Choose Your Tools Wisely

There’s no need to use every form of social media out there. In fact, you’ll waste a lot of precious time and effort if you try to do it all. Start by thinking about what you want to achieve, who you want to engage with and how much time you have to dedicate to social media. Where do your target markets hang out? What do they like? Would you prefer to blog longer articles, Tweet more regularly or engage on Facebook? Do you have a flipcam or video phone? How can you tie your chosen social media platforms together? Time spent researching and planning now will save time and increase your success in the long term.

Consistency

The key to social media success is not in how much you do, but how consistent you are. You need to push content out through your chosen channels on a consistent basis, you need to use a consistent voice and your message must be consistent.

Listen, Don’t Shout

Social media is all about having a conversation. Unlike traditional forms of advertising, social media shouldn’t be used for talking at people. Instead, listen, engage, strike up conversations, ask for feedback and involve your followers and fans.

Engage and Respond

When people start engaging with you on social media, always take time to respond. This builds trust and credibility and, in time, will help you construct a little community who will see you as their go-to expert in your field.

Encourage Participation

Give your followers reasons to get stuck in rather than sitting back and just reading. Ask questions, ask opinions, use polls and even competitions. Share news items, articles and resources which you find interesting, and become seen as a curator of truly useful information.

Build a Community

The ultimate aim of social media for marketing is to build a loyal community who will hold you at the front of their mind when they think of an expert in your field or local area. By consistently giving out useful information, engaging with your followers and creating a warm and trustworthy online persona, your band of followers will become your most useful champions, doing the job of selling your services to their friends, families and social networking contacts.

In later articles, we’ll dig deeper into social media for fitness professionals, spelling out how you can make a success of Facebook pages, blogs, Twitter and even Pinterest.

Networking Groups

There are lots of networking groups out there to choose from: official national and international ones with local chapters, and independent or ad-hoc groups. Networking is a great way to drum up business, spread the word about what you do and generate referrals. Put together a short introductory speech (most groups give members 60 seconds): your name, business name, what you do, why people should book you or refer to you, and what kind of business you’re looking for. Trust, visibility and credibility go a long way in face-to-face networking, so build up your circle of supporters by being reliable and providing a great service.

Network Online

You can also network online, of course. Using social media like Facebook, Twitter and a blog enable you to create a sense of community, talk to customers and prospects and build a real name for yourself. Be consistent with your approach to online networking, and remember that you must be professional at all times. Social networking and online platforms can lull you into a false sense of security, but everything you write is permanent, and someone is always reading! Treat online networking with the same gravitas as you would face-to-face networking and remember: your next client might be reading whatever you’ve just typed.

Use Social Media

Whenever you use social media, remember to include a call to action (why should customers contact you?) and contact details. This is easy when it comes to websites and blogs, but bear it in mind for Facebook and Twitter, too. Social media for business marketing is quite different to the way you use social media as a private individual. Make sure the time and effort you spend on your business-related social media networking is put to good use by giving a consistent message and making it easy for people to get in touch with you.

Seek Testimonials

Every single satisfied client is a testimonial waiting to be written up. Get into the habit of asking clients and customers for positive testimonials that you can use in your marketing. You could do this informally, by asking them verbally, or you could build it into the sign-off or catch-up process. Consider putting a short section asking for a testimonial on one of the forms or letters you send out to clients once they’ve been working for you for a while. A great time to ask for a testimonial is when the client has reached an important goal. Harness the high they’ll be on! Always remember to ask them for permission to use their quote, name and picture (if relevant) in your marketing and promotional literature.

Client Referrals

Your satisfied clients – and their friends and family – are your most powerful sales force. Ask them to champion you wherever they go, whether it’s simple steps like telling their friends about you, or more formal and structure referrals. Make sure your clients carry some of your business cards and have your phone number in their mobile phone. Tell them your website URL, Facebook and Twitter name, and blog address. Ask them to invite their friends to “like” and “follow” you on social media. You could even consider incentivising the referral process by giving clients free sessions, a sports massage or some branded kit whenever they pass a referral which leads to a new paying customer.

People who know, like and trust you and your business are your most powerful weapons when it comes to generating new business referrals. There is still a place for advertising and cold calling, but don’t neglect the untapped potential of business referrals. You do a great job: make sure everyone knows it!

Use the Light

It goes without saying, but safety has to come first and your duty of care towards clients is more important than ever at this time of year. So, schedule training sessions around the (ever changing) light conditions, sunrise and sunset hours.

Educate and Wrap-up

You’ll need to wear good quality kit at this time of year, and so will your client. Give a little added value by researching the best-value warm, reflective, quick-drying kit around, and pass this information on to clients. They’ll thank you for it, and probably spread the word about how you go the extra mile to keep them safe and warm.

Keep Moving

There’s no time for hanging around in this weather. Make recovery active (no matter how untrained your clients might be) and constantly come up with ways to keep your clients warm. If they realise that training in this weather isn’t as cold and uncomfortable as they feared it might be, they’ll be happier to train next week. And remember that you may need to adapt sessions quickly if clients become too cold.

Motivate and Encourage

Most clients will need lots of encouragement at this time of year: to turn up to sessions, to get out of the door, to keep going, and to come back next week. You’ll need plenty of motivating phrases and words of praise. But don’t just keep them for use throughout the session. Remember all those hours between sessions, too. If you’re in touch with your clients on Facebook or Twitter, post encouraging quotes to keep them fired up. Stay in touch on email, text or by phone to make sure they’re looking forward to your next session.

Dos and Don’ts for Outdoor Training

• Do keep clients motivated, both during the session and between sessions by staying in touch
• Don’t give the any reason to think training is impossible or unlikely in the cold
• Do make sure your clients are dressed appropriately and have recovery food/drink as appropriate
• Don’t underestimate how difficult it can be for some to adapt to temperature drops
• Do keep the client warm and moving
• Don’t forget to pay attention to signs of cold and discomfort, and adapt the session
• Do make sure your clients know how amazing they are for training at this time of year!
• Measure progress and performance so that they can see their efforts are worthwile

Why should fit pros blog?

Blogging positions you as an expert in your field, a go-to person whose name is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. You need to strive for “top of mind awareness”, and blogging is a great tool to achieve this. Blogging ensures that fresh content with your name attached to it is circulating on search engines and social media. It will certainly help with SEO (search engine optimisation), putting you nearer the top of page one of Google. Here’s a quick test. Google the search term you’d most like to dominate (perhaps it’s “Wokingham Zumba”). Does Google return a blog in the first page of results? If not, then there’s no time to lose. You simply have to start blogging so you can dominate that valuable spot. If there is, well, then you have a little more work to do, but we’ll show you how to overtake a weaker blog. (We haven’t got room here to talk about Google video results for your search term. That’s another topic!)

How to get started with a blog

Sure, you’ll need to invest time and effort but think of it as a crucial part of your marketing and business development. Choose your blogging platform (WordPress and Blogger are popular) and think hard about your blog’s name before claiming the account. Then write a couple of static pages (like a website’s about me and home pages) and start blogging! Hook your blog up to Facebook (you can use an inbuilt widget on the blog platform, or a Facebook widget such as networkedblogs), Twitter and LinkedIn so that you really squeeze everything out of every blog post you write. 

How often should you blog?

The key is not in frequency but in consistency. It’s far better to blog twice a month, but blog on the same day every fortnight, than it is to blog every day for a week and then go AWOL for two months. The ideal would be twice a week or more. This might sound a lot, but think about the amount of conversations you have with clients, prospects and friends about various elements of your job. You do have a lot to say! The key is in thinking about how you can turn things into blog content. Give useful information (top tips, trends, “Did you know…” and “Why…” type posts), start blog post series (articles linked by theme which readers will eventually come to anticipate) and start to build a solid hub of knowledge which will keep readers coming back for more. 

How to blog

You need to start thinking of everything as potential blog content. Carry a camera phone and/or flipcam with you to capture images and footage which could be used on the blog. Don’t be intimidated by the idea of blogging: blog posts don’t have to be long or detailed every time. The key is building a voice, a following and a niche. What do you want to be known for? What type of expert do you want to be? What sort of voice do you want to project through your blog? On a practical note, think about the layout and readability of blog posts: images, paragraphs and bullet-points all break up text to make it more readable. And don’t forget to spell-check everything thoroughly. Whilst blogs should be a laid-back form of reading, it doesn’t mean they can be a sloppy form of writing. 

In a future article we’ll look at how to promote your blog by linking with other bloggers, commenting regularly on blogs and using social media platforms to their full potential.

The 24 hour a day hi-tech, low budget Gym Group has recently been trialling a virtual fitness instructor programme in their Pilates sessions. In these sessions, class participants are instructed by a virtual Pilates instructor, who is projected onto the wall of the dance/aerobic studio. These virtual sessions are not live programmes in which the instructor can observe the class and their exercise technique; rather, they are pre-recorded sessions that are presented to participants in much the same way as one might play an exercise video at home. Instead of following the video in isolation however, class followers engage in the Pilates session alongside other health club members.

John Treharne, the CEO of the Gym Group states “our low cost model has been designed to embrace the fact that not everyone can commit to attending weekly set classes”. While measures have been taken by the Gym Group to ensure the technical accuracy of the sessions screened, they do represent a very one dimensional approach to delivery that does not include any feedback or interaction between the instructor and the participant; thus any reference to teaching in this capacity should be used very loosely!

In the event that a class participant was not performing an exercise correctly, there would be few safeguards in place to remedy this situation, placing the class participant at risk of injury. In addition, due to the very precise nature of most Pilates exercises, even if the participant were not to injure themselves, there is a strong likelihood that the wrong muscles would be recruited, thus leading to movement-impairment syndromes and dysfunction.  

Virtual fitness classes are quite popular in other European countries and there are a wealth of personal trainers and fitness instructors operating online with their own virtual programmes. The Gym Group state that “40% of their members have never used a gym before”, making these clients highly susceptible to training-related injuries, especially those arising from poor and incorrect exercise techniques. Since a virtual trainer is unable to correct exercise technique, or to provide real-time support, motivation and encouragement, are virtual fitness instructors really the way forward for the fitness profession? Let’s hope not!   

Whether you are an exercise to music instructor looking to pick-up some new choreography, or a personal trainer wanting some new exercises to use with your client, you are bound to find what you are looking for at this action packed event. This event isnt like any fitness training course or workshop you have ever attended before, there are no assessments and its all about fun.

The IFS isn’t just about exercise, it’s also a great place to meet other fitness professionals, share best practice and mingle with the presenters. You can also pick up some great bargains at the trade fair, including training courses, sports clothing, fitness equipment and music.

The IFS originally started as a group exercise instructor event but this is definitely no longer the case. There are literally hundreds of workshops to choose from, and across a multitude of disciplines, so you are always likely to find something that interests you at the IFS.

Evenings at the IFS are just as lively and eventful as the daytime workshops. Parties usually go on into the early hours so don’t expect to get too much sleep.

The 2012 event is on 23rd-25th March. For more information on the International Fitness Showcase, including tickets- click here.

Identify Your Targets

There are dozens of fitness and sport magazines. Do you want to get a mention in a sport-specific magazine, or a more generic one? Which audience do you want to reach: women only, trained individuals, first timers? Are consumer magazines your goal, or industry and trade publications? Get a shortlist together. 

Read and Reread

You must read the publications thoroughly. This will give you a good understanding of the typical editorial content, the writers and the audience. Pay attention to the adverts, too, as they will have a large impact on the type of topics covered in the editorial. Nothing will make an Editor hit “delete” faster than an email proposing an article they’ve recently covered. 

Come up with a Stunning Idea

You need to demonstrate exactly why the commissioning Editor would ask you to write this particular article. Why are you the only person who could possibly write about this topic, from this angle? Why wouldn’t the magazine ask an inhouse writer to cover it? 

Write Your Pitch

You’ll need to find out who the commissioning Editor is (this should be easy to discover) before emailing a pitch. In your pitch, outline the article, what it will cover and why readers will love it. Give a short paragraph introducing yourself, demonstrating your experience and your suitability. 

Contact Freelance Journalists

Of course, you don’t have to write an entire article in a magazine to get your name and company mentioned. You can provide expert comment or quotes for an article being written by a freelance journalist in the sector. So, how can you become a trusted go-to fit pro which freelance fitness journalists will flock to every time they have a deadline? 

Network Online and Offline

Go to networking events where freelance journalists are likely to be: conferences, trade shows and events in your sector. If they’re any good at their job, they’ll be there. Search for them on Twitter (here’s an inside tip: use the hashtag #journorequest to find journalists looking for help with articles), Facebook or via their websites and blogs. And ask around: do you know any fit pros who have been quoted in articles? Ask who the writer was, then send an email introducing yourself. Keep it brief, polite and to the point, and you’re likely to be someone the journalist will want to use.  Use journalism databases Online resources like Gorkana and Responsesource exist to hook journalists up with PRs and people wanting to get their name, brand and product heard. Use these online resources to be at the front of the queue when sport and fitness journalists fire off an SOS into the ether. 

It goes without saying that you’ll need to demonstrate that you can write or speak eloquently and with real knowledge about your specialism. After all, there are a lot of fit pros vying for magazine space. Make sure you’re the one they want to come back to every time.

Indoor cycling and Spinning are still popular modes of exercise with a slowly increasing participation, even though they have been around forever! This hard, interval-style cardio workout is a great idea for clients who want to keep CV fitness up over the Winter. It’s also a great addition for anyone who doesn’t currently do a lot of cardio, and will certainly boost fitness. Indoor cycling has a tough image and tends to produce plenty of sweat, making it ideal for clients who like to feel as if they’ve been worked really hard during training sessions.

Strength training is rising in popularity with all sorts of clients, and Winter is traditionally the ideal time to head into the gym and make some strength and power gains. If your client plays sport, competetively or recreationally, they could make some useful gains by strength training over Winter. Non-sporty clients who train for fitness and weight loss should also be encouraged to train with weights, and now is the perfect time of year to get them started.

If you train clients who take part in sports (whether that’s endurance sports, team sports or racquet sports), winter may be their off-season. That’s no reason for them to lose any of their fitness, though. In fact Winter can be a very useful time for amateur sportspeople; away from the pressure of competition, they can head indoors to work on skills and drills, speed, power, conditioning and strength. Are their competitors doing the same? Winter could turn into a vital time for your client to improve for the coming season.

For clients who dislike group training and classes, there is always the option of training at home with a PT. A few bits of kit, provided by the fitness professional, can turn even the smallest space into a useful workout area. Resistance bands, foam rollers, handweights and kettlebells are some simply and relatively small items which could enable you to continue training clients who prefer not to train in a gym or studio setting.

Keeping a consistent client base is important for any fitness professional. Having a good set of solutions to the challenge of Winter training will be crucial if you want to keep your fitness business buoyant over the dark, cold months ahead. Keep your clients motivated, active and training hard and they will still be with you next Summer!

Dance-inspired workouts will be a huge hit. We’ve seen Zumba – the Latin music dance workout – take off like a rocket over the last year or so. We don’t think its popularity is going anywhere in 2012, but we do think the industry will see the birth of other types of dance-based exercise. This kind of group training gives fitness professionals a relatively easy way to earn a good rate of pay per-hour, and we foresee it being popular with clients and fit pros alike. Look out for BOKWA- the next international dance-like fitness class to enter the UK.

Good old-fashioned strength training is slowly making its way out of the hardcore gyms and into every corner of the industry. Strength and conditioning is no longer the domain of coaches in charge of professional sports teams. Clients of all ages and levels are beginning to understand the importance of strength training, whether for recreational sports participation, fat loss or everyday strength. We predict that a greater number of fitness professionals will seek training and accreditation in strength training skills this year. How the trend plays out remains to be seen.

Small group personal training is looking set to have a big impact on the way fitness professionals model their businesses. With “austerity Britain” still defining our economic outlook, personal training clients are tightening their belts in more ways than one. Any structure which encourages people to start a fitness programme is a good thing, and group personal training is one of the best. It makes training more cost-effective for the client and injects a sense of community and camaraderie into sessions. For the personal trainer, it turns the session into a more financially powerful hour than one-on-one training (which naturally has a limit in terms of income).

Health, fitness, sport-specific training and weight loss have never been more popular and important with consumers. It’s our turn, as educated and qualified service providers, to respond in innovative ways which keeps fitness fundamentals fresh. What will you do this year?

The Village Health and Fitness clubs are notorious for their high-end fitness facilities, relaxing wet and luxurious social areas- what better environment for you to kick start your career in the health and fitness profession. The facilities include:

State of the art gym

• 2 spacious exercise studios
• Spinning studio
• 25 metre swimming pool
• Sauna, steam room whirlpool
• Spacious conference area / classrooms

In addition to a high-quality training experience from us, students attending this venue to complete their training will also get:

Free use of the club’s facilities throughout the training weekend(s)

• 20% off hotel rooms booked during training weekend(s)*
• 20% off Starbucks food and beverages purchased during the training weekend
• 20% off food and drink purchased at the Victory bar and grill

*subject to availability and this offer only applies to advanced bookings made for weekends that the training is delivered.