Let’s be honest: most days, twenty-four hours does not seem like enough when there are a million and one things to get done. Technology has been developed to make our lives simpler and help us get things done faster, but it seems more often than not to be a distraction or a form of procrastination. In this chapter of CEO Strength Coach, McKeefery emphasizes the importance of making technology an ally in building your business, and provides strategies for increasing your efficiency.
There are a myriad of social media outlets to promote your business and connect with the Strength and Conditioning world, and it is important to utilize more than one in order to increase your exposure. McKeefery lists six major social media sites that he uses, and discusses what makes them favorable in the business.
Word Press: Many of you have seen websites or blogs that are created on this site, and McKeefery suggests purchasing a domain and creating your own site. In doing this, you will be able to promote yourself, what you stand for, and where your journey is taking you. It is definitely cheaper to do it on your own, but be aware of where your talents lie, and consider outsourcing if web design is not your forte.
Facebook: the online yearbook, trend-center, and community forum. It is, as McKeefery calls it “a beast.” He suggests using Facebook to connect with athletes, promote events, and share professional media (articles, videos, etc.). Most of us already have a Facebook account, and it is important to distinguish your personal page from a professional page. Both should possess a certain level of couth “good times” in high school and college may not need to be seen by potential employers), and your professional profile should allow you to connect within the field and provide you with sources of further education and current events. Groups and pages are also great to have in order to connect with athletes and promote your training through videos, pictures, and shout-outs. Who doesn’t love praise from their coach that the whole world has access to?
Twitter: is the same as Facebook with regards to professionalism and privacy settings. What makes it essential to your toolkit is how instantaneous everything is. Some of the first major news stories were posted on Twitter! You can bet that your athletes will get the message if a practice time has been changed, because part of what makes Twitter so valuable is that most (if not all) of your athletes and supporters will be on it. Connect, connect, connect!
YouTube: is a great forum for education and promotion. When in doubt, there’s probably a video on YouTube about it. McKeefery encourages using it as a search engine for exercise demonstrations and explanations. He also encourages creating your own channel and documenting your learning process. Some Strength and Conditioning software will allow you to link videos with exercises to remind athletes how to perform them. Be smart while on the site though, and determine the validity of the information that you search for and put out there.
Hootsuite: This is one I had never heard of before, but basically it’s a social media management tool. It connects all of your social media profiles, puts them all on one feed, and allows you to schedule posts for the future. This seems like a great way to avoid getting sucked into updating social media all day; remember, we have to actually train athletes and manage our facilities in order to have anything to post!
Hootsuite is a great lead-in to McKeefery’s strategy to maintain an online presence and a productive schedule. As mentioned above, social media can be one of your greatest allies, but also your downfall if you do not manage it well. Batching is a way to make sure that all of your tasks get done as they need to, and your ever-piling to-do list does not become overwhelming. Batching is grouping similar tasks together and devoting specific time to them. McKeefery suggests grouping email, phone calls, continuing education, appointments, social media, and “nasty tasks” into separate batches. Devoting specific times of day to checking email and social media will allow you to be more present during other parts of your day, and keep you from being distracted by a phone buzzing every few minutes. Batching together appointments will save you travel and clothes-changing time if you can set them up consecutively. With batching, you are able to get into a solid workflow and become more efficient in the task at hand.
A lot of the information and advice given in this chapter is useful for any field you may be working in. I find it to be particularly helpful in the fitness industry for two reasons: 1. Not very many of us fitness-buffs are natural organizers, and as McKeefery mentions early on, there are no classes on management in many Sport Science departments. 2. Unlike most jobs, coaching and training are not nine-to-five desk jobs. There are distinct administrative and practical parts of the job, and we need to make sure that we are getting the most out of both of them, for our athletes’ sake and our sanity.
Check out Chapter 18 of CEO Strength Coach for more descriptive how-tos on some of these social media outlets and batching. Time to get to [PRODUCTIVE] work!
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