Facebook is one of the most powerful tools out there to grow your gym and attract more paying customers. Aside from Facebook ads, there are lots of ways to build your Facebook presence without having to invest any money.

1. Facebook Live
This is the newest Facebook feature that is a goldmine for engagement opportunities because its raw, unfiltered, and uncut which makes your viewers feel they are getting a VIP behind the scenes pass to your gym’s content.
This also allows you to see who is watching your video while you broadcast and it shows your audience comments in real-time. This makes Facebook Live a perfect forum to host a live Q&A or walk your members through your studio.

2. Native Video
If you don’t like live videos, you can invest your time in making a native video or a video that has been uploaded directly to Facebook as a file rather than a link to Vimeo or YouTube. Native videos play automatically as people scroll through their newsfeeds and your content gets straight past the barrier of a play button because viewers don’t have to click. This is also one of my favorite strategies for presales and how to market a new gym.

3. Add a Tab
Adding a custom tab will allow you to embed another page or a CALL TO ACTION in your Facebook profile and help grow your gym fast. You can link this to your home page, your class schedule, or landing page that promotes a special offer.

4. Facebook Groups
There are many ways to use Facebook groups for gym improvement ideas. One of the most common is a members-only group that includes your customer base. This is like a virtual club for your gym where you can share announcements, wins, photos, and other activities that can help build community among your customers.

Many people are not comfortable posting comments or cheeky photos on their public FB profile, however inside a group of likeminded GYM go’ers it’s far easier to encourage people to ask questions, give feedback PLUS they also see each post without you needing to boost it.

These groups can also be the best place to deal with your customer service complaints, keeping negative feedback out of your online reviews.

5. Tagging
This is a great tool to get your brand in front of people, including a cold audience who are not familiar with your gym. Tagging is one of many under-utilized gym membership marketing ideas, allows you to mention influencers, brands, as well as other businesses to notify them that they were mentioned somewhere in your content. Once they see the notification, they can engage with your content by liking it or commenting, or even sharing your post. This in turn gets your content in front of their audience.

6. Frequent Posting
To keep your followers engaged, post good content frequently. Studies show that pages that post at least once a day get the best engagement. But more is not necessarily better, engagement decreases when a business’s post more frequently during the day. The best time to post on Facebook is between 1-4 PM. The numbers vary depending on your gym followers so these are just good guidelines. Test your posting frequencies to see what works best to help grow your gym.