Social Media is where most of us start when we enter into the world of training or coaching. It’s a smart decision as most of the world’s population is using some form of social media on a daily basis. But, where should you be focusing your efforts? That’s the question we are going to answer today.
I’ve been in this game for many years now. With that has come a lot of self education through courses, programs, and experimentation. I’ve been on all the platforms and learned some valuable lessons. Today, I am going to share with you the process I personally use and teach within my programs for identifying where you should focus your efforts.
Listen to my Podcast EP 071: Should You Post On Facebook OR Instagram?
Finding your audience
There is a key concept I teach called “Finding Your Audience.” Most online nutrition coaches and personal trainers are asking the wrong question. They may be asking “Should I post on Facebook Or Instagram?” but the real question is Where Is Your Target Client?
In my ProfitBoost program we take a deep dive into identifying exactly WHERE our ideal client is hanging out and walk through how to get in front of them.
When it comes down to it, our energy is limited, it’s finite. And, we must protect it. With that being said it is increasingly important to get the most bang for our buck with our actions.
Using completely arbitrary numbers. Let’s say that 80% of our ideal clients are primarily using Facebook, and 20% are using Instagram. Placing your efforts on Instagram is not a waste, however, you’d likely be better off placing your efforts onto Facebook. These numbers are completely made up. Most people are in multiple places (usually concentrated on one), but we need to identify where to start. Then test, test, test, then test some more. Use that market feedback and iterate our approach. When you combine your market research with real world feedback, you will nail it.
The simplistic process
Here is the simplest way I can explain the process:
- Find where your audience is hanging out (on, or offline)
- Find out who already has your audience’s attention
- Determine how you can place yourself in front of your audience
- Determine how you can place yourself in front of them
We are not creating customers. They’re already out there. We need to find out where they are, place ourselves in front of them and pull them into our sphere of influence.
Where to apply this within your business
I used this exact same process for many things within my business. Yes, it is important to do this for direct client attraction methods like direct outreach. But, it can be applied in many other ways too.
Here are a few other ways I apply this:
- Targeting for Facebook ads (determining audiences)
- Finding JV (joint venture) partners for affiliate partnerships
- Finding people to do joint lives with on Facebook or Instagram
- Finding places to guest write (blog) for
- Finding podcasts I want to get on
- Finding guests for my podcast
- And, many more.
You can see that there are many benefits to finding out audience, who has their attention, and methods we can use to get in front of them.
Simple example…
- Audience reads a lot of blogs
- They read X blog
- Write a guest post in X blog which links back to me, my site, etc.
My goal here today is not to give you a fish and feed you for one meal. I want to teach you how to fish so you will never go hungry. By the end of this article, all you’ll need to do is be creative and you will never have a reason to be hungry.
Questions to ask
Here are a few questions to use to get the creative juices flowing…Where does your audience live? Who has your audience?
- What popular books are they reading?
- What are their most popular news sources?
- What software are they using?
- What Facebook pages do they like?
- What Facebook groups are they apart of?
- What websites do they get their information from?
- What blogs are they reading?
- What Instagram accounts/influencers are they following?
- What hashtags are they using?
- What podcasts are they listening to?
- What YouTube channels are they watching?
If you’re reading this thinking, shit…How do I find this out? Remember…I’m teaching you to fish. It’s not the person with the most resources that wins, it’s the personal that can become the most resourceful that wins.
Pull out your good friend Google and start typing things like “Most popular books for __”, “Most influential people for __”, and when in doubt? Ask your audience.
You can also use other tools like Facebook Audience Insights, and SimilarWeb.com.
Teaching you how to fish
Once you do your market research you will know where your audience is, and who has their attention. Now, it’s a matter of placing yourself in front of them and bringing them into your sphere of influence.
Here are some of my favorite ways to do this:
- Mining with direct outreach
- Starting organic conversations using my direct outreach strategies
- Guest posting on blogs
- Getting on podcasts
- Interviewing guests on my podcast
- Doing joint Facebook or Instagram lives (collabs)
- Providing value within Facebook groups
It really comes down to a few primary methods of: Content, JV’s, Direct Outreach
Now, let’s go fishing!
Comment below with your favorite methods to find your audience!