A Strength Coach's Guide to Facebook

Facebook may be the most popular social network that exists, not to mention that it also has a pretty sweet movie made about it as well. And although many people see Facebook as a strictly personal hobby, there are some ways to leverage it as a strength coach to improve your strength and conditioning culture. Lastly, if you consider your work to be your life, then you probably already include sharing your strength and conditioning experience on the social network.

As a strength and conditioning coach, Facebook will not improve the strength of your players, it will not make them faster, and it will not influence their work ethic. However, Facebook is a communications platform that people listen to - therefore, it's a chance to communicate what your program stands for and what the philosophy of your S&C culture is. Secondly, Facebook can be a source of knowledge - bringing your expertise to Facebook, for example, can be informative for other professionals online.

Here are a few ways for a strength coach to take advantage of Facebook:

Make a Page for Your Weight Room or Strength Program

Creating a Facebook page your strength program is a great way to keep people informed on what's happening in your weight room! Imagine you created a newsletter telling people about the new equipment you just acquired, the latest maxes and records players have broken, policies, pictures, etc. Well, Facebook is even better than a traditional email newsletter because people pay more attention to its content!

The hardest part about maintaining a Facebook page is coming up with fresh content. Simply post pictures of your athletes, motivational quotes, and even ask other coaches to share content with you that inspires!

For a good example of how to run your page, check out Phoenix Strength and Conditioning and McKendree University Strength and Conditioning.

"Like" Other Pages and Watch the Content Stream In

When you create your Facebook page, other people can "like" it and then receive fresh updates in their feed about what you post. We recommend that you like other pages from coaches and strength programs around the country to stay in the know! If other programs are doing cool, innovative things and are sharing it, you can benefit from seeing that.

We recommend at least liking these three pages:

1. Strength and Conditioning Research

2. The Strength and Conditioning Network

3. Strength and Conditioning Mayo

Join a Facebook Group

Joining a quality Facebook group is extremely valuable. You can participate in debates related to strength and conditioning with professionals from all over the world. Secondly, you can create your own group and invite your players to join it. There, you can make updates and announcements that are private and only for your athletes without relying on mass texts and emails - pretty cool, huh?

Even more, groups can be a huge resource if you need to ask a question or get an opinion on a topic. Here are 2 Facebook groups we think every S&C coach should join:

1. Strength and Conditioning Practitioners 

2. National Strength and Conditioning Association

Conclusion

If you can't get around the fact that Facebook is a silly social network, it's time to think outside the box! Facebook is a free resource and if you don't use it, you are refusing to take advantage of an opportunity.

The best way to try something is to try it quickly and get feedback. Go ahead and make some posts and updates on Facebook, collect the feedback from athletes and coaches, then keep going!