When you’re a personal trainer social media is instrumental in growing your business. It’s important you take the time to familiarise yourself with the 5 most common mistakes personal trainers make when posting content. (In fact, this doesn’t just apply to just fitness instructors, it applies to any business in any industry).
1. No plan, just wingin’ it
You can’t post willy-nilly and whenever it takes your fancy and expect to be a success. Social media planning is more than just mapping out the frequency, time and what you want to post. It incorporates how much you’re going to spend on ads, sourcing quality images and consistency with images and content. If you know what you’re going to be posting, it makes it easier to set aside a block of time and schedule it all.
2. In your face with sales
Facebook and Instagram were designed to be platforms to chat with friends and be entertained. The last thing users want is to be consistently pestered to buy stuff, no matter how amazing the product. We’ve all got that one friend who has been suckered into a multi-level marketing and every single post is flogging their wares. #whocares #annoying! You don’t want to be seen as the PT who’s always ramming your bootcamp or next group fitness class down your audience’s throat. Think of meaningful, educational and informative content you can share. Ask yourself these questions before you post. 1) Is it useful? 2) Is it unique? 3) Is it ultra-specific to your audience?
3. I want to offer my personal training services to everyone!
Believing that your product or service is suited to everyone is like declaring it’s not really created for anyone in particular. You need to define who your target audience is. Are you directing your ads at men or women? How old are they? Where to they live? Are they university students or have disposable income? If you don’t know who your audience is, how can you tailor your posts to meet their needs?
4. It’s not a popularity contest!
Newflash! Facebook and Instagram is not a popularity contest. Since the introduction of the much talked about Facebook changes of 2018, how many followers you have is irrelevant. Whether you have 20 followers or 25 million followers. Your focus needs to be on engaging your audience and interacting. What matters is if people are sharing, emoji-ing it with love hearts or sad faces and commenting.
5. Thinking rules were made to be broken
Tsk! Tsk! Breaking Facebook ad rules can have serious consequences if you defy the guidelines. Using restricted and prohibited content, too much text, clickbait will see your adverts get flagged. Doing this consistently will see you banned from advertising. Make sure you are aware of the restrictions surrounding Facebook advertising. Some of the rules may even surprise you—such as showing too much skin or headlines that make a person feel inferior. Claiming you didn’t know you weren’t allowed is not a defence.
If you feel out of your depth? Jump onto our Strengthen your Social course here and learn more about how to use Social Media as a Fitness Professional ( and get 4 CECs for your trouble too ).
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