With all of the different business and entrepreneurs online, it can be hard to keep ahead of the game and prevent your presence from being swallowed up by the competition. There are plenty of fitness experts and personal trainers who are looking to expand their brand online, so there are plenty of other pages that potential clients can look to if yours cannot be seen or found.

So, how do you stay ahead and keep your pages looking fresh all whilst staying professional on social media? There are a few tricks you can use that will ensure you still get hits on your pages, you look like a professional, and you may even gain some new clients along the way.

Quality over quantity

Just because there are quite a few social media networks online now, doesn’t mean you need to have every single one. The best thing to do is to focus on a couple of social media accounts at first, build your presence, and then if you see some growth increase your base again by adding on a couple of new social media accounts onto your belt.Most people are using Facebook and Instagram, so they are a great place to start. They’re also the ideal accounts to have for fitness pages as it’s easy to share great content and images.

Update consistently, but don’t spam

You may feel like the more you post, the more likely people are going to see your posts. While this might be true, you may also make some people turn away and look elsewhere if they’re feeling bombarded by your posts.When you do update your status or post a great new picture, be sure to make it specific to your audience and avoid any “click-baiting” This is when you share a post or article that makes people click on the links to find out more. Such items would be links to “This woman lost 50kg in 6 months. Find out how here…”. These kinds of links may look unprofessional and may look like a scam to people passing by.Be sure to use legitimate sources and articles, and make sure that if it is a link to your own articles, you can deliver on any promises made.

Professional and personal

A lot of people and potential clients enjoy hearing success stories and love getting to know you and your business better. As your business is a big part of your life, it certainly doesn’t hurt to add some personal touches to your business account. Sharing your own story of your fitness goals and achievements can go a long way to encouraging others to get to know you. You can also ask your current clients if you can share any of their stories or even some before and after pictures of their hard work since joining with you.Showing others that you’re just another human being like them can really help. Even adding a photo of a healthy meal you prepared on the weekend can be all it takes.

‍

‍

Set up a blog

A blog is a great idea to share some of your knowledge with your clients and to add more information where your space may be limited (such as a Tweet, which has limited characters). Providing a link in a Facebook status or Tweet which guides people to a blog post you have written means you can provide more information and write up some great things about topics you're interested and passionate about. You can even ask your clients the types of things they have troubles or questions with (such as food and diet questions, the best exercises or even where to buy some great work out gear) and write a blog post about it. If it’s a post that people love, they will share it within their own circles and get more people talking about your business.

Include a call to action

It may seem obvious, but clients won’t know you want them to do something for you if you don’t ask. You could post a new blog or status and it is seen by plenty of people, but no-one “likes” it or “shares” it. It may not be that no one likes it, but rather they don’t know that you’d like it to be shared around. It can be as simple as “Agree? Click LIKE”, “RT if you agree!” or “Don’t forget to SHARE the love”. If you want, you can also ask people a question in your post to try and get more people to interact with the post. You can also set up an email list if you’d like to send information and updates to people’s emails, which can be posted on social media for those who are interested. This way, more people can interact with your posts and get more information about your business from the sources they want.

Use the right content for the right platform

You may feel like cutting corners and selecting the one post to auto share to all the rest of your sites, but this isn’t necessarily the best way to go about your branding. Looking at trends by other professional bodies and social media accounts, different media work better than others on different sites. For example, an image of workout gear laid out strategically against a stunning background will likely work a lot better on Instagram, rather than Facebook. A motivating quote may work better on Facebook or Twitter, but hard to convey on Instagram.

Think about the content you are sharing and where you think it will work best. It could be a matter of testing the waters and sending the one image or post to a couple of networks and seeing where it works best. From there, you can use these kinds of trends to make the most out of your future posts.

‍Find out how Clubworx personal trainer software can help you manage and grow your business.