Health CareHow The Gym Group activated 240+ local gyms on social media in just five months
Founded in 2008 with a mission to break down barriers to fitness for all in the United Kingdom, The Gym Group is the original high value, low-cost gym chain in the UK. Headquartered in London, The Gym Group offers 24/7, no-contract gym memberships at its 240+ locations nationwide.
- 240+gyms onboarded to Hootsuite in just five months
- 11m+reach on organic posts alone in 2024
- 7+%engagement rate (double industry average)
Empowering local gyms and increasing engagement with Hootsuite
The Gym Group’s social media team empowered hundreds of local gyms with Hootsuite to boost community engagement, drive reach, optimize pages for social search and effectively safeguard brand reputation.
The Challenge
No stranger to setting and beating big goals, The Gym Group embarked on a journey to activate local gym managers on Instagram — people with no formal social media professional background or experience — and encourage their social media use while maintaining control over brand messaging.
With strong community ties and a pulse on the needs of its customers, they recognized the shift in younger audiences first turning to social to search for local businesses. Realizing this, the organization set out a social strategy with three goals in mind:
Creating more engaged communities
Driving reach and awareness for its local gyms, and
Creating shop windows for social search
The Gym Group adopted Hootsuite, rolling it out across all locations in five months. It achieved and maintained unprecedented adoption and engagement rates — and represents one of the most inspirational social transformation stories Hootsuite has ever seen.
How they did it
Products used in this study
Ensuring oversight and governance
The objective was to set up a robust approval process for local social media content. The team previously had been manually managing social media content approvals with regional social media ambassadors. The move to Hootsuite facilitated efficient management of 100-250 posts weekly, streamlining approval processes and enhancing content quality across all platforms. It also provides the group with comprehensive content governance and greater control of brand voice.
Using analytics to inform social strategies
The Gym Group's marketing team uses Hootsuite Analytics to refine content strategies continuously, leading to a more engaged community.
Monthly reporting on performance metrics, such as engagement and reach, guides content creation, ensuring that every post resonates with the audience and reflects the vibrant community within each local gym. It also helps inform strategies around capitalising on social media trends and tailoring content to suit different Instagram formats, like reels, stories, or posts.
Expanding into social customer service
The marketing team's success with Hootsuite inspired The Gym Group's customer care team to adopt the platform for managing corporate-level inquiries, ensuring a consistent and responsive customer service experience across social platforms.
They replicated the workflows they use to engage customers by phone and email. Now, they can easily follow up on any inquiry that comes in via social media and route it to the right person for resolution.
The results
The Gym Group's implementation of Hootsuite has significantly advanced its social media management strategy. It has led to better oversight of what’s happening on a local level, increased community engagement, and it has also empowered its network of managers and social ambassadors.
With a 100% adoption rate among gyms, the program has achieved a 7+% engagement rate and a 360% increase in Instagram reach. This makes it one of the most impressive social transformation projects of recent times. It demonstrates what can be achieved with the right ambition, mindset, and execution.
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Social media compliance can be a worry when you have so many accounts and employees posting on our behalf. Hootsuite has taken that worry away, which makes us feel better protected knowing the risk is removed and empowers our teams to create better content.Related Case Studies
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