Hey everyone

Has anyone noticed how much facebook has changed in a year’s time? Most people don’t notice it but it’s a LOT. Especially if you go back even further, when it just started up.

Facebook has evolved a lot, even too much according to some people. And not for the better. Though, I don’t fully agree with that. In my opinion, facebook has changed a few things that were great ideas. I like the group system they implemented a few years ago. It makes it so easy to gather documents, set deadlines and talk in groups you’re working with for school. It’s great.

On the other hand, they also came up with some changes that people don’t like. My main concern is how much power has been given to those ‘funny’ pages you see. You see something of interest, something to cheer you up and before you know it, you have an extra login procedure. You have to accept some terms, and in the end, the site is creating posts in your name to spread its content. It’s annoying to say the least.

Oh God Why

I don’t understand why facebook gives them this much power. We can’t enforce this upon others but those sites can. I think a lot of people agree with me here. If this goes on like it is now, it will become much worse and eventually, the fall of facebook.

If you think a site like facebook can’t fall, you’re dead wrong. Myspace and plenty of others have become a failure after changes or other sites being better. I think the same fate will happen to facebook. It’s already happening in the States, and that’s where 90% of the trends start. 

Hey guys

This will (hopefully) be the last installment of this little series about gym. It’s just that I’m full of ideas at the moment and I need to vent them.

When you enter a gym, how often do you see the same generic look? I bet you often do. I want my clients to come in and say wow. I want to give them an experience they have never had before. This is really important to me as I want to differentiate myself from commercial gyms.

When a new trainee comes in I want them to see a different gym. One where things happen. Where s*** gets done, as they say.

There will be loud music playing, motivating everyone in the area. Everyone is grinding away, giving the best of themselves. When they look around, they see pictures and posters on the wall with successful people in the fitness industry. Professional bodybuilders, world class powerlifters but also fitness models will all be featured.

When they look up, they will see a TV. Not a TV that’s on Vitaya playing shows that make your testosterone levels drop 5 miles but videos of people training very hard. This works motivating.
People in my gym will WANT to come. They WANT to bust their ass and strive to be the very best they can be. And I will be there to guide them. That’s an experience you don’t find anywhere else. That’s experience marketing for gyms. If you want a snip of what I want my gym too like, here it is:
http://www.awesomegyms.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Gym%20above%20view.jpg

Very unconventional right?

Another thing. A great way to attract new customers is to have competitions where people who don’t train yet can win a free subscription. Often, gyms hand these out to trainees who have been there longer. While that is nice, sometimes you have to do it this way to attract new clients.

One final thing before I wrap up this blog. Another idea of mine is to sometimes randomly have day where people can get a free shake or something. It’s little gestures like this that makes clients feel wanted. Whenever they think about my gym, they’ll always have a positive attitude towards me.

Hey guys!

Remember how I talked about opening my own gym a few days ago. Well, I came up with more ideas!
For those of you who have been to a gym before, you will often hear that you can’t bring your own drinks, even if it’s water. Furthermore, there is no drinking fountain so the only option is to buy your drinks there, or be very thirsty.
I understand gym owners do this to have more profit but it’s very bad marketing in my opinion. In my gym, you would be able to drink water, and I’ll have a drinking fountain. I think having something like that really adds extra value. Consumers will appreciate it.

Another thing that really annoys me in gyms is the lack of music variation. It’s either pop music radio channels, or generic dance music. In my gym, I’d play all kinds of music. Metal, trance, rock. Even the ones I don’t like like hip hop would get played. I want to have everyone saying that their favorite song got played. I think this a great thing for any gym to do, and bonds with customers.

Being active on social media like facebook is important as we all know. Most small gym owners barely realize this. Currently I’m in a gym where the owner does. He posts a lot of pictures of the people that train there and let them have a chance to shine. The owner is very close to most people.

On the other hand, when a newcomer comes in, he gives ‘advice’ for barely 2 minutes. He directs them from one abundant machine to the other. You just see he has no real interest in helping you.
This is something I would do a lot differently. Yes, it takes a lot of time to learn someone something like a squat but I like teaching people and I think a gym is so much better with an owner like this.

My own gym!

Hello everyone, it’s Vince again and today I want to talk to you about something quite personal.
In the near future, I’d like to set up my own gym. Of course this is a big risk for me and I will have to be smart to launch it successfully. In this blog, I want to talk about the things I’m planning to do marketing wise and in the same time, point out the blunders some other gyms make.

I know a lot of you are thinking that the time for your own, local gym is over but I’m convinced it is not. You just have to be smart. I want to position myself very differently from other gyms. Most gyms are very commercialized. They are catering to the big audiences with lots of fancy machines, cardio equipment, Zumba, etc.

What I want to do is the opposite. I want a gym created without all these extras. I want to go to the core essentials of what a good gym is. By doing this, I can be cheaper than commercial gyms while still being high quality for the people that want to train well.

What’s also very important to get people to try out your gym is a free pass. Most gyms in Belgium don’t have one. They immediately want to see cash whenever you want to try out. Some gyms have a one day pass. This is a step in the right direction but not enough. I want to give people the whole week to come try out. Most people train in a split (chest/triceps on a day, back/biceps on another and legs on another). I want to give them the chest to test all aspects of the gym and evaluating for themselves if it’s good or not. A week pass allows this.

Hello everyone!

As you all know our world is rapidly evolving into a world where technology is everywhere. Together with this evolution, the rise of video games has come.
Video games also need marketing. It’s the same as traditional marketing, but also very different. It’s harder than traditional marketing but on the other hand also easier. This all my sound confusing now so I’ll explain in detail.

You see, advertising for a game is very pure. Most of the time, it’s footage of the game. There are only a few markets where people genuinely get excited just seeing your product. However, they will not always be excited. If you’re a small game developer it is really hard for you to get noticed in this very saturated market. So, how do you stand out?

There’s a couple of things you can do. First, get good reviews that you can show on your website. Admitted, you need a solid game for that but it’s one of the fastest ways to get known for games . Secondly, make sure people can follow you on facebook, twitter and other social networks and there’s a reason for it!

3rd, a public beta test is really useful to have. First of all, people can test your game out and you might convince some customers. Secondly, they will test your game and find potential bugs, glitches or exploits. Third, the people that were already buying your game will be so excited and thankful!

This brings me to the next point: listen your customers, your fan base and interact with them. We see this a lot in the gaming industry today but not enough. Staying close with your customers and trying to make changes on your game based upon what they tell you is a fast track to success. You got to watch out that you’ll listen to the smart constructive criticism only though, since there are a lot of whiners on forums.

Last tip is actually a don’t. Don’t promise things you can’t fulfil. Gamers are a very loyal group of customers and when they have been lied to, it might be possible that they will never ever buy a game from you again. This is more true for the gaming industry than any else, in my opinion.