“What helps people, helps business”, said legendary ad guru, Leo Burnett. And in an industry where people are integral to members’ happiness and success, helping break down barriers to entry is key to nurturing a healthy talent pipeline. For the next generation of club talent, this means acknowledging that their access points to a career in fitness look different – and to adjust your recruitment approach accordingly.
As the first generation to grow up in a digital-first world, it’s not just entertainment and viral dance trends the Next Gen seek on social media. It’s recipes, news, and a platform to launch their careers. Young prospects tend to have higher daily usage of social platforms - spending on average 3 hours daily on socials - highlighting the importance of these channels to your club’s Instructor recruitment activities.
The 2024 report, Nurturing the Next Gen: Blueprint for Instructor Recruitment shares unmissable insights from 2,500 young people worldwide who are open to working in the fitness industry. Alongside their motivations, aspirations, and barriers to entry, the research revealed 58% of strong Instructor prospects already have a social media account dedicated to their fitness journey. For clubs looking to bolster their roster of rockstar Instructors, using social media to support recruitment efforts means you’re more likely to fish where the fish are. It also underlines the secondary benefits of recruiting prospects who already have social media clout. Their tendency to share regular fitness updates with their followers makes them particularly effective advocates for your club among younger audiences.
But, as savvy social media veterans, the Next Gen can quickly tell the difference between authentic content and posts with ulterior motives. Staying authentic to your brand’s values, understanding what your audience wants from you and walking the walk of your mission are key to standing out from the crowd. Check out these five ways to reach Next Gen Instructors through Social Media.
1. SHOW YOUR EXPERTISE
In a world full of memes, reels and ‘Lives’ it’s easy to think that social media was created solely for content that plays for 60-second laughs. But when it comes to fitness, social media has an important role to play in showcasing your brand’s expertise and knowledge. The Nurturing the Next Gen report showed would-be Instructors want to see informative industry-relevant content, and they’re heading online to seek it out.
With papers suggesting one in four fitness videos on TikTok feature incorrect information, Next Gen prospects are alert to social media misinformation, which could be one of the reasons they’re visiting sites like Women’s Fitness and Europe Active, as well as Gen Z staples like YouTube and TikTok. Demonstrating your brand and expertise through your content is important, but if you can also show your club brings access to real-life athletes (trainers and Instructors) who are on hand to field queries and guide them through their training, you’ll be spotlighting a powerful USP that brings the Next Gen’s online search to life – away from the screen and into your club.
2. KEEP A PULSE ON LOCAL CREATORS
A quick scan of the gym floor won’t tell you which of your members are most actively posting on social media, but searching hashtags might. Commonly used hashtags like #FitnessJourney or #Fitfam are easily searchable on the platforms you’re active on and will yield local results. To be even more specific, type the name of your facility in – with and without hashtags – to discover which of your members are posting. This helps you identify a short list of potential Instructors in your local area, including those already training in your facility.
And don’t just rely on your members to create tags. Drive community and make the search easier by advertising the hashtags you want members to use around the club and in their posts – making them quicker to find and identify your highly invested members.
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If you have Next Gen Instructors teaching at your facility, keeping them visible on your channels helps prospects imagine themselves there, too. 55% of Gen Z agree that promoting their club’s trainers and influencers as local fitness influencers is a good way of creating community. Couple this with the fact that lack of information about the process is a leading barrier to becoming an Instructor for the Next Gen, and your existing Instructors become an important bridge between online fitness content and the opportunity to become a real-life fitness professional in a nearby facility. Encouraging your Instructors to post about their classes and pulling back the curtain on life as an Instructor at your facility demystifies the role and gets prospects thinking about whether they’d like to do it.
Les Mills presenter and Influencer Community Specialist Dannielle Lally says communicating with her followers is all about authenticity. “Whether I’m talking about new releases or sharing a killer post-workout selfie, I talk to my audience the same way I’d talk to my friends. Whatever I’m talking about, my followers know it’s the real me, which deepens my connection with them and boosts engagement.”
4. DEFINE YOUR CONTENT PILLARS
When designing your social media Instructor recruitment strategy, map out a content plan that pulls different levers. The Nurturing the Next Gen report reveals a multitude of reasons why the Next Gen want to become an Instructor. Defining your content pillars and tailoring your posts to speak to each in different ways will attract a broader array of prospects and give you more content options. The biggest barrier facing strong prospects is the lack of a mentor, but for others, not knowing enough about the process stops them from certifying. So taking the time to speak to each motivation or barrier individually will capture the attention of unique audiences, helping them feel their goals can be supported at your club.
Herb Lipsman, an industry titan with more than four decades of experience managing upscale health clubs, believes acknowledging the many and varied needs of an audience is the bedrock of communicating your club’s core values. “The principal way you demonstrate who you are is through your interactions with people if you want to be successful in this business. It’s not so much understanding demographics, but rather psychographics – what their interests are and what really connects them to their club. Every club has a diverse audience and they all have different needs and desires, so you need to demonstrate you understand what they require from you at any given moment.”
5. GIVE GROUP TRAINING LOVE
Attracting the Next Gen of Instructors requires you to show your club is a place where prospects can see people like them having a great time and this is especially true for the group training studio. Consider first if the Next Gen is sufficiently aware of the options open to them in-club. 61% of non-prospects (those interested in a fitness career but not as a group training Instructor), still haven’t tried group training.
Social media is the perfect place to spotlight the best of your studio, reminding prospects and current members of the electric atmosphere that group energy can conjure. Short, bitesize videos showcasing the breadth of programs available to participate in – and train in – at your studio allow your audience to imagine themselves taking part. This is key for prospects who may be keen to join in, but are unsure if the studio is right for them. The more love you show your studio on social, the easier it is to grow your pipeline of talent.
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