We know that Social Media is an important way for Coaches to market their business, but our understanding of how to use this new form of marketing is still in it's infancy. And so, alongside the benefits that Social Media brings, there are also traps we need stay clear of. GET IT WRONG and you can spend thousands of dollars worth of time behind a screen (damaging your eyesight) adding little value to your business. GET IT RIGHT and it's both time efficient and value adding (hugely!)

Five strategies for Coaches to use Social Media in a time and money SMART way

Out of the thousands of articles on the use of Social Media for business development, you can read just a few to start seeing some common themes. This article is a consolidation from my own research on this topic written especially for Coaches. To recap, this is about the use of Social Media in time efficient and value adding ways, the key outcome is for you to grow your profile and liberate your time! (Away from your computer screen).

#1 Make your articles/posts go further

You've spent one, two or more hours writing a quality article, and so you also want to make it work hard for you and create as much interest as possible. Publishing it to your own website/blog is great, but that alone limits the return on your investment.

So what else can you do?

There are many collective blogs out there, where for free you can join as an author and publish your work under a specific category. This can be a great way to grow your profile and of course link your articles back to your own website.

However, to make it more worthwhile, sign-up ONLY to collective blogs that relate to your audience. Get this right and you get the following benefits:

• An instant and relevant audience
• Promotion through the blogs social media networks, as well as your own
• Potentially more article viewings on the collective blog site than your own

Examples of collective blogs for Coaches, Speakers and Trainers to join:

• New Zealand: http://www.beamazing.co.nz
• Australia: http://www.zingabeam.com

#2 People don't read, they scan

It's true, few people read word for word as they surf the net. So with every article you write, follow these tips to get the most from your work:

• Use clear headers throughout your article
• Use bullet points to pick out key information
• Limit your articles and posts to 400-1000 words

With this people will quickly see that there is value in your article via the keywords they scan in your headers. With that they are more likely to slow-down and read your article word for word.

#3 Be a follower to be a leader

If you're going build an online following, then I recommend becoming a follower yourself and tapping into the creative flow of other experts.

Here's an idea. Find four to six blogs to follow by experts in complimentary fields to you:

• Commenting against posts on those blogs on a regular basis creates a profile for yourself within that network
• You'll also learn new things - passive professional development!
• It'll add to your creative thinking when writing your own posts

#4 Magic Ratio 5:1 - Comments vs. Posts

Time is so valuable, and so being active in Social Media becomes a trap if it takes up too much of your time. However, you don't have to write articles to be active on the net to promote your expertise. It may take one to two hours to write an article, but only minutes to comment on someone else's.

On most blogs when you comment, it allows you to enter your web address, and so when you publish your comment there's also a link to your website - meaning people can find you.

Tips:

• 5:1 - Write five comments for every post you write
• Make your comments intelligent i.e. add value, don't sell
• Share the article you are commenting on across your own social media network (facebook, linked-in, twitter, google+)
• Comment only on blogs your market audience are interested in

In my own experience, getting this right can double your traffic to your own site within a week of commenting on someone else's post.

#5 Linked-in Groups, ask questions

Linked-in is an awesome resource for professional Coaches and the group discussions provide an interactive space to connect with others and showcase your expertise.

My key tips:

• Join groups relevant to your market - Leadership Coaches join leadership groups
• Make sure your Linked-in profile shines
• Add active group members to your network
• Start discussions based on probing questions relevant to your market.

This for me has proven a huge and time efficient boost to my network, profile and traffic flow through to my own website.

Wishing you the best!
David Savage

About the author

David Savage is a well known New Zealand Coach, operating since 2003. He's Coached in large organisations at all levels including CEO. He's also helped train over sixty new coaches with one of the worlds largest Coach training companies. He's a Director of two coaching companies in New Zealand and the creator of THE EXPERT COACH program, dedicated to helping Coaches grow their business http://www.expertcoach.co.nz