LIBR 246-04/13 Web 2.0 (Fall 2010)

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After completing searches on Social Mention, Yelp, Google Blog Search and Tweetscan, I was able to get a good idea of what people are saying about 24 Hour Fitness. The reviews are mixed, and most of the complaints have to do with specific facilities, not the company as a whole. Social Mention shows that the sentiments toward this company are mostly neutral (607) with the positive (138) outweighing the negative (30). Most of the results on Google Blog search were related to promotional deals that the company offers. One interesting thing to note though is that 24 Hour Fitness is currently dealing with a privacy issue. They have a new policy requiring members to give their fingerprint to enter the facilities. They are doing this to cut down on costs of supplying plastic cards to each new member, but many members don’t like the idea of giving their fingerprint to 24 Hour Fitness or being tracked in that manner. As a positive response to this, the company is allowing members to show government issued photo ID instead of giving fingerprints. Some people have taken this issue very personally, but a lot of blog comments show that members support the company and just see this as a technological advancement.

Tweetscan shows that most people just identify that they are at the gym or are advertising new deals at the facilities. After reading five pages of tweets, I could only find one negative comment, and no complaints about things such as temperature or staff members. As a whole, 24 hour fitness seems to have a healthy online reputation, with some blogs raving about the convenience and variety of class the gym offers. But while searching Yelp for facilities in the Portland, OR area, I came across quite a few negative reviews, mostly having to do with specific facilities regarding cleanliness, parking, price and staff exclusivity.

24 Hour Fitness uses Facebook, twitter and Youtube and has links to these on their website. Their Twitter account shows that they take the time to respond to people who have issues with the company. They are sincere and apologetic in their responses and let the person know that they have taken care of the complaint/issue. They also do this through their Facebook page. Unfortunately, none of the negative reviews on Yelp had any response from 24 hour fitness.

I think that 24 Hour Fitness does a great job at using social media to engage with their customers. Their Youtube account has many video clips of the classes they offer, which gives the customer a good idea of what to expect in the classes. Their Facebook offers news about the company as well as fitness ideas. They also encourage their members to share their successes and goals as they relate to fitness. I think that 24 Hour Fitness has a successful community online and that they are experienced at offering feedback and assistance through their official pages, but they don’t seem to go out into the online world past their pages to address issues and complaints. I was impressed to see that over 70,000 people “like” the 24 Hour Fitness Facebook page and that, for a fitness facility, their online reputation is strong!