Social media: the only thing you need to remember

“90% of your social media posts should be about providing extra value and connecting with people, not selling!”
- Amanda McKinney

Do you find yourself super frustrated with social media?

Whether you enjoy a certain platform or can’t stand any social media platform, the common thread that I keep hearing from yoga teachers is that it’s NOT WORKING.

Most likely, this is because your expectations of social media are off.

Maybe you think that you’ll magically fill your classes by posting on Instagram every day. Or maybe you think that by saying: “Here’s my schedule!” every Monday on Facebook, that people will remember and actually sign up for class.

I get it. I get that we see people using social media and their business is growing, so we think that is the correlation. But what we’re NOT seeing is all the other things that they’re doing.

I wish social media worked this way, because then you’d have a formula to follow and so much less frustration. But unfortunately, that is not how social media works.

When it comes to what to expect from social media, it’s all about knowing the intended benefit.

And if you find yourself constantly struggling with what to post on social media, I created Confident Yoga Marketing just for you! It’s a course that’s chock full of fill-in-the-blank templates that will make writing social media posts SO easy!

> Click here to learn more about Confident Yoga Marketing <

But even if Confident Yoga Marketing isn’t right for you today, this article will still help you with social media. Let’s dive in!

The Intended Benefit of Social Media for Yoga Teachers

When it comes to social media, you want to think about the intended benefit. The intended benefit of social media is to nurture relationships.

You want to nurture relationships with students (or potential students) and provide extra value.

Did you catch that? It’s not selling! It’s nurturing relationships. Let that sink in for a minute.

This is the first step in helping yourself know what to share on social media. Remember that you do NOT have to say “sign up for my class!” in all your social media posts. In fact, please don’t say that in all of your posts, because then people will stop listening. No one wants to be sold to all the time.

No matter what social media platform you’re using, remember that the intended benefit is all about nurturing relationships.

The Actions You Want People to Take Through Social Media

The next thing you want to consider when it comes to yoga media is what actions you actually want someone to take.

90% of your social media posts should be about providing extra value and connecting with people, not selling.

Maybe you want them to:

• Watch a video
• Read an article
• Comment, share or save the post
• Respond in your DMs
• Journal on their own
• Reflect or take an action in their own life
• Buy something

You want to know the action you want them to take BEFORE you write the post. Ask yourself: “What do I want them to do? How can I help them today?” Start with the action and then write the social media post.

Here’s the kicker: You may never see the actual action, and that is okay. There are some actions that may not be “Comment on this post” or “Like this post” or “Buy this thing.” For example, you may want to tell them to do a certain breath technique two times a day for 5 minutes. You won’t know for sure if they take action, but they will experience a win. They will experience relief, and therefore you are nurturing the relationship. THIS is the power of social media.

Types of Social Media Posts You Need to Grow Your Yoga Business

As you’re thinking about the action, you also want to think about the different types of social media posts you need.

90% of social media posts should be value-add information. When it comes to social media posts, most yoga teachers really struggle because it feels like selling. Take that away! Value-add information on social media is where it’s at, my friend.

This means you could post any of the following:

Share a Resource
Remember: You don’t have to create everything! You can also share someone else’s resources. Sharing someone’s instagram story that really hit home for you is fantastic.

Share Your Content
If you’re creating blogs, YouTube videos, or podcast episodes, then by all means share this on social media! Otherwise, people don’t know it’s there.

Behind the Scenes
I know you think that no one cares what you had for breakfast or what your yoga practice looks like, but they do! Think about the yoga teachers you learn from or anyone else you interact with. Are you curious about what their meditation practice looks like? Are you curious what they do on a walk? What podcasts they listen to? How much water do they drink?

Humans are curious. We want to know the behind the scenes scoop. Your students are curious about your life. Every now and then, sprinkle in some posts about your life and see what happens. I bet those behind the scenes posts get more engagement than the posts where you share a yoga pose!

Fun Stuff
Think about what is fun for you and do more of that because then social media will be more fun. People interact with people who have fun on social media. Take away the pressure of always selling or talking about your classes and just have fun for awhile and see what happens.

Buy or Sign Up for Something
The last 10% is asking for your audience to buy or sign up for something. You do need to talk about your classes every now and then (or your workshop or whatever is happening). You do want to talk about the things, but it’s just going to be less frequent.

What you’ll find is that you’ll discover ways to weave it in. For example, you can talk about what your yoga practice looks like, or a breath technique that helped you feel better, and then at the end say something like: “And I’ll be doing this in class on Thursday night!”

You really want to focus on the value-add most of the time, but every now and then you can weave in promotion into your posts and it will help grow your yoga business.

By the way, if weaving in promotion is something you struggle with, remember that I have social media post templates inside of Confident Yoga Marketing to make your life so much easier!

Formula for Any Social Media Post

Is there a formula for writing social media posts? I get asked this all the time.

And while there’s no one way to do anything, I do have a broad formula for all marketing, whether that be social media posts, email marketing, even a flyer. If you follow this formula, you’ll be in really good shape.

Struggle / Pain Point
The first thing that will get their attention is calling attention to a struggle or pain point. This is the hook that gets their attention! Instead of saying “Come to my class at 2pm on Tuesday,” you’d say: “Is your lower back hurting? Are you looking for relief for your low back?” Lead with the pain point.

The Dream
After that, you move into the dream that they have. If someone’s back is hurting, what they’re looking for is back pain relief! So you say: “Wouldn’t it be nice if you’re lower back didn’t hurt at the end of your work day?” You can elaborate and paint a picture here.

The Fix
This is when you offer a suggestion, solution, or idea. This is typically where everyone wants to start, but don’t start here. Start with the paint point, move into the dream they have, and THEN you can present the fix. For example: “You’ve got low back pain. Wouldn’t it be nice if your back didn’t hurt after work? I’ve got one stretch for you that will make your back feel better.”

I know that you don’t want to promise a solution. I get it. But there’s nothing wrong with offering up something that will help people. We’re not promising healing here. But I want you to remember that what you do actually DOES help people feel better. While maybe it can’t heal their pain forever, you CAN help them experience relief. You really can, and I want you to remember that. This is where I see people stopping. Push through that discomfort. You can do this.

Call-to-Action
Finally, tell them what you want them to do. Don’t make them guess. For example: “You’ve got this lower back pain. Wouldn’t it be nice if your back didn’t hurt at the end of the day? This one stretch will really help it. Do this stretch once an hour.” That’s the call-to-action.

You always want a call-to-action but it doesn’t need to be “buy.” People need you to tell them what to do. If you want them to comment, if you want them to send you a DM, if you want them to sign up for your email list, if you want them to register for your class, if you want them to watch a video, just tell them what to do.

There’s your formula! You can use this for any marketing, really, but social media is a great example of this.

While this formula is not exactly something you can copy & paste to use, I want to remind you that inside Confident Yoga Marketing I have a LOT of social media posts for you. If you’re really struggling with what exactly to say, definitely check out Confident Yoga Marketing because everything is there for you!

Your next step

Commit to sharing value-add social media posts, not just selling. Keep it simple and clear so you can welcome in more students by providing lots of value. I promise that if you provide value on social media, your yoga business will grow overall!

And if you’re looking to save even more time and energy when it comes to using social media, check out Confident Yoga Marketing to get all the templates! Plus, you’ll get templates for your website, email, and all the other things as well.

Until next time, give yourself permission to keep social media easy and fun and grace along the way.

For more stories like this, listen to the Marketing Yoga with Confidence Podcast.

About Amanda McKinney (Marketing Coach for Yoga Teachers)

Amanda McKinney is a Marketing Coach with a passion for helping yoga teachers find the tools and the confidence within themselves to build the yoga business of their dreams. She does this through her podcast: Marketing Yoga With Confidence and online offerings. All of which focuses on building confidence and community with an extra dose of encouragement every step of the way.