All-Star Gym Websites

[cheerinatorXdad]

Sadly I think another reason some gyms don't post the competitions they attend and their results are the fact that the competition results aren't in line with their advertising of attending Worlds and the Worlds Bids they have received.

I think you nailed it on the head there.

 

[Cheeraholic]

Oh my. @Cheeraholic please join us in the parent section for a dose of reality.

Oh....well I guess that's not the way it is. My cp is level 1 so we have a long way to go before we have to be worrying about worlds. I'll go check out what everyone is saying though.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Another small issue I have with any cheer related social media account or website is a lack of focus on the non-Worlds teams.

Ex: Your Youtube account or FB or whatever is all Such and Such Level 5 team.

5 teams are GREAT, but from a coaching perspective, the sole source of promotion for a gym shouldn't be what L5 is doing.

From a business and ownership perspective, you want to be putting info out there about your lower levels and age groups, too. Your biggest revenue and pool of interested parents/kids are generally not those kids who are ALREADY L5 and looking for a gym. You need to be targeting the Mini/Youth kiddo or Mini/Youth kiddo moms as THOSE are the kids who get hooked, grow up in your program and become returning athletes.

I tend to think that your Youth and Minis may be the the most important group of kids in your gym for that reason.

 

[cmghas3]

Another small issue I have with any cheer related social media account or website is a lack of focus on the non-Worlds teams.

Ex: Your Youtube account or FB or whatever is all Such and Such Level 5 team.

5 teams are GREAT, but from a coaching perspective, the sole source of promotion for a gym shouldn't be what L5 is doing.

From a business and ownership perspective, you want to be putting info out there about your lower levels and age groups, too. Your biggest revenue and pool of interested parents/kids are generally not those kids who are ALREADY L5 and looking for a gym. You need to be targeting the Mini/Youth kiddo or Mini/Youth kiddo moms as THOSE are the kids who get hooked, grow up in your program and become returning athletes.

I tend to think that your Youth and Minis may be the the most important group of kids in your gym for that reason.

If I could Shimmy this 10 times I would. Agree 120%! I have to say this, because I'm truly impressed. My CP's have always cheered, tumbled at the same gym since 2007. We decided to make the decision to switch to another gym. Now, our new gym may not be as large, or have a huge giant play structure in it, but the owner (of new) coaches every single one of her teams! Yes, I'm know she has help. But she is with each team personally all the time. Now by no means am I "bashing" the old gym, it's just they are a larger facility with more athletes! Our new gym is very nice! It's very clean, ect.. All the tools to train athletes in!


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[xtremeteal4life]

Another small issue I have with any cheer related social media account or website is a lack of focus on the non-Worlds teams.

Ex: Your Youtube account or FB or whatever is all Such and Such Level 5 team.

5 teams are GREAT, but from a coaching perspective, the sole source of promotion for a gym shouldn't be what L5 is doing.

From a business and ownership perspective, you want to be putting info out there about your lower levels and age groups, too. Your biggest revenue and pool of interested parents/kids are generally not those kids who are ALREADY L5 and looking for a gym. You need to be targeting the Mini/Youth kiddo or Mini/Youth kiddo moms as THOSE are the kids who get hooked, grow up in your program and become returning athletes.

I tend to think that your Youth and Minis may be the the most important group of kids in your gym for that reason.

LORD YES I AGREE!!

 

[Just-a-Mom]

Like @SharkDad said, there are a million other things that gym owners find more important than keeping outsiders updated on competition placements. That may not be a bad thing--that attention is probably focused within the gym. I do understand why you want to see team placements, but I just don't think it's a big deal to keep them updated on the website.

Then they shouldn't have sections for comp updates on the website at all. It is so aggravating to go to someone's website (and yes, even a lot of Facebook pages fall into this category) and have its last updated information be from 2011. I also then think they're closed. I'm not saying they have to update it Monday morning after the competition, but for God's sake - they haven't had time in THREE YEARS to update the stupid page? It's not just competition info either. A lot of them have tryout info from 2012 still posted.

I hate to break it to these businesses, but people use the Internet long before they ever use the phone or drive somewhere. It's the cheapest and most effective marketing available. I'm not a detective, so I have no interest in spending all day scouring the Internet for information about a cheer gym. I just move on to the next one.

This is fine by me.... excpet then these same gym owners are on here crying that their small gym can't grow because all the big gyms are hogging up the customers. Um, no. You can't grow your business because you have absolutely zero marketing skills.



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[Cheeraholic]

Then they shouldn't have sections for comp updates on the website at all. It is so aggravating to go to someone's website (and yes, even a lot of Facebook pages fall into this category) and have its last updated information be from 2011. I also then think they're closed. I'm not saying they have to update it Monday morning after the competition, but for God's sake - they haven't had time in THREE YEARS to update the stupid page? It's not just competition info either. A lot of them have tryout info from 2012 still posted.

I hate to break it to these businesses, but people use the Internet long before they ever use the phone or drive somewhere. It's the cheapest and most effective marketing available. I'm not a detective, so I have no interest in spending all day scouring the Internet for information about a cheer gym. I just move on to the next one.

This is fine by me.... excpet then these same gym owners are on here crying that their small gym can't grow because all the big gyms are hogging up the customers. Um, no. You can't grow your business because you have absolutely zero marketing skills.



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Yes...what she said.

 

[dance2874]

YES!! As a parent looking at options in my area it is so frustrating to see outdated websites. Im not looking for comp results necessarily, I can do that scouting myself if I want to and have interest. But to not update the calendar since 2012 makes me think you are closed. We live where there are several gyms within a 30-45 min drive (easily 10 or more) and I am not going to drive to all of them to gather info. The internet is my first stop and if I dont see something to catch my interest we wont be taking a drive to check you out. The facebook pages are almost as bad in some cases. I can see not wanting to put everything out there for the public or making private pages for your current parents, but you have to put something out there to gain some interest.

 

[Cheeraholic]

If I were a gym owner I'd consider a "Prospective Parents" page or something like that.

 

[sarahh_cheers]

a lot of gyms have info that only members can see bc you have to login. so they probably keep their sites updated, just not that you can see.


pittsburgh poison is comin through your area, causin mass hysteria!

 

[cheermuse]

I understand gym owners are busy and such. We live in a social media world now and all potential customers no matter what the product or service being provided uses the internet as a resource. As a potential customer I don't need to know what the gym is doing every 10 minutes. Having up to date photos and current information is not that time consuming takes no more time than it does to Facebook, Tweet & Instagram etc.

@Just-a-Mom I Shimmy your post 1 million X's!

 

[Just-a-Mom]

I understand gym owners are busy and such. We live in a social media world now and all potential customers no matter what the product or service being provided uses the internet as a resource. As a potential customer I don't need to know what the gym is doing every 10 minutes. Having up to date photos and current information is not that time consuming takes no more time than it does to Facebook, Tweet & Instagram etc.

@Just-a-Mom I Shimmy your post 1 million X's!

Yes! Definitely doesn't need to be current to the point that practice from last night is on there. But listing teams and practice times from your 2012-13 season when we're about to have tryouts for 2014-15 is a little ridiculous.

Our entire dance studio (approx 200 kid students and 75 adult students) is run by me, another staff member, and interns. They get either free or discounted classes in exchange for doing all our cleaning and administrative work. We have one whose whole job is handling all of our social networking sites and she checks the website to make sure it's current. Then either I, the owner, or our Web services lady make quick updates. It takes all of 10 minutes per week and we pay very minimal costs for this. The amount of time we save by not having to spend every day telling people that what they read on our website was incorrect or out of date is well worth it.

Do gym owners genuinely not realize the monetary value of having a good, user friendly website?

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[cheermuse]

Funny I just checked our gym and its outdated has tryout registration information for 2013-2014 season :banghead:

 

[King]

The website itself represents more the business side. I am working on updating Rays (it has needed it for a while) and I am trying to make sure it has a lot of info that doesn't need constant updating.

The twitter account and the facebook account will take care of the more fun social parts.

The new camps webiste: Camps with Stingray Allstars | Camps run by the Stingray Allstars!

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Maybe not the results of every single comp, but at minimum, this is what NEEDS to be clear and up-to-date on a site.

1. Teams. What teams do you have? (i.e. Tiny1 BabyCats, Y2 Little Cats, whatever. Just an overview of your teams. Suzie's mom has no idea if you even HAVE a Tiny team for her 5 year old that has never cheered if you don't list it all.)

2. TRYOUT INFO. Who, what, when, where, how much? (Parents are going to be driving kids to this. They need to know this stuff.)

3. Other programs. All-star prep, classes, etc. Dates/times? Costs? (Maybe we're not ready for an all star team, but are looking for a class. If I cannot find info immediately about what classes, costs, etc. I'm not coming out there.)

4. Who are you guys? Staff info. Certifications, other experience? Parents want to know that Bob is fully USASF/USAG Cert and cheered at Bama for 4 years. (Parents need to know what makes you qualified to coach their kid.)

5. Some sort of Whatever All Stars FAQ page or packet. How do you decide who is on what team? Give them a cost ballpark. When the teams can expect to practice. What some of your policies are (i.e. missing practices, etc.) Not a 200 page Bible but something that covers a lot of commonly asked stuff. Example: I think Cheer Athletics has a GREAT Tryout/Gym Info Packet (google it.)