How Social Media Influencers Are Transforming Fitness Through Storytelling

The last year I've been fortunate enough to work with some of the world's top fitness influencers on social networks like Instagram and Facebook. 

In June 2016, we launched Fitplan for iPhone and Android with a global team of 16 fitness influencers who have a combined audience of over 40 million fans on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube. 

The business model of Fitplan is we partner with fitness influencers to film their exact training methods in the gym and then we work closely with them to engage and monetize their social media audiences with images and videos from their workout plans.

While many startups struggle to gain traction, the relationships we built with these fitness influencers guaranteed that millions of people heard about our new app within weeks of launching.

The Power of Visual Storytelling On Social Media

What separates the fitness influencers that have built social media audiences in the millions from everyone else is they are excellent visual storytellers. Clearly, they are all charismatic people with incredible physiques but that's not enough to build a massive audience that will be motivated to take action.

The most successful fitness influencers are those that don't just post pretty pictures of themselves but they share their exact workout methods to inspire and empower their fans to level up and go further on their own fitness journey. What sets them apart is a unique story of what's possible and a distinctive personal brand that is deeply personal and resonates with the struggles and triumphs of their social media fans.

Studies show that we learn and remember a message best when it is packaged and delivered through narrative storytelling. Literally, the power of a great story is that it is a blueprint for transformation. Everyone has dreams that they have yet to realize and chase after. They just need a great storyteller to give them an example to follow and then motivate them to take action.

We Are All Called To Be Storytellers Now

Thanks to easily accessible social networks, we are all called to be storytellers. Those of us who answer this calling by thinking deeply about who we are, how we can serve our audience and what makes us different will have an unbeatable advantage in the 21st-century economy.

I strongly believe in the words of Rolf Jensen, a futurist and former director of the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies that storytelling is the ultimate skill to develop in today's information-saturated and meaning-deprived media landscape:

The highest-paid person in the first half of this century will be the storyteller.

All professionals, including advertisers, teachers, entrepreneurs, politicians, athletes and religious leaders, will be valued for their ability to create stories that will captivate their audiences.

—Rolf Jensen

We are called to live a story worth telling. It's when we answer this calling that life becomes more meaningful and we embark on our Hero's Journey to develop our gifts and discover the purpose for why we are here.

Storytelling is the most powerful tool you have to share your message and inspire others to spread it for you through word-of-mouth.

Here's the powerful story of our athlete Michelle Lewin sharing how her fitness journey helped her overcome anorexia, a life-threatening eating disorder.

You can download Fitplan for iOS or Android.