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| A Junior Achievement class in action. |
In the previous section, we talked about the basic goals of
social media and of community building, using my work with a non-profit as an
example case study. As you begin to develop your strategy, creating and empowering
advocates should be the core of your social media activities, and that core is
strengthened through a variety of tactics. Having an active Facebook page may
help you turn gym members into passionate advocates, but the real process
starts offline, within the walls of the gym.
On this front, Junior Achievement was well ahead of most
organizations turning to social media to boost the impact of their marketing
efforts. Junior Achievement has been working in the community for decades, and
their alumni are sprinkled across the world. They are reasonably well-known and
respected, and they host numerous events for a wide range of community members.
Offline, Junior Achievement’s community is thriving. It is vibrant and healthy,
and everyone involved is happy and passionate about the organization. Their
social media was weak because they had not made the effort to make their online
presence match their rich physical presence.
Instructor jiu-jiteiros should keep this in mind: your
online presence is a reflection of your offline presence.
Prospects will judge your gym based on the quality of your
website and the quality of your online content. It may not be the only deciding
factor, but it plays a part. If your school was a top of the line high
performance engine, you would want a body and an eye-catching paintjob to
match. Your website and your social media is that slick exterior. If your
exterior is a beat-up station wagon with a cardboard spoiler gorilla glued to
the back, no one is going to take your engine—the real hero—seriously, and the
ones that do are still going to ask you to park around the corner when you pick
them up after school because, frankly, you’re embarrassing.
Establishing a healthy offline community—the engine—is step
one, and that is a subject worth many other articles. Essentially, your
students should know that their instructors care about them, they should feel
as though they are part of a team and that the health and success of their
training partners is just as much a priority as their own, they should feel
like they are making progress, and they should be having fun (smiles, laughter,
and extended mat chit-chat sessions are all good signs).
If your gym community has all four of those traits, you can
begin to build an online community that reflects the awesomeness of the offline
one. Set up a Facebook page, if you have not already, and fill it with pictures
and videos of anything related to your gym: promotions, seminars, competitions,
team picnics, etc. Tag everyone that you can. Next, set aside time to make at
least one post a day of content of some sort—articles or videos or pictures or
association news, something that your students can talk about.
After about a week of consistent content, hang a flier in
the gym that encourages your students to log on to the Facebook page. Better
yet, give them a reason to visit the page by asking them to give their feedback
on a new t-shirt design, on what should be covered in Tuesday’s class, on who
their favorite fighter of all time is—anything that will stimulate interaction.
Remember: a community is built on conversation. Everything you do with your
social media community should be focused on stimulating participation. You can
post announcements on your Facebook, but they should be a small fraction of
your total social media content.
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| Set up an RSS feed of jiu-jitsu sites, blogs, and YouTube channels so that you always have content to share. |
Maintain the richness of your online community by continuing
to provide your students with content day after day. While this sounds like it
could be a challenge, it should not take you more than 15 minutes to find an
article or video to post (subscribe to multiple jiu-jitsu RSS feeds to have a
steady stream of content). At the same time, develop your own content to share.
Is someone getting striped today? Take a picture and post it. Shoot a quick video
on a flip camera of some students rolling or of an instructor teaching a
technique. Record testimonials. Type up workouts. Share upcoming tournament
schedules. Talk about local news and
sports.
Like it or not, you are the host and social media is your
party. If nobody is having a good time, it’s your fault. Bake some cookies.
Decorate. Try that new bruschetta recipe that you read in Home & Garden… okay, that metaphor got away from me but you
know what I mean.
Your students already have these conversations in the gym.
Now you are replicating that experience online and making those small
conversations available to every other student. Keep your students engaged with
your gym even when they aren’t training by facilitating these conversations.
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