How Hashtags can Generate Leads for Fitness Studios

Ever since social media has entered our lives, an increasing number of our conversations have been taking place on these various platforms. Whether sharing family vacation pictures on Facebook or just Tweeting about what a world leader said in the climate change convention - social media has become a natural go-to for us to share what’s on our minds. But, that's not just it. Today, social media platforms mean many things to many people.

With the ability to share assorted content on social media accounts, be it high-quality photos, video posts, user-generated content, upcoming events, success stories, sneak peek, location tags, personal stuff, and whatnot, it has given users ways to be active online, access information, increase brand visibility and reach, and even gain new followers for a start. It's an equal platform for people to interact with celebrities, businesses, and the like. It is no longer a platform just for personal accounts, but a great cost-effective way to leverage a business account!

Talking specially about fitness business and fitness professionals, they have found Instagram to be one of the most popular and promising platforms out of all. That is why most fitness businesses use social media today to advertise, launch new programs, manage bookings, and ultimately scale up their revenues. For a fitness business owner or a personal trainer, Instagram marketing strategy works best due to many useful Instagram's features like Instagram stories, Instagram posts, Instagram feed, Instagram highlights, multiple photos feature, Instagram reels, Instagram Live to mention a few prominent ones. But. that's not it. People from the fitness business have potential customers from across platforms. Apart from Instagram users, there is also a huge fitness community on Facebook or Twitter that could be targeted. Hence in order to leverage the strength and reach via a social channel, a fitness professional or a personal trainer uses other platforms for generating leads and potential customers.

With all these conversations taking place, how does a fitness business make itself heard amongst the crowd?

Pro Tip: That’s where hashtags come in to help! Hashtags don’t just show us what’s trending; they also help index or categorize our content. From putting all tweets on a topic under a single list to compiling every Instagram post with the same hashtag in one place for you to view, hashtags have been organizing content on social media for a couple of years now.

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So when your fitness business uses the right hashtags in your communication, you will be able to feature your posts amongst your competitors and grab curious eyeballs and even earn more followers!

How do Hashtags Help Your Fitness Studio Stand Out?

Essentially, hashtags are engagement magnets across social media platforms. On Instagram, hashtags generate up to 12.5% more engagement on your post. On Twitter. it is a whopping 100% more. Twice the level of engagement!  

Therefore it is usually seen that personal trainers and fitness professionals usually maintain a unique business profile with an attractive profile picture and a striking Instagram bio before heading out to post relevant content around fitness to garner interest from their target audience. The content that is shared is supported with valuable information in terms of caption and most pertinent and favorite hashtags!

So, how can your fitness business account use hashtags on social media posts to your advantage?

For starters, the right hashtags on your posts could allow users with common fitness interests to locate and engage with your content. Keep an eye out for the latest trends and the hashtags used on these posts. Understanding how and when they are being used will allow you to frame your fitness-related content, fitness posts accordingly.

Once you start getting an idea of how hashtags work and how your competitors and followers are using them, you will be able to frame your industry hashtags. But before you do so, there are a few things you will need to keep in mind.

How to Use Hashtags Effectively?

1. Hashtag Dos and Donts
2. Proceed with a strategy
3. One size does not fit all
4. Evolve with trends
   

Hashtag Dos and Don'ts

If you want to get your posts on fitness to trend and increase your online presence, here are some basic guidelines to be aware of creating and using your hashtag:

• Keep it short and precise
• Avoid stuffing or spamming
• Be selective, and don't use unrealistic keywords
• Place hashtags on words that can cause an impact
• Use unique words or catchphrases that can define your brand personality
• Understand your target audience and the hashtags they tend to use
• Learn from fitness influencers and use successful fitness hashtags relevant to your fitness business, like #swimtogetfit or #GoGetReady

Proceed with a strategy

For fitness businesses to make a positive impression on social media, it has to be something beyond just getting any hashtags. While framing your content marketing campaigns, look into where hashtags could make a difference because merely adding hashtags to your post may guarantee more views, but you have to earn active engagement beyond a certain point.

Know your audience well before you place a hashtag. Absorb the language within your fitness community. Understand where they use and don't use hashtags and why. You can also look at your competitors to study the hashtags they use and how effective are those. It will also give you a better understanding of the latest trends within your industry and how you could make a difference.

One size does not fit all

When preparing your strategy, you must remember that each platform processes hashtags differently due to the difference in how they categorize and store your posts. That is why your hashtag strategy needs to be adaptable to each forum.

Twitter: Due to the word count limitations, try to optimize with the best hashtags that are more likely to work for your posts. One or two hashtags are enough, use a Twitter hashtag tracker to analyze and optimize them consistently

Facebook: Another popular social media platform is Facebook. It has made hashtags more relevant over the last couple of years and highlights people-centric content. So, restrict your post to two or three personalized hashtags that connect best with your fitness brand and audience.‍

Instagram: Social media platform Instagram technically allows up to 30 hashtags per post but has been working to restrict spam and encourage quality. 10 to 11 hashtags relevant to your brand or topic of discussion should be optimal to get your post more reach and engagement. Not just that, you could also follow hashtags on Instagram that relate to your fitness brand. It makes it easier to stay connected with your interests and community and follow current trends. Up to 10 hashtags could also be used on Instagram stories to reach more leads.

Pinterest: As of 2021, hashtags are no longer as effective on Pinterest as they were the last few years. Today, they function as keywords and are not clickable. So if you want to include them, restrict yourself to keywords that can reach people searching for topics connected to your fitness studio.‍

LinkedIn: Hashtags on LinkedIn can help you reach out to people outside your network, so use two to three hashtags that speak to your brand and your studio to increase brand awareness.

Read Content Marketing for Fitness Studios

Evolve with trends

If you want your hashtags to perform well, they need to keep with the latest trends. Social media moves fast, and with lower attention spans online, you'll find your hashtags may not be as relevant or catchy if they're detached from the language and sentiment of the day.

Trends move fastest on Twitter, with everybody sharing their thoughts in 280 characters or less and a tendency to speak on current events more than any other platform. So first, fitness professionals and personal trainers should find hashtags that are used the most in fitness circles and how people use them in their tweets. Then, gauge the sentiment that forms these hashtags by understanding the tone and language used in the tweets.

Additionally, do your hashtag research through tools that give you an idea of how keywords or related keywords are used across regions and demographics. Some tools like RiteTag will also provide you with data on exposure, retweets, and other user behavior for each hashtag. So you can generate your brand-specific hashtags for your fitness studio.

Today, fitness studios have made a fine space for themselves on social media within fitness circles. Studios and individual trainers alike use these spaces to build efficient businesses and foster healthy relationships with their audience. The proper use of hashtags in your social media campaigns that makes sense can help you form the right approach to do this. Make sure to work on a sound strategy and expand your brand awareness and reach to grow your business.

For more tips, Read How to bring more leads to your fitness studios‍

If you're a fitness studio owner or trainer who would like to improve their internal operations and deliver a better experience to customers, then Omnify is here to help! Try us for FREE.

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