Social media is your digital resume first and your sales funnel second.
Most gyms and coaches get that backward.
They treat their social media like a farm, and they want to go and harvest new clients at their leisure.
95% of the time, that doesn’t go as planned.
Why?
Social media is a cheap and relatively easy way to reach and connect with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people daily.
Sounds like a textbook sales funnel…
Here’s the problem; no one is obligated to trust you, and trust takes time to develop, especially online.
When working online, you don’t have the luxury of real-time communication and the relationship building benefits of face-to-face interaction.
Since you don’t have those benefits, shifting the lens you view social media through is helpful.
Shift #1 It’s no longer social media; it’s business media.
Social media companies sell attention. If you’re not collecting attention for your business, you’re giving your attention away for free to someone else.
Shift #2 Your social media presence is a resume.
When a company posts a job listing, what do they do? They describe the position, the qualifications, and tell you where to send your resume. They ask for a resume because it’s the easiest way to determine if you’re qualified for the job. It contains professional experience, education, relevant skills, and usually some kind of objective statement (a statement obviating why you’re a great fit.)
When prospective clients have a problem, they’re going through the same process as they scroll through social media.
They have a mental job listing with required qualifications, and they need a shortcut to help them decide who is the best fit to help them solve their problems.
They need a resume, aka your business media feed.
How do you create an effective digital resume?
Communicate your mission
You can be the best coach in the world for an individual, but if they don’t know you can help them specifically, it doesn’t matter. It’s your responsibility to speak directly to the needs and wants of your ideal clients.
Document your process
Familiarity and commonality are fundamental for building trust and limiting uncertainty. When you document your process, you pull back the curtain and let people know what they can expect if they sign up to work with you. They know the purpose behind the process and what to expect if they have a setback. They’ll see what is and isn’t required of them and be able to make a more informed decision about whether or not working with you is for them.
Social proof
Few things are more powerful than seeing people like them who have similar roadblocks getting the results they want. Social proof can come in the form of big changes like life transformations, but they don’t have to be grandiose to make an impression. Sharing simple wins like a client being able to climb the stairs in her home without getting out of breath or sweep her kitchen floor without back pain help your prospective clients to connect with you in a meaningful way.
In conclusion, shifting your perspective on social media from funnel to resume isn’t a massive change; it’s more about being mindful of what and why you post. There are people out there who desperately need your help, and if you give them an easy-to-recognize and digest resume, you’ll have more opportunities to connect with and help them.
