Budget giants Pure Gym and The Gym Group are leading the way in terms of brand engagement on social media, but a new report shows that there’s plenty of room for improvement across the fitness sector.

The LeisureDB Social Media Fitness Index Q1 2016 Report – the first of its kind – analyses the performance of the UK’s top 20 private fitness operators across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

The report highlights that overall brand social media presence is growing, but more needs to be done. More than half of the top 20 private brands gained over 1,000 Facebook likes in Q1 2016 while the industry’s collective Twitter audience grew by 6 per cent.

Facebook is the most common social media platform among the top 20 private brands, while Instagram is being under-utilised and neglected – only 8 of the top 20 have accounts.

But despite the general upswing, the industry still has a lot of ground to make up if it is to compete with rival sectors, according to David Minton, director of The Leisure Database Company – the firm behind the report.

“Sport and fitness have a lot of catching up to do,” said Minton. “The industry has 9.2m UK fitness members, but across the top 20 private fitness brands, it can only boast 946k likes on Facebook, 46k followers on Instagram and 248k followers on Twitter.”

Social media, and particularly the rise of the gym selfie, has presented operators with the prime opportunity to benefit from free marketing and brand advocacy from young demographics, however the lack of presence on Instagram suggests many operators are failing to take advantage of this.

Speaking to Health Club Management last year, fitness industry consultant Graeme Hinde said gyms should do more to capitalise on the business opportunities brought by the popularity of selfies.

“From a marketing perspective the uploading of selfies to Instagram, Facebook and other platforms can be excellent if the user notes their location,” said Hinde.

“With that in mind, I would suggest the creation of 'selfie zones' or fun backdrops that encourage members to take selfies and use certain hashtags that are associated with the club in question.”

To order access the full LeisureDB Social Media Fitness Index Q1 2016 Report, click here.