Ever noticed how Facebook is becoming ever more versatile? From video, apps, games and mailing lists to geographically targeted events and promotion, it can offer you a lot of tools as a yoga teacher. But how can you use it in a meaningful way that both grows and inspires your community and creates work opportunities? Here are 5 areas you should think about to get you started.
Teach. You can reach a huge number of students, both in your hometown and internationally by putting your teachings online. Video is massively popular on Facebook at the moment, and is guaranteed to reach a large number of people. Why don't you record some free classes and share them with your students on your fanpage? You could also include meditations, guided relaxation and healthy recipes in the mix.
Engage. Gone are the days when Facebook was simply a way to publish your own status updates. The key now is to get people interacting. How can you encourage your own students to engage on your page? Discussions about topics from previous or future classes, yogic diet, asanas and philosophy? Or perhaps encourage them to publish their own content, such as pictures and inspirational stories.
Inspire: I don't know about you, but my Facebook feed is full of inspirational messages from yoga teachers, who want to share both their own wisdom and the wisdom of renowned teachers. A hopeful message can really change someone's day and provides relief from the violent headlines, celebrity gossip and commercial promotions that can often fill people's feeds. Plus, publish photos with care. Inspire with healthy food and pictures of positive group gatherings. The yoga selfie can be aspirational to some students, but intimidating or off putting to others.
Share: Why not publish useful articles and beautiful photos from other teachers on your wall? Help them share their events and perhaps they will help you do the same. You can start building a wider network of relationships with teachers and studios across the country and world.
Promote: often the only thing we do as teachers is share the information about our classes and workshops. This is fine, as long as it's not the sole focus of your page, as people are unlikely to visit it regularly if they feel it's only to do with promotion. There are some powerful advertising tools now that can share your events on the walls of all of your followers and their friends, or target a specific geographical location. It shouldn't be too costly either.
Were these tips helpful? Why not sign up to our mailing list to receive a monthly newsletter, with collections of articles for yoga teachers? Or consider our Yoga Internship course, where we give you time and space to teach, experiment, explore and share. The course includes further education modules where we look at online yoga in detail. Contact us here for more information!
