SOCIAL MEDIA FITNESS INDEX Q3 2016 PRESS RELEASE
1.04m Facebook likes, 68k Instagram followers, 275k Twitter followers, 12k YouTube subscribers*
Xercise4Less ranks 1st in social media stakes
The number of Facebook followers exceeds 1 million for the first time
*Across the top 20 private brands in Q3 2016
In LeisureDB’s Social Media Fitness Index Q3 2016 report, the top 3 brands from Q2 2016 have remained the same, with Xercise4Less taking 1st place, Pure Gym in 2nd and Virgin Active 3rd. Whilst all figures across the four social media platforms are going in the right direction, (up), it’s slow progress and overall ranking percentages have dropped.
Despite seeing the lowest growth in reach (4%) from Q2 2016, the number of Facebook likes has exceeded 1 million for the first time! 8 of the 17 brands gained over 1k Facebook likes across the quarter with The Gym Group gaining the most with nearly 9k.
Having been under-utilised in the Q1 and Q2 reports, Instagram activity across the top brands is slowly on the rise, with the number of posts during Q3 2016 increasing 73% from Q2. In the coming months, will the top 20 continue to use Instagram to promote their brand and drive sales? We hope so.
Whilst there was steady growth on Twitter amongst the top 20, the platform saw little excitement during this quarter. It’s evidently a useful tool to these brands as a customer service tool but content and creativity is currently lacking.
With the launch of their recent TV advert “Come to Life’, David Lloyd have literally come to life on YouTube and successfully gained an impressive number of subscribers, views and likes across their channel.
David Minton, Director of LeisureDB, notes the key similarities between social media and fitness; “We all know we should be doing more on social media, just as we know, we need to do more fitness and build more activity into our daily lives”. David believes that “fitness brands need to work at their social media presence like they work at memberships. It’s not a luxury, it’s an essential. We will be looking for more commitment and progress in Q4 2016”.
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Notes:
The reporting period is the 3 months from 1st July 2016 to 30th September 2016. LeisureDB, who has been monitoring performance of the fitness industry for over 30 years, compiled the analysis and resulting figures.
Further Information:
LeisureDB is a leading independent database specialist who provides key market intelligence and analysis across the industry. Established over 30 years ago, the company works with a wide range of fitness operators providing customer profiling reports, new site analysis and latent demand estimates.