Reading Time: 9 minutes
BY: ISSA
DATE: 2021-10-01
Social media is a fact of modern life. Love it or hate it, people use it in growing numbers. As a trainer, it’s not easy to get by without harnessing the power of these apps. Your clients and potential clients are on them, and you should be too.
Or course, there are seemingly endless options, so what are the best social media apps for trainers? There might not be a single best option, so consider your goals, where your target audience is, and expect to use more than one social media site for your business.
Successful businesses use social media for everything from marketing to client engagement. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter bring in new business and keep existing clients coming back. It can help companies across all industries—including your personal training business—find new clients and keep your existing ones happy.
Being active on social media is essential for all entrepreneurs. It is especially important for a business that traditionally runs of word of mouth, like personal training. Social media is today’s word of mouth, and if you’re not taking advantage of it, you are missing a great opportunity.
Social media marketing boosts your personal training business in many ways:
It draws new workout enthusiasts to your business.
It keeps each existing and potential client in the know on your business. You can post events, workout videos, and staff information on each social media platform.
You can create a fitness community where your clients can interact, share experiences, and strengthen their bond with your business and each other.
Many people find products and services like personal trainers through social media apps. So, if you're not using social media to market your fitness business, you're not reaching your full audience.
Brand awareness is important for every company. A social media or health app can solidify your reputation as a serious personal training business. You'll reach a wider audience. And the more people that recognize you, the stronger your brand awareness is.
Yes, keeping a social media account updated and relevant takes time and effort, but in the long run it makes your job as a trainer easier. Instead of trying to track down every client to notify them about a fitness class or schedule change, reach them all at once on a social media site or messenger group.
Once you get your accounts going, with a lot of followers and engagement, selling your services becomes more automatic. It takes some work to get there but it’s ultimately worth the effort.
In business, it’s always less expensive to keep a customer than to get a new one. Keep your existing clients happy with good engagement. Social media is an easy way to share information, have one-on-one interactions, and create a community for all of your clients.
Social media is a free and fast method of communication. Your clients can send you a quick Facebook message or tweet, and you can immediately respond to them without spending a dime. Your clients need to know that you're reachable, and someone that they can contact with questions or concerns. Social media helps with that.
One of the most important reasons to use social media is to get new clients and grow your personal training business. It’s a huge marketing advantage to optimize these apps to promote your services.
When you establish a social media presence, you get built-in social media marketing. Every time a client tags your business, you're reaching all their contacts. And every contact is a potential client!
Regardless of who your specific target audience is, they are on social media because everyone is. To make the most of your personal training business, you need to be there with them, catching their eye and selling your services.
In addition to low-cost marketing, social media apps help personal trainers grow their business by legitimizing the business itself. The more followers you have on social media, the more people will recognize you as an established business. Your social media plan is as important as your workout plan!
Marketing is a number one priority for personal trainers. Unless you are strictly an employee in a gym, you must promote yourself and your services. Even as a gym trainer, it helps to market yourself online to get more clients.
Social media marketing is big business these days because it works. You can spend as little or as much time and money on it as you want, which makes this a much more flexible option than traditional methods. If marketing is your main goal for social media, you need to be on one or more of the big three platforms:
Facebook is the granddaddy of social media and still reigns as the most used network, with nearly three billion people with accounts. Anyone with any kind of business has to be on Facebook simply for the potential reach.
Younger people have turned away from FB to some extent, but it is still a powerful and versatile marketing tool. You can use it to share content and news, share videos, create communities, engage with clients, and create messenger groups.
Instagram is another big and powerful tool for marketing, with about two billion users. It’s especially popular with younger adults, which makes it a great platform for reaching potential personal training clients. Use IG to post updates, links to content, videos, and inspirational pictures. Take advantage of hashtags to keep up with trends and reach new people.
Also, Instagram is the original social media platform for influencers. You don’t have to be bona fide influencer to be a successful fitness trainer, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. Influencers draw thousands to millions of views and earn money for promoting products. Being an influencer can be a good way to market your business and create a side hustle.
Build your profile with fresh content that has value for your audience and that keeps them engaged, and you’ll be on your way to becoming an influencer.
Becoming an influencer isn’t easy, but the rewards are great. Here are some tips to get you started.
YouTube comes in second only to Facebook in terms of numbers of users. This makes it an excellent marketing tool, but of course the primary function is creating and sharing videos. The two billion or so users search YouTube regularly, not just for entertainment but also for information.
As a personal trainer, you can use YouTube to post workouts and informational videos about fitness and health topics relevant to your audience. Keep them coming back to your channel with regular, fresh content and then direct them to your other sites to sell your services.
TikTok took the world by storm when it came out in 2016, and it continues to grow in popularity. If you’re looking for a younger clientele, you need to be on TikTok. The platform works so well because it offers highly addictive reels of just 15- to 60-second videos. It requires some creativity to make binge-worthy content for this app, but if successful, you can get millions of views to spread brand awareness.
YouTube is better for longer, more informational videos, but TikTok is still a great tool for sharing tips. Check out other fitness professionals on the platform to see how they create short, to-the-point videos to educate their audiences.
Twitter has fewer users than FB, IG, or TikTok and YouTube, but it still has value for businesses and brands. Tweets are short and easy to read. Tweet the right message, and it could get retweeted thousands of times or more.
Twitter’s strength is in the kind of engagement you can build. This is a great platform for sharing opinions, relevant news, and quick tips. Engage with other fitness influencers to reach more people. For the best results, you need to tweet and engage several times a day. If you don’t have the bandwidth for this, stick with the other platforms to get more results with less effort.
Your business's social media management is important to your success. It's important to use apps that will bring you new clients and keep your existing ones happy. But how do you pick the best app?
First and foremost: determine your needs. Then you can decide which apps are best for you. Here are a few app functions that you might want to consider:
Audience. Which apps draw in your target audience?
Ease of use. Pick an app that's fast and easy to use so that you can post frequently.
Cost. If you're just starting out, choose a free or low-cost app before you spend a lot of money on social media.
Marketing. Some apps offer services like email marketing and advertising. So, if you're looking for general marketing help, these apps might be a good fit.
Using multiple social media platforms increases your exposure to your target audience. Many people spend time on various apps, and you can put yourself in front of all of them when you use multiple platforms.
Posting to multiple platforms also lets you easily post different types of media. People love variety, and you can keep them engaged by using a few different platforms.
To make the most out of your social media marketing, the best practices are to create high-quality content and post on a schedule. The more often you post to social media, the more people you'll reach. And if your content is interesting and eye-catching, you'll earn new clients!
The biggest thing to avoid is staying too specific. Personal training software sites and apps are great, but you'll only reach some online personal training clients if you just use fitness-specific apps. If you branch out, you'll reach a much wider audience.
Reviews are easy to find. They're everywhere on the Internet. And you can also find them in person! Talk to your family, friends, and existing clients for their advice on personal training apps. They might have some helpful insight on where other companies in the fitness industry have found success.
Social media apps like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are hugely popular across the world. And you can use them to increase your business! You can treat these apps as a learning platform to educate your audience on the importance of fitness. You can also post workout videos to give the public a sample of your work.
Training professionals need their apps to deliver results. Your apps should bring you potential clients and provide social media data so you know how you're performing. The apps you choose should also allow you to post various types of media to keep your audience engaged.
Connecting with New Personal Training Clients: Social networking is a powerful tool. And the largest social media apps like Facebook and Twitter can help you reach an enormous audience. So, if you're building a social media strategy, it might be best to start with the largest apps. And if you want to gain traction very quickly, consider hiring a social media influencer to increase your audience.
Sharing Exercise Guides: Social media apps are great for sharing workout videos and exercise guides. So, whether your guide is a workout video, an infographic, or a blog, you really can't go wrong when you post to any social media app.
Sharing Different Types of Media: Most social media apps allow you to post different types of media. So, the best platform depends on your media and audience. If you focus on businesspeople, try a business-specific app like LinkedIn. And if you want to reach the general public, post some workout videos or information on Facebook and Twitter.
Social media apps are free business tools just waiting for you to take advantage. While you can spend money using social media for your business, you can do a lot for free. Engage with your clients, keep them coming back for more, and get new clients with these tools.
When you complete the ISSA’s Certified Personal Trainer – Self-Guided Study Program you get so much more than just a fitness education. We’ll also help you start and grow your business using all the necessary tools, like social media.