Are you sometimes secretly scared of social media? Of posting something embarrassing? Or being simply wrong?

It’s OK. No one is judging you here. It’s completely safe to say that you’re scared of social media. You are not alone.

We all just do the best we can. Being out there. Opening up and sharing our stuff with the world.

But while it’s okay to make mistakes, there are some common pitfalls you want to avoid, like the following 5 mistakes yoga teachers make on social media:

Read the 5 Mistakes Yoga Teachers Make on Social Media:

1. They are not focusing on quality content

Quality trumps quantity when it comes to social media content. There is a lot of content out there and you want yours to shine.

Do not think of social media as a place to only promote your yoga classes, workshops, and retreats. Instead, use Facebook, Twitter, and co. to provide useful, relevant, and valuable information that can enhance your students’ lives just as much as you do when you teach them yoga.

Ask yourself, “What do my people care about?” Spirituality? Anatomy? Yoga playlists? Healthy recipes? Think about what your students care about most and what fits with what you want to offer and post about it regularly.

Need more tips on how to do this? Here are the main things to consider when creating your content:

• Write about your services, workshops, and retreats, but mix it up with other content. I recommend limiting self-promotion to 25% of your content. These posts would be direct links to your website, offers, class announcements, etc. The other 75% should be content that reflects with your yoga community.
• Try to get the most out of your images. There are amazing things you can do with photo apps these days like www.picmonkey.com or Canva (*affiliate link)
• Write in a personal and friendly voice, like you would be talking to a friend. If you don’t know your tone of voice, click here to read “How to Use Your Personal Voice on Social Media”.

2. They are not thinking before posting

Sometimes people post stupid things. It happens. Nobody’s perfect. But still – try to re-read everything once more BEFORE you post it.

And never, ever use a national tragedy to promote your business. This yoga studio received heavy criticism due to their tactless and insensitive self-promotion.

Have you heard about Justine Sacco? In 2012, Justine made a racist joke on Twitter to her 170 followers. Nobody could have foreseen it, but she quickly became the number one trend on Twitter worldwide. Despite working in PR herself, Sacco could not foresee the onslaught of criticism she received, which ultimately led to her resignation from the company. Ouch.

3. They are not engaging with their community

The yoga community is a passionate bunch. Keep a close eye on your social media accounts and respond to your followers when they leave you comments or post on your account. This open communication will help build loyalty between you and your people.

What (almost) never works is going into blank denial when faced with controversy. When a sexual abuse complaint was filed by Holly Faurot against the Jivamukti Yoga Center, Sharon Gannon and David Life made no public response to the allegations for a long time, beyond issuing a blanket denial. This might be one of the reasons why the story got bigger and bigger.

4. And they aren’t encouraging people to connect

You don’t have to twist an arm to get members to share how much they love your studio. In this day and age, it’s very common for social media users to share images of their triangle pose or tag their workout buddies at the studio.

For example, you could develop an easy-to-remember hashtag, maybe your studio name or mantra, and encourage your members to tag their content with it. Tracking the hashtag will make it even easier for you to engage with your members.

Yoga wants us to come together as one and learn from each other, and what better way to do that than through social media?

5. They are not consistent with their social media updates

It happens to most of us, initially we are full of ideas and curiosity, and we end up posting more than we should. Then we slowly lose that initial enthusiasm, we realize how time-consuming social media is, and before we know it we only post new content once every blue moon.

How can you avoid falling into this trap?

What you need is a good plan and the awareness that this is a big part of your marketing. Don’t look at social media like it’s a hobby where you share some nice pictures when you feel like it.

When I talk about a plan, I mean that you have to decide when and how often you want to post and stick to it no matter what. If your plan is to posts regularly and you are afraid to get confused, I recommend a scheduling tool like Buffer or Hootsuite.