February 18 2019 | Interviews , PLANOLEADERS
Bridging the gap between wellness, technology, and retail, Peloton has become a brand to watch in the fitness industry — we have Sara Haile, the brand's Senior Social Media Manager (and today's PLANOLEADER!) to thank for that. In short, Sara leads all content efforts across Peloton's storytelling channels including social media and the blog. From participating in classes to shopping the company's apparel, we were interested in learning more about how Sara has created a consistent yet engaging social media strategy that considers each facet of the Peloton experience. So we joined Sara at Peloton's airy showroom in Manhattan's bustling Chelsea neighborhood to witness the digital darling in her element. Read on to meet Sara who kindly shared more about her professional experiences and her recommended tips for peers in the fitness industry looking to plan and create impactful social media content.
My name is Sara Haile. I'm the Senior Social Media Manager at Peloton, photographer and overall digital media professional.
Prior to joining Peloton, I gained experience in several different marketing and production-based roles. Looking back at my previous positions, I jumped around a bit, but I feel as though it's a reflection of my love of so many elements that can contribute to a final campaign – photography, video, copywriting, production coordination, PR, and even graphic design. I've learned so much from my past roles, and I still apply a lot of the knowledge to what I'm doing in my current role on a daily basis. A notable moment for me was the re-design of Peloton's blog, The Output. It was something that I oversaw from the very beginning wireframes to the launch plan and even the curation of content that goes live today. I love getting to see the full journey of a project – you invest so much when you're getting the project off the ground, and it's exciting to see it reflected in the final result.
My daily schedule can range so much, although it regularly includes planning out our social calendar, writing for the blog, creating shot lists for remote teams, logging and analyzing data, attending meetings for upcoming campaigns and capturing assets. I think the amount of multitasking and behind-the-scenes coordination gets lost in the shuffle. It's very easy to look at a piece of social content and just see a photo, a video or some captioning, but many times there's a lot of planning involved for the majority of posts. You have to be very organized, wear numerous different hats and communicate effectively with several teams. I'm proud of how our blog content is developing. There's a balance between listening to what our members are interested in learning, making sure that what we're talking about is relevant to how our products are evolving, and what are current wellness talking points. I'm really excited to see where it goes in 2019!
Peloton is a fitness-tech company. We currently have three core products – the Peloton Bike and Tread (shipping this fall) and Peloton Digital - our app that allows you to take our fitness content anywhere (it's seriously awesome)! All of these products allow you to take Peloton workouts wherever you live while still feeling connected to a community that has been amazing to not only take part in but also to witness its growth. We also have our Peloton Boutique where you can shop all Peloton apparel online or in any of our 30+ showroom locations – a place to also test out the Bike and Tread (soon to come) while you're there. I definitely always have variety in mind. I think it's important to be consistent with messaging about all of our different offerings and how and why our audience should engage with each of them. There definitely is never a shortage of things to talk about across our channels, but I think tailoring the content to provide value and educate our audience with what's relevant to our brand at the time is consistently top of mind.
I would say we're at the intersection of fitness, technology, retail, media, and overall lifestyle! I've learned to be very clear and articulate with how we present things. Whether it be the copy or imagery, everything needs to be taken into thoughtful consideration. This is where a lot of that behind-the-scenes work comes in and where I get to work with amazing team members to market content in a smart way. We think of our members first and foremost, so considering how our audience will be able to interpret and digest the content we're putting out there indicates a campaign's success. We also take advantage of our blog or Instagram story to further explain or demonstrate things that may require a little more storytelling. For example, we release new product features regularly, so using our blog as a space to further explain how a member can put a new feature to use is a great resource.
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