How fitness centers are using Instagram opportunities to their advantage.
An educated personal take from the blog of Ryan Rickard as of June 2020.
With topics including sports and music being extremely popular, fitness proves to be right on top as well with the #fitness currently connected to 387,667,903 posts on Instagram (Instagram.com/explore/tags/fitness). Most of these posts come from fitness influencers or gyms and seem to be extremely popular with all kinds of users.
Content, consistency, and engagement are three simple social media marketing terms gyms should understand to reach their full following potential. Through these three beginner guidelines a gym may begin their Instagram setup.
The first of these three terms, content, should be the easiest to understand as it simply represents the information and experiences that are directed toward audiences. Due to the oversaturation of advertising in the media it is now more important than ever for organizations to have attractive content. Showcasing the brand with creative content to show value is much more useful and a less expensive tactic than traditional advertising. With more and more fitness influencers joining Instagram, gyms will need to capitalize on their creativeness by investing in special content that shows the benefits of their studio that other studios or home workouts can’t provide. Many gyms are already doing this by showcasing giveaways, membership offers, free trials, educational content, in-club events, class information, club updates, closures, and renovations. Don’t forget to use high-quality photos and video while using engaging text captions.
A local college-based gym, The Kress Events Center (located in Green Bay, Wisconsin), does an excellent job of diversifying their content through their Instagram page @urec_uwgb. Content posted on this page includes not only their facilities but home-workout ideas, interactive endeavors, guest features, employee features, events, and classes available for members as well. The content posted on their page brings a great sense of community and helps them stand out from other gyms in showcasing the diverse services they can provide to members.
Consistency is also extremely important to gyms trying to make themselves known on Instagram. In order to appear professional and invested in their members, gyms must consistently maintain their presence. This means not only posting at planned continuous times but posting content consistent to the brand look and feel.
A great example of a gym that follows consistency with their Instagram is @planetfitness. Upon first viewing their page it can easily be seen that the color choice of their brand is purple and yellow. They include these colors on everything. Planet Fitness is one gym to keep an eye on as their page is relatively new and has recently seen big changes in their strategy. While their older posts were all simply memes, their new posts are beginning to show facilities, members, and the brand. By looking at their tagged posts (posts from users that mention Planet Fitness) it is seen that gym members are attempting to connect with Planet Fitness and the brand. This gym should continue to improve and eventually capitalize on these tagged posts from their members.
This leads into the third term of engagement. Engagement refers to interacting with the social media followers and gym members trying to connect with the brand. Gyms have a specific advantage over some other businesses in the engagement category due to the interactive nature that gyms have. By showing who their members are, what their members do, and how their members interact are a great way a gym can show their investment and care for their members. Many gyms today are engaging through responding to member comments, having interactive polling, live-streaming workouts, and doing fitness instructor Instagram question and answer sessions.
While I considered using the @urec_uwgb example again I decided to go with @anytimefitness due to their audience being non-specifically college based. With the Anytime Fitness Gyms Instagram page they dedicate almost all their posts to their members. In fact, they have just as many or more photos dedicated to their members than they do their instructors, programs, or facilities. Most of these posts strategically show their members in the facilities, with instructors, performing in programs, or just simply enjoying the gym. Having members shown in this much detail allows not only for example showing but also for storytelling and community building. This page is great as it shows how much the business truly cares for their members and puts their members at the forefront of their priorities while staying true to the brand.
Closing with a bad example @goldsgym seems to struggle with content, consistency, and engagement. While their content consistently shows their brand logo it often fails to show pictures of their facilities or programs and very rarely represents their members. Overall the page just doesn’t feel very inviting to users and as a result has the lowest number of followers of the included gyms on this list. This page seems more like a marketing or sales tool rather than a public relations tool or way of connecting with their members. Gold’s Gym could benefit from posting more media about their programs and their members to start seeming more inviting.
A note from the author: below I have included several examples of branding social media strategies on Instagram surrounding gyms and fitness that I believe are very effective. These posts could be used to spark ideas for gyms to understand more about content, consistency, and engagement endeavors surrounding their brands.
References Used in This Blog Post:
Anytime Fit. (2020). Anytime Fitness (@anytimefitness) • Instagram photos and videos.
Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/anytimefitness/?hl=en
Curley, E. (2019, December 19). 9 Steps to Create A Killer Instagram Strategy. Retrieved from https://www.glofox.com/blog/gym-marketing-guide-to-instagram-for-gym-fitness-professionals-gym-management-software/
Gold's. (2020). Gold's Gym (@goldsgym) • Instagram photos and videos. Retrieved from
Instagram. (2020). About Us: Official Site. Retrieved from https://about.instagram.com/about-us
Instagram. (2020) #Fitness. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/fitnes/
Planet Fitness. (2020). Planet Fitness (@pla
netfitness) on Instagram • 53 photos and videos.
Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/planetfitness/
Planner, Z. (2018, December 13). How to Build Your Brand & Market Your Gym on Instagram. Retrieved from https://zenplanner.com/instagram-marketing-for-gyms/
The Kress Events Center. (2020). UREC at UW-Green Bay (@urec_uwgb) • Instagram photos and videos. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/urec_uwgb/
Zimny, D. (2019, March 12). Social Media Marketing Strategy for Gyms. Retrieved from
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