Do You Have the Right Platforms?

What goes around comes around, right?  Who would have thought that in the second decade of the 2000's, we'd be loving our platforms again the way we did in the 70's? 

While platforms may be a part of the fashion scene again, we have another type platform that is more important in terms of our social media marketing - a "platform" is "a type of software or technology that enables users to build, integrate or facilitate community, interaction and user-generated content." (according to www.wikianswers.com)  While each of us has our favorites, choosing the platforms that will best reach your consumer should be your ultimate goal.  Remember creating your social media plan?  Refer to it to guide you through your decisions.

Based on data and personal experience, the following platforms are must haves: 

1. LinkedIn - Used primarily for professional interaction.  Connect and communicate with people in your industry, and share ideas.  This is also a great platform for finding new talent when you need to add to your existing team.  On Jan 5, 2013, LinkedIn announced that is has reached the 200 million member mark.   This study by Lab42 gives an interesting infographic on how those members are interacting with the site. 
2. Twitter - Twitter is misunderstood by many who think it is simply 140 characters worth of "what's going o right now."  Twitter gives business the ability to send information out to followers that takes little time, but can produce great results.  It's also a way for your customers to connect with you - more than 175 million tweets are sent daily, and 56% of customers tweets to companies are being ignored.  
3. Facebook - If you are trying to get your business's name in front of consumers, Facebook is the place to be!  80% of consumers prefer to connect with brands through Facebook over other social networking sites.
4. YouTube - Think people like videos?  With one hour of video uploaded to YouTube every second, you'd better believe it!  Check out this website, www.onehourpersecond.com, for perspective (just make sure your volume is not up to high!), grab your video camera and start filming!  Create your own channel where you can posts videos of events going on at your facility, classes that you may be running, and tips to share with your customers.  This allows engagement with your customers both inside and outside your walls, strengthening their loyalty and trust in your brand.

There are other platforms, too, that can be used based on your goals.  Some of the most widely used are:

1. Blogging (WordPress, Tumblr)
2. Pinterest
3. Google+

While these sites have gained popularity and are very well-known, there are new site being created all the time.  To keep up to date with the newest social media news, visit www.mashable.com.  

What platforms is your business currently using, and how effective have your efforts been?  Please let me, Kelli Hatton, know your thoughts and experiences!

Kelli Hatton is an active fitness professional, consultant and speaker with expertise in employee development,  business development, marketing and management.  As a business development professional and consultant, she provides management, sales, marketing and customer service training to organizations looking to increase their productivity.  She also leads the Business Development team for Fitmarc, the South Central US Distributor for Les Mills Group Fitness systems.  To learn more, contact Kelli today.

Are you for real?

After a brief hiatus, where I've used some time to travel into various markets and seen many attempts at social media by fitness businesses - I'm back and moving on with our social media series.  Let's review our first two steps:

1. Create a plan
2. Differentiate

The third step can be challenging for both businesses and individuals within the business, both in creating a social media presence, but also in daily business practices.  We know from Nielsen studies that people trust traditional paid media ads less and less, while placing more trust in recommendations from social media outlets, people they know, and editorial content.  So how can you help consumers trust you and your fitness business through your online presence?

3. BE REAL

If people are going to trust your online presence, you need to be transparent and authentic - NOT hide behind a brand.  Share insightful and helpful information that is relevant to your business, and allow people to relate to you.  People want to feel that what they are getting is real - so let them see who you really are through your social media outlets.

One customer asked me, "What does it mean, to be real?  Aren't I trying to sell my fitness center to prospective members, so shouldn't I want to put forward an image that would make them want to come here?"  Sure, we all want prospective members to visit our facilities, but if we project an image that is not what they will experience when they walk in the door, then what good is it?  If you are careful to present both you and your facility as you are, no matter what that may look like, then you will find that the people who will truly appreciate what you do and how you do it are the ones that will visit, and will become a customer.

During a recent trip to Huntsville, AL, I had the chance to meet Jeidi Pippins, owner of the new studio, Sweat Huntsville.  I'd had several phone conversations and email exchanges with her during the few weeks before my visit, and had created an image in my mind of what she and her studio would be like.  When I arrived, I was dead on - the energetic, no nonsense, make it happen personality that I had experienced on the phone was exactly the person that was in front of me - a little dynamo who was extremely passionate about taking her love for fitness, and helping others SWEAT off weight and feel healthy!  Her studio, too, was a reflection of her personality - it was simple and straightforward, with minimal equipment - just begging you to come and swing a kettlebell, lift a barbell, or hang onto a TRX suspension trainer.  

I got to spend time with Jeidi and her husband, Lawrence, and talk about ways the they could engage more participants via social media, and how they could find relevant and authentic content to help them.  One of the avenues we discussed was having a vendor with a built-in marketing solution - electronic images and media that were profesionally prepared, and able to be plugged in to SWEAT's websites and various other platforms.  Through Fitmarc's distribution of the Les Mills fitness system, which includes such a marketing solution, we've seen small studios such as Jeide's receive big benefits from using the the marketing resources provided, rather than having to create their own.

So, here's the question - does SWEAT Huntsville's social media presence seem authentic?  Judge for yourself - click here to visit SWEAT, and let Jeidi know what you think about her Facebook presence.  Let me, Kelli Hatton, know what you think, too - I'd love to hear your feedback, and know if you've faced challenges "being real" on social media.  

Kelli Hatton is an active fitness professional, consultant and speaker with expertise in employee development,  business development, marketing and management.  As a business development professional and consultant, she provides management, sales, marketing and customer service training to organizations looking to increase their productivity.  She also leads the Business Development team for Fitmarc, the South Central US Distributor for Les Mills Group Fitness systems.  To learn more, contact Kelli today.

How is your fitness business different?

Last week, we began our social media marketing series with information to help your business plan your social media strategy.  As the first and most important step, planning will determine whether your attempt at social media marketing is ultimately successful.  Once you have decided on your plan, where do you go from there?

2. DIFFERENTIATE

 As you start diving into your strategy, you must find a way to differentiate your business.  What exactly does that mean?  According to our friends at Merriam-Webster, to differentiate is "to mark or show a difference in : constitute a difference that distinguishes."  In discussions with many fitness center owners or managers, I've heard them say, "How can I be different from the guy down the street?  We are both fitness centers - in how many ways can we really be different?"  

Define your brand!  You have to think about more than the physical offerings at your fitness facility to answer this question...when a customer walks through your doors, what are they going to see and experience at your center that is different?  Look at your programming, your special service offerings and other amenities at your facility - who is your target market?  Once you've determined who you are targeting, then you must create a value proposition that will speak to that market - use that to help you create your differentiation! 

For example - take The Health Club for Women in Houston, Texas.  Their website states their value proposition on the homepage: "The Health Club for Women has been developed to differentiate itself by appealing to women of all ages who prefer working out, group fitness and personal training services in an affordable, Houston area upscale women's health club designed with a clean, friendly, non-intimidating environment."  This facility knows that it's marketing to women, so their focus in their social media marketing is specifically to that target market - it doesn't matter what men think about their marketing, because men are not in the demographic they serve.

What makes your facility different?  Have you developed a strong brand that is based on differentiation?  I'd love to hear your comments and questions, and examples of how you have used differentiation in your marketing.  Please contact me, Kelli Hatton, and let me know how your business is different!

Kelli Hatton is an active fitness professional, consultant and speaker with expertise in employee development,  business development, marketing and management.  As a business development professional and consultant, she provides management, sales, marketing and customer service training to organizations looking to increase their productivity.  She also leads the Business Development team for Fitmarc, the South Central US Distributor for Les Mills Group Fitness systems.  To learn more, contact Kelli today.

What's the Plan?

So you've decided that it's time to start a social media campaign for your business - what now?  You see your competitors and friends posting on many different sites, and you want to be in on the action - so let's just jump in, right?  

Wrong!  While it may seem very elementary, the first thing that you must do is create your game plan.  If you are new to social media marketing, you soon realize that there are thousands of resources available, and you should choose the ones that fit your marketing strategy.  If you need help creating that strategy, there are resources available that can help, such as "Developing a Social Strategy," a presentation led by Jeremiah Owyang and Charlene Li of the Altimeter Group.  Why is strategy so important?  Mr. Owyang provides an answer here: 

 Beyond the technologies and applications, you need to ask yourself, "What is is that I am trying to do with my business's social media strategy?"  Steven Grech, Head of Strategy at Lightmaker UK, offers this suggestion to help get started:  "Before you start working on your social media strategy, you need support from all areas of your business (sales, marketing, finance, legal, HR, customer services) including your CxOs. The aim is to understand the internal sentiment of your business with regards to social media and to present the steps needed to create your social media plan before you launch. Use this opportunity to understand what each department’s objectives are. Investigate their objectives from a social media point of view and also from a general point of view, i.e. whether it is to increase sales by x% over 6 months by increasing our digital marketing spend and/or reduce call centre costs by y% by launching more customer service information online."  

 Now that you have an internal view of your business in regards to social media, it's time to set your objectives and measurement plan.  What are the key metrics that you will be tracking?  Are you looking to increase traffic to your website by 20% within six months?  Or are you looking to increase sales by 10% over three months?  Jamie Turner's blog on "How to Calculate the ROI of Your Social Media Campaign," is a great resource.  

Now you are well on your way to creating your business's game plan!  By using the resources mentioned above, coupled with your own resources (don't forget about those millenials who work for you that are social media savvy - get their input, too!), you can begin your journey towards social marketing. 

Next week, we'll look at moving forward once your initial game plan is in place - where do you go from here?  

Kelli Hatton is an active fitness professional, consultant and speaker with expertise in employee development,  business development, marketing and management.  As a business development professional and consultant, she provides management, sales, marketing and customer service training to organizations looking to increase their productivity.  She also leads the Business Development team for Fitmarc, the South Central US Distributor for Les Mills Group Fitness systems.  To learn more, contact Kelli today.

Has your fitness facility's marketing become social yet?

Last week, I visited Denver and presented a workshop to fitness facility owners and managers on "Learning to be Social" as part of the Fitmarc Educational Series.  Our focus - setting up a social media marketing plan that not only increased market presence, but also increased membership sales and retention.  While many fitness facility owners have realized the marketing power of social media, many others have not, or have not taken the time to do anything about it.  For those folks who are waiting, take a look at this video, "The Social Media Revolution 2012,"  recently updated with current stats on social media usage.

While there are many astounding stats in this video, there are a few that really stood out:

• Over 50% of the world's population is under 30 years old
• 96% of these Millenials have joined a social network
• 78% of consumers trust peer reviews of products and services
• Only 14% of comsumers trust advertising
• 34% of bloggers post about brands and their opinions of them. 

Over the next few weeks, I'll be discussing ways to help plan and execute your social marketing.  We will also look at how you can move through several stages of engagement to truly connect with those consumers that are interested in your brand.

Is there anything specific that you would like to see explored during these next few posts?  Please let me know - let me know your challenges, your concerns and your success stories!  Contact me, Kelli Hatton, with your thoughts.

Kelli Hatton is an active fitness professional, consultant and speaker with expertise in employee development,  business development, marketing and management.  As a business development professional and consultant, she provides management, sales, marketing and customer service training to organizations looking to increase their productivity.  She also leads the Business Development team for Fitmarc, the South Central US Distributor for Les Mills Group Fitness systems.  To learn more, contact Kelli today.

NIRSA 2012 Inspires through Development

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend NIRSA 2012, the annual conference of the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association, right here in Tampa.  Our city could not have been more accommodating - the weather was beautiful, and the attendees enjoyed their conference in a setting framed by water views and palm trees.  More important than the location, though, was the focus on development for those students, both present and back home at their respective colleges.

Wednesday, I had the pleasure of meeting with the recreational staff from Auburn University.  They are building a new rec center, and we were discussing their group fitness program and how Fitmarc and Les Mills could help them build that program to fit their new facility.  The focus of our meeting?  Training for student instructors to become a part of the group fitness staff, and how the Les Mills' training program could offer skills training that would benefit the student instructor both outside the group fitness room, and well past their college graduation.  I was thrilled to hear Auburn's dedication to developing their student instructors, as many of my college and university customers shy away from student instructors, citing the turnover as just too difficult to overcome - that there were not enough student instructors to stay fully staffed as they experienced graduation, transfers and a host of other reasons that a student might not be dedicated to teaching fitness.

So how could the systematic approach of a Les Mills training benefit a college or university rec center?  First, if a student has not been an instructor before, the system provides a pre-choreographed program that has been screened for safety.  Second, the student instructor is put through a rigorous training that requires he or she to show correct technique and coaching skills, complete with video feedback and an individualized action plan by a master trainer.  Third, the student instructor has to submit a video to Fitmarc for assessment before achieving certification, showing that he or she can teach a safe and effective class, following the guidelines learned in the initial training module.  Besides the physical aspects of teaching group fitness, students also learn grace under pressure, gain self-confidence and enhance their public speaking skills.  

Do you work in a college or university recreation center that employs student instructors?  What is your recruiting and training protocol, and how is it benefitting your students and your school?  Contact me, Kelli Hatton, and let me know - your comments and thoughts are welcome.

Kelli Hatton is an active fitness professional, consultant and speaker with expertise in employee development,  business development, marketing and management.  As a business development professional and consultant, she provides management, sales, marketing and customer service training to organizations looking to increase their productivity.  She also leads the Business Development team for Fitmarc, the South Central US Distributor for Les Mills Group Fitness systems.  To learn more, contact Kelli today.

Google Grants Help your YMCA Outreach

Google Grants Help your YMCA Outreach

View more presentations from Kelli Hatton

Kelli Hatton is an active fitness professional, consultant and speaker with expertise in employee development,  business development, marketing and management.  As a business development professional and consultant, she provides management, sales, marketing and customer service training to organizations looking to increase their productivity.  She also leads the Business Development team for Fitmarc, the South Central US Distributor for Les Mills Group Fitness systems.  To learn more, contact Kelli today.

Google Grants help Non-Profits Reach Donors and Customers for Free

Yes, I used the magic marketing word - FREE!  As I mentioned in my last post, Google Grants for Non-Profits is a program that allows non-profits to reach potential members, customers and donors, through a grant that allows $10,000 a month or more in free Google advertising.  With the emergence of technology over the last few years, an online presence for non-profits both in social media and online ads is a must in order to share your mission and stories, and reach those who have the money to help your cause.

I received several emails this week wanting to know more about how the program could help with their fund-raising and philanthropy.  This brief video clip outlines the different programs that are included in the Google Grants program, and how they can help target donors more effectively:

My colleague, Bryan O'Rourke, spoke at NAYDO last year about How Social Media is Changing Philanthropy, outlining the reasons that online philanthropy is becoming so important to organizations.  

EPhilanthropy, NAYDO 2011

View more presentations from Bryan ORourke

If you think that your non-profit can continue to increase donor participation without using social media and other online tools, you are missing a huge opportunity to raise more money for your cause.  If you have questions on how to get started with Google Grants, contact me, Kelli Hatton, and I can help!  If you are a non-profit currently using the program, I'd love to hear from you, too, about your experience.

Kelli Hatton is an active fitness professional, consultant and speaker with expertise in employee development,  business development, marketing and management.  As a business development professional and consultant, she provides management, sales, marketing and customer service training to organizations looking to increase their productivity.  She also leads the Business Development team for Fitmarc, the South Central US Distributor for Les Mills Group Fitness systems.  To learn more, contact Kelli today.

What are Google Grants, and how can they help Non-Profits?

So, what is this Google Grants program all about, and can it really help non-profits reach more customers and donors?

The description offered by Google states that, "The Google Grants program empowers non-profit organizations to achieve their goals by helping them promote their websites via advertising on Google. Google AdWords ads appear when users search on Google and when you click on one of the ads, you are brought to the website being advertised."  Most of us have seen Google AdWords ads whenever we are online - we perform a Google search, and these ads pop up, enticing us to visit the business they are promoting.  For most businesses, these are paid advertisements that are a part of their online marketing strategy.  However, if you you are part of a non-profit, such as a YMCA, these ads are available free through the Google Grants.

How can having these free AdWords help your non-profit?  Instead of your looking for an audience, your audience is looking for, and can find, you!  You can fine tune your campaign to reach your target audience.  Detailed analytics and statistics help your team know which AdWords are working, which may need to change, and you can track conversions such as donations, newsletter subscriptions and volunteer registrations.  

There are other aspects of the Google Grants program that I'll share more about next week.  In the meantime, if you would like more information on how to take advantage of the Google Grants for Non-Profits program, please contact me, Kelli Hatton.  If you are a non-profit currently involved with the program, please give me your feedback!

Kelli Hatton is an active fitness professional, consultant and speaker with expertise in employee development,  business development, marketing and management.  As a business development professional and consultant, she provides management, sales, marketing and customer service training to organizations looking to increase their productivity.  She also leads the Business Development team for Fitmarc, the South Central US Distributor for Les Mills Group Fitness systems.  To learn more, contact Kelli today.

C'mon - be a better boss in 2012!

2012 is underway, and most of us are now focused on reaching goals that we set during the last quarter of 2011. For most of my career, I've planned goals for myself and my teams based on results from the current year, and projected our performance into the next year...all based around sales and revenue targets.  While focusing on our sales and revenue goals for each new year is essential, we tend to gloss over or even ignore an equally as important plan - how to build our workplace through the recruiting, hiring, training and retention of great staff.

Last week, I read an article in Entrepreneur Magazine titled Seven Tips for Becoming a Better Boss, written by Marcus Erb.  He clarifies the reason why it is so crucial to create greater leadership by becoming a better boss.  Your business needs someone that can create the vision and focus necessary to move a company forward.  

Erb provides seven tips that are taken from leaders of companies recognized this year on this year's Best Small Workplaces list.  Those tips include: 

• Begin with yourself.
• Flip the traditional management dynamic.
• Hire the best.
• See employees as whole people.
• Use positive, constructive motivation.
• Practice accountability to your values.
• Start now.

Is one of your 2012 goals to be a better boss?  Contact me, Kelli Hatton, and let me know your plans and goals for this year!

 About the author: 

Kelli Hatton is an active fitness professional, consultant and speaker with expertise in employee development,  business development, marketing and management.  As a business development professional and consultant, she provides management, sales, marketing and customer service training to organizations looking to increase their productivity.  She also leads the Business Development team for Fitmarc, the South Central US Distributor for Les Mills Group Fitness systems.  To learn more, contact Kelli today.