant selfies of members of the gym floor. Aim to showcase as much as you offer.
The more relatable you are, the more followers you will get. With followers comes engagement, and that’s what I’ll cover in my next point.
Engage with relevant posts and people
When Instagram users comment on your posts, reply back to them. It all goes back to that human approach – if a friend commented on a post on your personal Instagram account or tagged you in a story, you would reply, a brand should be no different.
While it might seem strange to you as a Health Club Owner that one of your team members is sat there on an iPad or phone replying to a host of people on social media, it is not a waste of time – it is 2019 and if you are engaging with the right people, it is certainly worthwhile.
The question you’re probably asking is, how do you know the people you are engaging with are the right people?
Well, it goes back to my initial point about Instagram being a ‘Reputation’ tool. Firstly, I would reach out to your current members first, rather than prospects.
It’s easier than you think to reach out to your members, if you have 30 gyms, then each site will have a ‘Place’ location within Instagram. Follow all the people who have uploaded a photo within your ‘Place’, they are either members, ex-members, or prospects who people who have used your gym at some point on some form of trial. Either way, they are worth connecting with.
As you are following these people, comment on their photo’s and you’ll likely get not just a comment back but a follow back too. To a member, it may be quite a pleasant surprise to see a large chain gym messaging them. This is the type of activity that helps reinforce brand loyalty and identity.
Once you do more of this, you’ll notice more members then start taking pictures and videos within your gym, which further boosts your UGC library, meaning over time the marketing starts to be done for you.
This leaves me with a couple more points…
Utilise the features which are native to the platform
If you’ve read through this article and some of my other posts about social media, you’ve probably kind of got the gist that your brand should be adopting a human-like approach. I hope I’ve banged that drum hard enough for now, but there’s one last point which I do believe is worth mentioning.
This goes for all social media platforms and not just instagram – USE THE FEATURES WHICH YOU CAN ONLY USE ON THAT PLATFORM.
For Instagram, hashtags on the end of posts are more commonplace than on twitter and facebook.
Within the Stories section, from ‘Music’ to ‘Boomerangs’, filters to Superzoom, there are quite literally hundreds of features you can utilise to show your human side.
All the emojis, the GIFs, and let’s not forget the Poll function will demonstrate that your brand understands Instagram.
Whenever a new feature is launched on Instagram, strike while the iron is hot and your members who are on the ball will be ready to engage with you.
‘So you’ve told me all this but, but, but I’m not making any cash’, I hear you say?
Pay to advertise on the platform
Contrary to what some may still believe, Facebook and Instagram are NOT free advertising tools. If you want success on it from a sales perspective, you must be prepared to spend.
Ask yourself, do you really think it is Mark Zuckerberg’s best interests for Instagram to be a free tool for businesses when all the revenue generated on this platform is from advertising? Prior to Instagram introducing advertising to his platform, maybe that was his goal, but not today.
The beauty of Instagram advertising, if you do it properly, is it can look very native to the platform, it mimics the type of content your audience sees already on their feeds and within stories so it is not too invasive either.
If you want successful conversions, spend money on Instagram to drive certain prospects to a well-designed landing-page and if you feel you’re ready, run paid partnerships with influencers. Both these have proven to be extremely potent methods for other brands, in and outside of the Health industry.
A few final words on Instagram
I hope that this article has given you a deeper understanding of how Instagram can work for your Health Club.
To summarise, you first need to respect that the free Instagram activity you do is worthwhile for your reputation and your member engagement, not necessarily your sales pipeline. Once you’ve understood the value of this platform you need to make sure your Instagram profile has content which is visually appealing, relatable and native to the platform. Your content must be brand representative without always being marketing-generated, and above all, it must mirror fellow humans (one last beat of the drum, I promise).
#OverAndOut