STOP - Your Social Media is Losing You Money
Whether you like it or not, if you want to run an online business, you need to have a strong and engaged social media presence. This means that you’ll have to spend some time on the apps creating content and engaging with other’s content. Through this, you become more visible to potential clients, establish credibility, develop some social capital and ideally generate more leads for your business.
Social media is by far the most effective acquisition channel you have as a coach right now. The way you use it is essentially the only lens through which potential clients can determine if you’re the coach they want to work with amongst the throngs of other legitimate evidence based coaches, not to mention the copy/paste coaches, meatheads, fit-fluencers, and diet tea pushers.
With something so important to your earnings, why would you continue to portray yourself in an unprofessional manner? I know what you’re thinking – “What do you mean unprofessional?” Well, let me explain…
- You make spelling and grammar errors.
In my mind, this is egregious at best. Why in the world would someone trust you with their health, wellbeing and pay you money if you can’t even communicate what you do in a clear, concise and grammatically correct manner? Even better, why would they trust you if you don’t even have the wherewithal to proofread the information you put online? This demonstrates that you do not have attention to detail, it calls into question the credibility of the information you’re putting out and makes you look uneducated.
- You consistently engage in negative exchanges.
There is tremendous power in intellectual debate. Truth be told, some of my best learning has come through intense discussion of nuanced topics. That being said, online intellectual pissing matches are not the same thing. Anytime you speak negatively about someone, or try to discredit another person online, you’re not contributing anything valuable. Furthermore, the law of attraction always holds true – when you’re negative towards others, negativity will find you. I’ve also never met someone who wanted to work with a coach because of how much smack they talk about other people.
- You’re quick to point out problems, but don’t provide any solutions.
This feeds directly into point #2. What are you contributing to the fitness industry through your social media content and how are you helping people get healthier and more active? The most common complaint from clients looking to work with a coach is that they lack direction, usually because they cannot navigate the wealth of information on the web. We have more information than ever before and people still don’t know what to do. Your main job as a coach working with a client is to lower the barrier of entry for them to garner some success and then build them up to where they want to be. If all you do is point out what’s “wrong” or what’s “useless,” you’re doing exactly the opposite – you’re raising the barrier of entry. When we provide solutions, we give people options and opportunity to engage.
- You don’t let people know you coach.
This is lowest hanging fruit when it comes to having a social media presence. One quick look at my Instagram and you’ll know I’m a coach. I mention it in my posts and it dictates the types of posts that I produce. You can be the best coach in the world, have the best service delivery and get all of your clients amazing results, but you’re severely handicapping yourself if you don’t let people know you coach. At some point you have to sell yourself and the easiest way to do that is to let people know what you do and show them the results you can get your clients. If you do that, you’ll sell yourself.
In short,
Social media can be a polarizing topic – it certainly is for me. I want to build my business, but I refuse to live my life through an app and miss out on living. That being said, there are some very simple things we can do to make sure we’re not leaving money on the table and alienating potential clients in the process. Treat social media like the tool that it is and use it to the best of your abilities.