Why You Could Be Betraying Your Health Coach Brand on Social Media

Is your social media activity doing your health coach business more harm than good? Or are you convinced that “any publicity is good publicity”?

Social media is the most cost-effective business tool for small businesses to build brand awareness and generate leads so long as you have a streamlined strategy.?

But a poorly executed or thoughtless approach to your health coach social media could lose you clients and damage your branding. Here’s how to make sure your health coach social media works for you, and doesn’t betray your brand!

Big brands can be impacted by social media faux pas too!

When it comes to the impact of social media, it’s not just SMEs that need to be careful. Like when Adidas promoted a new jersey for Arsenal Football Club by enticing Twitter fans to engage with the campaign. Fans who complied received an AI-created digital image of the jersey with their Twitter handles. They could then follow a link to order the personalised jersey.?

However, because the response was automated, Adidas failed to pick up that the?campaign had been hijacked. Before they knew it, images of Adidas gear with abusive and offensive Twitter handles had spread far and wide. This is why it’s important to keep the personal touch, even when you’re busy!

Learning from the mistakes of others, here are some key health coach social media mistakes to avoid!

#1 Choosing and Using Platforms Incorrectly

Don’t feel you have to be on every kind of social media platform. The different platforms serve different purposes and have different audiences. They emphasise different forms of user engagement too and are suited to different modes of communication. So each platform will need special, individual attention for at least some content.?

Think carefully about the type of clients you want to attract. Spending time and effort on channels they don’t follow is a waste of effort. And worse, being present on certain media might make clients dismiss you. A middle-aged mum isn’t likely going to go to a health coach that her thirteen-year-old daughter engages with on TikTok.

You can find detailed audience platform demographics?here, but broadly speaking:

• Facebook?has the widest audience of all platforms, and is the number one platform for adults. Around 76% of Facebook subscribers log in daily. It prioritises content that keeps users on-site. So, instead of linking to outside sources, bring curated content to Facebook itself. Short videos are particularly effective, and you can’t do better than Facebook Live.
• Pinterest?has a predominantly female audience. It relies on visually appealing images and graphics; however, users find them based on their text descriptions. Research the keywords and phrases your target audience will use to search on. Include these in your pin descriptions. And always include a link back to your website.
• Twitter?users are looking for the latest news. Watch out for the latest updates on your health niche and share them immediately, adding your thoughts on the topic. Use RSS feeds and Google alerts to keep up to date with areas of interest.
• Instagram?is a photo and video sharing app. It has a younger audience than Facebook and users are evenly split between male and female. It reportedly has a higher engagement factor than any other social media platform and Instagram Stories now allow you to share your day’s multiple photos and videos in a slideshow format that disappear after 24 hours.
• LinkedIn?is a professional networking platform. Higher-income brackets are better represented, and slightly more men use it than women, but you can still create a business page and interact with three hashtags.?
• YouTube?is a video sharing tool that is popular across all ages and income brackets.?

Top Tip:?Use tools like Canva to create professional infographics and images.?People are more likely to remember content with images.

#2 Posting Off-Brand Content

Regularly posting engaging content can be time-consuming and tedious. Often, business owners begin to blur the lines between their business and personal social media accounts. By posting content that has nothing to do with your service offering, you risk diluting your brand and alienating followers who are there for a purpose. This is especially true when followers do not share your personal interests and values.

However, making your content purely promotional is also not desirable. Your followers don’t want to feel they are always being canvassed. So, yes, it’s okay to post content that isn’t directly about your health coaching business. But it should always be representative of your brand’s core values. Record your core values and keep them top of mind when posting. If you cannot tie content to at least one of them, don’t post it.?

Top Tip:?Develop a content calendar for the year – that way, you won’t be at a loss about what to post. Using social media management software like Hootsuite will let you create and schedule posts ahead of time.

#3 Incomplete Profiles

Profile completion is another area where people confuse their personal and business social media approach. It’s entirely your choice whether you disclose your relationship status, location, etc., on your personal Facebook account. In fact, there are good reasons you should avoid too much personal information being displayed to strangers. However, incomplete business profiles look sloppy and unprofessional.

Your health coach social media bio pages should contain your logo, a brand description that incorporates keywords, contact details, and operating hours. Be sure to include links to your website and other social media profiles.?

Top tip:?Ask yourself what would a new person viewing your brand account for the first time see currently? What do you want them to see instead? If you put your core message or service in your bio it helps set the tone when new people discover you.?

#4 Not Posting or Engaging Often Enough

If you try researching how often you should post on the various social media platforms, you’ll come across widely diverse recommendations. And the frustrating thing is that the algorithms on these platforms are continually changing. They will alternatively prioritise certain types of content, times of posting, engagement factors, etc. So optimal posting routines will change over time. Currently, rough guidelines are as follows:

• Facebook: once daily or at least 2 to 3 times a week
• Twitter: 3 to 30 tweets spread over the day (tweets have a short “shelf-life”)
• Pinterest: 3 to 30 pins per day
• LinkedIn: 1 post per day
• Instagram: 1 to 2 posts per day

Numbers like this can be overwhelming for a small business – after all, you have to coach some of the time! Concentrate instead on maintaining?consistency?and?value?across a few chosen platforms. Also, prioritise?engagement?– most algorithms give more weight to posts that elicit comments or are shared, and you generate more of these by engaging with others!

Top Tip:?Allow notifications on your phone for any comments and messages on your social media posts and respond immediately if possible, but always within 24 hours. Keep the conversations going – it’s called social media for a reason!?

#5 Thinking Every Follower Is a Good Follower

Asking friends and family to follow your social media profiles can seem like a good way to get your follower numbers up. But if they are not going to actively and regularly engage, they could be doing you more harm than good.?

This is because most platform algorithms look at the percentage of?engaged?followers when ranking profiles in search results. A profile with fewer followers but mostly actively engaged will appear ahead of a profile with many more followers but are inactive.?

Top Tip:?Trim any followers you know, for a fact, are there only as a favour to you.

#6 A Picture Can Paint a Thousand?Wrong?Words?

They say a picture paints a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean they’re the words you want to be said! We already know people are more likely to engage with content that includes pictures, but here are some common mistakes people make when using graphics on social media:

• Not?optimising images?to the different platforms. For full details on what size images to use and where, consult?this article.
• Not using?original images. Your followers look to you to provide fresh, original, and personal content. Exclusively reposting other people’s images isn’t going to keep them interested. And you run the risk of contravening copyright laws.
• Not including?social sharing buttons?on visuals. Make sure you allow followers to comment on and share your images on all platforms by making them public.
• Not?branding?images. To avoid getting your content stolen (and at least getting the credit you deserve if someone does) always brand your images with your logo. It’s great for your audience to recognise you, and protects you. The worst thing would be for one of your posts to go viral and end up with minimal awareness for your business because you didn’t brand the image.

Overall

Your health coach social media is a powerful business tool that, if used correctly, can be invaluable in growing your coaching business. It can also be complicated and time-consuming, which is why I suggest choosing a few selected platforms and focusing on doing things right.?

A well-planned social media strategy and content schedule will prevent you from making common mistakes. Some initial planning will ensure your social media profiles work for you rather than against you.?

If you need a hand making sure you’re nailing your branding,?get in touch?and I’ll see how I can help.?