How to Build Community at Your Gym
If a member of your gym doesn’t feel at home, they won’t feel any commitment to staying. Fostering community at your gym is one of the key ingredients to long-term success and, frankly, having a fun time doing what you We’ve collected 7 powerful ways to build gym community. Chances are, there’s at least one of these you aren’t currently focusing on, so dive in and explore the possibilities!
Step #1 — actively seek feedback
A couple years ago, I switched chiropractors. My first chiropractor was a genius, truly, but he had such a dominant personality that it was hard to ask him questions or give feedback. Finding another chiropractor who was both gifted and attentive was a huge relief.
What does this mean for you? You might think you’re listening to your clients, but are you really? You can only truly listen to them if they’re open with you. Asking people how they are doing, listening attentively, and setting a tone of openness will go a long way to help people like you. That’s the most important step in building community: building one-on-one connections with the people who pay to use your gym.
Step #2 — keep notes on your clients
Why keep notes on people? Google does enough of that, right? Ah, but you’re going to use these notes to give your clients the best possible experience.
First, keeping notes allows you to maintain a personal touch with clients. Maybe they had an injury last week and your note will remind you to ask them how they’re doing.
Second, once you’ve developed a thick set of notes, you’ll be able to track trends among your gym members. What do they have in common that they might not know about? What goals do they share that you can create programs for? It’s these notes that will help you develop the best initiatives for building community at your gym.
Step #3 — run a challenge
There are a zillion different challenges you can run and a zillion different ways to run them. There are apps to streamline the process and many ways to incentivize participation.
You’ll figure all these things out as you go, but the important thing is to commit to this. If you aren’t running a challenge, why not? Challenges not only build excitement, but they bring your gym together around a common goal.
Step #4 — regularly recognize effort and achievement
Everyone wants to be recognized. While handing out participation trophies is absurd, recognizing real effort or the achievement of a milestone can give your client a deep sense of belonging. This can take the form of verbal encouragement, gym-wide announcements and celebrations, or the bestowal of awards.
Step #5 — sell, give away, or award swag
How cool is it for someone to stomp around town, publicly announcing their loyalty to your brand? That’s what happens when your gym members wear swag. It can be great advertisement. More than that, it gives them the feeling that they are part of something significant and that they are part of a larger group.
Selling swag can also be a side income stream and they make great awards for gym members who have reached major achievements.
Step #6 — hold parties and events
This may be a counterintuitive step, but it’s also one of the most important ones. Think of it: you have a different personality for different situations, right? So if your gym members are always seeing each other in the same setting, they’re naturally only going to get to know each other on a surface level. Getting gym members to connect deeper is a big part of building community.
Parties are fun focused and events are generally education or service focused. Here are some ideas for parties and events:
Healthy cookouts or potlucks
Pool parties
Park gatherings
Seminars
Charity fundraisers
Specialty classes — i.e. a one day intro to parkour by a guest teacher
Step #7 — build community online
Yeah, you know you need to be on social media. You probably already are. Are you taking full advantage of these online communities though?
Here are some ways to make your social media efforts really count:
Post on multiple platforms if you’re able.
Build Facebook groups, not just pages. After all, if it’s just one person posting content, that’s not much of a community, is it? Allow everyone to share relevant content and life updates.
Ask lots of questions! This is the ultimate way to build engagement and receive feedback from your members.
Post photos. They’re eye-catching and they stir up people’s emotional desires to get fit. They’re also a great way to recognize gym members’ accomplishments.
Use Facebook live. Not only does Facebook like video and show it to more of your audience, but it ads a strong personal touch. People connect with your face and voice.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, community is really about sharing: sharing life, sharing goals, sharing ideas. It’s a two-way process. If you want gym members to let you be part of your fitness journey, then you need to take the first step. Share cheerfully. Give and it will probably come back to you7