A Guest Post From Ben London

When Rick asked me to write a guest post about Twitter for PT Business In A Box I was extremely flattered, but a little tentative because most people don’t love twitter as much as I do.

Thanks largely to twitter, my blog has grown from absolute obscurity to not so obscure and I’ve made some great friends. In fact, I met Rick through Twitter; I can’t remember how or when exactly, but I do recall I was wearing pyjamas at the time!

So what exactly is Twitter?

Twitter is a website that enables it’s users to send and receive messages of up to 140 characters which are called tweets.

It was created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey and currently has around 175 million users worldwide and if anyone tries to tell you that Twitter is old news; in February 2010 users were sending 50 million tweets per day and in June, 65 million, which is about 750 tweets per second.

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet?

Initially I didn’t get it, but I decided to get myself a twitter account with a shortened version of my blogs name. There are arguments for and against using your own name or your businesses as your screen name, but since I’m all about branding, I went with @mybizisfitness.

I had no idea how to tweet, let alone what to tweet about. I had three followers who I didn’t know (I think only half of them spoke English) and a stock standard profile page.

What Now?

My twitter account pretty much sat there for about two months; every now and then I’d get an email that someone else was following me and I had absolutely no idea why, I mean, I wasn’t tweeting anything.

I think the main reason I didn’t dive head first into twitter at the beginning was because I thought it was just like the status update on facebook. Frankly, ‘over updaters’ annoy the hell out of me and I didn’t want to be that guy; but as it turns out twitter is completely different.

I decided to do some research and ask some questions. I’m a member of a few social media forums so I asked around and people were talking about having goals to hit 200 followers. I saw at least half a dozen members say that they wanted 200 so I figured that I too needed 200 followers.

How To Get Twitter Followers.

Practically every person who has a twitter account knows a secret to get more followers; but unfortunately there really isn’t one.

Twitter etiquette 101 says that when someone follows you, if you see some possibility of a connection no matter how remote, you follow them back and this is how you get followers.

Think of it like your fitness business. You don’t just wake up in the morning and sit at the desk waiting for clients or members to walk through the door; yes some will filter through but more often than not, they won’t be your avatar market that you want and I can assure you that your doors won’t stay open long.

Twitter gives you free reign to go out and find your niche market. The people you want to sell to, people that you have designed your service and products to suit and it’s as simple as doing a keyword search.

Since my twitter account is essentially about my blog which is about the fitness business, I wanted to connect with people who might find value in what I write.

So I began following personal trainers and other fitness professionals like gym owners. The only problem with this strategy is that most personal trainers etc. don’t know twitter etiquette 101 or they’re still at that ‘what now’ stage I mentioned and don’t understand why they’re being followed.

Let me clear this up once and for all, if someone follows you on twitter, it’s extremely likely that they want you to follow them back.

The Rules.

Twitter allows you to follow up to 500 users a day so I sat there and followed 500 users in one day. I know it was 500 because I got a warning at the top of my screen that told me I couldn’t follow anyone else; that and I started going cross eyed.

I found my 500 by finding other users like mine that already had a following. I’d follow everyone that may find value in my content and move on to the next twitter account. I probably came across Rick’s @ptbusiness account during this tirade and that was how we initially connected.

From that first 500 I think about 80 people followed me back, which wasn’t awesome considering how long that 500 took to follow, but I was on my way to my 200!

Using this strategy among others I’ve come across and developed, my twitter account to date has over 4,600 followers which I’ve achieved in about four months. Sure there are ways to get more than that (I recently dropped a few hundred), but I choose to concentrate on quality followers rather than quantity for the sake of quantity.

We could go on and on about how to get hundreds of followers, (or you can read my article How To Get Hundreds Of Targeted Twitter Followers) but lets leave that for another day.

What Can Twitter Do For Your Fitness Business?

Here’s 11 benefits of using Twitter:

• Direct Traffic: Increase your audience and generate traffic to your site or blog by tweeting links and a brief commentary.

• Branding: You’re twitter account gives you a platform to give off a casual persona that makes you more approachable.

• Feedback: Got an idea or heard about something new. Tweet your questions and you will get answers.

• Company Intranet: Use twitter to communicate with your colleagues in one hit. You could tweet that a location or time has been changed or whatever might normally take you 10 phone calls.

• Communicate With Clients And Members: Similar to the above.

• Recommend Products Or Services: Your own or someone else’s.

• Network: Make friends in the industry that you more than likely would never have been able to meet.

• Note Taking: Send yourself tweets like reminders or whatever if there’s no pen and paper around.

• Find Clients: As mentioned; using keyword searches by location or interests or anything, find leads and connect.

• Live Coverage: If you’re at an event or show or whatever, tweet it to your followers. “Dave is killing it on the hill climb today!” Not only does this make Dave feel important but prospective clients and clients that bailed on the stair climb might think again next time you offer.

• Recruitment: Posting ads on twitter via your own or a friends account will get in front of thousands of targeted eyes…free

In my experiences using social media over the past 3 years, it is the absolute best way to brand yourself and your business by communicating with a lot of people in minimal time with minimal expense.

I tell my clients from the beginning that the direction they’re going with their business will determine who you should follow (in order for them to follow you back) and what type of content you should tweet.

Once you’ve figured out who it is that you want to target and your content strategy i.e. what you’re going to tweet your business will grow and you will build your profile and your personal brand.

As always, please feel free to comment or ask a question and I will come back and attempt to answer them for you.

Happy tweeting!

Ben

Ben London is the author of the personal training and fitness marketing blog My Business Is Fitness. Ben specializes in innovative marketing and promotion ideas as well as offering effective solutions for utilizing social media to develop fitness businesses based on 15 years experience within the industry.

You can also follow Ben on twitter @mybizisfitness, or on facebook.

A Guest Post By Ben London

Imagine if you will that you’re in the market to buy a small mobile personal training business; what would you look for in a good investment?

A wrapped van, some equipment in reasonable condition and a solid client base with an efficient EFT infrastructure would be a nice start, wouldn’t you agree?

What if that same business had a branded twitter account attached with 1000 targeted followers, a bustling interactive facebook fan page, a Youtube channel full of exercise and nutrition instructional videos and a regularly updated blog with 200 avid subscribers?

All of a sudden this outfit is more than just a loud van full of smelly equipment; this is a global business with a veritable social media empire at its disposal.

As you can imagine, to a potential buyer, having those facilities attached would make it far more appealing than the same business offering a stock photo yellow pages ad and a stack of undelivered fliers as its branding powerhouse.

“But I don’t want to sell my business Ben!”

I’m not suggesting that you sell your business; I’m simply using the sales analogy to emphasize the fact that social media can make the difference between ‘just another fitness business’ and a stand alone, recognizable platform from which you can launch any number of business endeavors.

How do you build a valuable social media empire?

Good news, that’s the easy part! Have you ever played The Sims video game or fooled around with a Tamagotchi (you know that silly hand-held pet game thing)? I often compare social media to those two nauseatingly repetitive but overwhelmingly addictive games.

Social media requires that same consistent attention day in day out to make it grow and prosper. You need to feed your audience fresh information and ask them questions every single day.

From what starts out slow, snowballs as more and more people come on board and begin to share what you’re putting out there and quite frankly there is no secret; your success will directly reflect your consistency, motivation and patience.

If you don’t already have them, I recommend branding the following free social media channels as an absolute minimum:

• Blog (your choice of platform)
• Youtube account
• Twitter account
• Facebook fan page (separate from your personal).

By having these platforms at your disposal, you inadvertently elevate yourself into a position where you may become viewed as an authority in your niche. This of course can provide you with many varied opportunities including media interview requests, more specialized client services and book publishing deals to name a few.

While it’s nice to see what the potential of having a strong social media presence can provide you with, it’s important to remind yourself that it takes time and a lot of work to achieve.

Make yourself a social media routine and stick to it. It’s VERY easy to get caught up and side tracked and lose focus on why you’re actually on there. Plan your material ahead of time to make it easier on days when you’re less motivated, make sure every single post, comment and link are designed to take you closer to your goals and most importantly, never give up.

Ben

About the author: Ben London is the author of my business is fitness.com; a personal training and fitness marketing blog. Ben specializes in innovative business strategies as well as offering effective solutions for utilizing social media to develop fitness businesses based on his 15 years experience within the industry. You can become a fan of My Business Is Fitness on facebook and you can also follow Ben on twitter @mybizisfitness

]]> http://ptbusinessinabox.com.au/how-do-you-expect-to-compete/feed/ 4 http://ptbusinessinabox.com.au/the-facebook-experiment/ http://ptbusinessinabox.com.au/the-facebook-experiment/#comments Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:18:09 +0000 rick http://ptbusinessinabox.com.au/?p=1227

With Facebook officially overtaking Google as the number one most visited site in the world, I think it is fair to say that if you haven’t got your toe in the social media water then you do so at your own peril.

Now I have heard many stories from trainers about how Facebook has changed the way they do business so rather then me just spreading the good oil, I thought I would let the trainers tell the story. So today we have eight of Australia’s best personal training business owners explain how they get the most from using Facebook in their business.

Facebook has evolved from a mere friend-finder to now being a social networking powerhouse that even I have become a disciple of.

Let me tell you my story first….

About two years ago I started my first Facebook personal profile because I had heard that it was a good way to catch up with my friends. But when I found out that anyone could see my profile (yeah, I hadn’t quite got a handle on the privacy settings yet) and I freaked out and immediately deleted my new Facebook status as I cherished my privacy. Fast-forward 2 year years and I now have three FB pages, lots of “friends” and it is one of my most researched topics.

Oh, how things can change…..

You may or may not know that the personal training industry has a MASSIVE presence on Facebook and this has recently evolved with the popularity of business Fan Pages. With a little bit of practice, commitment and guidance any personal trainer or boot camp operator can (and does) have their own presence on the worlds most visited site – and it’s free (and did I mention more people hang out here then any other place on the web….OK good).

So you now have a place where you can build amazing relationships, give people an insight into how your business runs, create amazing social proof, reward and recognize current clients, drive traffic back to your website, deliver valuable information, promote new services AND generate new leads. Sounds too good to be true….

Well sometimes it is.

Facebook can do all the things mentioned about but it can also suck way too much time from your day and fill you with false expectations (2000 “friends” does not = lots of new clients). So in order to get a good handle on how to play the game and build great relationships that will be the foundation for your amazing business, I wanted to take you on an in-depth look at how other trainers are using Facebook to build there businesses.

With a little help from my friends….

To achieve this, I have enrolled the help of some of Australia’s best personal training business owners. These guys and girls know how to play the game and the reason that I asked them specifically is that they all have really cool FB fan pages for their business and use social media in a great way (eg: they can learn you alot if you click on the links and check out there pages).

In order to get both sides of the Facebook story I asked the following question to each person:

a) How has having a presence on Facebook helped in developing your business?

b) What is the downside to using Facebook (in any)?

OK so make yourself comfortable, get yourself a cuppa and let’s learn from some of Australia’s best personal trainers how to play the Face book game…..

1. Jodie Hebrard – Zenergy Personal Fitness Training

Jodie and her Partner Tony run an awesome boutique personal training studio in Brisbane. Jodie uses lots of different methods of social media (FB, Tiwtter and You Tube) to build relationships and her web presence.

How has having a presence on Facebook helped you develop your business?

For existing client/contacts has been a great tool to connect with them and keep the “zenergy” communication going.  I used to work full time from the studio so had a great rapport and lots of opportunities to connect with clients, however I started working from home last year.  I do not train clients and haven’t trained clients since 2007, so this transition to a home office has it’s up and down sides……..the down side been losing the contact that I had with clients and losing the “zenergy relationship” that Tony and I work on building with them.

Also with other contacts in the industry. It’s made networking a lot easier and keeping everyone up to date with what is going on with zenergy.I have used our Fanpage a few times with specific promotions and do think it’s a good way to engage in inquiries. It’s hard to test and measure here but given it’s free I will keep plugging away and learning and evolving with the times.

What is the downside of using Facebook?

For me there are 2 possible down sides –

I don’t interact much personally on FB (not my personality, I am very private with my own life)…….so sometimes I do get clients wanting to be “my friend” and I have chosen to let the friend request sit their collecting dust.  So, I might be offending clients without meaning to, but it’s important to me to keep my private world separate and also share openly with those folks that are truly are a part of my life.Interesting lesson in morale ethics, so now a days I ONLY accept friend requests from people that I genuinely know AND also genuinely want to be a part of my private life. !

The other downside is of course the time factor………updating our Fan Page does take time and I generally don’t stuff around, but consistency is the key and this is where I probably fall down…….Regular little updates I find are the best, but I’m unsure if I achieve this all the time.

Thanks Jod’s :-)

2. Pete Tansley – Priority 1 Fitness

Pete runs a studio in Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast and he also has a really great Boot Camp in the beautiful Queensland sun.  He blogs and uses social media really well to build relationships with potential and current clients.

How has having a presence on Facebook helped you develop your business?

FB has helped position me as a fat-loss expert on the Gold Coast. I use it to gain prospects, educate clients, and of course link to blogs and special promotions. From there I can convert friends over to the business page, which helps, as people see a “Face” behind the company first. I used to think social media was simply an annoying webpage where old school friends would find you… But it is a legitimate sales weapon! I’ve really followed guys like Brad Sugars and watched how he grows his personal brand and then convert to a sale.

What is the downside of using Facebook?

NONE! Although I think some trainers mistake the page as a way to dump their emotional luggage… Or worse, the hard sell. It has to be about the RELATIONSHIP first, and then the business or the sale. It might take months or even years, but eventually you will get their trust and they will convert.

Thanks Pete (and great tip about following other business leaders to see how they do it)

3. Kaz Muddell – Mind Body Motion Fitness Solutions

Kaz runs a mobile and outdoor training business in the North Shore and Hills District of Sydney. She is a self-proclaimed workaholic and her business is a great reflection of her hard work.

How has having a presence on Facebook helped you develop your business?

• Allows me an extra dialogue with my clients who are on Facebook
• Creates a community with the clients and friends we have on Facebook, they feel like they are part of something bigger than just them or who they train with
• Can showcase what we do and share client testimonials to build trust with potential clients
• Can celebrate successes for our clients and our business
• We share information that might be relevant for others
• Helps to build our presence in the marketplace
• We can advertise our services, events and so on to possibly gain more business
• Articles can link back to our blog which helps to improve our web presence

What is the downside of using Facebook?

I don’t see any downsides. Just need to be careful to always get permission to share video’s, stories and pics of any clients. Never post anything you don’t want the world to see!

Cheers Kaz, thanks for contributing.

4. Chris Bellette – Active Aussies

Chris is one of those guys that was born to run a PT business. Active Aussies has been operating for just over a year now he has already scaled great heights. Social media has helped him get there as he takes the networking aspect of his business really seriously.

How has having a presence on Facebook helped you develop your business?

Facebook has helped me to develop a sense of community with my members. It provides a means for us to communicate together and stay in touch. I put my blog posts and workout ideas up on Facebook and I get clients commenting and interacting all the time. We hold regular fun activities and events for members and we’ll pop photos up on Facebook too. I use it to publicize my upcoming events and I’ve gotten a couple of leads through doing that.

Facebook is also a good way for me to follow up on my clients first session. I’ll do a search by email address to see if my leads are on Facebook and if they are I’ll ask if they want to be my friend. I don’t do this to everyone, just people who commit to an initial consultation or who have expressed some desire in training with me. I’ve found by doing this and other things that my conversion rate is pretty high for people who have an initial consultation with me.

What is the downside of using Facebook?

I think the only downside of using Facebook or any other online social media is that you run the risk of becoming over absorbed in it. I’ve found that if I have clear objectives about what I’m trying to achieve and don’t waste my time on it then Facebook becomes a powerful tool. I will upload stuff every Monday and only check my Facebook page a couple of times each week to reply to people. I suppose I could be more involved but if I did that I would really have to draw the line somewhere to know what is work and what is play – if that makes sense?

Great stuff Chris – love adding your leads to your Facebook to build your local community group.

5. Emily Boylin – Bondi Bum

Em run’s a mobile PT and group training business in (you guessed it) Bondi, Sydney. She has an amazing following and has really built up a strong network or business alliances that she leverages really well through Facebook.

How has having a presence on Facebook helped you develop your business?

It has helped heaps! Not only does Facebook allow me to have an immediate interface with all my clients, whether it be a question to ask, a new promotion for them or just friendly chit chat, it also allows me to reach a whole host of additional people who are friends of my clients…friends of friends of my clients…friends of friends of friends of my clients (you get the idea!)

The brand awareness is great…as is the amount of potential new clients and leads that can be generated through Facebook. One photo or post can lead to potential new clients contacting with an interest to train, a comment on the page or a request for information…and from there you have a platform to convert those leads into clients.

One example is an image I recently added to my page of some clients boxing at a morning session…just by tagging the girls in the photo I received 3 new leads…friends of the girls in the photo or friends of someone who ‘liked’ the photo…each of those leads are now new clients and have brought another 2 clients with them!

The limits of Facebook are endless…

What is the downside of using Facebook?

The only downside to using Facebook is getting distracted away from my page and staying on there too long! That might sound funny, but if I’m on there for work reasons I have to give myself a time limit to get done what I set out to do and then log off so my work time doesn’t turn into personal time and blow out the rest of my morning!

Awesome Em- thanks.

6. Paul Gehan – Your Local PT

Paul runs a really impressive group and mobile PT business in the Northern suburbs of Brisbane. Facebook and all things social media has been a new world for him but he has taken it on and made it work really well for his business.

How has having a presence on Facebook helped you develop your business?

I have found Facebook to be a valuable tool to enhance my business through advertising and recruitment of clients into my bootcamp. I almost filled my current bootcamp program in 2 days via my email list and Facebook in 3 days.  My business has got people lined up for my next program already again through the Facebook.

We are able to offer support to clients using Facebook which raises my profile online also as others on my clients posts know who I am as they read my support and comments to my clients.  So this is raising my overall brand awareness which has lead also to unknown people to me emailing me to ask questions. I am currently looking to recruit staff to my expanding business and am using Facebook as a means to do this along with Twitter and my email list.

What is the downside of using Facebook?

The one down side If I had to find one would be the time it takes to administer but it is time well spent I think.

Nice one Paul – thanks.

7. Chrystle Elise Wellburn - Adrenaline Vault Training

Chrystle run’s her business with unbridled enthusiasm and a clear commitment to provide her clients with the best possible service. Her business is based in Brisbane and her use of social media is to be admired.

How has having a presence on Facebook helped you develop your business?

I have always enjoyed surfing the internet so it was a clear path for me to move towards with my business. Personal training is always an interesting business with the flow of clients at different times of the year and having constant contact with clients at a time that is perfect for them is great! (Plus this way I can accidentally motivate them to keep on the straight and narrow with a few updates;) )

In building my business it has been the best thing in the world, my contacts are able to learn what I do and how I do it. They are also able to watch me grow and interact with my current clients and hear what great results they are achieving. It’s one of those great old sales techniques about having to speak to someone up to 7 times before they are ready to commit to a service… the want to know they can trust you. Facebook helps with this – and it’s amazing.

I love to give away information for free – I find that my clients love it, and any other possible contacts on the net can make use of it until they want something more. Networking between other local business can be easily done on Facebook – something that PT business owners find very handy!

What is the downside of using Facebook?

The downside is hard to find… I feel that sometimes it’s difficult to get into your local area as easily… worldwide contacts are easy but getting beyond your current friends (and then they’re friends) is the real challenge. I do find the communication can be easier on the phone or via skype when your talking about things in detail, but as long as your fun and professional online Facebook marketing is the best thing since sliced bread!

Cheers Chrystle :-)

8. Luke Scott – Revolution Health and Lifestyle

Luke runs the premium mobile personal training business in Melbourne. He dominates Google and spends way to much time on Twitter and Facebook (all for a good cause). Like me, he is what you would call a social media nerd and his business is definitely seeing the benefits.

How has having a presence on Facebook helped you develop your business?

While I do spend quite alot of time on Twitter and Facebook building up our brand, the biggest benefit of using Facebook specifically has been in the promotion of your group training and specific promotions. We have a really responsive fanpage that we spend time inter-acting with our clients on and when we do a promo we get a great response.

We also use the fan-page to post up links to our daily blog posts . This not only provides our readers with valuable content on a daily basis to help them reach their goals but it also brings more traffic to our main site with a greater opportunity to convert them into clients if they are not already.

What is the downside of using Facebook?

While I have attempted to automate as much as I can in my social media efforts, I still feel the need to personally oversee most posts that go out. This can be time consuming but very worthwhile for SEO and relationship building purposes.

Cheers Luke - great tips.

So there you have it. Eight of Australia’s best personal training business owners exposing what Facebook means to there business. As you can see, this is an amazing tool in building great relationships and really put your business in front of lots of potential clients.

But the fun doesn’t stop there….

I also think it is important to see what your experiences are with Facebook and the impact that it has had on your business. So to keep The Facebook Experiment rolling, I would be stoked if you could take two minutes and join the others in answering these questions in the comments section below:

a) How has having a presence on Facebook helped in developing your business?

b) What is the downside to using Facebook (in any)?

I cant wait to hear your response and I hope that you have learnt some great tips in this post on how to build relationships using Facebook to benefit your business.

Cheers

Rick :-)

About the author: Rick Watson is the surfing, swearing personal training business guy who tells it like it is. He blogs, coaches, writes books, runs an online community and holds live workshops for personal trainers but most of all he is a father and husband (with a healthy respect for road trips). If you like what you read, subscribe to blog here and get your weekly dose of goodness delivered straight to your Inbox.

]]> http://ptbusinessinabox.com.au/the-facebook-experiment/feed/ 0 http://ptbusinessinabox.com.au/10-ways-to-get-more-fans-on-your-facebook-fanpage-2/ http://ptbusinessinabox.com.au/10-ways-to-get-more-fans-on-your-facebook-fanpage-2/#comments Tue, 30 Mar 2010 20:46:16 +0000 ptadmin

So those of you that have been reading this blog for a while now should have a clear understanding that when it comes to generating new leads for your personal training business, I sometimes have a pretty simplistic way of looking at things:

Provide a training service that gets results for your target market and then make sure that as many people as possible know about it.

Now that doesn’t sound too hard, does it?

Traditionally, letting people know about your business (eg: getting referrals) used to be a laborious task of the business owner with the assistance of some high-networking clients and the odd cleverly executed referral incentive program. But with the help of the world-wide-web and our friends at Facebook; the game has changed.

For the un-initiated, the social networking site Facebook introduced “Fan Pages” for businesses as they allowed for an unlimited number of fans to join (personal profiles max out at 5000). These pages have been refined over time to now include an amazing range of networking features and opportunities for you to show others the real day-to-day activities of your PT business and to also provide value for your fans (preferably also your target market).

So if you don’t have a Facebook Fan Page, I would definitely suggest that you click here and set up your business fan page as soon as possible. Once you have done that, take some time and get to know the features of the page, post up some quality content, fitness tips, recipes, client of the week, links to articles and whatever else you think will provide value for your target market.

When you have your page looking really tight (photo and video also have a great effect), then you can start to build up your fan base. Why do I need fans? Well, the bigger the fan base the greater the exposure of your business. This is the beautiful thing about social networking sites – the bigger your network, the more people there are out there talking about your great service. So let’s find out how we can get more fans to spread your word:

Great Idea #1: Invite your Facebook friends: Obviously, this is step one and I would not be too picky about who I invite because the world works in strange ways. Your friend in London might have a friend in Sydney in their network – so leave people out at your own peril.

Great Idea #2: Ask a few of your close friends to invite their FB friends to your page: Now normally your family of close friends will be prepared to help you out with a little bit of networking, so a phone call and an explanation of the goals of your fan page should get you invited out to another couple of networks.

Great Idea #3: Invite all current clients in your business: Let your clients know that you have put this page together as an information hub for them with tips, competitions, events, client of the week and whatever else you want to include. Encourage them to participate in this aspect of your business (but always providing great value).

Great Idea #4: Provide exceptional content and do it with consistency: Your fan page is not something to do half-assed. It is an all or nothing proposition. So make a plan about how you are going to provide your fans with great content (while still demonstrating the benefits of your business) and then decide on how often you are going to be active on your page. Once a day, once a week – whatever you can do but just be consistent.

Great Idea #5: Add a “become a fan” link to your email signature: Yeah, this one seems so simple that it might not be effective. But think about how many emails you send out per week and then think about how many of those are to prospects who would be interested in checking out your page? Providing a link is just giving them a door to walk through…

Great Idea #6: Tag names when you post on your wall: If you are making a wall post and you are using the name of one of your FB friends, type the @sign before there name (eg: @dave) and a drop down box should appear with all your friends starting with D. Choose “Dave” from the drop down box and this will make his name a live link and also post the same comment on his wall (so all his network can also see it). Works really well for client of the week posts or any form of client recognition (most people love some public praise).

Great Idea #7: Tag names when you post photos: Posting photos on your fan-page is a great way for people to get a good feel of what happens in your business. For photo tagging, group training works best (most numbers) but if you run a 1 on 1 PT business simply hold an event with all your clients eg: free outdoor group training once a month and take some photos. Then tag everybody in the photos and those photos will then appear on their walls. This allows you to spread a visual representation of your business around Facebook and encouraging more people to join your tribe.

Great Idea #8: Include a link above the fold on your website: If you have a website, make sure that you include a Facebook link to your fan-page in clear view, above the fold. “Above the fold” refers to the top part of your website that you can see when it first loads up before you start to scroll down. Making it clear and in plain view is important for a high click through rate.

Great Idea #9: Advertise with a banner: Up until now, all the tips have been little ninja tricks that you can chip away at that will all contribute to you building your fan base. These last two tips are more direct and more effective. Facebook have an exceptionally targeted pay-per-click advertising program (giving you one of those little ads that you see down the right hand border of your FB pages) and with more and more people using FB every day it is becoming a highly attractive option and very affordable.

On your fan page, click on the link that says “promote my page with an ad” and you will be away. There are a number of different aspects of these ads that you can change (headlines, copy, targeted locations, cost of each click, daily budgets ect). So if you want to know in detail how to set-up your face book ad, shoot me an email at rick@ptbusinessinabox.com.au and I will give you the run down on the best way to structure your ads.

Great Idea #10: Run a referral contest for your current clients: My final suggestion to build your fan base is to run a measured referral contest with your clients. Choose a prize of significant value (a month of personal training, a weekend away for two etc) and to let your clients know to go in the draw to win the prize, they simply have to introduce 4 fans to your Facebook fan-page. Also have an additional prize for the person who can introduce the most people so you are cover both bases. Make sure at the end of the set time period, you announce (on your Fan Page) the winner of the competition and also welcome all of your new fans.

So as I mentioned in my last posts, creating an amazing client experience and building your tribe is the foundation of your business. Your Facebook fan-page then becomes your trophy room, showing others how well you do things, how much you help other people reach their goals and how passionate you are about doing it.

It is social proof in its purest form. Other people talking about your business on your page while other people listen (read) in the background. No sales, no bullshit – just a real life example of what your business is all about.

So to wrap, I have three things to say about Facebook Fan Pages:

1. Write with thought because everything you say is an expression of you and your business. People make judgments’ very quickly and with Google now indexing FB pages (to appear in their search engine), your words will now be immortalized on the web. Think about how you want your business to be perceived.
2. Take some time and do it properly. Interact with your fans, posts up regularly, have consistency and you will be rewarded with a growing fan base.
3. Facebook has now officially overtaken Google as the number one most visited site in the world. If you haven’t got a presence here then you may be left standing at the station as the train rolls by.

Ok, back to important part…..

Once you have a decent amount of fans, then start to do an occasional “fan only” promotion for your business. The amount of promotion (in my opinion) you do should be limited to once every 6 – 8 weeks (unless it is an event etc). Losing the trust of your fans by over-promoting your service would be a shame.

This is your tribe – respect them and they will respect you.

Would love to hear you thoughts on this one, so leave a comment and let me know what you think of Facebook (for your business, not your love-life).

Cheers

Rick :-)

P.S: To keep updated with more Facebook fan page info, make sure you become a fan of my page as I will be posting up lots more articles and tips on ways that you can improve your online presence using FB.

P.P.S: As a great example of what a Facebook Fan Page can do for your business, check out Domestic Blitz Personal Training. It is run by Prue Liebig; has great branding, brand content, great fan interaction and she actually gets clients enquiring about her service on her wall (that’s smokin’). All this in the first two weeks of starting her Fan Page – a great example of using Facebook to raise awarness in your local community. Well done Prue….

Guest Post By The Owner Of Australia’s Personal Training Business of the Year – Scott Williams

Hey All,

Welcome to PT Business In A Box and part one in a series of ways to increase your cash flow into your Boot Camp business with little or no outlay from you.

My name is Scott Williams and I own and run the Current Australian Personal Training Business of the Year for the last two years running.

Over the course of my next few posts I am going to give you a series of very effective marketing ideas for your business that will increase your income with little or no cost. Here is the first of my biggest marketing ideas that have been the biggest money earners.

Total Outlay for this Marketing Idea: $0

Marketing Idea #1 – Social Media

Unfortunately most people are not up to speed with the benefits of Facebook at this stage. Most people think it is just a social site for people to catch up in other people’s lives and post up a few pictures here and there.

Well I learnt very early in the piece (from a marketing legend) in Gary Vaynerchuk and Chris McCombs that Facebook can be so much more.

So I decided to purchase Gary’s book (very glad I did), and look up and buy into Chris’s Marketing Program, I thought this really does make a lot of sense to use utilise Facebook as a marketing tool for my business.

From there all I did was post a calendar event (costs NOTHING – a good thing), onto Facebook.

I offered all people in my Boot Camp towns that contact me on facebook a FREE month of Boot Camp, no questions asked, no contract, no nothing.

Now obviously this will only work if you have an established Boot Camp already going and you can drop these people into a location at no extra cost to you. It would be a bit harder if you are just starting out as you would be minimizing the potential income coming in.

To give you an idea of how a marketing idea like this can work, here is a rundown of having an effective facebook account:

Total number of people that contacted me to register:                   114

Total number that actually turned up to the Boot Camps:                56

Total number that completed the FREE month of sessions:             43

Total number that have signed up a 6 or 12 month Membership:    13

Total that signed up to a new 12 week program:                           20

Total new sign up to the Succeed Boot Camps                      33

Since I ran this FREE marketing idea, 26 of the 33 have now all gone to 12 month memberships, which has given me an extra : $44 616 per year

Five of the other seven have also continued on a pay per Boot Camp basis, which also nets me around: $2300 every 12 weeks.

So when you add it all up, for ZERO outlay I have made over $50,000 from a calendar event I posted on Facebook that took me 5 minutes.

Not a bad profit for nothing….

Note:

Another thing that you should make sure you do is to add the emails of all the initial people that contacted you into your database. You never know when someone might wish to commence Boot Camp.

Since I posted this calendar event on Facebook, it gave me another 114 new potential leads. All of these people contacted me because they are interested in changing themselves in some way, shape or form, the time just wasn’t right for them.

I added all of these people to my email database, and since running this initial add I have had 6 or 7 people from that original list that never started now doing a Succeed Boot Camp (and loving it).

Now I know this doesn’t sound like much and you are probably saying “only 6 people big deal Scott”, but these 6 people have also referred 6 other people which also referred another 2 (I will post about referrals in another post). Do the math though, it starts to add up.

SO not only did the FREE marketing idea make me over $50,000 in the year (and still continues to do so), I now have others coming to Succeed as NOW is the right time for them to commence a fitness regime for themselves.

It obviously wasn’t the right time for them to start when I first posted the add on facebook for whatever reason, but they have now made a New Year’s Resolution and have contacted me to get them on board to our Boot Camp program.

So two things from this post:

1. Do a calendar event of Facebook and offer a FREE month, no questions asked.
2. Ensure you capture ALL email addresses from the enquiries into your database, because if you are sending out regular posts or information to your database, you never know when the time is right for them to start a fitness regime.

Until next post, keep on doing what you love doing every day.

Scott Williams

CEO, Succeed Personal Development

Trainer, writer, family man

P.S If you have any questions about this strategy or if you have already had a few experiences on Facebook building your business feel free to post up a comment.