Join the businesses who have begun to edge out competitors by scouring the web for alternative data.

New York Sports Club ($CLUB) has picked up some followers on Twitter and Facebook in the past couple weeks. Normally, that would be a good thing for a business that thrives on reputation and customer engagement. But in this case, Twitter and Facebook users are tweeting at and following the gym in order to make their concerns known about how the company is handling — or mishandling, in this case — both its members and employees during the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdown. Members are reporting that the company is charging people $15 to freeze memberships during the outbreak, while others are reporting that gym employees were simply fired and told to collect unemployment insurance.

In the past 30 days, @NYSC Twitter follower count has taken off. But what's behind all those new followers appear to be people looking to track down what the gym is up to when it comes to closures, membership cancelations, and how the company plans to take care of its out-of-work instructors and employees.

The gym's social media team is busy fending off angry Twitter users, and its tweet count in the past few days shows the spike in activity.

Meanwhile, things aren't much better for NYSC on Facebook. The number of followers on that platform has taken off as people ostensibly await news from the gym as to what to do with their memberships — as well as what the company is doing with recently laid-off employees.

NYSC has bee a bit more proactive on Facebook, posting a status update noting that it would be closing clubs in major cities.

However, users on that platform — much like Facebook — are simply looking for news and updates as it pertains to what they consider to be more important matters: the wellbeing of their friends.

About the Data:

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.

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