If you talk to any health club professional or personal trainer you’ll find the most important ingredient to any weight loss program is accountability. It is much more difficult to hold yourself accountable than it is to have other people keeping you in check. The following are seven examples of how a health club can help its members lose weight using Twitter or any other social media platform.
Step One – Set up a Twitter Account and Start a Group
It is important for any business since you’ll want to control your brand. Remember back when the Internet started becoming more prominent and you neglected to snag www.yourcompany.com? Don’t let that happen again.
Once you’ve set up your account, visit Twibes and set up your group with a "#," otherwise known as a “hashtag.” Simply choose a word or words and have a “#” sign before it. This will help keep all related “tweets” categorized and easy to follow with one simple click.
Step Two – Establish Ground Rules
It’s important to measure the progress so each participant should take measurements, weigh themselves and even take some before photos.
As a health club, encourage your weight loss club members to sign up for their own individual Twitter accounts and “tweet” using your hashtag each time they eat something and each time they exercise. If participants know there are other people reviewing their progress, they’ll be less apt to fall off the wagon.
Step Three – Create a Giveaway
Set up four 90 day periods and allow a limited number of participants. This alone will drive participation since nobody wants to be locked out of a contest.
Losing weight is in the best interest of participants. But if they know they could potentially win a free membership for a year they’ll find added motivation. A big prize, when limited, becomes a commodity. The PR you’ll receive by doing this and the advertising and promotion opportunities will far outweigh the small loss of revenue.
Step Four – Promote the Program
We’ve all heard of The Biggest Loser. Oodles of people watch that program. Why not take advantage of the popularity?
Use your online and offline newsletter, email database, flyers, personal trainers and front desk staff to promote the program. Use Twitter and Facebook as well. Talk it up, but not too excessively. You'll reach people beyond your geographic reach. You can even potentially uncover additional revenue opportunities that extend beyond geography and membership-based revenue.
Step Five – Monitor Participants' Progress
Once the program has begun, spend five to ten minutes a few times a day reviewing the progress of participants. Take a peek at what food they are consuming and what types of activities they participate in. Compare those actions with goals they set.
If you find someone who hasn’t “tweeted” in a while, or seems to be making poor consumption choices, send them a direct message to encourage them. It may be just the reminder they need.
Step Six – Send out Motivational “Tweets” Everyday
Take time every day to send out general motivation “tweets” to all participants. These subtle reminders will help keep them on track. When your contest is complete you’ll have some incredible case studies to share. You’ll also increase the credibility of your personal trainers since they are guiding these participants in the right direction.
Step Seven – Track and Publish Results
If your health club doesn’t have a blog, get one! Why blog? You should track the progress of your weight loss club on your blog and showcase success stories. You’ll need to get permission from the people whose stories you highlight, but if they’ve made the kind of progress that’s worth sharing, they’ll likely be more than happy to comply with your request.
Be creative and have fun with this idea. If you consistently follow these steps and enhance them with your own “club personality,” you’ll see an increase in your membership base and you’ll potentially find additional ideas for non-membership revenue generation.
