Fitness social media use

When you own a business, or even if you work in a client services role within a business, it is important to stay up to date of technology. The impact of technology is dramatically changing a lot of industries and those that are able to understand and capitalize on those changes stand a better chance of being successful.

 

These two fitness professionals were able to explode their business and generate a lot of revenue by simply utilizing Instagram as a means to share content and connect with like-minded people who then became clients. This simple strategy helped them to build a complete business model around their profiles.

 

The simplicity of this plan means that most people who interact with others have the potential to generate income by becoming more proficient on social media. Take the time to learn about the brand you want to have and the clientele you want to have, then execute it.

 

http://www.athleticbusiness.com/web-social/building-body-and-brand-instagram-impacts-fitness-industry.html?eid=277204494&bid=1261796

 

Social media use in sports

New media, which includes social platforms, the internet and blogs, have changed the way that consumers access content. Understanding how they consume content is important for engagement and marketing to increase brand awareness.

 

73% of internet users actively engage on social media with the vast majority of the younger demographic being active. A research review on social media use was published in Sport Management Review and they describe three impacts that social media has: brands use social media strategically to build relationships with customers, brands seek to cultivate and sustain relationships operationally and users co-create content.

 

When brands use social media strategically they are seeking to engage with fans, communicate and develop relationships in order to build the brand. Brands use social media to promote the sport, rather than market promotions. By engaging in conversations with fans, brands can generate more ‘likes’ and increase users. Twitter can be used as a tool to disseminate information and promote messages and different platforms have different values: twitter is used for real time information and facebook enriches the consumer experience. While the platforms may differ, the use is to create relationships with users.

 

Opportunities and challenges exist through strategic social media use. The opportunities are enhanced knowledge of consumers, advanced interaction, effective engagement, and efficient use of resources. The challenges include lack of control, concerns about credibility, concerns of effectiveness, difficulties identifying true consumers and allocating organizational resources. I have written previously that activity on social media is expected among users, but may not transfer into direct revenue.

 

Operational use of social media consists of how brands utilize differing platforms on a day to day basis. Athletes posting about their personal lives allow fans to connect with the person behind the player and leads to more engagement. Brands engage their fans by offering behind the scenes looks into the daily routine of the players and staff. Social media use allows for a personal connection between the brand and the fan.

 

Users of social media vary depending on the brand. NCAA users are predominantly male, educated, affluent and older. Younger fans of the NCAA used facebook and youtube to connect and that twitter is not heavily used by college sport fans. Fans use social media to gather information regarding their favorite teams, players and organizations. There are gender differences in fan consumption based on the sport with women more likely to pay more attention to informational, commercial and social functions of the team’s social media. Fans are also more likely to follow those teams and programs that are more successful.

 

This article leaves us with some increased knowledge regarding social media use and allow brands to use these platforms more effectively. Strategic use allows the brand to communicate with fans, build relationships and promote activities. Operational use of social media by brands shows that they use social platforms to interact daily with fans, share behind the scenes footage, share news and information and promote the brand. Users of social media tend to be younger, educated and more male than female. Information that they are interested tends to be gathering information, entertainment and connecting with other fans. These conclusions are useful when evaluating your social media presence and content development.

 

Filo, K., Lock, D & Karg, A. Sport and social media research: a review. Sport Management Review (18) 2015. 166-181

How effective is social media?

If you use social media for marketing, do you know how effective it is? Chances are, it is not as effective as you want it to be.

 

The main goal of business is to create sales and generate revenue. Your marketing plan should be set up do just that. Most consumers expect that businesses will have a easily navigable website and social media presence, but putting a lot of marketing dollars toward that may not be the best use for those dollars. 

 

Any marketing plan and campaign should be evaluated for effectiveness. Knowing how many sales or new customers are created for each campaign is vital to see where your consumers are coming from. When posting content and ads via social media, the same applies: how many potential customers did it reach, of those, how many were converted into actual customers, how many new customers were created and how much did they spend. Knowing the answers to these questions will help to evaluate the effectiveness of your various campaigns.

 

Social media is an easy way to reach your current customers and creating content can be effective in setting your brand apart, but be wary about thinking that it is the golden marketing ticket. Only by evaluating the effectiveness of your platforms can you truly tell how beneficial they are in generating revenue. And revenue is what pays bills.

 

https://hbr.org/2015/03/is-social-media-actually-helping-your-companys-bottom-line

 

Social media guidelines in sports

As I have been reading more and more in the news, and overseeing the social media platform at work, it got me thinking of whether school, teams, clubs and franchises have any social media guidelines for their staff and players.

Each of the major sports leagues have different policies that vary league to league and the team may have additional policies on top of the league.

Similarly, the NCAA has rules, and the schools may have additional policies.

If you are in charge of social media at the school, or are a student looking to attend a school it is vitally important to understand what the code of conduct is for that school. Social media in its current form may not be here permanently, but we can be sure that the openness and ease of information will not be drying up anytime soon. With that in mind, make sure that what you  post is in line with the team, school or league that you are affiliated with and that it also reflects on you positively.

The link below is to the USC policy of its student athletes and it can serve as a good reminder of what should and should not be published on social media sites.

https://saas.usc.edu/files/2012/08/USC-Student-Athlete-Social-Media-Policy-Sign-Off.pdf