How to Leverage Social Media for Your Life Coaching Career

Social Media is quickly becoming one of the most important channels for any business to market themselves, including—and maybe even especially—life coaching. Think of it this way: social media users are often scrolling through their feeds looking for something interesting that will shake up their day, maybe even something life-changing (other than seeing that their ex is getting married).

That’s where you can come in. By having positive, engaging, affirming, and educational social media content, you can bring real value to people’s feeds. And, when you bring value to their feeds, they’re more likely to look to you for guidance and coaching when they need a professional life coach to help them through their challenges.

Read on to find out more about the ways you can use social media as a tool for building a productive and powerful life coaching practice.

• Best Practices for Social Media for Life Coaching
• Deciding What to Share
• Top Tools to Manage Social Media Content
• Best Tools for Visuals
• Key Points

We’ll start by explaining the big picture: what social media marketing tips for life coaches should you be aware of before you even make your first Instagram or Twitter account?

Best Practices for Social Media for Life Coaching

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of setting up your feeds for maximum exposure, let’s outline a few of the most important best practices that will keep your feed feeling fresh and interesting to users. Here are the social media marketing tips for life coaches we recommend:

• Find Your Target Audience

We often recommend that life coaches find their niche. This is great for students who need specific coaching and great for coaches who are building their careers. The same goes for social media—take some time and identify who you are marketing to, then develop your content to reach that audience. Maybe it’s new moms, maybe it’s aspiring entrepreneurs. Whoever is in your tribe, your content should match their vibe.

• Learn to Tell Your Story

Effective social media use is all about learning to tell an exciting and interesting story. Posting a picture with some tips might be a good start, but until you learn to tell a story people care about, your account won’t go viral. Search your heart for the most authentic story you can and leverage your socials to tell it.

• Invest Time & Money Into Social Media 

Seem obvious? It’s not. Too many companies and coaches let their feeds sit idle for weeks or months. Maybe no one at the organization is even tasked with maintaining it. These are mistakes—good social media use requires direct attention and some investment in order for you to see returns.

• Use stunning photography

Social media users love bright, engaging photos that practically pull them into your coaching practice. Be sure to either take or purchase quality photos for all your posts.

• Engage with users

Especially when you’re first starting out, it’s important to always check in with your users. If they comment on a post, take the time to reply. If they DM (direct message) a question, be sure to pay attention. Doing so may even help you get clients as a life coach.

• Be consistent 

Lastly, social media is all about continuous posting. If you don’t post, you’ll get drowned out by the thousands of other voices in your space. Be sure to keep up a consistent profile so that your audience can feel your presence.

And remember, while social media can be a great way to reach new target audiences, it’s not the only way to market yourself. If you’re not comfortable using social media, or you’d rather stick to traditional marketing channels to start with, you can always refer to some of our tried-and-true methods for how to get clients as a life coach.

• Just getting started? Learn how to start an online life coaching career with Transformation Academy.

Now that you know the general best practices when it comes to social media marketing for life coaches, it’s time to think about what you actually want to share.

Deciding What to Share on Your Life Coach Social Media Pages

If you use social media in your personal life, you know how difficult it can be to decide what you actually want to share. Here are a few guidelines that can help you feel more confident in your posting strategy.

• Put Your Best Foot Forward

Always lead with a positive note. Users have enough negativity on their feeds, from recent headlines to political arguing. Put a happy, confident, positive foot forward when crafting your posts.

• Craft Your Brand 

Your brand should be unique but feel familiar, recognizable and fun, and welcoming to all. It should also communicate your niches and specialties to your target audience. Sounds hard? It can be. Be sure to spend time thinking about this aspect of your social media presence carefully so you can maximize your effectiveness.

• Maximize Engagement 

Posts that encourage users to respond, share, and engage are the most effective social media marketing strategies. Ask your users questions, post polls, or post authentic opinions that users can react to.

• Be Authentic

Today’s digitally native web residents can smell inauthentic posting a mile away. The most important online marketing tip for life coaches? Be yourself, even online.

Pro tip? Many of the skills that help you become a stronger social media poster also help you when creating an online course.

What Social Media Platforms Should You Use as a Life Coach?

Another big question that many coaches ask themselves is what social media platforms would be the most effective to use as they grow their business. The answer depends on several factors, like whether you already have an organic following on some platform, or whether you have the budget to maintain a presence on a certain site.

For example, using Twitter or Instagram can be a low-cost way to reach thousands of potential clients. Each of those options only requires that you have good photos and graphics to post, plus the creativity to come up with a fun and shareable caption.

Coaches with a bigger budget and more time to devote to social media posting may consider making a YouTube channel where they share intriguing examples of the knowledge they share in coaching sessions. However, it’s important to remember that social media presence is important. It might not be a good idea to make a YouTube channel until you’re sure that your video quality will reflect your branding vision in a way that you feel authentic about.

Got a general idea? Good—it’s time to move on to the best tools to build out your online presence.

Top Tools to Manage Social Media Content

Once you’ve created accounts on different social media platforms, it’s important to keep up with them. That means responding to messages, making regular posts, and tracking important analytics, like how often people engage with your content. Luckily, there are several sites that make tracking your various socials easy from one convenient dashboard. Some of the most popular options for social media marketing for life coaches include:

• HootSuite: A great, intuitive option that has all you need in one convenient place.
• Loomly: A simple and elegant platform that allows a 15-day free trial for social media managers just starting out.
• Buffer: This site offers intuitive control panels for analytics and quick customer support.
• SocialPilot: A great low-cost option for smaller organizations.
• Sprout Social: Sprout is unique in that it incorporates many features of a customer relationship management (CRM) system alongside social media management.

Ultimately, you can make the best decision for your organization by reviewing different options and seeing which features work best for your coaching company. Whichever platform you choose, the important thing to keep in mind is that social media management dashboards offer key insights into your posts’ performance.

If you notice that a post didn’t do well, or that you have a downward trend of followers, it’s time to redirect your efforts and change up your style. One way to amplify your posts and give your brand a fresh face that users will love to engage with is by using high-quality graphics.

Best Tools for Visuals

Social media is all about visual engagement. Sure, people will be excited to read your blog content once they feel invested in your brand, but to get them there, it’s important to draw them in with something flashy, eye-catching, and interesting. Graphics are the best way to do that.

Not a graphic designer? Don’t panic. There are simple tools that anyone can use readily available online. Check out these three options and find the best visual generation software for your coaching marketing strategy.

• Canva

Canva offers simple, drag-and-drop graphic creation tools that you can start using today. It’s great for making visually appealing presentations and reports, but can also be used to generate informative and attention-grabbing social media posts that you can share to Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

• Venngage

Another simple, user-friendly graphic tool, Venngage allows users to pick from several well-priced plans to suit the size of your business. Venngage also comes with crisp and clean templates that you can use to get started with little to no prior experience.

• Adobe Photoshop

If you’re a graphic designer, and you want maxed-out customizability, you can’t go better than classic Adobe Photoshop. For designers and marketers who want every option available to them as they build their company’s brand, Photoshop includes the largest, most versatile suite of options.

Key Takeaways

Starting your coaching business’s social media presence? Here are the most important social media marketing tips for coaches to remember.

• Follow best practices, like finding your target audience and building a unique brand.
• Strategically decide what content you want to share, and the social media platforms you want to utilize to your advantage.
• Find the right set of tools for your social media management, including those that provide data on how well your posts are performing.
• Get comfortable creating graphics and visuals for your feeds. Users find these more engaging than text-only posts.

Social media can be an effective way to reach new audiences if used right. With a savvy approach, you can boost our brand and build your client base.