In the previous blog I mentioned the power of ‘Inbound Marketing’ opposed to ‘Outbound Marketing’, and a great inbound marketing strategy would be to utilise social media. However, it’s not quite as simple as just posting the information you want to share whenever you like.
There are, in fact, optimal times when we should really maximise our activity on social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Plus, research suggests that prime timing of your posts to social media depends on the platform you are using for your marketing (e.g. Facebook, Twitter or Instagram), how your target audience interacts with that platform, the region(s) you’re targeting, the content of your post (e.g. funny or serious), and your goals from those posts (e.g. likes / comments / shares).
It’s complicated, alright!
But the good news is there’s a lot of research you can use to maximise the use of your social media content.
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When to post on social media?
So, when trying to reach out to hundreds and potentially thousands of your gym members, not to mention the numerous prospects out there who you really want your posts to hit, Facebook is one of the best marketing platform.
Research suggests that people use Facebook at home, at work, on their desktops and on their mobiles. Does this mean you can post at any point of the day, simply because there’s always someone logged in and browsing? Well, not quite.
The research suggests that the prime times to reach your Facebook users are:
- Saturday’s & Sunday’s 12:00 – 1:00pm
- Wednesday’s 3:00 – 4:00pm
- Thursday’s & Friday’s 1:00 – 4:00pm
It’s not rocket science, but social media keeps changing its algorithms quite often, so it’s worth mentioning what worked yesterday might not work today. But the power of social media is undeniable!
Instagram appears to be the platform that users are most frequently active on (all day, any time) because it is meant for use on all mobile devices. The research suggests that the best times to post to Instagram to reach its users are:
- Monday’s through to Thursday’s, any time, EXCEPT 3:00 – 4:00pm
With options like adding Stories and Reels, you can easily spend hours on Instagram. Try to stick to your marketing goal – to not simply raise awareness about your gym, but also get new prospects to visit your gym’s website and book a visit!
Apparently Twitter is primarily used at work and home, usually during breaks, as a bit of a ‘news feed’. The research suggests that the best times to post to reach Twitter users are:
- Monday’s through to Friday’s 12:00 – 3:00pm
- Wednesday’s 5:00 – 6:00pm
While Twitter can offer your fitness club some additional exposure, you will probably find more fitness enthusiasts active on Facebook or Instagram.
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Learn how to make the most of your gym’s digital marketing strategy:
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How to post on social media?
This is a summary of the best times to post to social media, not the only times. So, from a Gym Managerial point of view, it may be worth scheduling your posts from week to week to ensure you still have that regular contact with your members and prospects, but try to ensure that your most important posts are scheduled to go out during those prime times on the various platforms – the posts, tweets and images that you need to reach as many members and prospects as possible.
Utilising your marketing strategies on these social media platforms is as much about ‘what’ you post to your members and prospects as it is about the timing.
Don’t just post anything, even if it is during a prime time and you feel under pressure to get something out because there is nothing planned.
Don’t just post to ensure your gym is seen to be ‘active’.
Your Gym needs to optimise every single post, tweet and image that goes out.
So we’ve addressed the optimal times, but how do you ensure you have good content?
What to post on social media?
As a Manager of your Gym, an important aspect of what you do comes down to memberships – ensuring that current members are happy and enough members are walking through the doors, paying from month to month.
Social media provides you with a great option and combination of platforms to communicate with current members and get information out to your prospects.
Like any goal you have ever tried to achieve, it’s important to be clear, concise and relevant.
Research suggests that on Facebook and Twitter, your posts should be roughly 30% promotional content that link back to your website, and 70% value-added content that includes relevant information your members and prospects would find useful or interesting.
The type of language you use should be short and captivating. On Instagram, your captions can be slightly longer; use your Instagram captions to tell a story, connect with your followers, promote an upcoming offer or initiative, or sell a specific product (a new membership package, class or PT) pictured in your post.
On all the social networks (especially Twitter and Instagram), use ‘hashtags’ – but thoughtfully.
Finally, visual content will perform best on every social network. Engage your members and prospects with photos and videos.
