Beto Perez of Zumba Fitness, Kathryn Budig of Yoga Works, Bianca Jade of mizzFit, Hemalayaa of Bollywood Booty... all of these men and women have thousands of fans that follow their every move on the web. But these are not famous actors or musicians, they are famous ftiness instructors. Fitness celebs have gone by way of the trendy YouTube stars (á la Antoine Dodson of "Bed Intruder" fame) and fashion blogger It Girls (Garance Doré, Tavi, and Jane Alridge to name a few); Beto, Kathryn, Bianca and Hemalayaa are self-made celebrities whose success is due to marketing through online social media. Like the other Internet superstars, fitness celebrities run their own online empires with personal blogs, Vimeo channels, and partnerships with fitness companies. Who are your favorite fintess celebs?
Today, the Internet is not just a tool for fitness professionals to self-promote, but to self-authenticate.The key for fitness profesionals is not just to display class teaching schedules and certifications but also personal details that encompass an entire lifestyle of the fitness style of choice. This includes organic recipes for an after-workout pickup, recommended songs for a cardio playlist, or favorite labels of gear appropriate in and out of the Pilates studio. Sucessful fitness celebrities create an online brands of themselves and sell their lives as an entire package of the "Fitness Persona," from sunrise to sundown; the website reflects that each of these people eats, breathes, sleeps, and essentially is ____ (fill in the blank with your workout regimen of choice: yoga, Pilates, Zumba, etc.).
In Scottsdale, we have our own superstar instructors that have used the Internet to brand themselves: Laura Peralta of Fusion Movement Studios, Lisa Charisse Blanco of Zumba Fitness, and Anton Mackey, Desire Lapre, and John Salisbury of Life Power Yoga. Beyond class updates, these instructors use social media to broaden their community. These instructors cite their students as the reason for using the Internet, to connect with them beyond what is possible in an hour timeframe and take their class from the gym to everyday life. “I wanted them to be able to reach me at any time and feel as though they were a part of ‘my world,’” remarks Blanco, who posts self-choreographed dance videos and class updates on her Zumba Facebook page and blog. Lapre uses her website to reach a larger audience and "open doors to great opportunities." Mackey Tweets inspiring quotes and responds individually to Facebook comments; “It's a way for me to connect with students on a more personal level because it is hard to do so in a large class.” Similarly, Peralta’s two websites and blog were created with her personal mission in mind, “to spread a healthy, positive, joyful lifestyle beyond the walls of my studio." While she was hesitant toward social media at first, Peralta eloquently concludes, “Technology at last, went from being a headache and a source of anxiety, to a useful tool that showed me the virtual path to extend my teachings to all that are open to change their lives.”
“I wanted them to be able to reach me at any time and feel as though they were a part of ‘my world.’”
Salisbury states that in addition to being an effective way to market himself in and outside of the Phoenix community, he started his website because he “needed something legit.” Professional legitimacy is easy to prove through biographies, recommendations, and experience blurbs that read like a resume. But more importantly, holistic authenticity of an instructor is upheld through revealing more personal details of how the instructors themselves live out what they teach in the studio in real life, embodying the total Fitness Persona.
If your local fitness instructor doesn't have a URL, do you find them less legitimate as credible instructors?
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