Social Media Tips from Industry Leader

In this month's Health Club Management (Issue 3, 2017, pg.61-62), the social media manager at Xercise4Less discussed what lead them to win our Social Media Fitness Index Q2, Q3 & Q4 2016 reports. 

 
Xercise4Less consistently posts about the success of its members on its various social media channels...

Xercise4Less consistently posts about the success of its members on its various social media channels...

 

Joe Hall writes...

"We live in an era where people can turn themselves into a squeaky talking fox on Snapchat, or hit an ‘angry’ button at a piece of news content on Facebook. In fact, the nature of what you can do has become so varied that the whole concept of ‘social media’ – what exactly this now is – becomes quite hard to define.

I’d consider social media to be a mass get-together which no longer takes place in the park or in the pub, but in a Millennial third space: online. There might not be a see-saw or a pint of Tetley’s Smooth Flow in sight, but humans interact in this digital social media space in much the same way as they do offline in the local park or pub. That’s a result of psychological traits and human instinct.

But social media goes one step further: it amplifies human behaviour. It cuts out the routine, unexciting, dreary, monotonous matters that happen in the real world and just gives us the more dramatic, action-packed, high-end pleasure or high-end pain experiences.

As marketing decision-makers, we need to respect that the end consumer on social media is out for the thrills and spills. They’re certainly not scrolling through Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat to bask in any dullness or absorb meaningless promotional waffle.

At Xercise4Less, it’s my duty to ensure our social media appeals to our audience’s wants and needs. I’ve outlined four ways in which we do this.

  1. Deliver emotional conten
  2. Contests and gift
  3. A sense of belongin
  4. Post for your audience

Even when Xercise4Less was nominated for the Best Use of Social Media by the Leisure Database Company, we ensured the announcement was very much all about our members.

What lies ahead for the world of social media?
...Human behaviour and psychological traits should always be at the heart of any social media and marketing strategy". 

Original source: Health Club Management

SOCIAL MEDIA FITNESS INDEX Q4 2016 REPORT - PRESS RELEASE

1.07m Facebook likes, 76k Instagram followers, 285k Twitter followers, 13k YouTube subscribers* 

Xercise4Less ranks 1st in social media stakes

The number of YouTube views declined by 13% from Q3 2016

*Across the top 20 private brands in Q4 2016

 

In LeisureDB’s Q4 2016 edition of the Social Media Fitness Index, 12 brands have increased their Social Media Fitness score since Q1 2016. The top ranking brands from Q2 and Q3 2016 have remained the same, with Xercise4Less taking 1st place, Pure Gym in 2nd and Virgin Active 3rd.

Despite only achieving 3% growth, compared to 4% in Q3 2016, the number of Facebook likes has increased by 31k likes resulting in a total of 1.07m across the top 20 private brands.  8 of the 17 brands gained over 1k Facebook likes across the quarter with The Gym Group gaining the most with over 8k. Vital Health & Wellbeing saw an impressive 56% increase in their number of Facebook likes across the quarter.

The top 20 private brands achieved a 12% increase in the number of Instagram followers from Q3 2016. The brands also maintained the high Instagram activity levels seen in Q3 2016 with also 900 images and videos being posted during Q4 2016.

Against the backdrop of declining revenue and user growth throughout 2016, Twitter remained the second most popular platform for fitness brands. The average number of Twitter followers per brand was 22k, an increase of 1k on Q3 2016.

Surprisingly, the total number of YouTube views declined by 13% in Q4 2016 with The Gym Group losing 1.5m from their channel, however the total number of subscribers did increase by 10%.

David Minton, Director of LeisureDB, believes that the fitness industry should not underestimate the power of digital including that of social media. Minton says “Mobile has become a vital accessory to sports and fitness member’s and so operators across the public and private sectors need to reassure themselves they are thinking mobile first.

Social media has grown rapidly on the back of mobile and advertising spend is now bigger on mobile than any other platform. With technology racing ahead, social media platforms roll out new advertising offerings constantly. Digital isn’t a destination but a new way of thinking”. 

 

Notes:

The reporting period is the 3 months from 1st October 2016 to 31st December 2016. LeisureDB who has been monitoring performance of the fitness industry for over 30 years compiled the analysis and resulting figures.

 

Further Information:

LeisureDB is a leading independent database specialist who provides key market intelligence and analysis across the industry. Established over 30 years ago, the company works with a wide range of fitness operators providing customer profiling reports, new site analysis and latent demand estimates. 

SOCIAL MEDIA FITNESS INDEX Q3 2016 PRESS RELEASE

SOCIAL MEDIA FITNESS INDEX Q3 2016 PRESS RELEASE

 

1.04m Facebook likes, 68k Instagram followers, 275k Twitter followers, 12k YouTube subscribers*

Xercise4Less ranks 1st in social media stakes

The number of Facebook followers exceeds 1 million for the first time

*Across the top 20 private brands in Q3 2016

 

In LeisureDB’s Social Media Fitness Index Q3 2016 report, the top 3 brands from Q2 2016 have remained the same, with Xercise4Less taking 1st place, Pure Gym in 2nd and Virgin Active 3rd. Whilst all figures across the four social media platforms are going in the right direction, (up), it’s slow progress and overall ranking percentages have dropped.

Despite seeing the lowest growth in reach (4%) from Q2 2016, the number of Facebook likes has exceeded 1 million for the first time! 8 of the 17 brands gained over 1k Facebook likes across the quarter with The Gym Group gaining the most with nearly 9k.

Having been under-utilised in the Q1 and Q2 reports, Instagram activity across the top brands is slowly on the rise, with the number of posts during Q3 2016 increasing 73% from Q2. In the coming months, will the top 20 continue to use Instagram to promote their brand and drive sales? We hope so.

Whilst there was steady growth on Twitter amongst the top 20, the platform saw little excitement during this quarter. It’s evidently a useful tool to these brands as a customer service tool but content and creativity is currently lacking. 

With the launch of their recent TV advert “Come to Life’, David Lloyd have literally come to life on YouTube and successfully gained an impressive number of subscribers, views and likes across their channel.

David Minton, Director of LeisureDB, notes the key similarities between social media and fitness; “We all know we should be doing more on social media, just as we know, we need to do more fitness and build more activity into our daily lives”. David believes that “fitness brands need to work at their social media presence like they work at memberships. It’s not a luxury, it’s an essential. We will be looking for more commitment and progress in Q4 2016”.

To purchase and download the report, click here. 

Notes:

The reporting period is the 3 months from 1st July 2016 to 30th September 2016. LeisureDB, who has been monitoring performance of the fitness industry for over 30 years, compiled the analysis and resulting figures.

Further Information:

LeisureDB is a leading independent database specialist who provides key market intelligence and analysis across the industry. Established over 30 years ago, the company works with a wide range of fitness operators providing customer profiling reports, new site analysis and latent demand estimates. 

Press Release: Social Media Fitness Index Q1 2016

SOCIAL MEDIA FITNESS INDEX Q1 2016 REPORT

3rd June 2016

 

946k Facebook likes, 46k Instagram followers, 248k Twitter followers, 9.3k YouTube subscribers*

Pure Gym ranks 1st in social media stakes

One brand tops two social media platform rankings

*Across the top 20 private brands in Q1 2016

 

The brand new LeisureDB Social Media Fitness Index Q1 2016 report reveals that low cost private brands are excelling on social media, with two big names of the industry dominating the top places.

The Q1 2016 report highlights that overall brand social media presence is growing. Over half of the top 20 private brands gained 1,000+ Facebook likes in Q1 2016 whilst the collective Twitter audience grew 6%.

Whilst some brands are digitally aware, there’s plenty of room for improvement. There needs to be more posts, more interaction and higher engagement.

Facebook is the most common social media platform among the top 20 private brands whilst Instagram is being under-utilised and neglected; only 8 of the top 20 have accounts.

Commenting on the report findings, David Minton, Director of LeisureDB said: “Sport and fitness have a lot of catching up to do. The industry has 9.2million UK fitness members but across the top 20 private fitness brands it can only boast 946k likes on Facebook, 46k followers on Instagram and 248k followers on Twitter. As a benchmark, this first report is a great snapshot of the private fitness industry’s top 20 social media activity in Q1 2016”. 

 

Notes:

The reporting period is the 3 months from 1st January 2016 to 31st March 2016. The Leisure Database Company who has been monitoring performance of the fitness industry for over 30 years compiled the analysis and resulting figures.

 

Further Information:

LeisureDB is a leading independent database specialist who provides key market intelligence and analysis across the industry. Established over 30 years ago, the company works with a wide range of fitness operators providing customer profiling reports, new site analysis and latent demand estimates.

A week at LeisureDB

Not only is it FriYAY, it’s also our favourite day of month here at LeisureDB HQ….Pay Day Pie Day Friday!

It’s been a busy week but to celebrate its end, here’s a quick update of the happenings in the past 168 hours.

Natalie and David attended the Active-net event in Loughborough. David was a keynote speaker and presented his talk ‘It’s Dot Complicated’. Following on from Randi Zuckerberg’s talk at IHRSA, David discussed the future of technology within the fitness industry. Thanks for a great event Active-net!

David also spoke at the TIAUK Business of Tennis Forum on Thursday about disruption in sport and the development of aggregators, such as Tennis Trakker Pro, Tennis Math, PlaySport and MoveGB.

Charlotte enjoyed #WorkoutWednesday this week and even won a new hoodie from her personal trainers at The Fitting Rooms, London Bridge!

Jen has been busy producing her 60 Second UK Fitness News video for our YouTube channel ‘Fitness Industry UK’. She discusses recent events within the private and public sectors and you can watch her most recent video here.

Jamie is busy exploring the possibility of expanding our new mobile app building services beyond the health and fitness industry…learn more here.

We're excited to play with our new crowdfunded Skulpt Chisel which arrived this week, its cutting edge wearable tech to measure body fat & muscle quality, with an accompanying mobile app - we’ll be reviewing it on our YouTube channel soon

Everyone in the office has been working hard on the new 2016 State of the UK Fitness and Swimming Industry reports which will be released in May. Excitement is also building for our newest Social Media Index report and services, more news to follow about these!

Have a great bank holiday!

From the LeisureDB team