How Can I Get More Personal Training Clients with Social Media?

by Angel
(Buffalo, NY, USA)

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Hi, Angel!

Thanks for your question. We love talking social media, so hopefully our insight below gives you some ideas, inspiration, and techniques to begin applying right away.

Be sure to check back often for additional strategies from readers as they leave comments, too!











Without knowing your IG handle, and being able to check out your posts, it's difficult to perform an assessment that'd be unique to you. But, here are 3 things personal trainers should keep in mind to improve results on Instagram.

1. KEEP YOUR CAPTIONS SHORT - Part of the inefficiency that I see from trainers is that they spend hours writing novel-length captions for content that's essentially going to disappear in hours or days. Some of what they write is gold, too, meaning it's of great value. But, the people who need to see, read, and absorb it aren't likely to get that chance. For one, most people are skimming, not particularly interested in your deepest thoughts in the moment. For two, Instagram isn't a search engine in the way that Google or YouTube are.
   
   On these latter 2 platforms, months and even years after you've posted, users will be searching for more detailed information than they are on IG, Tik Tok, or FB, and will find your long-form content. Save your lengthy caption ideas for full-length articles on your website, instructional or informational videos on your YouTube channel, or for your newsletter broadcasts when you have a more captive audience than on IG and get get granular with people who have expressed an interest in that level of detail. IG captions should be short and valuable, easily absorbed with little to no scrolling needed by the reader.



2. HAVE A CLEAR CALL-TO-ACTION AND EASILY-ACCESSIBLE LINKS - Your digestible captions should guide readers to items of value, whether those are deeper dives in your articles or videos, freebies like templates or checklists, or to your products or services.
   
   There are several options for presenting links in bio, though an inefficiency seen often is that trainers will include too many links, making it difficult for the reader to understand the path they should be on. I recommend keeping your list of links to 3-5 items in total, so as not to overwhelm your reader or create paralysis by overanalysis. You want them to take action and you want it to be an easy process for them.

→ Check out ConvertKit for links in bio efficiency and more


3. GET OUT IN THE VIRTUAL COMMUNITY - Consistency of posting is key, though as, if not more, important is gaining familiarity and trust by building relationships through commenting on the posts of others. When you share posts, stories, reels, etc. you're essentially yelling from your own front porch, with limited reach beyond your 1st-tier connections. Yes, with the use of hashtags and some algorithm "magic" your reach can be extended.
   
   But, you can speed this process yourself through intentional and consistent commenting on posts by others. Be sure it's more than an "I agree" type statement. Add some value to the original poster and their audience members with well-thought-out responses that show a little of your personality and/or expertise. This gets you out in the virtual community, as if you were walking the fitness floor or visiting the neighborhoods of your friends, opening up the possibility of conversations with others who might never have walked by your front porch. Build a public exchange with the original posters, and then move into their DMs to continue the conversations. You never know when a strategic partnership can develop and accelerate your success!

→ Get Justin Welsh's Grow + Monetize LinkedIn Course and apply the concepts to all your social platforms

Keep us posted on how your social media success and your personal training career go. We'll hope to see you in our newsletter and in our community as it grows.

Yours in fitness,

David Bohmiller
Co-founder, Epicenter Training

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