When your business gets shut down by the state of emergency, what do you do? You can shut the doors, or you can get creative. The fitness industry is one that has been impacted most by the COVAD-19, shutting down the majority of gyms worldwide—leaving them without classes and customers. However, they aren’t letting this set back shut them down entirely; they are using social media and video to connect with their current customers and the general public.
How are they doing this:
Instagram Stories
There are so many things you can do in Instagram stories. Here’s how the fitness industry (gyms & personal trainers) is using IG stories:
- Asking questions – They are asking their followers how they are working out without a gym.
- Posting workouts – giving their clients/followers easy workouts they can do at home
- Demonstrate exercises – they are showing what household items and what exercises you can do at home with little or no equipment.
- Challenges – One challenge going around is the 10/20 push up challenge. This is where you do 10/20 push-ups and tag five people to complete it and tag 4 of their friends.
Live Steams
Live streams have been nonstop since the start of the COVAD-19 pandemic. A lot of brands are using them, but the fitness industry has personal trainers using it like never before. They are:
- Demonstrating Exercises – Just like Instagram, they are showing people what they can do at home. This is great because trainers can answer questions in real-time. Depending on the level of the person watching, they may need more clarification.
- Interactive workouts – Going a step farther is doing an “at home” work out live. It’s just like the old Jane Fonda work out tapes but live. Like the demonstrations above, you can ask questions, such as if you need a low impact work out, what can you substitute.
- Q & A session – people have questions so you can go live and have people ask questions about workouts, nutrition, and other health questions they have relating to working out.
Private Groups
Gyms can create a Facebook group just for its members. This will allow you to communicate and interact directly with your customers. This is better for a smaller gym and non-chain gyms. The benefits are:
- Share news about the gym and possible reopening days
- Do live streams in the group just for members. Each trainer or class instructor can teach a class during the week. Post the schedule and have people tune in live or watch the replay.
- Lastly, invite people on to talk about stress reduction or meditation. It’s been a stressful time for many people, and having ways to cope and relax are invaluable.
There are just a few ways one industry is not letting the mandatory closings slow them down. While it’s not 100% the same, it’s allowing people to keep their minds off other trouble and still stay healthy as we wait out the pandemic.
Have you seen any other industries using social or video in new and interesting ways?
