This is a guest post by Christine Livingston.

So, you’re a coach and you’ve started to hear about blogging and social media. You see other coaches – me, for example – embracing this weird new world, and you wonder whether it’s really something you need to be getting into or not.

Here’s a run-down on how social media can help you. And some health warnings to consider before jumping in.

Advantages

Keeps you ahead of moving trends

Social media is not the future, it’s the present. In the business world Wordpress, an internationally used blogging platform; Twitter, a micro-blogging site; LinkedIn, a professional networking site; and Facebook, a hub for more socially-oriented connections, are all mushrooming in their use. This is having a massive impact on things like advertising, where some forward-looking companies are turning to the big blog sites to invest their budgets, in favour of traditional newspapers and magazines. Key trends and topics can go viral overnight, and your potential reach online is much greater than any traditional form of marketing.

Your immediate clients may not yet be using these things. The chances are, however, that before long, they’ll at least dip their toe in the water. If you coach in the corporate world, some companies are trying to get their heads round how to get on board, for example by giving Twitter accounts to staff. It has to be said, however, that most of them haven’t quite figured out yet how really to use social media and maintain brand control, but that’s another question entirely. If you work mainly with individuals, many of them are already be on Facebook or LinkedIn. Having at least some ongoing presence online is going to allow you to keep your business abreast of these changes.

Gives you a dynamic online business card

A blog, like this one, offers the opportunity to keep your coaching brand fresh and current. As things change in your coaching niche, you can reflect them in your blog, by writing about them and offering your perspective. Two examples of where I’ve recently done that were with my posts about job satisfaction statistics, and 2010 recruitment predictions. This not only shows prospective clients that you care for and keep up to date with whatever it is you focus on in coaching, but also helps build your coaching platform by putting out what’s unique about your perspective on things.

Enables relationship building

Coaching is still, for many people, an unknown entity. It can be pretty tough, especially as a personal or life coach, to attract clients and for clients to feel comfortable that you’re the person they want to work with. If you blog, you can, through comments, invite conversation and “talk” with people who read you. Hence you start to build relationship. Of course, not all your commentors will be potential clients, nor should they be. Some will be peers in your field who want to join your conversation, or other bloggers who resonate with your topic. But whether with potential clients, or online friends, what you put out through your comments says something about you that informs a client’s felt sense of who you are. There’s something authentic and real about that which I think beats the polished perfection of the static website.

Differentiates you from the competition

Blogs offer a really useful vehicle for you to set yourself apart from other coaches fishing in the same pond as you. And there’s an advantage for coaches that exists right now that won’t exist forever, and that’s about just having an active blog whilst your competitors don’t. It need not mean a huge overhaul of your web strategy, just the addition of a blogging platform to your existing domain, but it could make all the difference.

Supports your own development

Many bloggers, me included, talk about the unexpected, magical journey of personal growth they alight on in the process of committing to regular blogging. You can read more about my own experience here. I highlight this in particular because I know that many coaches are passionate about their own growth and development, not just for and of itself, but for how it supports your work with clients. Blogging is certainly a positive force for that.

Clearly I’m a happy and recent adopter who loves blogging so much that it has, of itself, been a vehicle in helping me transform the way I’m working. However, I won’t pretend it’s all easy.

Be aware

Unleashes your inner geek

Be prepared to learn more about computers than you currently know. This is especially true if you are going to use your own domain, either existing or new, for your blog and are going to work with Wordpress.org (as opposed to Wordpress.com), which I’d completely recommend. I spent weeks and days in the beginning getting a domain, figuring out Wordpress, and navigating how to put them together to even begin writing and creating. I chose to do this as I was interested and wanted to learn. But don’t underestimate the scale of what’s involved. Either that, or outsource its set up to someone whose speciality that is.

Needs dedicated time

If you’re going to get into blogging, be prepared for it to take you upwards of an hour of your time a day. At least in the beginning. I say this for a number of reasons: first, if you are going to get into this stuff you have to do it whole-heartedly. Having an inactive blog or Twitter account is almost worse than having no such presence at all. It just says, “not really that interested” or “doing it because they think they have to”. Also, whilst some Wordpress themes are super-optimised for search engine optimisation (eg, I’m about to switch over to Headway), you still have to think about how you drive traffic to your site. The two main ways I currently use are through Twitter and through reading and commenting on other people’s blogs. This requires time as it’s important to really engage with people and not just do it to spam them or “make” them follow you. That all takes time and consideration.

Three questions:

How can social media enhance your business?

Does social media fit with your business model, and how? Some businesses are using primarily social media to drive things. That works when it fits with their goals and plans. Other businesses might benefit from more of a blend of blogging and more traditional marketing like face to face networking, email lists, referrals, cold-calling. You have to consider what’s going to work for you.

How might social media work with your coaching model?

Then, there’s your coaching approach and model to consider. Blogging works for me because I openly use a blend of coaching and consultancy in my work. I have a strong background in both business and psychotherapy which I transparently bring to the table, and I am happy about sharing my content knowledge and expertise in these arenas. I appreciate, however, that many coaches are more purist and focus on the process of coaching. That does not preclude you from blogging, of course, but it would make a difference to what you blogged about and how you did it.

Can you fit social media into your lifestyle?

Not least, consider your lifestyle. Blogging may demand time that you cannot give it because there are other things that are important to you besides being wrapped up in a computer for evenings at a time. Friends, children, your partner, hobbies and other interests. Again, that may not stop you from blogging, but may help you set your goals and expectations realistically in how it’s going to work for you.

So, what do you think? If you’re not yet blogging, how do you imagine it would or would not work for you? If you are already blogging, how is it helping you develop your coaching business?

Christine Livingston is not your business-as-usual career coach. Check out A Different Kind of Work and follow her on Twitter @coblyn for more great content. Christine is also a blog consulting client of mine.