Helpful Coaching skills for Social Media Interactions
In order to blend coaching profession with the technologically evolving times, coaches today have to more adept at using key social media technologies. However, in order to become proficient at converting online traffic to real-time sales, coaches need to effectively apply some key communication skills in their social media communications. Some of the main communication skills than that can greatly assist coaches in their social media efforts are listed below (Neher, 2012 ):
Active listening:
The most important communication skill that a coach possesses and needs to apply across social media communications is to be ability to listen and respond while focusing the attention on speaker. Listening with the aim to increase mutual understanding is regarded as one of the finest communication skills (Ewees, 2012).
Validating:
Coaches have sufficient validation skills which mean that the coaches have the ability to accept and understand someone’s feelings as not being wrong. Application of the art of validation across social media communications can greatly help coaches in connecting to people at a deeper, emotional level.
Powerful questions:
Coaches need to pose moving, insightful questions to their clients in order to get to the root cause of the problem troubling a particular individual. Asking deep, powerful questions can greatly assist coaches in sparking meaningful conversations with clients/customers.
Creating Action:
Based on participant responses, coaches must develop a suitable course of action aimed at solving the problems of their clients. Social media can prove to be an effective bridge, as people seeking professional help can easily gain access to those providing help (coaches for instance) with relative ease and free of hassle.
Mindfulness:
Coaches must wisely invest their time in making their presence felt on the social media scene. They must learn to allocate a specific portion of time each day to the social media effort and then must strictly stick to the time-table.
Appreciation:
Coaches can make their followers feel appreciated, only when a person knows that what he/she is saying is accepted and appreciated by those listening will they talk about their deepest desires and emotions which is the biggest goal of a coach.
Acknowledgment:
In the social media marketing context acknowledging a new followers goes a long way in building a long lasting relationship. A simple message acknowledging the presence of followers on social media sites would ultimately result in greater real-life engagement levels.
Creating Trust:
Building a deeper trust level with followers across a broad spectrum of social media tools is an important task for the coaching professionals as only a deep level of trust whilst using social media tools can translate into real life sales for the coaching professionals.
Seven Habits of Highly Effective Marketers
Stephen R. Covey, a respected teacher and organizational consultant, wrote the hugely popular book, ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ in which he listed the key habits possessed by people who are highly effective in their particular fields or professions. Taking cue from Covey’s popular book, Neher (2012) described the ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective Marketers’ in which she detailed the main characteristics needed in order to be a successful marketing professional. Neher’s seven habits are essentially Covey’s seven habits modified a bit to align them with the needs of the marketing profession. In the ensuing paragraphs Neher’s seven habits are modified according to the needs of a coaching professional:
Being Proactive:
Coaching professionals need to proactive enough to take the first step in introducing latest social media tools within their organization.
Beginning with the end in mind:
Coaching professionals need to first determine their key goal for using social media technology. Once they have the goal in mind the coaches can then formulate a strategy for effectively reaching the goal. For example, the initial goal of a coaching professional can be to increase engagement level with customers.
Putting first things first:
Coaching professionals need to wisely allocate their time to various social media tools as people tend to waste a lot of their time using these tools mindlessly.
Thinking win-win:
It is important for coaching professionals to maintain a balance between their key marketing objectives as well as providing value to their customers as it is a key social media marketing strategy.
Seeking first to understand, then to be understood:
Before viciously embarking on their social media effort, coaches must first learn what the actual need of their followers is. Once the follower need is understood only then a comprehensive strategy targeting the key market audiences should be developed.
Synergizing:
Coaching professionals must develop a social media strategy that effectively incorporates all the key ingredients of their profession. The social media strategy for a life coach, for example, should focus on how getting help from a life coach can improve the family and intimate life of those passing through a difficult phase in life.
Sharpening the saw:
In order to stay effective coaching professionals need to invest their time and energy in learning new social media skills.
A coaching professional needs to incorporate the aforementioned seven habits of highly effective marketers while communicating in the social media sphere in order to gain success.
There are many advantages of using a well-executed social media strategy. Some of the key benefits of social media technology for the coaching profession are outlined below: