OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF USA GYMNASTICS UNIVERSITY

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017– VOL. 37 – #1

LEVERAGING FACEBOOK TO THE MAX___________

GYMNASTS: FINALLY, A WAY TO MANAGE YOUR FEARS & BALKING IN THE GYM — PART 2___________

MEMBER CLUB LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY PROGRAM SUCCESS STORY___________

THANK YOU TO OUR INDUSTRY MEMBERS___________

... AND MORE!

ALEX NADDOUR2016 OLYMPIC BRONZE MEDALIST

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LEVERAGING FACEBOOK TO THE MAXFacebook has risen to be a formidable branding and marketing tool for small businesses. According to re-search by Small Business Trends, it is also very cost effective. This research indicates that only about half of the millions of small businesses in the U.S. who use Face-book for marketing actually spend money on it. This cost efficiency makes it even more important to gyms since lean marketing budgets make gym owners quite opportu-nistic in the marketing choices.

Leveraging Facebook to its maximum potential takes some effort but is well worth it. Being recognizable is cru-cial to getting found and ‘Liked’ in a Facebook search.

FACEBOOK BUSINESS FAN PAGEAs a business, you must use a Business Fan page. Your profile image is pictured at the top of your Facebook Fan Page and is also the thumbnail image that gets displayed next to all your Facebook Fan Page updates, so it should be chosen wisely.

Things to think about:• Cover picture should be engaging — i.e. A picture

with kids

• Profile picture should be your logo in a big and recognizable format

• Business classification and category is important.

Try:o Sports Club / Gym — Sports Instruction

• Vanity URL should be short and simple — easy-to-remember

Since your cover photo takes up the most real es-tate above the fold on your Facebook Page, make sure you choose one that is high quality and engaging to your visitors.

CALL TO ACTION BUTTON & TOP NAVIGATIONInspiring action from your Facebook page visitors is im-portant, too. Gather information, get them involved, lead them to a web page, and show them more details. All of these are great actions to lure visitors deeper into learn-ing what is great about your gym.

• Call to Action — Sign Up, Join My List, Contact Us

• Website page — Free Eval, Try a Class, Schedule a Tour

• Top Navigation items — Photos, Videos

• Do not Duplicate Labels between Buttons & Navigation

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LEVERAGING FACEBOOK TO THE MAX

EMBEDDED CLASS SCHEDULEIn today’s fast-paced, digital world, gym owners need to make the registration process quick and easy. As a Jack-rabbit user, you have the opportunity to streamline the process by adding your class schedule to your website. But did you know you can add it to your Facebook page?

Delivering your message to your readers efficiently and getting them to your registration page quickly is an im-

portant aspect of your overall marketing plan. Facebook is one of the most powerful tools in your marketing ar-senal to help you convert your readers into registered students.

In addition to your newsfeed, Facebook application tabs provide you with an opportunity to share import-ant information about your studio — much like pages on your website.

• Embed Schedule or Link to Website -> Schedule

• Do n make victors click many times to register

• Use Google Analytics on your website

LEVERAGING FACEBOOK TO THE MAXTake advantage of the fact that you can customize your

options to include different ones that work for your facili-ty — Sign Up, Shop Now, Contact Us, Book Now, Use App, Watch Video, and Play Game — and customize each with a destination URL.

Simply click the drop-down arrow on your button and select ‘View Insights’ to get data on how many people are clicking your buttons.

Be sure to view your page as a visitor because text sometimes changes.

ABOUT SECTIONYour ‘About’ section gives you the opportunity to speak to your visitors. Be succinct in covering what sets you apart from your competition.

• 2–3 Sentences; descriptive but succinct

• Link to your website

• Differentiate your brand

• Select a short Vanity URL, can only change once!

• Verify Address Link actually goes to your business continued ...

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ENGAGEMENTIt’s all about engagement. You want your visitors to be-come involved in something on your page. They will get to know you better,and your Facebook page will become more popular. Offer choices for engagement.

Here are some ideas:• Allow comments and reviews

• Award points for actions: Like = 1 pt, Comment = 2 pts, Share = 3 pts

• Ask questions

• Be observant about your timing and act at the best day and time

• Have contests

• Crowdsource for answers

POSTING RULESThe type of content you post is very important to the suc-cess of your Facebook page. The page cannot be all about you. First of all, no one will visit more than once. Secondly, Facebook will not be very happy with you. It is important to abide by the 80/20 rule for content.

The 80%• Entertaining content• Emotional content• Expert tips & advice• Success reviews• Personal content

The 20%• Brand promotion

You also need to keep your content fresh. Think about the Facebook pages that you like to visit. Do they spout marketing speak all the time or post items relative to your interests? Do you get sick of seeing the same posts on their page or do they keep your interest with new items? You never want visitors to get bored with your page. If that happens, they will not be visitors for long. At the minimum, post weekly but it is recommended to post daily with the 80/20 rule in mind.

PHOTOS & VIDEOSMake use of these very popular items — people love to look instead of read.

• Photos and videos are proven to be the most En-gaging types of content

• 18 characters of each of your Facebook Posts serve as the meta title

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GREAT CONTENT SOURCESIf you just do a little research, you can identify amazing content sources to use in choosing content for your Face-book posts.

Examples?• USA Gymnastics — USAGymClub.com/articles

• Anne Josephson — annejosephson.wordpress.com

• Facebook.com/Parenting

• Facebook.com/ProactiveCoach

PINNED POSTS Use the ability to pin posts to the top of the timeline to keep them in front of visitors longer.

When you post new content to your Facebook Page, older posts get pushed farther down your Timeline. But sometimes, you may want a specific post to stay at the top of your page for longer — even after you publish new up-dates. To solve for this, Facebook offers the ability to "pin" one post at a time to the top of your page. You can use pinned posts as a way to promote things like new lead-gen offers, upcoming events, or important product announce-ments.

Remember that:• Big events, big

meets, sum-mer camps, contests are great to pin to the top

• What is pinned stays at the top for 7 days

• Woobox.com allows users to run sweepstakes and photo contests

POPULAR POSTING TOOLYou may want to use PostPlanner — a content aggregator and scheduler. It will help you by:

• Automating publishing of selected content to your Facebook Page based on a time schedule that you predetermine.

• Adding your blog feed and publishing your new posts automatically.

• Allowing you to view the latest content from your favorite Facebook Pages.

• Allowing you to view simple analytics that show you the percentage of people who liked your post, clicked it or commented on it.

PREPARE FOR NEGATIVITYThere is always going to be a “Negative Nellie” among your visitors, so don’t feel like you’re being singled out. The best way to manage negativity is to prepare for it.

Don’t let negativity get the best of you. When you get emotionally invested in it, is when it can go wrong for you.

Remember to:• Respond no-matter-what

• Respond quickly — but not emotionally

• Be patient and understanding

• Ask to speak privately

• Let your community respond

• Consider asking the fan to remove their post

• The last resort is banning the fan

Here are two examples of response verbiage. Which do you think is guided by the points above?

Response Text #1• You and your miserable rug rat are two peas in

a pod, and we were so excited the day you can-celled and now you have the nerve to post this on

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