Self-promotion is one of the hardest, but also most beneficial, ways to get more gym members. You don’t want to be constantly tooting your own horn, but if no one knows that your business exists, that’s no good either. That said, instead of too much self-promoting, why not get your members to do it for you? Now there’s an idea! Below are four easy ways to get your gym members to post more often on social media and give our business a boost as a result. If you’re looking for a way to get more fitness leads, check out FitnessTexter. It kicks butt. We promise. If you’re more of the bookwork type, check out Jason MacDonald’s book on Social Media Marketing.

Give Out Free Gym Shirts for Special Occasions

If you’re a gym owner, one of the easiest ways that you can increase the amount of word-of-mouth advertising is by giving out free t-shirts to your members. Get some printed online or locally and start handing them out. This doesn’t need to be every single member in your gym, but feel free to give them out on special occasions. Someone’s birthday; toss them a free shirt. Someone just came accomplished a new PR; give them a shirt. The goal being, the more people who are wearing your shirts, the more people that will see your shirts and your brand. Think of how often you see CrossFitters wearing their tshirts at the bar, at work, around town. That’s all free advertising right there. The quicker you get some t-shirts made, the better.

Start a Facebook ‘Like’ Contest for a Free Month

Piggybacking on the idea of giving out shirts, another reason you can give out a free t-shirt is if someone wins your weekly Facebook “like” contest. Have a weekly raffle for anyone who gets more than 15-20 likes on one of their gym pictures. This will one, encourage your members to take pictures inside your gym and post them to Facebook, and two, get their friends thinking about joining the gym as well. The logistics are quite simple; the person needs to take the picture in your gym and you need to verify the amount of likes. They can screenshot you the pictures and likes. Every week, re-post the winner’s picture on your gym’s Facebook wall. You’ll get some views and, in turn, increase your social media presence.

Create a Personal Record Whiteboard to Encourage Pictures

Everyone knows that CrossFit boxes do a great job on social media. They post often, they get lots of interactions and they keep the community excited. Even if you’re not a CrossFit box, take some ideas from their community. Add a PR board to one of the walls of your facility. This will encourage your members to take pictures of their results and post them on their chosen social media site. If you’re lucky, they’ll even use the hashtag that you create below. A PR board is a great way to get your members excited about fitness while also increasing your social media reach.

Create a Hashtag Specifically for Your Business

Creating a Hashtag is super simple. If you’re not familiar with hashtags, read this Mashable article. Sit down with your marketing team and decide on the best possible hashtag. Maybe you have a slogan for your business, #KICKBUTTQUADS, or a city #CHICAGOCARDIOCLUB or just something simple like using your area code #BOXING954. Regardless of how you do it, decide on a hashtag and them stick to you. Make sure every picture you post on Instagram uses this hashtag so that your current members start to incorporate it into their own Instagram pictures. In no time you’ll have a healthy locally-tending hashtag that will hopefully catch the eyes of potential new members. If you need some inspiration, check out these examples.

Image Credits:
CrossFit Hierarchy
CC 2.0 Petit_louis on Flickr
Custom Ink