Back in the day, having a website was enough to get you an online presence. Today, it’s a whole different story. Ιf you don’t have a social media presence, well, then, chances are that you’re quite invisible. But those of you who do, and are actively using social media platforms, way to go; you have a head start on many endurance coaches, who don’t.
Nonetheless, managing social media properly is not an easy feat; especially when you aim to grow your business. So, how do you make the most of these platforms to get your business out there, without getting overwhelmed?
Fret not! In this article, you’ll learn how to crush it on social media, in 2022, and grow your endurance coaching business!
Why do you need a social media presence?
Truth be told, social media is a powerful marketing tool for endurance coaches. Just think about it; if athletes use it every day to share their #endurancelife, why not you, too? You see, building a meaningful social media presence is a smart way to create an athletic community around your coaching brand. Put differently, if managed well, social media will help you grow your business.
Yet, this social media magic takes time to work; there are a few tricks you need to pull, first. Without further ado, let’s see how you can build a killer social media presence, in fifteen simple steps.
15 ways to build your social media presence
1. Know your audience, before you start building a social media presence
Knowing your target audience is one of the most crucial things you need to do, as soon as you ‘get down to social media business’. Because, knowing your audience, increases your chances of creating an effective social media strategy.
What is your audience?
To get to know your audience, you need to do extensive research, and collect all the necessary data that will help you plan your strategy. What kind of research, you may ask; well, you can start with the basics:
Demographics
Among others, a few demographics you can research, include:
- Age: How old is your audience? You don’t have to get too specific here; an age group — or range — will suffice.
- Location (and time zone): Where does your audience live? This will help you target geographic areas for your ads, and provide a more effective time window for your posts, to ensure optimal visibility.
- Gender: What kind of gender identifications do — or would — you attract the most with your content?
- Language: Don’t assume that they speak your language, or that they’re fluent in english.
What are they using?
There are plenty of social media platforms out there. But, the good news is, not all are important for your business. Although using the most popular ones is a must, you still want to know in which one(s) your target group is more active; and, of course, focus more on that platform.
Furthermore, you might want to pinpoint the hours or days they’re most active on social media; in which case, you need to do a little research on what kind of devices they’re using — mobile, desktop, or tablet. Tools like Google Analytics or Hootsuite can help you with that.
What about Accessibility?
Accessibility is important in social media, too; because it can make a world of difference for any followers with vision or hearing impairments, who use assistive technology. In this regard, it can make a difference in your social media presence; and impact, as well. Hence, before posting, take a little time to make small adjustments to your posts; so that everyone can enjoy, share, and interact with them.
Engage with your audience directly
Sharing content is a great way to provide information to potential leads; and, receive valuable information from them, too. Reaching out and engaging with them directly, is how you play this game. Besides, social media is about two-way communication — that’s why they’re called ‘social’.
So, spend time on social media platforms, listening to what your audience is saying and what’s important to them. You can do so many things on social media to spark communication and engagement. For instance:
- Ask what troubles them and what they need with gamified quizzes
- Ask what they’d like to see next
- Comment on their posts, when you have something to say
- Post questions to start conversations
- Start polls
- Reply to their comments; even the negative ones
- Share user-generated content, if possible; e.g. an image from their workout
- Do giveaways
Use your findings to figure out what you need
Now that you’ve gathered all the necessary information about your target audience — and established a basic communication with them — you can start devising your social media strategy. To create a solid ground-laying for it, first, you need to answer some critical questions, like:
- Which social media should you be active on?
- How should you shape your brand character? Tip: Treat your brand like it was a person you’d be proud of.
- What kind of information should you include in your profile?
- What types of content should you publish on each medium?
- And, what would make for a great posting schedule?
2. Use the trends to bring more traffic
A sure way to bring traffic to your social media account, eventually, is to keep up with the trends. Questions like, ‘What are people talking about?’,‘What is important in the world of endurance sports these days?’ will surely get you on the right track. You can use tools like Google Trends, to search and find keywords that are popular in a region — or demographic — you want to reach. Then, you can integrate them into your social media posts as ‘hashtags’.
Using hashtags will help you join conversations on socials; or even create a thread of communication, by coming up with your own hashtags. It’s already clear that hashtags have the power to tie communities together on social media. And that’s just one way to build a better social media presence and attract prospective clients.
For instance, apart from generic tags, such as #triathlon, or #endurancetraining, you can also use several other relevant hashtags. You can find the ones that can serve your purposes best, with a little research. Make sure to use a variety of hashtags; but don’t overdo it. And, keep in mind, while hashtags work great on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, you do need to select them carefully for each post you publish.
3. Set your Goals: And, be S.M.A.R.T. about it
As an endurance coach, you already know that without setting goals, one can only go so far in endurance sports. Setting goals for your social media, too, will help you create an effective strategy; one that will bring you results and insights you can work on, for improvement.
When it comes to creating such a strategy, you better be S.M.A.R.T.:
- Specific: e.g. Instagram works with a response rate of x
- Measurable: e.g. You can measure the response rate from Facebook’s integrated Insights panel
- Achievable: e.g. You need, a 1-3% increase in 30 days
- Relevant: e.g. This achievement should impact your overall social media — or, at least, Instagram — presence.
- Time-bound: e.g. The experiment towards that goal should help make everything happen within one fiscal quarter.
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4. Optimize your “about” section
In the ‘about’ section, you not only have a chance to clearly state what you offer, but also briefly share your story with your potential clients. This is a chance to make yourself stand out from the competition. Hence, highlight here what you bring to the table that other endurance coaches probably don’t.
When optimizing your ‘about’ section, make sure to:
- Be clear as to what you do and what you offer
- Keep it short; you’ll have other chances to tell your story in more detail, e.g. in a blog post
- Use relevant keywords; yes, even here — keywords are important everywhere in the digital reality
- Add a link to your website, and other social media pages you may have
5. Help first; Tell a story; Sell later
Sometimes, the urge to bring customers aboard asap, might make you get ahead of yourself; often, leading to adverse results. That’s why it’s important to be patient and follow the sequence we mention in the headline, here. To elaborate a bit more on this:
Tend to your customers first
You know, the most ‘liked’ and ‘shared’ posts on social media channels are the ones that bring value to the receiving end. As an endurance coach, it’s your job to help your athletes achieve their goals, right? It’s kind of the same here. Think of it as an investment that will bring you dividends, some time in the future. Of course, you shouldn’t give it all away, but be as helpful as you can; without expecting anything in return — at least, not immediately.
Use storytelling to help them identify the benefits of working with you
Storytelling is a very powerful tool, if you use it correctly. There will come a time, at some point along your social media journey, where you’ll have to show what it’s like for an athlete to work with you. Luckily, there are many ways you can do this. A few of them can be:
- Blog posting about endurance sports, from a scientific perspective (knowledge sharing)
- Using visuals (read more about this below)
- Sharing athlete use-cases; how they’ve achieved their goals, with your guidance
Sell later
Funny thing is, sales will come naturally, if you do everything right. Be that as it may, in case you do feel like you need to pull the strings a little, you better be tactful, and discreet.
6. Use visuals, videos, and live streaming
Visuals, videos and live streaming are your friends, when you want to build a strong social media presence. We’ve already mentioned, there are many ways you can make yourself visible online; but the ‘winners’, obviously, are:
- Blog posts with engaging content and visuals
- Industry news — sharing article links, videos, podcasts and social media posts from the industry
- Infographics
- Albums or Reels
- Everyday pictures from your athletes’ training sessions (as long as they agree to this)
- Videos and animated sequences
- Live streaming (e.g. Q&As)
7. Put in some budget for a few ads
This is important, especially if you’re a ‘new coach on the block’; or, if you’re just starting building your social media presence, as a coach. Paid ads can do wonders for you, but it might take a while before you start seeing results. How much should you invest on social media campaigns? Well, that’s entirely up to your available budget. Yet, it’s wise to keep things on a balance — don’t spend too much, neither too little. In other words, be careful; don’t hit the point of diminishing returns.
What’s more, make sure that the campaigns you set up on social media channels are in accordance with your goals; and your overall social media strategy.
8. Keep an eye on the competition’s social media presence
Truth be told, you can learn a great deal from your competition. Keeping an eye on how other endurance coaches use social media, will help you:
- Understand what resonates with your target audience
- See which platforms are performing best for your niche
- Come up with ideas for your own posts or ads
- Learn from their mistakes
9. Make a schedule and observe the cadence
You don’t have to be on your social media accounts all day long to keep your social media presence spit-polished and shiny. Luckily, social media channels offer the flexibility to schedule your posts at the date you pick; thus, providing you with the opportunity for some real-time engagement. Creating a social media content agenda, and planning social content ahead of time, will not only help you maintain a consistent cadence; but also, save you time, and effort.
10. Show your human side
No matter how ‘social’ social media can be, still, they’re a somewhat cold, digital means of communication. For this reason, it’s essential to show your human side to your audience. By all means, don’t try to build an idealized coach persona, people will know if you’re inauthentic. Just be yourself, and the right people will engage with your content, sooner or later.
But, how can you show your human face? A few things to keep in mind:
- Share personal daily imagery
- Interact with other businesses, market experts, advisors, and influencers (just put yourself out there)
- Be truthful and consistent with your brand character
11. Build relationships
At the end of the day, followers are simply not enough; you need to touch base with them, and start building a relationship. Social media channels are about getting people and communities together; so why not make the most out of this? It takes time to build relationships, for sure, but it’ll be worth your while, in the end.
Create partnerships
Another great way to enhance your social media presence is to create partnerships with people. These people may be influencers, brands, health providers, nutritionists, psychologists; or even other coaches. Collaborations and cross-promotions will give a boost to your social media presence, deepening your impact with both your audience and the endurance sports industry.
12. Balance automation vs personalized responses
Automation is certainly an integral part of social media marketing. Nevertheless, you should know when to use automation and when to show your human side. AI can’t possibly replace the human touch; and, you don’t want to come across as some calculating ‘droid’ from ‘Star Wars’.
13. Share your social media pages wherever you can
That’s a no brainer; if you don’t share your social media pages, how do you expect people to find you? Therefore, seize every opportunity you get to share them:
- Add your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or other links to your website
- Add your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or other pages to your email signature
- Place social share buttons to your blog posts
- Share your social media links on other media (e.g. fora, groups)
- Share with all your personal contacts
- Interlink your different social media channels and website
14. Remain active; build your social media presence
You’re a coach. You’re probably in your athletes’ face all the time, telling them not to skip workouts; and how important consistency is. Remaining active and being consistent are key for a robust social media presence, as well. Think about it, would you follow — or keep following — someone who hasn’t posted for months? You have to keep feeding the people!
Schedule posts
Scheduling your posts, as mentioned, will help you be — and remain — consistent with your social media presence. Use automation tools, if needed, to create a schedule where you choose how many times — say, a week — you want to post; and keep at it.
To take it a step further, you can plan your monthly — or, sometimes, yearly — content agenda beforehand; so you can stay on track. The yearly content agenda requires a bit of careful planning, but it will save you time, in the long run. Moreover, you can always share relevant posts, on the spot, whenever something worth sharing happens.
Share industry news
Without a doubt, there will be days when you won’t have anything meaningful to share; and that’s OK. You can always share other people’s content, and put your own spin on it, with a short comment. Keep a list of your favorite social pages or blogs so that you can easily find something worth sharing with your followers.
Repurpose content
Repurposing content is actually a pretty effective method to bring traffic to your social media account and website. Using hashtags like “Transformation Tuesday (#tft)”, “Throwback Thursday (#tbt)” or “Flashback Friday (#fbf)”, will help you ‘recycle’ your content in the right social threads.
15. Monitor your progress
It’s crazy how similar managing social media is to managing athletes, sometimes 😄. You know how crucial monitoring your athletes’ performance and overall state is. Monitoring your progress on social media is just as important, when it comes to your social media presence.
Use analytics
There are many social media metrics you can put to use, in order to monitor your progress on social media. But using social media analytics — like Facebook Insights, Instagram Insights, Twitter Analytics, etc. — will provide more in depth data that can support your business decisions.
Learn from your mistakes
Mistakes are unavoidable. No matter how much you learn from your competition’s slip-ups, you will make a few of your own, one day. Don’t feel bad about it, ‘to err is human’. Making mistakes means that you had the courage to try something out; it just didn’t come out as expected — that’s fine. The awesome thing about mistakes is that they offer a one-of-a-kind opportunity to learn, firsthand, how to become better.
TL;DR
Between coaching athletes and running an online business — with everything this entails — finding the time to establish a solid social media presence can be tricky. So, before you get tangled up in the labyrinthine social media pathways, it’s important to remember a few basic elements that will help you make the most of such platforms. These include:
- Social media is not about quantity, but rather quality of content.
- Having hundreds of thousands of followers, or millions of likes and comments will not determine your success as a coach; not if your followers are not your ideal audience.
- Clarity, consistency and value will go a long way in helping you succeed.
Once your followers get to know, like, and trust you — for consistently providing value (some for free) — they will approach you for a collaboration. Be patient, because if you get ‘salesy’ or ask them straightforwardly to collaborate with you, it might not get you the desired results. All you need to do is show your work and let them know you’re taking on new athletes; in other words, open the door to your beautiful world and let them come to you.