CrossFit HQ’s decision to come off Facebook & Instagram has created confusion amongst the CrossFit community worldwide. It does seem unfortunate (and unnecessary in our opinion) to completely remove their accounts from the social media platforms but we see this as an opportunity for affiliate owners to assess their own social media presence and make some improvements. CrossFit has consistently released quality and relevant content across Facebook & Instagram for some time now and it will surely be missed, but as affiliate owners, you should step in and fill this void.
The minimum we recommend you post on Facebook & Instagram is once a day, every day (yes 365 days a year). Using a tool like Buffer makes this really easy as you can schedule your social media posts in advance. Often we’ll speak to affiliate owners and they’ll claim they’re not sure what to post about so we’ve created a super simple list below to guide you.
- Monday
Something motivational. It's a new week and seeing that 'Monday Motivation' post can really fire up members. Schedule your post nice and early for the 6 am crew and watch the notifications come in. - Tuesday
Member recognition. Every box we've ever visited is full of amazing people with incredible stories. You know your members better than anybody so tell the world their story. It could be a weight loss journey, member of the month or maybe somebody just did a good deed. - Wednesday
Educate. Produce content to help your members with common questions associated with CrossFit. What is hook grip again coach? What's the difference between a power snatch and a hang snatch? ...you see our point. The list is endless and this content should be tied in with your current programming to help members get the most from their sessions. - Thursday
Promote Events. Every box out there should have their events planned for the entire year. This provides a great resource to pull content from to push out to your members. Your events might be an upcoming competition, a social gathering or maybe just a friendly throwdown at the weekend. - Friday
Feel Good Friday. Very much like our 'Motivational Monday Posts' Friday is a great time to push out some feel-good content. Pick a member who has excelled this week and give them a shout out, or give the guys competing this weekend a good luck post. Whatever it is, make it positive and wish everyone a great weekend. - Saturday
Run a Q&A. Give your members a chance to ask you (and your coaches) questions. This could be done via a live video or they could comment on a post. - Sunday
New Blog Post. Ideally, you are regularly posting on your blog, and a Sunday is a great time to publish those posts. Your posts could be about anything, events at your box, exercises to help with lower back pain...etc.
Top tips to help build your social media presence
Along with structuring and scheduling the above social media posts we also recommend you consider the following to help with your social media presence. We’ll dive into more details on each of these topics in future blog posts.
- Link your Instagram Account & Facebook Page together to avoid having to post twice.
- Use Instagram stories every day. These don't have to be perfectly polished videos, just show the world what's happening in your box.
- Use a scheduling tool like Buffer to help organise the content you're going to distribute.
- Start a private members only Facebook group.
- Optimise your Facebook page.
- Monitor your social media every day, and reply to enquiries as soon as you can.