Use of Social Media Networks and Perceptions of Firm-Generated Content in the Fitness Industry
Keywords:
relationship marketing, social media marketing, interaction, social media engagementAbstract
Research on social media in the fitness industry has focused mostly on the impacts of images on body image and how interventions on social media can impact behavior change. Little research explores the managerial aspects of using social media in the fitness realm. This study explored how fitness facility members valued firm-generated content on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. After surveying 467 fitness facility members, descriptive statistics and regression analyses were run to determine if they valued content and what content valuations drove interaction on each network. Overall, consumers evaluated firm-generated content as relevant, useful, interesting, high quality, appropriate, important, and engaging. Content that was rated as high quality and important drove interactive behaviors on social media in general. Fitness managers should put resources into determining what content members perceive as important and creating high quality photos and videos to drive interaction with content.
References
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Polsgrove, M. J., & Frimming, R. E. (2013). A creative way to utilize social media to enhance fitness and health knowledge. Strategies, 26 (2), 3-7.
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Santtila, M., Grönqvist, K., Räisänen, J., & Kyröläinen, H. (2014). Impact on physical fitness of exercise promotion service utilizing social media. Biomedical Human Kinetics, 6 (1), 84-89.
Teodoro, R., & Naaman, M. (2013). Fitter with Twitter: Understanding personal health and fitness activity in social media. In Seventh International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (pp. 611-620).
Thackeray, R., Neiger, B. L., & Keller, H. (2012). Integrating social media and social marketing: A four-step process. Health Promotion Practice, 13, 165-169. doi:10.1177/1524839911432009
Tiggemann, M., & Zaccardo, M. (2018). ‘Strong is the new skinny’: A content analysis of #fitspiration images on Instagram. Journal of Health Psychology, 23 (8), 1003-1011.
Vaterlaus, J. M., Patten, E. V., Roche, C., & Young, J. A. (2015). #gettinghealthy: The perceived influence of social media on young adult health behaviors. Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 151-157.
Williams, J., & Chinn, S. J. (2010). Meeting relationship-marketing goals through social media: A conceptual model for sport marketers. International Journal of Sport Communication, 3, 422-437.
Williams, A. S., & Wright, B. K. (2016). Strategic fitness communication: Examining social media usage in the fitness sector of the sport industry. International Journal of Sport Management, 17, 235-252.
Woodcock, N., Broomfield, N., Downer, G., & Starkey, M. (2011). The evolving data architecture of social customer relationship management. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 12, 249-266. doi:10.1057/dddmp.2010.45
World Health Organization. (2017). Global strategy on diet, physical activity and health: Physical activity and adults. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/factsheet_adults/en/
Zhang, J., Brackbill, D., Yang, S., & Centola, D. (2015). Efficacy and causal mechanism of an online social media intervention to increase physical activity: Results of a randomized controlled trial. Preventive Medicine Reports, 2, 651-657.
American Heart Association. (2017). The American Heart Association's diet and lifestyle recommendations. Retrieved from http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/Diet-and-Lifestyle-Recommendations_UCM_305855_Article.jsp#.WdP9tRNyLOR
Askool, S., & Nakata, K. (2010). A conceptual model for acceptance of social CRM systems based on a scoping study. AI & Society, 26, 205-220. doi:10.1007/s00146-010-0311-5
Bayne, K. S., & Cianfrone, B. A. (2013). The effectiveness of social media marketing: The impact of Facebook status updates on a campus recreation event. Recreational Sports Journal, 37 (2), 147-159.
Berry, L. L. (1995). Relationship marketing of services—growing interest, emerging perspectives. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 23 (4), 236-245.
Biscontini, L. (2012). Building fitness relationships. American Fitness, 30 (3), 12-14.
Carrotte, E. R., Prichard, I., & Lim, M. S. C. (2017). “Fitspiration” on social media: A content analysis of gendered images. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 19 (3), doi: 10.2196/jmir.6368
Carrotte, E. R., Vella, A. M., & Lim, M. S. (2015). Predictors of “liking” three types of health and fitness-related content on social media: a cross-sectional study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 17 (8), doi: 10.2196/jmir.4803
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015). How much physical activity do you need? Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/index.html
Clark, C. (2014). Going beyond likes and followers: How fitness clubs can leverage social media. ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal, 18 (5), 46-48.
Clark, M., & Melancon, J. (2013). The influence of social media investment on relational outcomes: A relationship marketing perspective. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 5 (4), 132-142.
Corthouts, J., Denys, A., Thibaut, E., & Scheerder, J. (2019). Like it or not? The differences between and success factors of sports providers' use of social networking sites. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 1 9(1-2), 56-79.
Deighton-Smith, N., & Bell, B. T. (2017). Objectifying fitness: A content and thematic analysis of #fitspiration images on social media. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 6 (1), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000143
Fable, S. (2011). Creating an online community: Use social media to extend your reach beyond the exercise studio. IDEA Fitness Journal, 66-67.
Ferrand, A., Robinson, L., & Valette-Florence, P. (2010). The intention-to-repurchase paradox: A case of the health and fitness industry. Journal of Sport Management, 24, 83-105.
Field, J. A., Elbert, D. J., & Moser, S. B. (2012). The use of social media in building interest in wellness on a college campus. American Journal of Business Education, 5 (5), 515-524.
Frimming, R. E., Polsgrove, M. J., & Bower, G. G. (2011). Evaluation of a health and fitness social media experience. American Journal of Health Education, 42 (4), 222-227.
Grönroos, C. (2004). The relationship marketing process: Communication, interaction, dialogue, value. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 19, 99-113.
Grönroos, C. (1996). Relationship marketing: Strategic and tactical implications. Management Decision, 34 (3), 5-14.
Hoy, D. (2013). Social media the new frontier. Sport Health, 29, 14-16.
Hurley. (2004). Managing customer retention in the health and fitness industry: A case of neglect. Irish Marketing Review, 17 (1 & 2), 23-29.
Kim, Y. K., Trail, G. T., Woo, B., & Zhang, J. (2011). Sports consumer-team relationship quality: Development and psychometric evaluation of a scale. International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship, 12, 254-271.
Kolbeck, C. (2013). Know your members to successfully market your club. ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal, 17 (5), 40-41.
Laranjo, L., Arguel, A., Neves, A. L., Gallagher, A. M., Kaplan, R., Mortimer,
N., Mendes, G. A., & Lau, A. Y. (2014). The influence of social networking sites on health behavior change: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 22 (1), 243-256.
Luedtke, H. S. (2013). Selling yourself without selling out: How to create an online presence that feels true to yourself - and your business. IDEA Fitness Journal, 20-23.
Marandi, J. H. E. (2002). The gendered dynamics of relationship marketing: An initial discussion of the health and fitness industry. Managing Leisure, 7, 194-200.
Marcus, B. H., Nigg, C. R., Riebe, D., & Forsyth, L. H. (2000). Interactive communication strategies: Implications for population-based physical-activity promotion. American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 19, 121-126.
Morgan, R. M., & Hunt, S. D. (1994). The commitment-trust theory of relationship marketing. Journal of Marketing, 58 (3), 20-38.
Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., Fryar, C. D., & Flegal, K. M. (2015) Prevalence of obesity amount adults and youth: United States, 2011-2014. NCHS Data Brief, 219. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db219.pdf
Pagoto, S., Waring, M. E., May, C. N., Ding, E. Y., Kunz, W. H., Hayes, R., &
Oleski, J. L. (2016). Adapting behavioral interventions for social media delivery. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 18(1). doi: 10.2196/jmir.5086
Park, K., Weber, I., Cha, M., & Lee, C. (2016). Persistent sharing of fitness app status on Twitter. In Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (pp. 184-194).
Pinto, M. B., & Yagnik, A. (2017). Fit for life: A content analysis of fitness tracker brands use of Facebook in social media marketing. Journal of Brand Management, 24 (1), 49-67.
Polsgrove, M. J., & Frimming, R. E. (2013). A creative way to utilize social media to enhance fitness and health knowledge. Strategies, 26 (2), 3-7.
Rodriguez, M. (2018). IHRSA 2018 global report: Health club industry revenue totaled $87.2 billion in 2017. Retrieved from https://www.ihrsa.org/about/media-center/press-releases/ihrsa-2018-global-report-club-industry-revenue-totaled-87-2-billion-in-2017/.
Santtila, M., Grönqvist, K., Räisänen, J., & Kyröläinen, H. (2014). Impact on physical fitness of exercise promotion service utilizing social media. Biomedical Human Kinetics, 6 (1), 84-89.
Teodoro, R., & Naaman, M. (2013). Fitter with Twitter: Understanding personal health and fitness activity in social media. In Seventh International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (pp. 611-620).
Thackeray, R., Neiger, B. L., & Keller, H. (2012). Integrating social media and social marketing: A four-step process. Health Promotion Practice, 13, 165-169. doi:10.1177/1524839911432009
Tiggemann, M., & Zaccardo, M. (2018). ‘Strong is the new skinny’: A content analysis of #fitspiration images on Instagram. Journal of Health Psychology, 23 (8), 1003-1011.
Vaterlaus, J. M., Patten, E. V., Roche, C., & Young, J. A. (2015). #gettinghealthy: The perceived influence of social media on young adult health behaviors. Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 151-157.
Williams, J., & Chinn, S. J. (2010). Meeting relationship-marketing goals through social media: A conceptual model for sport marketers. International Journal of Sport Communication, 3, 422-437.
Williams, A. S., & Wright, B. K. (2016). Strategic fitness communication: Examining social media usage in the fitness sector of the sport industry. International Journal of Sport Management, 17, 235-252.
Woodcock, N., Broomfield, N., Downer, G., & Starkey, M. (2011). The evolving data architecture of social customer relationship management. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 12, 249-266. doi:10.1057/dddmp.2010.45
World Health Organization. (2017). Global strategy on diet, physical activity and health: Physical activity and adults. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/factsheet_adults/en/
Zhang, J., Brackbill, D., Yang, S., & Centola, D. (2015). Efficacy and causal mechanism of an online social media intervention to increase physical activity: Results of a randomized controlled trial. Preventive Medicine Reports, 2, 651-657.
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