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Ah, social media…where famous personalities and common folk alike come to gather to celebrate life (and maybe show off from time to time how good they have it).
Almost everyone has their own set of socials that they scroll through and post on nowadays. Social media may have been for sharing vacation pictures or pet videos before, but today? It has also become a platform for businesses to show what they have to offer their target audience (and what these people have to lose if they don’t take you up on your services).
It stands to reason, then, that your coach social media strategy must be solid enough to drive in sales and convert all those likes into actual paying customers.
So what does a life coaching social media strategy consist of? It’s a strategy, so it must involve setting things into motion to execute actionable plans. But what does that mean exactly? And what should you, as a life coach, do for your burgeoning business?
Only one way to find out. Shall we?
Crunching the Social Media Numbers
Did you know that there are about 2.89 billion monthly users on Facebook alone? Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, which are all under one mothership (By Facebook. Oops! My apologies. I mean, by Meta.), have over a billion monthly active users based on the numbers provided by Statista.
The brands that have a social media presence saw a 69% increase in the leads generated and an 88% increase in their exposure, according to Entrepreneur. These numbers promise a lot for business owners, don’t they?
I can just feel your excitement in wanting to start your brand’s online pages this instant. But hold on, first things first (we still have a whole article to get into). How do you use these platforms to spread awareness and attract clients?
General Dos and Don'ts
Looking at your coach social media plan as a whole can be overwhelming. After all, there are so many platforms available. What's more, each of them works differently.
So how about this? Let's break them down into digestible bits and start our discussion with what's considered as good practice.
The Good
Social media is every creative's online canvas. This, too, now includes you. You are no longer just a life coach or a businessperson. With your accounts, you are also automatically creative — combining social media and your life coaching business. And as such, you need to think outside the box. Milk your socials in every possible and beneficial way.
Here's how:
1. The one. There are too many social apps available that being on all of them is almost the same as being on none. How come? I thought I needed to get the word out and put my brand out there. Won't being on all social media platforms achieve just that?
These are some of the questions you may be having. But let me tell you this, putting up a profile in all of them will make your social media content subpar because you're making too much and too little at the same time.
Yes, you're making a lot of content because you have every app. But you're also creating minuscule content for those individual platforms.
My suggestion? Focus on one, especially if you're still just starting out. Once you've established your business, you can start branching out to other platforms.
2. Among the masses. Engagement is what social media is all about. Interactions shouldn't be seen as a chore but as a chance to make meaningful connections with your followers (and potential clients). You can build rapport by responding to people's comments and direct messages, doing live videos to talk to them in real time, and using other features available on social media platforms.
To mix it up, you can even go to other people's profiles to like and comment on their posts. It is important for you to project a sense of approachability among your target audience.
3. Consistency in all your methods. Creating your presence on social media is not going to cut it. You also have to be consistent in the content that you post. There are helpful tools that allow you to schedule posts. You can create content in advance, put it on your calendar tool, and let the app post it for you. This way, you don't have to worry about coming up with new material on a daily basis.
4. Strength in numbers. According to Harvard Business School, having loyal customers is the best defense against people who are badmouthing your business on social media. For you to have such strength behind your brand, you'll need to understand your clients. Listen to and observe what they have to say to know what they want to see from you.
Data is readily available. Use that to identify the right people and precisely target that audience.
5. Sense of humor: ON. That's one of the reasons why people love social media. People are incredibly witty when they are being funny. Life is already hard as it is. And as a life coach, it is your job (literally) to help people see it in a different light (a much lighter one) where difficulties are only challenges that need overcoming.
While there may be tribulations, they are nothing some proper planning/execution and a dose of humor can't fix. Disclaimer, though, don't forget your coaching brand's purpose.
The Bad
Moving on to the don’ts that you need to stay away from for an effective coaching social media strategy, they include:
1. Goal Setting: FAIL. And this is something I can’t fully comprehend, with you being a life coach and all. Your business is rooted in helping your clients set a goal and achieve it. Yet here you are, unable to do it for yourself.
You have to be clear on what your intentions are and what the end goal is here. Having a specific goal established can help you focus on achieving it.
2. Go down a rabbit hole. Alright, so you started with the intention of looking for inspiration. You start scrolling through social media, and before you know it, you’ve been at it for half a day. There goes precious hours of your time down the social media drain that you could have used for other aspects of your business. Avoid this by allotting a definite amount of time for inspiration, and religiously sticking to it.
3. Knowledge is power. Analyzing data is critical if you want to make it. In order for you to set a course of action and determine which social media strategy to adopt, you need to interpret the numbers first. Luckily for you, acquiring this data can be done quickly.
You can search the Internet for third-party tools necessary to solve it. Or, use the built-in analytics of social media platforms, like Facebook’s Insights section and Instagram Analytics.
4. Flair for subtlety. What you say outside the coaching room is also of the essence to your branding. Everything you post on your socials must be valuable to your target audience. Solely promoting your coaching business or services may impede gaining more followers. Your content needs to be interesting and engaging with a subtle push in the right direction (towards your site or some call-to-action link).
5. Not a slap in the face. Hearing praises directed at your life coaching business is always a great thing. However, focusing on them and ignoring criticisms may not be a good social media strategy. What you can do instead is to respond to those negative feedback with gratitude.
Doing so you will get a glimpse of what your clients are having difficulty with and the aspects of your business that need fine-tuning. Knowing these things is an advantage on your part, something to be grateful for, something in your favor.
And The Ugly (If executed poorly)
A strategy is like having a map that leads to a treasure. When you follow the steps, you'll be able to avoid unnecessary detours and successfully reach your destination. Whether to increase brand awareness, acquire more clients, or create buzz for an upcoming event, having a coach social media strategy can keep you on task, track your performance, and tweak benchmarks to align with what's relevant.
Creating a Social Media Strategy for your Coaching Business
Here's how you can set up your social media strategy:
- Eyes on the prize (aka the target audience)
First, you'll need to define to whom you're offering your life coaching services. You can start with the demographics of your target audience — age, gender, life goals, and the like.
It would help to create a buyer persona which is a detailed description and representation of your target audience. It is also called audience persona, customers persona, or marketing persona, and is fictional but still based on research of the audience you are targeting.
Once you have a clear idea of who to market your services to, you can specifically direct your advertising to address clients' needs. Think of the problems that your target audience wants to overcome and market a solution for those.
- Quality over quantity
Not only does it take too much time to maintain, having several social channels at a time can influence the quality of your content. Not to mention, it can prove an exhausting task to perform because each has its own set of rules you need to adhere to. Keep in mind that famous adage for this step: Quality over quantity.
- Boo for boring content
Create engaging content and make it educational on top of that. You can make downloadable eBooks, infographics, videos, and many more. Beneficial is what you are aiming for. If your target audience sees that your services can solve their problems, they will likely interact with your account and actually purchase. Not only that, they may even share it on their socials, allowing you to extend your reach to a wider audience.
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- A recipe card for success (not disaster)
What on earth is a recipe card, you ask? It's a posting schedule to help you stay on track and consistent with your content, according to HubSpot. Developing one can keep you organized and always with enough content (even backups) for posting. You can also set goals for your social media campaigns and hold yourself accountable through a recipe card.
- Your business attire
Social media is like a tailored suit. There's no one size that fits all. Every business has to measure its own analytics and make the necessary adjustments afterward. As I've said, there are enough tools to help you track how well (or not) you're doing — Instagram analytics, Facebook Page Insights, etc.
You get a peek of the content people are responding positively to. There's even the knowledge of the trends associated with specific keywords and topics. You get to weed out what works and what doesn't pique people's interest.
Gauging traffic and performance can help you establish appropriate metrics and make changes. If a campaign is not working out, alter it and make it fit your business.
What to Post: Content Ideas Guide
Do you want to spice up your social media pages? You better shout yes because everybody detests stale content. Personally, I couldn't scroll past a dull post fast enough. Forgotten and never to be seen again.
The lesson here is to give your best and not, excuse me for the term, half-ass it. Let your creative juices flow. Squeeze your brain out for fresh ideas. Because if you want success in your coach social media strategy, you'd do well to keep your content, engaging and your brand, relevant.
Here are some content ideas for some of the most famous social media platforms:
- What's trending? People are more likely to interact with your post if it's a trending topic already. It is also a way to show that you are up to date on what is happening in the world. You can have discussions with your target audience where you can share your opinions and ask what theirs are. In addition, posting trending topics can make you appear in more people's feeds.
- Story time. There's something about someone's sob story that touches people. Maybe it's the getting personal part; maybe it's the relatable part of it. Nonetheless, sharing your life coaching journey is a way to connect with people. You can tell stories about how you became a life coach, the hardships you had to endure, and the reality of being a coach.
When your audience feels you are being transparent with what and how you do things, it'll be easier for them to trust you. If permitted, you can also share some of your existing clients’ before and after stories. These will serve as testimonials on your services' efficacy.
- Blog posts. There is already written content on your website waiting to be shared. All you have to do is link them to a Facebook post. This is also another way of bringing traffic to your site.
Facebook can support your existing blog, or you can directly blog through Facebook Notes. This feature is capable of hosting posts similar to those of popular blogging sites on WordPress.
- Come one, come all! Include announcements in your Facebook posts. Let people know when you are offering promos, seminars, or workshops. You can make these deals and discounts exclusive to those who like or follow your Facebook page. Sale alerts are always great promotional content on Facebook.
- Giveaways. Looking for an attention grabber? Host giveaways that people are going to take an interest in. To make it on brand, you can give out self-improvement books (a hardbound, perhaps, or even one with the author's signature to make it special and worth participating in).
At the same time, you want to stay relevant to your target audience, so make sure your giveaway is associated with life coaching. Usually, the best gift is a product or a free subscription to a service. So, if not a book, maybe a free coaching session or something unique to your brand. The sky's the limit for this one.
- Pop culture reference memes. The whole of the Internet is filled with cultural references that are both witty and relatable. Not to mention, you’re in the industry where ideas for a meme are brimming! Do you realize how amazing that is? You won’t ever lack material to use as a meme.
You can take out the seriousness in life and make it relatable. Who knows, a well-thought-out and crafted post can make you go viral. Think of the marketing wonders that can do for you!
- Crush life coaching myths. The Internet is rich with information. Unfortunately, not everything out there is factual. Some don’t even have an ounce of truth to them. Such falsehoods can make people go into a frenzy or tarnish the reputation of the whole life coaching industry.
As an expert in the field, you can help debunk myths by hosting an Instagram Live or posting a story of you clarifying things. You can put all the fabrications to rest with a single post.
- Join forces. There’s nothing more convincing than when a celebrity is seen endorsing a product or service. When you get personalities as your clients, that’s one way of tapping into a larger audience. Their loyal fanbase alone is enough to acquire leads and get the word out regarding your life coaching business.
Who wouldn’t want to try out your service if a verified figure (the blue tick on a person’s account) vouches for it? You can also get a shoutout from fellow life coaches to get your foot (both of them even!) in the door.
- To be or not to be? That is not the only question you can ask your audience ?. When you include questions in your post, you can get your audience to engage in your content or with other people too. Leaving them with food for thought can allow them to ponder about life, reflect on their decisions, and learn new things about themselves.
- #InstagramChallenges. Get in on the hype of taking on a challenge. There are many pre-existing challenges you can take part in. And while you’re at it busting some moves, encourage your followers to do the same.
If you want to stay on brand, you can even create your own. Just make sure to use hashtags to promote your challenge and get more engagement. If you do go with starting your own, it would be best if it’s something that your audience can participate in.
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- The polls are in. One of the things that we love about this platform is Twitter polls. You can use them in asking your target audience to share their thoughts on specific topics. Open-ended questions enable you to engage with people and gain their insight about life, your coaching services, and honestly, just about anything.
Keep it fun and not overly serious to maintain lively interactions, though. Maybe even share some of the answers that are interesting and relevant.
- Breaking News. Twitter is a great platform for sharing industry news. Share information that your audience should be made aware of. You can tweet about articles from reliable news websites.
- GIFs are for sharing. The other thing we love about Twitter is the GIFs. With the 280-character limit, GIFs are the next best thing in getting your thoughts out there. They’re excellent storytelling additions or alternatives. And! They show that you have a sense of humor ? .
- Visual beings. Sometimes words just don’t cut it. When they don’t, visual content is your ally. As visual beings and all, many of us absorb information better through imagery. You can share infographics, photography, videos, and other image-based content about life hacks or coaching on your Twitter account.
- You are cordially invited. If your business is hosting an event or participating in one, you can post about it on Twitter. It’s sort of an invite for your audience to join you. You can also do live Tweeting where they can engage with other life coaches and other attendees. Doing this can get the conversation going about the event, making more noise for it and, of course, your brand.
TikTok
- A day in the life. Give your viewers an insight into how your day goes. What do you do to prepare for life coaching? Behind-the-scene videos help in fostering the connection between you and your audience. You can use TikTok to generate awareness on the whole life coaching industry, how people are struggling with some aspects of their life, and how those struggles are surmountable.
- Belt it out through Duets! This famous feature enables users to lip-sync and dance to music with other users on TikTok. To increase your reach, you can participate in challenges with other life coaches or influencers. You can make it fun by altering a song’s original lyrics to something more comical or appropriate to how life is currently going for you.
- Hit the dance floor. If you’re allowed to sing on TikTok, you’re most definitely encouraged to dance as well. Dance videos are one of the “classics” of this social media. This type of content gets a lot of attention, and everyone wants to be in on them — from celebrities to brands. A tip: TikTok sounds you hear on dance challenges are the doorway to better audience reach. If someone clicks on the song you used, other videos with the same music will show up.
- From rugs to riches. Yours or a client’s story. While this content is already mentioned for Facebook, it’s also one of the compelling content ideas for TikTok, more so since it’s in video form. Think of it as a virtual tour of your life coaching journey.
- Branded Hashtag Challenges. Relating to your target audience needs to be a part of your coach social media strategy. You need to speak their language and be a part of the current Internet culture. And what better (and more creative) way to do this than through your very own branded hashtag challenge? Sponsoring this kind of challenge transforms your followers from passive onlookers to active participants.
When to Post: Ideal Times Guide
Content is crucial, indeed. Posting mediocre (those lacking research and creativity) content is equivalent to a snooze fest. What you feed your audience must be tasteful. Palatable to the point that people will want to keep coming back for more.
And yet, despite all that, timing is still everything. You wouldn’t serve breakfast right after lunch, would you? (sorry for the poor analogy, I tried). The same goes for your posting schedule and frequency. Take into consideration when are the best times for you to share content.
Here’s a breakdown for each social media platform based on Sprout Social’s findings:
The best times to post are:
✔ Tuesdays: 10 A.M. and noon
✔ Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays: 3 A.M.
❌ The worst time would be on a Saturday.
It is ideal to post during:
✔ Mondays: 11 A.M.
✔ Tuesdays, Wednesdays: 10 A.M. to 1 P.M.
✔ Thursdays, Fridays: 10 A.M. and 11 A.M.
❌ The worst time would be Sunday.
It was the best of times:
✔ Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays: 9 A.M.
❌ It was the worst of times: Sundays
TikTok
Best times to post:
✔ Tuesdays: 2 P.M. to 3 P.M.
✔ Wednesdays, Thursdays: 1 P.M. to 3 P.M.
❌ The worst time to post is on Sundays.
Keep in mind that your coach social media strategy is a combination of what and when. You need to get both of them right for the best results.
While this article provides you with a helpful (I’m hoping) guide, it still wouldn’t hurt to test different types of content and times of posting. Experimenting with your coach social media strategy can provide you with extra insight into how you can optimize your marketing efforts and make improvements in the future. Discovering something new that actually works is always a welcomed surprise.
What else?
So now you’ve got a social media plan, make sure you also have your business plan and marking plan ready to go. Check out our comprehensive guides for each!
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