This week, communications coach, Nicky Kriel shares her thoughts and expertise on the use of social media for coaches.
The Perks and Pitfalls of Social Media for Coaches
By Nicky Kriel
Are you using social media for your coaching business yet? If you are, how is it working for you? And if you are not, what’s stopping you? Social Media offers you a great opportunity to get more clients and build up relations with existing ones. Social Media is not about the Tools and the Technology; it is about people and relationships. And as a coach you are already good at that! If you have enough clients and are making enough money from your coaching business, you can stop reading now, but if you want to grow your business, I have listed five perks and pitfalls for you to consider.
Perks
1. Connect with a far greater audience than you could by networking or asking for referrals. Networking is fun and can be buzzy if you are extroverted, but exactly how many people can you meet at each meeting and how much time is it taking up? Networking online can allow you to make real connections with real people. I am writing this guest blog because I met Jen Waller through Twitter, I have never physically met her although I plan to have coffee with her when I am in her neck of the woods. Within two weeks of being active on Twitter I had my first coaching enquiry. I have never met anyone yet that I haven’t liked in real life after gelling with them through Social Media first.
2. Raise your profile both online and offline – Have you Googled yourself recently? Who does Google think you are? Have you had strangers walk up to you and say “You are……… you are a coach, I love your blog/tweets/Facebook page/website”? Have you been invited to do podcasts about your business? Or radio interviews? Or been quoted by someone else as an expert? All these things are possible without spending a penny on public relations. I know because they have all happened to me last year and they could be happening to you too!
3. Potential clients can get a taste of what you are like before they commit – Your personality comes through even in 140 characters and potential customers can sample bite-size pieces of what you offer. You build rapport before even meeting or talking to people. People feel connected to you if they can read your thoughts and opinions, see pictures of you, hear your voice or watch a video of you.
4. Meet like-minded people – I have met so many supportive wonderful people who are willing me on to succeed. Like attracts like. There are many people out there who will like what you are doing if your intentions are good.
5. Learn – Twitter has provided me with a wealth of information. There is so much information about how to do almost anything and most of it is freely available. YouTube is brilliant for learning how to do things too.
Pitfalls
1. It’s a marathon not a sprint – Things don’t tend to happen instantly. For Social Media to work for you, you need to be part of the community, which means you need to show up consistently. You don’t need to spend hours each day on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, but you do need to be there.
2. You can’t hide behind a corporate image – People do business with people they know like and trust and you will get further revealing your personality than using stiff marketing language. More people will connect with people than businesses.
3. There is no simple formula – If someone suggests you automate everything, please don’t pay attention to them. There is no substitute for personality. You need to build up your own quality network, engage with your audience as a person and not a robot. Anyone who thinks that simply feeding inspirational quotes into your feed is going to bring you business, needs to consider this: there is only one you. Why use the words of someone else when you can say it yourself?
4. Need to be conscious of what you make public – What you broadcast online becomes public and visible to a large number of people. Don’t put posts you wouldn’t want your family to read or to see as a headline in a newspaper. If you are a coach, telling people you are depressed is probably not a good idea. You always need to be conscious of how you market yourself.
5. Easy to get overwhelmed by Social Media – It is very easy to be overpowered by all the possibilities. It is good to start with a big picture of where you would like to be and have a clear intention in mind of what you want to get out of using Social Media. But remember this; you start all journeys with a single step. It is better to get to know one tool well before moving onto the next rather than trying to do everything at once and giving up.
If you would like to know more about Social Media, I write about Social Media regularly on my blog http://www.nickykriel.com/blog and I have started up a page on Facebook called Social Media for Newbies.
About the Author/Further Resources
Nicky Kriel came from a Marketing and Sales background before she retrained as a Master NLP Practitioner. As a Communication Coach, her passion is empowering people to reach their true potential. Aside from her private coaching clients, she runs personal development and social media courses for business owners. www.nickykriel.com
This is the second guest post from Nicky Kriel. To read her first one, 5 ways to make your coaching business successful, click here
Nice article Nicky and I think the points are very relevant. Twelve months ago I was totally against Social Media marketing thinking it was very expensive and not relevant to my business. Despite many reservations I decided to give it a go and now through the use of Twitter and a blog many avenues have opened up for me in terms of writing and presentations within Coaching. All I would add is like you have said it is a slow grow strategy but you will only get out of it what you put into it.
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Yes, yes and yes! I believe that social media is a very powerful tool for coaches to use. For me though, I believe it is important to post on-line with clear intention – that you wish to connect with people, that you what to serve people, and that you are open and approachable. This cannot be achieved, as you said, through automatic postings and constant advertising of products. This is being a coach, living and breathing being a professional coach, creating rapport and helping.
Really great article, Nicky! All of your points are important, but I especially agree with Pitfall #4. We’ve all heard about the high profile flubs on social media by some of the biggest brands in the world. At best, it results in a few instances of bad press, at worse it can actually result in fewer customers and have a detrimental effect on the bottom line. My recommendations to any coaches looking to integrate social media into their marketing and brand themselves as experts are: #1 – Definitely do so. #2 – Make sure to double and triple check what you’re sending, the tone of the message and the content of the message. If you wouldn’t say it to someone in real life, think twice about posting it online.
Thank you for the lovely feedback. Social Media offers you a brilliant opportunity to grow your business and it is being under-utilised. It’s nice to connect and build relationships.
Dave, Tammy and Wes, thanks for taking the time to comment. I’d also like to thank Nicky for sharing her thoughts and expertise 🙂
One of the tweets that linked into this post asked coaches why they were on twitter. I thought I’d share one of the response I got from one of my followers who lives in Tokyo, Japan that simply said:
“because twitter still works when local phone communication fails. #earthquake #Tokyo”