Social Media 101 for Health Coaches

We are in week 7 of Business Plans for Health Coaches.  This is the week that we have been prepping you for!  2 big topics in one week….websites and social media.

Following is an excerpt and interview with the business woman who shared the social media secrets with us!

“Social Media.  It’s a wild wild wild wild world!  It can feel overwhelming and there is so much to do, so many sites to choose from.  So lets break it down”….and she does!  Karen goes on to break down each media platform, explains it, and tells you exactly how often and how to interact on each.

FOR LOTS MORE>>>read module 7 in Business Plans for Health Coaches.

 An Interview with Karen…

Karen Yankovich | Get Social Workshop

How did you get involved with social media?

I’ve been involved with and interested in technology for most of my life.  I’m also a really social person, I have a huge family and lots of friends.  So when technology met my social life, I was hooked.

At first, I was using Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends that I normally wouldn’t touch base with often.  I loved getting to see their kids grow up, and keeping up with what they were up to in their lives.  Soon though, the geek in me started taking over, and I was using social media to organize family parties and for my consulting and workshop business.  I’m naturally drawn to “figuring it out”, so I wanted to see what was working, what I could and couldn’t do, and when brought me the best results.

In 2012 I registered for Marie Forleo’s B-School program, which is training to run an online business.  Now I was in Social/Geek heaven! I had a huge community of entrepreneurs ALSO doing what I was doing, supporting each other, and my online business skyrocketed.

In addition to bringing more business to my workshops, I was finding I was getting just as much, if not more business, from people asking me how the heck I knew how to DO all of this.  People that weren’t clients, social media friends and connections, they started asking me to help THEM use social media for their business.

Many of my friends and clients are right brain oriented, they’re coaches, yoga instructors, massage studios, retailers, and they were struggling with how to fit social media into THEIR businesses.  It’s just a natural fit for me, my sweet spot, helping these businesses use the many online tools available to them to promote their businesses.

The advent of Social Media has been SUCH a great way for me to blend my naturally left brained tendencies with my love of all right brained fun!

Do you think it is Important to be involved in all social media outlets….or pick a couple and focus?

Well I definitely think you need to start with one and grow from there!  I usually recommend at least setting up a few, typically Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for starters.  Get them set up properly and professionally.  Play around with them, see what resonates for you.  The key though is to get them set up properly.  If you just sign up and don’t put detailed attention to how you’re represented, or if you leave your profiles half done, then you’re misrepresenting your business, you won’t see results, and may abandon the platform way too soon.

These platforms are typically free, so spending some time up front to set them up professionally is time well spent.  Once they’re set up and connected to each other and your website, you’re literally putting a system in place that will start to fill your sales lead funnel every single day, even when you’re sitting on the beach. 

Let me be clear though, this isn’t the Field of Dreams!  You can’t just build it and abandon it, you need to pop in on a regular basis and have conversations with your potential clients.  That’s why it’s important to see which program seems like a fit for you, and really get to know it.  I suggest one or two at least, there are so many right now, I’m loving Instagram these days!  Different platforms work better for different businesses, so you have to put some time in up front to get it right.

What is the most important thing to know about Facebook?

Facebook, currently the biggie.  Most important thing – you NEED to be there.  This one isn’t optional.  For starters, make sure you have a professional profile picture and a header that makes sense for your business.  You can use a free program like www.pixlr.com for that.  You need to be posting consistently, maybe 1-3 times per day.  Some of these posts can and SHOULD be scheduled, I like to use the one built right into Facebook.  Then, share something with your tribe you see on another page, share something that might be happening in your industry that’s newsworthy, respond to people that have commented on your page. 

Boy it’s hard to keep that to what’s most important!

Twitter?

Twitter is more about conversation starters.  Twitter feeds blow by fast, you truly can’t “over tweet”.  You can tweet 20 times a day and not be overwhelming people.  Schedule tweets, for sure, I use www.socialoomph.com for that, but most importantly, occasionally be tweeting live.  ALWAYS respond to people that inquire about one of your tweets, that’s where Twitter is gold.  I add people to my business email list every single day from Twitter, and it runs automatically.  I just pop in every now and then, respond to outstanding tweets, and live tweet occasional events.  Stay tuned, I’ll be offering Open Office Hours via twitter soon, where you can ask me your social media questions live for immediate answers!

Blogging?

For me, blogging helps me provide free, relevant content to my friends and followers.  I try to blog weekly, on a topic that is related to something I’m promoting.  With Social Media, you need to remember that you need to be offering free helpful and relevant content to your followers WAY more than you’re pitching them your services, or you will quickly find yourself losing followers.  Blogs help me do that, and ALSO are great for Search Engine Optimization, (SEO), which is what Google uses to bring people to your site when they search for topics.  The more “words” on your website, the more Google has to work with, right? 

Blogs also give me a way to touch base with my email list consistently.  If I blog every week, I have a “non-sales” reason to email my list every week. So pick an interval, (weekly, every other week, once per month) and STAY CONSISTENT with that interval.  Are you starting to see a common thread here?  Consistency is key.

And by the way, everyone can blog.  Please don’t stress if you’re not a writer.  I have a client who comes across terribly when she writes, it’s just not her strength.  But she is amazing on video!  So she writes a word or two, inserts a video she shot with her phone camera, and closes out the blog with another word or two.  Blogging can be done in so many ways today.  Don’t stress, just do it. 

Google +?

Playing nice with Google is so important if you want people to find you and your business online! There are FIVE HUNDRED MILLION Google+ users.

If you’re a premise based business, you MUST be using Google+.  You register for an account, and then you associate your business address with that account.  THIS is what needs to happen to come up when people talk into “siri” or google things like “Nearby yoga studios” or “businesses nearby”.  It’s free, your competitors are doing it, you need to be doing it.  Period.

For the rest of us that don’t have premise based businesses, it’s still hugely important.  When you write those blogposts, you can post them to your business Google+ account.  Bingo, you’re now adding significantly to your SEO rankings.  You can ALSO declare authorship of your blog posts through Google+, which is very much underused.  Right now, at the very least, set up an account and post to the account regularly.  Consider it a free way to boost your business. 

And play with Google Hangouts, they’re fun!

YouTube?

YouTube is owned by Google.  At minimum, associate it with your Google+ account, get it all set up properly.  Most of my clients have no idea how EASY it is to record videos and upload them to Youtube, and then associate that YouTube channel with their other social media and online sites.  The key is being sure it’s all set up and connected properly.  Then, you can be recording videos everywhere you go!  You can walk through Whole Foods and record your “here’s how I pick the right organic produce” video.  You can pull out your phone on your hike through the woods and do a quick demonstration on how to use nature to assist in your workouts.  These are instant blogposts, instant  content for your Social Media sites, and a GREAT way to let people get to know you.  All while boosting your SEO.  Don’t worry about what your hair looks like, the more real you are, the more relatable you are.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is highly underused.  If you do a search for yourself, I bet your LinkedIn page comes up pretty high.  Its headline area is searchable by google, so take advantage of that!

LinkedIn is a GREAT way to keep in touch with prospects in a non-sleeze, non-salesy way.  If you meet someone at a business conference, and want to stay in touch with them, you can email them and go into their email box with the other 10K emails they have in their inbox.  You can call them, but now you are likely interrupting them.  You can add them as a Facebook friends, but that’s pretty presumptuous! 

LinkedIn is a natural way to keep that contact as a warm lead.  By requesting to connect with them on LinkedIn, you’re reminding them of who you are, you’re coming across professional, and keeping them as a warm lead.  You’re letting them know that you value and want to grow the business relationship. You can now connect with them regularly, sharing content or whatever you feel is relevant to your relationship with them, in a professional way.  Don’t ignore your LinkedIn profile!

Thank you Karen!  I am so excited for our Health Coaches to go through the Social Media module this week and we all appreciate your contribution to the program!

You will find out what the most beneficial social media is, as well as how to use each social media platform.

Please share this blog with anyone you think could benefit.

Tell us below about your triumphs with social media…and your struggles.

You can purchase Business Plans for Health Coaches for one more week!  Then it will not be available again in until the fall.

 Find out more about Karen and Get Social Workshop