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| Image from: Rodan + Fields |
The
end is the beginning. Over the course of the last sixteen weeks, our class explored
and practiced with various social networks for our own fictitious business.
While this semester has come to an end, my use of many of the social media
platforms will not. Using these platforms to market for Bank On Fitness was an excellent learning mechanism, and in this
last lengthy blog posting, I share my thoughts on each of the social media
platforms.
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| Image from Keep Calm |
A
blog is a content management system
that makes it simple for any blogger to publish short articles called posts.
Blogs also provide a hub for other social media marketing efforts. (The Social Media Marketing Book, Zarella,
pg. 9) Not including this summary blog,
I created thirteen blog posts during the last sixteen weeks, usually posting on
Wednesday evening. I used my blog to announce my Facebook page and my Twitter
account and to publish my first commercial. I blogged about events, such as the Bank On Fitness Wellness Fair, which provided the opportunity cross-collaborate with other class members’ businesses. Such cross-promotion is beneficial
as followers of these other business may decide to follow me, which would
increase traffic to my blog and associated platforms (and vice versa). I informed followers
about the new hot yoga classes, shared information on fitness apps and Tabata workouts, and trend tailed in February
by highlighting the importance of Heart Health. Blogging is an excellent
mechanism for businesses to showcase their expertise and announce promotions
and events. I had not had prior experience blogging and welcomed the
opportunity to use this platform, mostly enjoying the opportunity to be
creative about an area of interest – health and wellness. I intend to use this
social media tool in a future business primarily to establish credibility with
an interested audience. As Zarella suggests, I will use a blog as the center of
my social media marketing efforts.
Twitter
is a form of microblogging. Initially I struggled using this platform and did
not enjoy it. I had difficulty developing “tweets,” as they were often
grammatically incorrect, which is almost required to get a business’ point
across in 140 characters or less. However, as the semester progressed, I became
less critical and more acclimated to this form of marketing. Many fitness
companies that I followed used Twitter to effectively engage their followers
(and customers). I witnessed this and realized that this social media platform
can be valuable in various industries. With Bank On Fitness, I tried to post
three to five times a day. In total, I tweeted 159 times, followed 29 others,
and was followed by 10 others. I used this platform to inform and engage
followers about various fitness, health, and wellness facts. I asked thought-provoking
fitness questions, retweeted recipes and workout advice, and did some trend
tailing. I used Twitter to drive followers to my blog (podcast and commercial).
I shared information about events (Wellness Fair), and cross-collaborated with
other fictitious local businesses. Whether I use Twitter in an actual business
will depend upon the nature of that business. If I start a fitness business, I
will use Twitter, as I saw how Anytime Fitness and Snap Fitness engaged their
followers. If I initiate a professional consulting business, I will not use Twitter,
as I’m not sure it would have the same value to business clients (on human
resources matters, for instance). Click
here to visit my Twitter page!
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| From http://krwg.org/ |
In
my opinion, Facebook is necessary and
valuable tool for small businesses like Bank On Fitness; it is a is no-cost
social media platform that can be used to entertain, engage, and inform
followers, as long as you are not “bombarding” fans with too many posts. I
enjoyed the experience and would use it in the future. The metrics provided to
business pages are beneficial to help develop and refine marketing strategies. Over the course of the semester, I posted
three to five posts per week. According to the Buddy Media Report (Strategies
for Effective Wall Posts: A Timeline Analysis, wwww.salesforce.com/marketing-cloud,
2012) discussed in class, Sundays and Mondays are the best days to engage on
social media in the health and beauty industry– that is, catch your followers
at the beginning of the week! (Sunday
was also popular for Sports industries, as well as the Travel and Leisure
category). Therefore, my goal was to post on these days, as well as on
Saturday, another popular post day for health and beauty. My Facebook posts
were focused primarily at informing and engaging followers. Posts shared
healthy recipes (lunches, gluten-free foods, smoothies), regularly reminded
followers to develop their weekly workout schedule, and shared information on
various exercise trends (for example, walking, tabata, fitness apps). I enjoyed
the experience and would use it in the future for the same purpose that I used
it for Bank On Fitness. I believe that the metrics would provide beneficial
information to help develop and refine marketing strategies. Click here to check out my Facebook page!
Pinterest is
an addicting social media platform. I attempted to keep my Bank On Fitness
Pinterest account simple, with seven boards that I believed would interest and
engage my followers: (1) Awesome Workouts; (2) Gym Workout Attire; (3) Want to
Hike; (4) Healthy Snacks for Energy; (5) Workout Motivation; (6) Heart Health;
and (7) Make Me Laugh – Fitness Humor.
For the semester, I executed a total of 69 pins. I primarily used this
platform for engaging and entertaining (motivation and humor). I enjoyed
Pinterest, but I’m not certain of the cost-benefit value it provides. It likely
would be beneficial for some businesses, particularly if one was selling goods.
Be sure to visit my Pinterest page.
If
I were to own my own non-fictitious health and wellness studio, I would use the
niche site EveryMove.org. The goal
of this niche site is to encourage participants to MOVE and tracks efforts. The
site links with many fitness applications to record steps, runs, and various
other workouts. It motivates members to be active by awarding members points
for each activity. As a niche site, Everymove.org provides a platform for members
to interact with and encourage one another to be active. One possible way to
embrace the niche site is to hold a competition. Encourage a team of clients to
join Everymove.org, become friends, and engage in friendly competition.
HootSuite is a social media management system
(aggregator) for businesses to collaboratively execute campaigns across
multiple social networks from one secure, web-based dashboard. (HootSuite, Help
Desk, Questions, https://help.hootsuite.com/entries/22000446-What-is-HootSuite-)
In simple terms, a business is able to input posts for various platforms in one
place (HootSuite) and schedules them to be posted at specific times in the
future. Simply put, HootSuite is a timesaver if a business has their social
media strategy planned in advance. I did not effectively use HootSuite this
semester mostly because I did not have a well-planned post strategy for Twitter
posts. Planning takes time and effort. While I did not afford myself that
luxury this semester, I would most definitely use HootSuite for a real business
as it promotes efficiency in marketing efforts. Another benefit of HootSuite is
that it provides metrics on social media activity posted via HootSuite. One of
the downfalls of planning posts for a longer period of time may be a
“set-it-and-forget” issue. A business could possibly miss a trend tailing
opportunity using this approach, and it would be something that I would keep in
mind with using a social media management system.
I
used Audacity to create a three
minute podcast for my business. My podcast was about walking (it informed about
the benefits of walking and attempted to engage clients by inviting them to
join our walking club). After working through the technological challenges with
the Audacity file export, it was awesome and effective! In this hectic world, podcasts can help to
engage individuals in health and wellness. Clients could listen to these brief informational
clips while doing other things (multi-task). For instance, take a walk and
listen to a podcast on the benefits of blueberries. In the future, I will use
podcasts in a real-life business to develop credibility in certain areas. I
will produce quick educational clips on various topics.
A
vine is a six second video one can
make on their smart device using the Vines
platform. It seems most vines are for entertainment. This semester, I created a
few vines. One engaged clients to go for a walk or hike on a beautiful day, another
attempted to peak interest in a form of workout, the Tabata, and a final vine
encouraged clients to enter a competition for a Ninja blender to make healthy
smoothies. I struggled with the six second vine limit and my vines required
many, many, many takes to complete a simple six second vine. Given this limitation,
I would not likely utilize this social media marketing platform. Videos, on the other hand, would be
incredibly beneficial for multiple uses: demonstrating an exercise, showcasing
a studio, sharing information on upcoming specials or events, and I would use
them in future. For this semester’s class, I used a free video creation
application and recorded a commercial about Bank On Fitness’ spring and summer class schedule. I matched my
voiceover the business logo and photographs. I think the completed product was
informative. With that said, I think videos should be a positive reflection on
a business. To ensure professionalism in videos, much more practice is
required. The video that we viewed in class (members in the community dancing
to Happy) was engaging and contagious. It increased both traffic to the city’s
Facebook page and the number of fans. This was evidenced by the no-cost metrics
provided within Facebook.
To conclude, Bank On Fitness
is a health and wellness studio with target market audience is women of all
ages. Based the knowledge and experienced that I gained in our Social Media
Marketing class this past semester, the social
media marketing platforms that I would recommend for a business like Bank On Fitness include Blogger,
Facebook, HootSuite, podcasts and videos, review sites, and social media
monitoring tools. Blogs should be posted regularly primarily to inform interested
followers about health and wellness topics and develop credibility through
effective sharing of information (list and cite). The creation of a Facebook business
to engage, entertain, and inform is critical. I would suggest that posts be
limited, but posted during key traffic times, and pay attention to the metrics!
Which posts engaged? How did your fans like and interact with various posting
strategies? I would strongly recommend
using HootSuite, the social media marketing aggregator, to save time on posts
that can be planned. However, it should be noted some posts may not be planned
weeks in advance (for example, posts those that trend tail). I would recommend
that a business learn more about and develop effective, professional
informational videos and podcasts, as I believe that these tools could be effectively
to share exercises and workout strategies with clients. I would also recommend
that a business like Bank On Fitness proactively work to develop a positive
reputation on selected rater and review sites (Yelp!) by encouraging clients to
share recommendations and positive feedback about their success with the business.
Finally, I would emphasize that analytics are crucial to marketing success. Paying
small dollars to gain access to informative analytics will help a business to
develop future social media marketing strategies. Any business will benefit
from a detailed review of their engagement with followers, fans, and clients –
as this process will help a business to modify their social media marketing
strategy to get the biggest bang for their “buck” and their time. Social media
marketing can be a low-cost but effective strategy to create success.
