You may already be connecting with friends and business colleagues via social media. So how can you attract more personal training clients using social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter? Here are some tried and tested techniques you can use today to generate more business. The best thing about social media is that it is completely free!

Building your brand with online video
Online video is a tool every business should have in its arsenal, but video especially lends itself to personal training and fitness instruction. Why? Well video is the perfect way to showcase your knowledge, skills and abilities as a personal trainer and to prove you are and what you say you are.

One of the most popular online video sharing sites is YouTube. Set-up a custom channel for your personal training business and adjust the background image and colours to a theme that reflects your company branding. When setting this service it, it is important to ensure that you choose a user name that relates to your business and subject; words like personal training, fitness and exercise are a good idea.

Next, you’ll need some videos. Most can be shot with an inexpensive handheld video camera and edited using simple software you will find on your computer. Many mobile phones also include a reasonable quality video camera that will shoot video in sufficient quality to upload. If you are short on ideas for content, why not try some of the following:

1)Video testimonials from your personal training clients. Even if you’re just starting out and have just a few clients, ask one or more of them to give you a 30-second testimonial and capture it on video. Social proof is crucial in building your credibility.

2)Exercise demonstrations. Pick some exercises used in your programs that your clients may not be familiar with. Ask another trainer or a friend to videotape you as you perform the exercise. Give a few tips or cues. Most demonstrations will last less than 15 seconds.

3)Show before-and-after transformations. Potential clients love to see how others have improved fitness and body composition. And these are powerful statements of what you’ve helped your clients achieve.

Upload your videos to YouTube and start sharing them with clients and friends. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your client base grows.

Getting social with Facebook and Twitter
Social media platforms are another way of showcasing your superior knowledge of training and fitness. These mediums will provide you with the opportunity to educate and inform a large number of people, far more than would be achievable face to face. So how do you get started with Facebook and Twitter?

Twitter, the popular micro-blogging service, is a great place to find out what your target market is talking about. Start by searching for keywords that are important to your personal training business. You’ll identify people who are talking about the same things you are interested in. Sign up and follow these people and monitor the conversation for a while.

Next, set up a business page on Facebook, this is known as a Fan Page. Direct current and potential clients to this page and encourage them to “Like” your personal training business in exchange for a special offer. You might give them a discount code for one of your training packages or present a free trial or consultation. Encourage your clients by providing status updates on their training progress (with their permission of course) and share with them other success stories, new products, services and ideas. It’s important to ensure that you don’t use this only to sell stuff; you will also need to share information for free in order to give the page some value.

At the same time, begin searching for relevant content that would be useful to potential clients and others with an interest in fitness and training. Look for timely blog posts, how-to articles, great educational videos and anything else you think others would benefit from.

Then set aside time each week to pass these links along to others using your Fan Page and your Twitter profile. You can also include a few self-promotional tweets or status updates, but you want most of your information to be useful and actionable for others.

Your status as knowledgeable, professional and expert personal trainer in no time and clients will soon want to hire you to be their trainer.

Seek more business through social media. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and You Tube have a wealth of untapped potential business that Personal Trainers can explore.

The following is a really good tutorial on how to set up a professional looking Facebook page.

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