How to use Facebook in your personal training business

Social media is supposed to be social

If someone would have said “Facebook” 10 years ago, it may have sounded a bit odd. If someone says Facebook nowadays, you would probably be odd if you don’t know what it is. This incredible creation is slowly becoming the new way to communicate with people, sell things and seriously offend people (by de-friending them) For personal trainers, Facebook is a great way to interact with clients and share useful information. The debate rages on about sales and pitching on social media however.

I want to focus on Facebook for time being because I believe this has the best platform for communicating with clients and friends. I use this very well to engage with clients, celebrate great results publicly and share articles and blogs. I have gained and retained clients through Facebook and advise every personal trainer out there to look into ways to use this to help build a community.

The good, the bad & the anti social media.

Here some reasons why Facebook rocks!

• Visibility Most people check Facebook before anything else. If you are updating good quality content regularly, then you get seen more often. An inspirational quote first thing in the morning always helps get clients extra motivated!
• Builds trust If you are constantly sharing good quality content for free, then people trust you more. If you are always on the sell, then people switch off fairly fast!
• Community I love this one! If you are a good personal trainer that gets results, having a community that shares tips and successes are really powerful.

What not to do on social media!

• One word, SELL I can be quite militant here. If you are going to pitch on social media, do it properly and please for the love of sanity, read a book on positioning products and services. Nobody and I repeat NOBODY cares that you are a personal trainer or that you sell magic supplements. Build trust, match needs and then offer a service. (deep breaths)
• Add people that you don’t know (if you want to sell later) I add people in the industry that I don’t know, if I believe that their updates will add value to me. I don’t add people that I think, ‘oh, I could flog them something later’ Not cool guys.

When it comes to social media, people like you to be social and care a bit. Being yourself is important as a personal trainer in my opinion, as people need to feel comfortable in your presence. Social media is a great way to show who really are.

If you are (ahem) of an older generation, social media can scare you a little bit (unless you are like my mom lol) I strongly recommend getting a basic grasp of how to use this fantastic invention for your own benefit. Whilst traditional methods of reaching people will always have their place, this is where everyone now goes.

If you follow this blog, you can really get a leg up on your personal training competitors because a lot of trainers either don’t use Facebook as a community building tool at all or are trigger happy with the “sales” Be social and be cool everyone! For details of how you can succeed in business including how to get the best of Facebook, click here for more information.