One of the things with social media is that personal trainers and fitness professionals see it as an opportunity to get new clients, but the majority go about it completely the wrong way.
If you are like me and you have a few friends on Facebook who are personal trainers you will see the same status updates saying how they smashed up their latest client and updates basically saying “buy my sh*t”.
That is a sure fire way to turn people off from you status updates and your business.
Here are some of my top tips on how to use social media to stand out like a Nutrition Expert at a Herbalife conference, improve the profile of your fitness business and at the same time get more clients and make more cash training people.
1. Stop Selling With Every Post
Rather than trying to sell stuff with every post or status update, why not just give people useful information and build a relationship with them, much in the same way you would with your email list. I'm sure you don't just sell with your email newsletters, so do it with social media. People do not like being sold to but if you provide enough value to someone then when the time is right and they are ready to buy you will be at the fore front of their minds. Give away your best information and be helpful.
2. Be yourself
Not too much to say here but you really need to be yourself on social media which means you should talk about the stuff you do out side of your job. You are human after all and people will always be more likely to buy stuff from someone that they can relate to. Also be open and honest and don't ever be afraid to show your flaws and your weaknesses. Your clients will love you more for that and your potential clients will
3. Stop trying to impress other fit pros
Most Personal Trainers try really hard to impress other fit pros on Facebook but the fact is that no one cares how many new kettle-bells you have or that you have 20 new clients at your boot camp or that you have just got 12 new reps points for a zumba course or if you are 2% body fat. Also if you have just completed a monster training session and you legs are about to drop off, do you think that 45 year old housewife who needs to drop 3 dress sizes and has never exercised in her life is going to look at your picture you mashed up in the gym and pick up the phone to you looking for training. No way, she will be running scared and she might pick up the phone but it will be to another trainer.
4. Please use your real name
If your name is Joe Bloggs, then call yourself Joe Bloggs on Facebook. How many fit pros do you know on Facebook who are acalled names like Joe Zumba Bloggs or Jane Health and Fitness Bloggs or Jack Kettlebell Jones? Seriously, it looks ridiculous and makes you come across as a bit of a tool in all honesty.
Personal Training and Fitness is what you do, its not who you are. If your real middle name is kettlebell or zumba by the way please accept my apologies, you obviously had some messed up parents.
If you are using a name on Facebook other than your real name or you are using your personal profile to seel our services then you are running a real risk of having your profile shutdown by the Facebook police. Don't say we didn't warn you.
5 Have a Facebook fan page for your business.
Make sure you have a fan page for your business and invite your friends / clients and list to like it. Put a link to it on your blog as well. Again use this to provide good info, links back to your blog etc. If you don't know how to do this, get someone else to do it for you or go to Fiverr.com where you can get it done for $5. You can also use this to drive paid advertising to as well using facebook ads.
6 Stop Selling Fitness
OK, so I know point 1 was stop selling, however when you do try to sell you have o stop selling fitness and stop selling personal training. People as a rule are not interested in that stuff. I understand that as a personal trainer you may love all that yourself but for the most people don't f you are going to sell, then sell the results, sell the experience sell the social aspect of your boot camp.
2015 is going to be the year where social media signals matter more than ever when i comes to ranking your personal trainer website on Google especially.
The whole point of social media is to be sociable.
You need to get involved in conversations, ask questions and answer questions. Make social media an important part of your fitness business in 2015 but you need to make sure you do it correctly.
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Liam
Internet FitPro
Helping Personal Trainer Build Their Fitness Business Online