A big part of building a fitness brand today is learning to use the social media landscape effectively. After all, that is where your target audience spends most of their time. In fact, the average US adult spends over 2 hours on social media every single day. So if you’re not speaking to them where they spend the most time, you are potentially losing out on a large chunk of business.
But how do you create social media campaigns that actually help you generate leads without taking up a ton of time? To build success on social media, you’ll need to be strategic about your marketing, use the right social media platforms to advertise, and create engaging content and engage with your audience outside the confines of your gym.
To help with all this, in this article we’ll take you through the practical fitness social media tips and strategies you can use to quickly grow your brand. If you’re already running social media campaigns that are bringing you some success, you might want to consider doubling down on video marketing as that can instantly boost your reach and thereby conversions. And this is something you can do with the help of an easy-to-use video creation tool like InVideo
For now, here’s what we will cover in this blog:
- 14 fitness social media tips and strategies
- The best social media platforms to use for fitness brands
- 9 fitness social media post examples to inspire your strategy
So, let’s dive right in!
14 fitness social media tips and strategies
The social media landscape is constantly changing, which is why staying on top of trends can be tough. But there are certain things, even in the fickle social media space, that stand the test of time. And you need to double down on these strategies if you are serious about growing your brand.
These are the top 14 strategies you need to incorporate as a part of your fitness social media campaigns.
1. Double down on video content
The online fitness space is a highly interactive one since it is primarily dominated by fitness and workout advice that is better conveyed through video. In fact, 85 percent of US consumers prefer watching online videos.
Social media algorithms are also prioritizing video, which means using videos will increase your chances of reaching a larger audience and thereby having better conversions for your business.
So, if you want to make your mark, you need to create video content consistently and ensure that it is of high quality. In fact, video should be your primary form of content in the fitness space.
To get you super pumped - and learn how it’s done well - check out this video campaign by fitness influencer Natacha Océane:
When creating videos though, you want to keep them short and super engaging to cater to the shorter attention spans on social media platforms, while still providing a ton of value. You can create longer videos on YouTube but the length will depend on the topic you’re covering. You also don’t just want to keep creating workout videos hoping to grow your audience. Create a video marketing strategy and chalk out a plan which allows you to share value-based content alongside promotional content to help grow your brand. You also want to build social proof by sharing client testimonials and motivational content.
If video is something you struggle with, you can take the help of an easy-to-use video creation tool like InVideo which offers thousands of fitness video templates to help you make engaging content within minutes.
2. Take advantage of live video streaming
According to Livestream, 82% of social media users prefer to watch live video content over standard posts. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram all offer the option for you to go live - but unfortunately a lot of brands fail to do this!
Going live can give you an advantage over your competitors and help you engage with your community in real time, giving your brand a personal touch – something that a lot of people fail to offer.
Think about incorporating live streaming into your existing routine. You can go live while working out or preparing a nutritious snack. If you sell a product, you could go live to open a new shipment that just arrived. And who doesn’t love a spontaneous unboxing video? Don’t worry about the production being perfect since viewers won’t expect this on live video. Instead the more natural it feels the more authentic you and your brand will seem.
Live streaming is also a great way to get more people to view your posts because of the way social media platform algorithms work. For example, Facebook’s algorithm rewards profiles for posts that get a lot of engagement because it means people stay on Facebook longer. A live video is more likely to make people stay and watch what’s happening while also commenting and engaging with others on the live stream - which is what Facebook wants.
Your reward for these high engagement scenarios is that your posts will show up in more people’s feeds. Live Love Party organized a Zumba Party on Facebook Live that was liked by more than 300 people and gained over 5,000 views!
You can later also repurpose this live video to post on IGTV, cut out snippets and share as individual posts and so much more. And all of this is not difficult to do either. You can simply download your live video and edit it within the InVideo video editor to create multiple posts from the same piece of content.
3. Create Online Classes Tailored to Social Media Platforms
With the Covid lockdown leaving many of us stuck at home and unable to use the gyms - many fitness professionals started offering classes online. And now they’re here to stay! While online classes were around before the pandemic, their rise in popularity makes them something that can’t be ignored if you want to grow your following!
Online classes are a great way to increase your existing pool of subscribers and advertise your services to those who don’t live in your city. You can do this by hosting free workouts on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram Live, or creating a course on your website. If you decide to host a paid course, using a private YouTube link or hosting this on your website is the best idea.
But using live video on social media is a great way to get people together and advertise your classes. Many fitness businesses host workout videos on YouTube for free and then ask subscribers to pay for the full course. This method first entices the viewers with some great content and makes them more willing to pay for subsequent sessions.
The Body Project does this excellently. They host a large number of workouts on YouTube but also advertise a comprehensive course - so if viewers want to follow the entire routine, they’ll have to pay for it.
And no matter where you host your classes, you want to promote them across your social media platforms. You can do this by creating promotional content on social media or even run paid ads. To create a promo video for your classes, here’s a fun video template from InVideo that you can use:
4. Leverage the Power of Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing has now become such a massive part of social media for fitness that it just can’t be ignored. Influencers can make your brand feel more approachable and relatable, help you gain new high-quality followers and communicate your brand message effectively.
The success of the Gymshark brand is largely due to their collaboration with influencers and aspirational athletes and the sense of community the brand created with them. They usually leverage influencers’ followers through the Gymshark Athlete program and have used high profile fitness influencers, like Elliot Burton and Georgie Stevenson for some great results.
What’s shifted in recent years is that brands are beginning to get more selective about the influencers they choose to work with. The huge increase in fitness social media influencers means that everyone’s spoilt for choice - so make sure you look carefully for someone whose ideals match your brand ethos and someone who can deliver concrete results.
If you have smaller budgets, you could also work with nano or micro-influencers - who have between 1,000 -10,000 followers. Influencers with smaller followings tend to be super niche but are usually more engaged and have strong followings which leads to more meaningful interactions. In fact, even brands with huge budgets often engage with micro-influencers to draw some of their highly engaged audiences to their pages.
Under Armour teamed up with nano-influencer Jennifer Rochon to bring their audience home workouts that feel more authentic than a highly produced workout video. This was part of their #ThroughThisTogether campaign launched during the COVID lockdown when everyone was doing home workouts - so their audience could really relate!
5. Share Educational Fitness Content to Help your Audience
If you’re a fitness instructor or run a gym you probably get asked a lot of questions about health and nutrition, equipment and general fitness. So why not use this to your advantage and create content that people are asking for!
People starting out on their fitness journeys often look to fitness influencers and trainers to educate them on general health and fitness, especially since improving your health isn’t just about hitting the gym! Sharing helpful educational content and professional insights with your audience is a great way to provide valuable information to people who are actively asking for it - while also positioning yourself as a knowledgeable fitness expert.
Besides workout videos and exercise tips you could also post healthy recipes, fascinating facts about health, scientific research findings (make sure to keep this super simple and explain it in plain language!) and your own learnings along the way. Talking about what you’ve learnt from your experience also builds trust. Another great idea is to provide your own opinion on trending health topics like avoiding sugar or gluten, talking about whether carbs are really bad for you etc.
If you’re trying to attract local clients, then consider sharing running or cycle routes for your area. Trifecta does this really well by mixing up their content with nutritional information, workouts, health and fitness tips and some great recipes you can try at home!
If you plan on creating educational videos for your social media, you should definitely check out InVideo’s editor where you can create these videos in minutes using thousands of templates, a stock library of over 8 million assets and a very user-friendly editing interface.
6. Inspire your Subscribers with Motivational Content
It’s not easy to start exercising and work on your diet, and motivational posts and quotes can really make all the difference! Motivational content helps followers to believe in their own abilities and take meaningful action. They’re designed to take people from the “I’m thinking about it” stage to “I’m going to do something” - which might mean joining your gym or signing up to train with you! People already on their journey will be more likely to stay on track and recommend you to others if they feel successful!
You can inspire and engage your audience with motivational quotes, client success stories, before and after photos, or even a short video of you getting your audience pumped for the day ahead! You can even have a short quote with a personal story you can relate in the caption of your post. This helps people identify even further with your journey.
Make sure you use a combination of popular and less used quotes to maximize your visibility. Also don’t forget your brand in all of this! Choose quotes that resonate with your brand voice and always stay consistent with your tone. Does your brand take a humorous approach to fitness or is it always super intense and focused? Your motivational content needs to reflect this tone.
When used well, quote posts can generate a ton of engagement from your audience.
Take a look at these examples from Toronto based boxing gym Girls Just Wanna Box. The gym was created as a space to empower women in boxing, and as you can see, the design of the quotes is very simple. The empowering messaging aligns perfectly with the brand, making it more likely to resonate with their audience.
And if you want to make your motivational quotes really stand out, you can create a video quote using a template on Invideo, like this one:
7. Leverage the Power of Social Media Advertising
If you want to increase your reach you need a good mix of social media ads and organic content. Try and learn as much about your existing audience as you can and develop personas to target based on these characteristics. This will make your ads more likely to convert.
Make sure you also use a combination of ads such as social marketplace ads, Story ads, Facebook ads and live streaming ads. You could even use chatbots to gather information and advertise certain services if it makes sense for your brand.
Check out CrunchFitness, a brand that runs location-specific ads featuring a 7 day pass offer. Geographic targeting helps them narrow down their audience and select locations where they want to boost memberships signups. The ability to run different offers in different areas gives them the space to customize offers based on a particular target group. For example they might want to appeal to older people in one area and college-students in another.
Pro-tip: If you really want to get noticed, try creating video ads! They’re much more likely to stand out and get users interacting. Check out Invideo’s 200+ social media for fitness templates which will help you create stunning video ads in under 15 minutes.
8. Focus on having an identifiable brand voice
Your brand voice is one of the main factors that make you stand out on social media.
But what exactly is your brand voice? Sure if you’re an influencer or trainer it would mean your personality as an individual. But as a brand, your personality or voice is depicted by the type of content you choose to post, the tonality of your images and words, the color palette you use, and through all these the feelings you evoke in the audience.
Is your personality fun and relaxed? Or are you super focused and intense when it comes to working out? Is inclusivity something that you really care about? Or maybe your business is focused on bringing in a youthful audience. When you create content around a chosen brand personality, you are able to stand out from within the plethora of fitness content itself.
SoulCycle is a great example of a brand with a strong personality. They are a high-energy, positive and inclusive space. A great example of how they showcased this is their ‘All Souls Welcome’ campaign. They did a series of posts and videos about their LGBTQI+ trainers to emphasize that they not only welcome everyone to their gyms but also hire people regardless of their orientation.
Want to create a similar video story about your fitness brand? Check out these great templates.
It’s important to note that a strong brand personality won’t appeal to everyone - but that’s the point! As long as it appeals to your intended audience it doesn’t have to appeal to everyone in the world. Establishing a niche for yourself is more likely to bring you loyal, highly engaged followers who have a higher chance of converting.
9. Focus on Inclusivity
Body positivity is an important factor in the fitness industry. More and more gyms are moving away from featuring people with so-called perfect bodies and instead attempting to focus on all kinds of bodies to seem more positive and welcoming.
Being inclusive makes you more welcoming to more types of people and creates an atmosphere that encourages body positivity. To get people who don’t work out regularly sign up for a membership - the value of positive fitness advertisements cannot be ignored. Tone can also be extremely important — you want to make sure you stay upbeat and optimistic so people will feel your positive energy and be more motivated. You might also want to avoid overly focusing on losing weight or prioritizing thinness as the only goal. Instead focus on health, wellness, getting fit and moving the bodies we already have.
Blink Fitness did this to great effect by featuring real members in their ‘Every Body Happy’ campaign and celebrating their natural shape and size.
Instead of the usual ads with impossibly fit bodies never breaking a sweat in elegant clothing - Blink chose to feature real people who work out in their gyms - and celebrate their wins!
Their Every Body campaign puts the focus back on feeling your best and getting healthy, regardless of the body you have.
Positive fitness advertisements like this one, get people excited about their health instead of making them feel intimidated or unwelcome.
10. Prioritize User-Generated Content
The way you tell stories about your brand is one of the most important factors that contribute to your brand’s success. Personal stories resonate with audiences and make your brand seem more ‘human.’ This is where user-generated content can help. It humanizes and champions your brand in the eyes of your audience, as well as builds credibility for your business. It is in fact a super important part of your digital marketing for fitness strategy.
But in order to have a constant stream of user generated content you will need to build a social connect with your audience first. This means making them feel seen within your community. You can do this via shoutouts, feature posts, and even live sessions on social media platforms. Once you build enough traction, you will have people automatically sharing content around your brand of fitness.
Chloe Ting’s brand is a perfect example of this. By sharing free fitness plans and videos on YouTube and championing her users, she now has a huge community of people who now create videos around her workouts.
Of course it takes time to build your brand to a point where people authentically share content around it. But you can kickstart the process by promoting their stories, successes, and achievements and anything else that makes them look good! Consider creating posts that highlight personal bests, winning a challenge, or meeting their fitness goals, all of which work really well. You can also get them to post reviews and testimonials on their own accounts and share these on your social pages.
And if you have a lot of your audience sharing before and after photos, you can turn them into a video using a template like this one from InVideo.
11. Don’t forget the ‘social’ aspect of social media
Often, people forget that the purpose of social media is to engage in conversation. They just post and run, i.e. share only what they want without ever liking or commenting on anyone else’s posts.
Social media is a two-way conversation, so if you’re just posting and talking about yourself without responding to what’s happening around you, there’s very little chance you’ll succeed. A truly successful social media presence makes your followers feel like they’re part of a community. Interacting is also the only way you can do this and keep followers loyal to your fitness brand.
Think about what your audience would like to see and make sure you engage in conversations with them about those topics. People use social media to connect with friends, share funny and inspiring content, get updates, and see what everyone else is up to. This means that your strategy has to find ways to connect, inspire, inform, and entertain simultaneously.
More than anything else, you must be responsive. Lululemon does this really well on their Twitter account, with their funny and clever remarks.
When followers see that you’re actively engaging, it’ll encourage them to share their opinions. Check out this blog to get ideas on the kind of posts you can create for your fitness brand that will help drive that engagement.
This is also why it is important to make videos a regular part of your social media content — because they are more interactive than other forms of content. You can go ahead and utilize templates on InVideo to create highly engaging and interactive video content for your social channels.
The Squad has managed to build an impressive community, one that has enabled the brand to expand its global awareness. Even though they’re a gym based in Ireland they have a following of fitness lovers from all over the world that attend their online classes. They do this by posting content that’s personalized with a conversational style that’s very inviting. While they also share content that promotes the business – they spend more time engaging with their audience and building relationships. Followers are encouraged to share their experiences with photos and stories using the hashtag #ImWithTheSquad.
12. Feature Reviews and Testimonials from Loyal Customers
Reviews and testimonials should form an integral part of your content strategy on social media, as they’re a super valuable asset to attract new members. According to Qualtrics, 91 percent of 18-34-year-olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and 93 percent of consumers say that online reviews influenced their purchase decisions.
So if you’re looking for high-quality leads, sharing reviews and testimonials is a sure-fire way to increase those subscriptions.
Get into the habit of asking members for reviews regularly. Once you have the content you can repurpose this across all your marketing channels. If you’re posting reviews, you’ll need to make them specific to your business, but with sharing testimonials on your socials you can get a little more creative.
Think along the lines of a weekly ‘questions’ feature on your IG stories; ask your community what’s helping their mental and physical health this week and turn it into a motivating post to inspire your audience. This shows you have a community of engaged followers with real struggles and good advice to give - and it’s not just people who praise you and your fitness center.
You should also look for interesting stories among people who use your service or attend your gym. Since everyone’s fitness journey is unique you’re sure to find some compelling stories. These can be used to make standard testimonials more interesting by focusing on someone’s story rather than how your gym or training helped.
Lululemon does this by featuring testimonials of their users in a storytelling format which is really compelling. The copy is sharp and the whole post screams “share me.” It’s the type of post that makes you stand out from the crowd!
This is a bit different than user generated content as even though the content is coming from your users, you need to polish the story and design the creatives around the story - so it’s a lot more work and needs to be planned and really well thought out. You’re not just resharing content!
What you can also do is turn testimonials from one user or multiple users into compelling videos. Check out this template from InVideo that will help you bring out the story in the most interesting way possible.
13. Generate leads through competitions and giveaways
Social media contests are a powerful way to increase brand awareness, get your existing followers engaged, and generate new leads. They also give you the opportunity to produce a ton of user-generated content that you can re-share over time. Just keep in mind though that giveaways and competitions shouldn’t be a recurring event. They need to be spread out to actually be of interest to your audience.
The key here is to pick a prize that’s relevant to your brand and that your audience will love. While something generic like an iPad or Amazon vouchers will appeal to almost everyone - it’s not the best idea since you’re likely to attract people who have little to no interest in fitness but just want the prize. Remember your goal is to attract people who would want to engage with your brand!
Think about what your ideal client or member would be interested in. You can offer free classes, a weekend yoga retreat, a personal training session or a monthly gym membership. You could even tie up with other fitness brands which will not only make the prizes more appealing but also expose your brand to people who are interested in fitness (since they follow another brand in the same space).
Check out how Wedge Effect does this:
14. Use the right tools
You might have the greatest fitness social media marketing strategy ever - but having the right tools can make sure you deliver a professional and polished experience to all your followers. Using these tools will not only save you time and effort, but also take your social media for fitness to the next level!
A) InVideo: Create stunning fitness videos for all your social media platforms using Invideo. What’s really great about this platform is that it’s online and contains a ton of ready-to-use templates that will help you create a video in minutes - so you can churn out a high volume of videos without compromising on quality. Invideo also includes an easy sharing option to share the videos you create directly on your social pages.
B) Canva: Use this tool to create amazing static graphics and social media posts for your accounts. Canva includes a large volume of icons and graphics, along with fun templates for you to really get creative. If you opt for the paid version, Canva also automatically lets you resize your creative to dimensions for every social media platform!
C) Meet Edgar: Meet Edgar is one of the top social media marketing tools for content repurposing. Its core functionality is a social media scheduler that automatically posts your content to all major social channels. The main difference between Meet Edgar and other tools is you can create a library of evergreen content. If you have posts that aren’t time-sensitive, you store them, and the app automatically reposts them when the algorithm decides it’s a good time.
D) BrandWatch: If you want to identify other fitness influencers in your niche, Brandwatch can help you. It analyzes conversations about similar brands to yours and gives you ideas for influencers you could work with. If you have a specific topic or keyword you want to monitor, Brandwatch will create a report that gives you insight into the current trends around that topic. It can be a super useful tool to scope out the competition.
E) Bitly: Bitly is a short link creator that makes sharing links on social media simpler. It’s a really easy to use and quick tool that provides you with trackable short links. With a paid plan you can use custom branding for your links. This is especially useful for platforms like Twitter where longer links cut into your limited word count.
F) HootSuite: This platform is a great way to organize and schedule all your social media posts. You can also monitor engagement and respond to customers right from HootSuite - making it an essential tool for you to grow your social presence with ease!
For a more detailed list of essential social media tools you might need, click here.
That’s it! You now have some great tips that will help push your brand to the next level and generate a ton of new leads for your business!
Now that you have an idea of the best strategies to follow for your social media growth, let’s look at which platforms you should be implementing these strategies on.
The best social media platforms to use for fitness brands
Not all social media platforms are created equal. And spending all your time and energy on the wrong one will stop your brand from growing at all. For instance, there’s nothing worse than posting some truly great 30 minute video workouts on a platform where everyone is only interested in watching videos less than 30 seconds. It’s not going to increase your followers or subscribers because they aren’t interested in the type of content you’re putting out!
So to ensure you don’t make these mistakes, we’ll take you through which social media platforms work best for fitness brands and why so that you can make an informed decision. We’ll also talk about the type of fitness brands each social media platform is perfect for and when you should be using them!
If you want to jump ahead to a particular social media platform, click on one below:
1. Instagram
2. Facebook
3. YouTube
4. TikTok
5. Twitter
Let’s get started
1. Instagram
Instagram emerged as one of the most used and most popular social media platforms for fitness brands according to a survey on social media for fitness conducted by Upfluence. It's an extremely important platform for a young and energetic audience and has an almost even split between male and female users, something that a lot of other social media platforms lack. Instagram also has the largest number of social media fitness influencers, with nearly 39 percent of accounts being run by individuals interested in this area of marketing. So you might also want to think about how to engage with fitness influencers or prioritize Instagram if you want to become one yourself!
Since Instagram is so focused on the visuals, you want to create content here that is attention grabbing. While many businesses and influencers have built a brand solely on Instagram, you can also use it as our gateway to drive your audience to engage with your brand across other social media channels, in person (if you have a gym), or on your own website.
Melissa Alcantara is not only Kim Kardashian West's go-to trainer, but she's also a powerhouse athlete who constantly inspires and motivates women to push themselves beyond their perceived limits. (Seriously, just take a moment to read her captions.)
She uses Instagram to motivate her followers and then leads them to her website - or in this case to download her new fitness app.
Like the brand above, you should share a mix of educational, entertaining, motivational and promotional content. But in all types, you want to prioritize video content including reels, IGTV, and live videos to interact with your audience. You can of course use InVideo’s Instagram video editor to create these videos quickly and easily. This however doesn’t mean you don’t use static images or graphic. You absolutely should but you want to prioritize video. This is also why you should consider creating an Instagram strategy.
Since Instagram is connected to Facebook - consider using both these platforms in harmony - use videos on Instagram to ignite conversations on your Facebook account!
2. Facebook
Despite having the largest user base of any social media platform, that is not the reason you want to use Facebook for your fitness social media growth. The reason you want to use Facebook is because it offers the best targeting for your ads as compared to any other platform. Also considering it has Instagram under its ambit, makes it a viable choice to use for your fitness brand.
Facebook is a great place to advertise your brand and start conversations around fitness (via Facebook Groups). While organic reach on Facebook isn’t the greatest, that is not the priority either. Your Facebook business page is like a directory of information about your brand or business and you should treat it like one. Another unique feature with Facebook is their shop, which is supremely beneficial if you sell fitness products. The shop allows users to buy directly from within the Facebook ecosystem, making it easier for you to keep track of and manage inventory.
That being said, there are trainers and brands that have amassed a loyal following on Facebook. Take a look at personal trainer Ryan Spiteri’s Facebook page. He’s managed to attract over 300,000 followers, and built a highly successful business training people online and in the gym.
You can take inspiration from his page and create content specifically for Facebook or you can make things easier for yourself and link your Instagram so that every time you post there, it also gets shared on Facebook. You can then uses these posts to run ads and target a wider audience still. If you want to learn more about how you can advertise your business on Facebook, check out this blog.
3. YouTube
If you have a lot of long-format video content, YouTube is the perfect fitness social media platform for you. In recent years, YouTube has become a powerhouse for fitness brands. Most brands use it to share long form content including fitness tips, free classes and workouts, as well as entertaining content such as challenges. So content that is educational and positions you as an expert in the field will do well here.
Instructional videos, how-to videos, podcasts and explainer videos do best on this platform. You can also post interviews of fitness gurus or other personal trainers to help educate your audience - since this is what they’re primarily interested in. While you want the educational videos to be in-depth, you can also share short promo videos or ads to entice viewers to join your gym or subscribe to your channel.
Check out PopSugar’s YouTube page. Even their intro video, which is typically short, is a 30 minute workout video. But they clearly know what their users want most!
Since the Youtube space is already pretty saturated, you do want to pay attention to the production quality and editing of your videos. Check out this blog on how to create compelling videos for your fitness brand and for editing you can turn to using InVideo’s easy to use YouTube video editor that helps you create stunning videos in minutes.
4. TikTok
TikTok videos have evolved beyond the silly lip syncs done by teenagers and if you’re in the fitness space you just cannot ignore it. After all #fittok is a sub culture on the platform.
TikTok is especially useful if you are a fitness influencer or a personal trainer and many use it to build their brands by posting short workout routines and fitness lifestyle content. What’s great about TikTok is the music element, which functions like a hashtag. Adding a song to your video allows you to get noticed by a ton of people looking for content based on the song.
TikTok is where short and snappy content thrives - so make sure everything you create is super quick and fun. Humor is a great medium to engage people on TikTok. Think of fun content you can post - for example mistakes people make in the gym, or recipes that only require a few ingredients and are super quick to make! This is not a place to be boring. Also don’t forget to use subtitles wherever possible since many viewers listen with the sound off.
If you want to post workout routines, do it like Cassey from @blogilates does:
And if you want to know more about leveraging TikTok for social media marketing for fitness, check out this guide to marketing on TikTok!
5. Twitter
Twitter isn’t the most used platform for fitness social media - and if you’re just starting out you may want to avoid spending a lot of time and energy on it. That said, Twitter is a great place to engage in debates, establish yourself as an expert and connect with other fitness influencers in the space.
Now that you know the different platforms and the type of content that works best there, let’s get cracking with some fitness social media post examples to inspire your own strategy.
9 fitness social media post examples to inspire your strategy
It’s important to note that brands who are really successful on social media know how to use their platform to stand out from the competition with consistent messaging and a strong brand voice. Some of these brands are really pushing the envelope with their fitness social media marketing and advertising campaigns - so get ready to be inspired!
1. The WW rebrand focuses on body positivity and health
Formerly known as Weight Watchers, WW rebranded and is now a wellness brand that’s focused on getting everyone to be healthy and fit (rather than just losing weight). To hone this message, WW’s fitness social media has a combination of recipes, exercises, and motivational content to keep users on track and feeling motivated to continue their journey.
They also share success stories using video content - which is a great way to keep your community engaged.
Their Instagram page has a mix of motivational posts, recipes and witty messages. There’s a good mix of text, images, reels and other video on their feed.
If you’d like to make similar inspirational videos for your Instagram fitness or gym social media - use this template.
2. Equinox knows how to do luxury fitness
Equinox’s gym social media is really well done. They are known for their provocative and compelling ads - but their Facebook and other fitness social media pages stand out equally for conveying a sense of exclusivity and luxury. This is clearly reflected in their marketing materials. Everything about the video screams luxury and elite - they don’t even talk about themselves as a gym, but as a club. This makes potential customers feel like they’re getting access to an exclusive club when they join.
Equinox Fitness uses their Facebook page to connect with their community members and post a combination of photos and videos. All their content is high-quality with plenty of workouts, tips, and motivational advice.
Check out this video of their #LifeistheLuxury campaign:
If you’d like to use a similar video to enhance your social media for gym members - use this template.
3. Fitbit uses YouTube to create engaging explainer videos for their products
Fitbit uses social media to keep their members engaged, motivated, and supported. They’re a great example of how you can showcase yourself differently on various social media platforms in order to engage audiences with content suited to the platform.
They use Twitter (and sometimes Facebook) to address customer concerns and offer a fast customer support experience by responding quickly to issues. They also share a ton of different content on their Instagram - including health tips and fitness advice - positioning themselves as health and fitness experts, rather than simply sellers of the Fitbit devices.
Their YouTube page is very different from their other social media pages and is used to introduce their line of new products, share detailed explainer videos of features and showcase their products in-depth. They also have mindfulness sessions you can listen to as well as interviews with the Fitbit team. None of these would be interesting to TikTok or Instagram users - but on YouTube it works great!
You can create your own explainer video for your own fitness products using this template.
4. 8fit uses Pinterest to feature healthy recipes
8fit is a nutrition company that puts together customized workout and meal plans for their users. They appeal to a wide range of users: fitness enthusiasts, healthy eaters and those who might be struggling with weight gain. Their appeal lies in the stunning images that accompany all their fitness social media marketing - which is why Pinterest and Instagram are their main handles.
On Pinterest, 8fit organizes their boards into different types of meals, like “Healthy Smoothie Recipes” and “Healthy Breakfast Recipes” and “Nutrition Tips.” The Pins are branded, optimized for Pinterest and easy to understand at a glance. Pinterest is an excellent network for the company as the food and drink category is one of the most popular on the site. Pins in this category grew 46% in 2017 from the previous year and there’s no sign of stopping.
Here’s a look at how they organized their Nutrition Tips board - as you can see the images really pop and compel users to click on them to learn more.
5. LA Fitness uses YouTube to feature virtual tours of their gym spaces
LA Fitness is one of the most popular gyms in LA with branches all over the city. Their gym social media pages not only advertise for their spaces but also feature interesting workouts, interviews with personal trainers and health and fitness tips along with ads for their gym memberships.
They’re one of the many gyms that have a strong following on YouTube - with their videos getting over 6 million views. They post regularly on YouTube - and in fact ask viewers to sign up to their channel for regular health and fitness tips.
Their YouTube channel includes a bunch of cool content - there’s a section of interviews with their trainers called Ask a Trainer, they do in-depth tours of all their gyms in the Club Tour section, include episodes of their Living Healthy podcast and showcase some incredible stories of their members to get others motivated. Besides this longer form content they also include a ton of quick fitness tips and ads for their gym to entice those who are just exploring the page and might not be interested in 20 minute videos.
If you want to create cool videos like LA Fitness has - check out our awesome fitness video templates to get started!
6. Fitness influencer Tracy Anderson creates a great Instagram aesthetic for her brand
Tracy Anderson has created a whole wellness and health brand out of her Instagram fame. This is a great account for inspiration if you are planning to expand your gym or fitness studio to include more products or broaden it into a health and fitness brand. The account is carefully curated to include images and videos that feel like they’re all part of the brand - whether they’re ads for fitness products or articles about maintaining good mental health.
As you will notice, even though the posts are about different topics, her images are curated in a way that makes all of them part of a single cohesive brand - with similar color tones and aesthetics. If you are just starting out as a brand, having a clear aesthetic (and sticking to it!) can be really important to ensure you stick in the minds of viewers.
7. Classpass keeps it light on their Instagram page
Classpass is a global platform that curates health and fitness activities in locations across the world. While they have multiple social media fitness pages for local chapters, their main page is where they feature cool classes, motivational posts - and include some humor!
Check out these funny Instagram posts from Classpass. They did a series of endearing posts on Valentines day like this one:
And here’s another funny, but motivational post - with a Lama!
8. LNDR’s straightforward brand voice cuts through the noise
LNDR is a UK athleisure brand founded by three active women who wanted to create a brand around the lifestyle they wanted to live. Designed by women, for women, the brand emphasizes that it’s time to put an end to fast fashion with better products and refer to their clothing as ‘technical activewear.’
LNDR’s brand voice is straight-forward and aims to cut through the ‘fluff’ of marketing. Most of their posts on Facebook are very straightforward and focused on a problem that most women face with activewear. The sense you get is of a clear voice that’s telling it like it is.
Take this Facebook post for example:
Their direct mode of marketing works well for them and they’ve a huge fan following. They’ve integrated their shop on Facebook as well as Instagram so users of either platform can buy clothes directly from their posts by clicking on the image. This is a great way to drive sales!
9. Nike inspires through stories like no one else
When you’re talking about digital marketing for fitness, you can’t leave out the most famous and definitely most inspiring brand, Nike.
Nike knows how to engage their community like no one else. Their ads and videos have been studied by marketers around the world, and they dominate on social media - with multiple handles for various brands.
Storytelling is what Nike does best. They rarely talk about the features of their shoes or clothes, but instead feature an athlete or tell a story that leaves you feeling inspired and wanting more. Even their main Instagram page, talks about how they ‘spotlight athlete and shoe stories’ - not that they sell shoes and activewear. It also includes hashtags to signal that the brand also cares about social issues. Nike is more than just a shoe store.
Of course on Instagram, they do feature their products more significantly and they’re linked to their shop for easy purchases. But they also include stories about athletes more often:
If you also want to create inspiring videos for your gym social media - use this template!
And, that’s a wrap!
You should now be ready to market your own fitness brand on social media! Remember, a strong social media strategy won’t just increase the visibility of your brand, but can actually make a very real difference to your bottom line and help you grow your business.
If you’re interested in some further reading you should definitely check out this blog on generating leads using social media or take a look at these essential social media marketing tools you’ll need to up your game.
And since video content always gets the most views - don’t forget to read this in-depth guide to video marketing or check out our amazing social media for fitness templates you can use to create your own videos in minutes!
This post was written by Rachel and edited by Adete from Team InVideo
