Optimizing Instagram

for Personal Trainers

H ow to I n c re a s e D i s cove ra b i l i t y, G a i n Fo l l owe r s ,
a n d B e a t t h e Co m p e t i t i o n
Unless you’ve lived under a rock for the last decade, you likely have a social media account. If
you only use it to scroll through funny cat videos or keep up with the latest celebrity gossip,
you’re doing yourself a significant disservice. As a fitness business owner, well, any business
owner, optimizing your social media is essential to getting your name out there. Think of social
media as your modern-day business card; it is a one-stop shop for people to see what you’re
about, and you can include more than just your business name and phone number. TrueCoach
is here to teach you how to use your business Instagram account to your advantage.

90% 200M 80%

of Instagram users business accounts of users search
follow a business on Instagram (15%), directly on
account.1 making Instagram Instagram for
one of the most new products and
popular marketing services.3
platforms.2

1 Jenn Chen, “Instagram statistics you need to know for 2022,” Sprout Social, March 15, 2022, https://sproutsocial.com/insights/
instagram-stats/.

2 Jason Wise, “HOW MANY INSTAGRAM BUSINESS ACCOUNTS ARE THERE IN 2022?” EarthWeb, October 5, 2022, https://earthweb.
com/how-many-instagram-business-accounts-are-there/.

3 Kate Bojkov, “29 Instagram Statistics For Marketing in 2022,” Embed Social, August 29, 2022, https://embedsocial.com/blog/
instagram-statistics/.

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The Advantages of
Having a Business
Instagram
Instagram offers three types of accounts—Personal, Creator, and Business. Their names are self-explanatory,
but we will highlight the advantages of a Business account over a Personal one for our purposes.

Instagram Instagram Insights allows you to see who is interacting with

Insights & your posts. You can see how many followers you’ve gained or
Analytics lost, their demo, location, and more.

Boost Ads/Campaigns Run paid ad campaigns to increase visibility by choosing a

with Meta Ads target audience and setting a campaign budget.
Manager

You can link third-party applications to your Instagram and

Auto-Schedule Facebook to auto-schedule posts. Applications like Preview
Posts allow you to see a preview of what your page can look like
before posting.

Action buttons are not available for every category yet, but
Access to CTA they exist in Health & Beauty. If a customer DMs you after
Buttons & Quick hours, Quick Reply allows you to send an auto-response of
Replies your choosing.

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 Create a business Instagram account. If you already have one, proceed to step 2. It’s
STEP as easy as downloading the app from your phone and choosing to create an account

01 or create one on your desktop. You must have a Facebook login to create a brand-
new business account. Facebook (Meta) owns Instagram, meaning they operate in one
ecosystem. When creating your account, choose a category that best describes your
business. There are over 1500 categories ranging from retail to makeup artists and
everything in between.

If you already have an Instagram, you

can go to settings and Switch to a
Professional Account to avoid losing
your current content and followers. We
recommend switching to a professional
account if your existing profile is
already curated for fitness or requires
minor tailoring. If your page is about
your pet French Bulldog or how much
you love nature, it’s time to start fresh.

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 Fill in your bio/profile completely! If there is a space for information, fill it in! We cannot
STEP stress this enough. Having a complete profile allows for better searchability. Optimize

02 your business name for searchability, or get creative and include a keyword.

In this example, fitness influencer and expert, Angela Gargano, used the name section
to put what she specializes in, “pull-ups, core, and mindset.” They not only immediately
inform visitors of what she does but also double as searchable keywords.

A business’s hours of operation are one of the most critical pieces of information to share
with customers. You can also add this to your bio so customers can see it immediately.
Hours of operation are relevant even if you don’t have a physical location. It lets
customers know they can’t DM you at midnight and expect an answer immediately. If you
have a site, your address and how to contact you are also necessary.

NAME
SECTION

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 Use Instagram to share promotions and answers to FAQs. You can pin reels and stories
STEP as Highlights on your Instagram. They’ll show up under your bio and allow easy access

03 to any information you want to share. For example, you can pin before and after
pictures and title them “Results.” You can create recipe highlights and more. As you
grow your following, you can pin posts that followers engage with the most. It lets
people immediately see what you have to offer without scrolling through weeks and
years of content.

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 Post every single day! Most businesses across 14 industries post four times per week on
STEP average.4 However, pages that post daily gain followers more steadily and quickly than

04 those that don’t. Instagram’s algorithm will likely push your posts to the top of someone’s
feed if you post consistently. This doesn’t mean you can post any old thing—it must be
relevant to your audience.

Pro tips:

Users engage the most with carousel posts. A carousel is a post

containing multiple images or videos that customers can scroll
through by swiping left.

58% of Instagram users discover brands via Instagram stories.

Furthermore, American brands dedicate 31% of their Instagram
marketing budget to creating stories.5

75% of brand posts are single images.6 This means you can cut
through some of the noise with videos or reels. Instagram has been
favoring reels as they continue to roll out.

Potential clients respond the best to client testimonials and before and after pictures.
You may not have this just yet if you’re just starting your fitness business. This is where
we recommend training a friend or family member in exchange for positive reviews or
sharing your personal fitness journey through images and video. Do you have a particular
morning smoothie routine or a nightly meditating routine? These are all things customers
will want to know and appreciate you sharing.

4 Ash Reid, “How to Get More Followers on Instagram: 12 Tactics for Instagram Growth,” Buffer Library, https://buffer.com/library/instagram-growth/.

5 Jason Wise, “INSTAGRAM STORIES STATISTICS 2022: HOW MANY PEOPLE USE INSTAGRAM STORIES?,” Earth Web, August 8, 2022, https://earthweb.
com/instagram-stories-statistics/.

6 Jenn Chen, “Instagram statistics you need to know for 2022.”

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 Increase discoverability using hashtags. A hashtag (#) followed by a text string is a way to
STEP categorize a post. Think of it as a filing system of sorts. Suppose you are a Yoga specialist

05 in Austin, Texas, and want your post to be seen by potentially interested clients. In that
case, you can use #AustinYogaStudio to increase discoverability to people in that area.

You’ll often hear that the more hashtags, the better, but that isn’t always true. The
hashtags need to be a simple text string (if it’s too long, people likely won’t search it),
and it needs to be relevant. A ton of hashtags will probably feel like spam and hurt your
credibility. Around 11 hashtags seem to be the magic number.

Select the right hashtags by doing a simple search. More general terms like “personal
training” will likely have millions of hits. “Prenatal Exercise Charlotte” will probably be
very narrow. Use words ideally in the 1.5k to 10k results range.

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 Use Linktree or link to your site. Linktree is where you can post relevant links for people
STEP to navigate to from your bio. Your bio can display one connection at a time, but with

06 Linktree, the customer can click it to show a list of places they can be directed to. Do you
have a personal website and a partnership you want to highlight? The possibilities are
nearly endless. You can also post links in your stories, reels, and captions (for a fee).

Encourage your audience to participate and interact. It’s called social media for a reason!
STEP You can use Instagram polls within a story to ask your audience questions that they can

07 answer. You can even ask what type of content they’d like to see. Once you build your
following, you can even go live to talk to your followers.

Are there other creators in a field like yours that you admire? Shout them out in your
posts or tag them in your stories. For example, is there an up-and-coming fitness wear
brand you like or a massage therapist in your area that you frequent? You can tag them
in a story or post to shout them out. We don’t recommend tagging companies that have
millions of followers, just slightly more than you. If you try to tag Nike or Lulu Lemon, you
will be drowned out in the noise and go unnoticed.

Note:

Don’t succumb to fake followers. As your business account grows,

you may be offered the opportunity to amass followers at an
alarming rate for a small fee. Don’t do it! For example, some third-
party apps and sites tout how they can increase your followers by
1,000 for as low as $10.00, but these are all scams. Although you
may increase your followers, they’re primarily bots or accounts
that are not aligned with what you’re trying to sell. Bots often
leave inappropriate comments under posts if they comment at
all. Instagram also has a way of spotting fake followers, removing
them from the platform, and penalizing accounts that utilize these
services. Potential collaborators will notice when you have 7,000
followers but only 100 likes per post. It ruins your credibility and
doesn’t increase engagement.

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In Conclusion
It pays to play the slow game and organically increase your following through consistent
posting. Instagram is a great way to find new clients and boost your business. If we haven’t
fully convinced you that you need to be using Instagram, check out more helpful tips and
Instagram statistics here. Happy posting, everyone!

Would you like to learn more?

Visit www.truecoach.co

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