For most, fitness tends to play a very small role in everyday life. Whether it’s going for a quick jog during a lunch break, or getting a short workout at the gym a few times a week; fitness can become a chore for many. With obesity rates continuing to climb across the US, the demand for fitness professionals is at an all-time high. Luckily, there is plenty of information, tools and strategies that can help turn a fitness hobby into a full-time career.

For someone to succeed as a trainer, health coach, or the like, it is essential that they build their own personal brand to the best of their ability. The more people that know about their services, the better. This will ensure that a client base is established; which then correlates to consistent income. Without income, there is no business. Therefore, building that clientele is essential to succeeding as a fitness professional. Platforms like social media, the internet, and word-of-mouth are effective marketing avenues that can instantly spread the word about one’s fitness business to a large group of people.

Virtually anyone can create a Facebook, Instagram or Twitter account for their business and have instant access to an audience of potential clients. The best part is that most of these services are both free and user-friendly. Taking advantage of these free marketing streams can draw in a significant amount of business while also allowing you to target specific demographics. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer specific business tools that will allow for business owner’s posts to be placed in front of users that are more likely to be interested in their services.

Try these tips to maximize your social media exposure:

• Post a Facebook Live video weekly
• Tag others in posts to maximize reach
• Engage with your audience with each post
• Take trendy and inspiring pictures to post on each social media outlet
• Do a monthly contest with giveaways to attract others onto the site
• Share different content on each social media outlet to create diversity
• Add weekly service promotion and drive people to website

Essentially, posting a variety of content on social media that is informative and promotes engagement will lead to more interaction and a better response from the target audience. This will ensure that potential clients are always informed and can stay updated with your events and offers. A major responsibility as a fitness professional is to keep clientele informed and engaged about the latest business offerings; and tools like social media are there to help them do just that.