Being a successful coach can be summed up in one sentence: You’ve made a positive impact on your clients. And, establishing a solid social media presence can expand your reach even further. We’ll be talking about three of the most important tactics for creating a stellar social media strategy for your online coaching business: staying authentic, providing value, and building a tight-knit community.
Let’s dive right into these social media tips for online coaches.
Stay true to yourself
The landscape of social media marketing is dynamic as it is, but it has transformed even more as the world around us has quickly changed. The days of perfectly crafted, curated content and an inside look at one’s “perfect life” are over. Audiences simply want to see authenticity.
Use this to your advantage. You are connecting with others on a deep, personal level in your day-to-day practice, after all.
Erwin Valencia, a wellbeing coach, uses authentic social media content to connect with his audience.
“Just be you. Authenticity in your brand should mirror authenticity in your own life,” he says. “You’ll have people that will resonate with you and people that won’t. And you know what, that’s okay.”
Push through the fear of sharing a vulnerable moment with your audience. Chances are when you do, you’ll have a support system waiting to cheer you on.
If you’re struggling with how to get there, try using Keshav Bhatt’s journal prompt as a starting point.
“I like writing down the following prompt: ‘What I don’t want you to know about me is…’. And then, I write all the things I’m afraid to share. Amongst all the things I write down, I might find one or two gems that would be great valuable pieces to share.”
Give your audience what they want: value
Here’s a social media hot take: Publishing consistently is important. Publishing content that is not mindfully made and simply hits a certain amount of posts every week is never worth it.
Quality is always better than quantity when it comes to social media. Choose a few different types of content to commit to creating every week and stick to it. Overall, you always have to make sure it’s valuable.
Take it from Haley Badenhop, an art coach who suggests, “Always over-deliver—don’t be afraid to give away tons of incredible information. Second, make the learning fun for your students—any topic can be exciting, and if you bring your passion, that’ll make it easier.”
Of course, providing value to your audience means you absolutely must know who they are first. A great way to do this is by using Polls in your Instagram Stories. Ask your followers simple questions to see what kind of content they resonate with the most, gather feedback, and plan accordingly.
We love Dinasty Brown’s three-step formula that she uses in her very own social media coaching business.
“I’ve stuck to an effective but simple three C formula: consistency, collaboration, creativity,” she says.
Brown emphasizes showing up every day providing value to your audience. And if you don’t have your ideal audience in the beginning, she suggests collaborating with others who do. Doing so effectively will grow both brands.
Lastly, she stresses the importance of being creative. “Have fun and allow your personality to show,” she says. “Choosing a coach is a personal choice—clients need someone they can relate and connect to.”
Build and nurture relationships
If there’s one thing you take away from this post, let it be this: Community is everything. You simply need a private space for your audience to connect. Engaging with your audience on social media is essential to boosting your brand on and offline, increasing your engagement, and growing your audience.
Time management coach Amanda Warfield emphasizes the importance of community even further.
“Something that has been key for building my brand and business on social media is constantly reminding myself of two things: It’s not about me. I’m here to serve,” she says. “The number of followers and likes and shares and saves only matter insofar as they can tell me how to best continue serving my audience. Community is what I’m striving to create,” she adds.
“We hear the phrase ‘social media is meant to be social’ all of the time, but I wanted to take that a step forward by doing everything I could to really build community around my brand and business,” she says. “When I’m focused on those two ideas, my platforms grow. When I get off track and become selfish, they don’t. It’s really been that simple.”
This article originally appeared on Teachable.
