Communication
The Core of Creativity
For years, group exercise instructors have been debating the topic of creativity. The controversy usually arises when facilities license preprogrammed classes. Some instructors argue that preprogramming limits creativity. They feel that “free-style” classes are more creative and are better suited for advanced participants, who “crave complex movements.”
The Dos and Don’ts of Social Media
We’ve seen the power of social media—it can create brand ambassadors for your company; it can directly affect sales and increase your customer base; and it can be a platform for outstanding customer service. There are also countless stories of social media coming back to haunt people, sometimes with disastrous results.
Get On Online Radio
Sample Guest Introductions
The following intro bios worked well because they are concise, easily read aloud and written to be heard, which is different from written to be read silently.
Traditional Media and Social Media: Creating an Effective Communications Partnership
You’ve decided to take your business into the 21st century and dip your toe in the social media world. You’ve mapped out your objectives, identified your audiences and created the messages necessary for a strategic communications campaign. Now, how do you effectively use all of the tools at your disposal to implement a campaign that’s as effective as possible?
Promote Your IDEA FitnessConnect Profile
By now you know it is to your distinct advantage to set up a profile in the IDEA FitnessConnect online directory. Whether or not you use all the features, it at least ensures you one more point of contact for potential clients. Why not take things to the next level and maximize how you promote yourself and your business? Here are 10 ideas (plus a bonus tip) on doing just that.
Top Twitter® Tips
According to a 2010 report posted on the blog of the social networking site Twitter™, the organization claims 145 million registered users. The number has surely increased since 2010, and the users are not just individuals keeping their “followers” up-to-date with daily happenings; many business owners log on to market services and generate profits. “I have found Twitter to be helpful in enhancing my credentials and reputation with fitness consumers,” says Alexandra Williams, MA, IDEA author and co-creator of FunandFit.org.
Generate and Follow New L.E.A.D.S.
The term social media typically refers to popular online tools like Facebook and Twitter™. However, social media broadly includes any form of media used to communicate and interact with an audience. When fitness professionals leverage social media tools to engage clients, colleagues and fitness enthusiasts, the resulting increase in the pros’ online presence can further their career opportunities. This is why IDEA FitnessConnect offers a range of social media tools to assist fitness professionals in generating new business.
The Centralized Portal
Whether you’ve been forced to overhaul your current communication strategy or you’re just making minor tweaks, it’s time to bring this column to a close. Here’s the new reality: If you expect to stay relevant as a manager, you need to think of staff as your “main audience.” Employees will react to your “performance” as any audience would. The challenge, however, is that your audience isn’t captive! You have to be crafty in your delivery and diligent in meeting each person where communication culture exists today. Otherwise, your messages may fall short.
Creating an Online Community
Group fitness is the heartbeat of the facility, but not because of the blaring music or sweaty bodies. People exercise in groups for the motivation, accountability and energy it brings them. Wouldn’t it be great to capture this energy outside the studio? As instructors, we’ve tried almost every trick in the book to influence more end users, get more bodies in classes and help educate members. Despite this, we’re still reaching only a handful of people.
Expanding Your Audience Reach
IDEA FitnessConnect (IFC) is reaching greater audiences by syndicating its information to top health and fitness websites. Think of it as embedding the directory within a third-party site, making it easier for fitness professionals to reach potential clients in high-traffic areas. This also positions many fitness pros in front of new markets.
You can select which websites display your profile information. By clicking on “Privacy Settings” in your profile page, you can enable (or disable) your profile on each website.
Winners Tell All
FFitness professionals often use success stories and client testimonials to strike an emotional chord with potential clients. Personal trainers who incorporate these elements into their pitches (often via “brag books”) may find them powerful during new-client interviews or business development meetings, according to Derrick Wilburn, MBA, IDEA presenter and director of education for Achieve Fitness USA (Wilburn 2010). But what if potential clients or business partners do their initial research about you over the Web?
The Benefits of Streamlined Communication
The previous three installments of this column have given you a bit to think about regarding your current communication situation. As the group fitness manager (GFM), you must balance multiple streams of input and output. You face daily communication challenges with instructors, club members and upper management. There’s no doubt you could be more productive if you spent time revamping protocols. However, it’s hard to find the time to set up those spiffy protocols when you have the weighty administrative tasks associated with being a manager.
A System to Manage Clients and Leads
A list of current and prospective clients can be invaluable to fitness professionals promoting upcoming events, distributing newsletters and cultivating member relationships. IDEA FitnessConnect’s client management system makes it convenient for fitness professionals to manage and grow their clientele directly from their profile pages.
Polishing the Facility Profile
Fitness professionals are not the only ones maintaining profiles on IDEA FitnessConnect. Program directors and club owners are also leveraging their clubs’ presence in this directory to feature staff, increase member leads and reinforce marketing efforts.
The Top 5 Sales Phrases Every Trainer Should Know
You stock your training tool kit with uber-adaptable equipment for every fitness level: a TRX, a stability ball, maybe some tubing or a yoga mat. Since you can never be completely certain what your fitness client will need on any given day, your go-to gear adapts to any training trial. But what about the tools you use to gain new training customers–do you have a stash of stand-by sales phrases that adapt to diverse personalities equally well?
What You See Is What You Get
Fitness professionals use online videos to share training tips, demonstrate exercises and showcase their choreography. Since sites like YouTube revolutionized the way people view, create and share videos online, use of the medium has skyrocketed. Today hundreds of millions of videos are being watched daily via mobile devices and video players embedded across websites (YouTube 2011). And now, via IDEA FitnessConnect.
See It, Read It, Like It, Share It
Rarely do we see content displayed online without an assigned “share” button or “embed code.” With one click, you can instantly share content from a website and post it to your Facebook page or Twitter™ feed. Sharing digital content by means of an online social network is an increasingly efficient way to distribute information. No more cutting and pasting URLs into e-mails or printing out articles for reference.
Communication Conundrums: Instructor Issues
As we discovered in the previous installment of this column, group fitness managers (GFMs) are the communication hub connecting instructors, upper management, owners, members and others. This can leave you, as a GFM, overworked and misunderstood. It can also lead to major issues with instructors—issues that, if not addressed, can have a significant, negative effect on your program.
Promote Yourself, Retain Clients
We’ve all seen it. A club’s group fitness schedule posted on the facility’s website with former instructors still listed. A personal trainer’s blog with last session’s boot camp dates advertised. Even when your efforts have successfully led people to your schedule or site, outdated class or event information may discourage any further inquiry into your programs.
Blog to Connect
Activating a profile on the IDEA FitnessConnect directory is one way to generate client leads and enhance business marketing. However, your “overview” page is only a first impression; to differentiate yourself from other fitness professionals listed in your area, you can do more. An active blog creates another opportunity for (future) clients to learn about your skills and services.