Coaching, Social Networks and Web 2.0
By Robyn Logan
A couple of weeks ago I was invited to be a guest on Tom Floyd’s “insight on Coaching” Internet radio show. I was joined by Larry Magid, Derrick Sorles and Dave Taylor with Tom Floyd as the impeccable host 
We discussed the growth of web 2.0 technologies and the principles and philosophies behind them. Tom sent me the full transcript of the show which I will link to below, and you can also listen to it here:
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I would also like to share with you the discussion we had at the end about the role of web 2.0 technologies in business and coaching.
45:11 Tom Floyd
Robyn, let’s talk a little bit about social networking and Internet forums. How can coaches from your perspective best leverage those technologies in their practices? I mean, one thing that I can think of off the top of my head is that they would leverage them to recruit new clients. But are there other ways that they can use some of those tools in their engagements?
45:32 Robyn Logan
Yes, they can recruit new clients, definitely. Also they could use them to start to build a community with the clients they have. You know, I have seen a couple of coaches do this where they possibly have clients from all around the world and definitely their clients don’t know each other. Often coaches specialize in particular areas so you might be a business coach, an executive coach, or you might be a career coach, or a spiritual coach. So the sorts of clients you get tend to have similar interests and similar issues. So to open it up and allow them to network with each other, it’s sort of extending the power of your coaching to peer support and peer coaching which then emerges into the on-line learning area as well. So I think that’s one option.
46:27 Tom Floyd
I love that example. I never would have thought of that. I love it.
46:31 Robyn Logan
It’s a good one. I think the getting of new clients is always a good one. I mean, joining a social network and just being who you are is a great way to get new clients. Just for a moment I want to talk a little bit about the back end. Lots of people focus with web 2.0 technologies on the front end on what the user can have or what tools you can give your clients, like blogs or forums. One of the most powerful thing I’ve seen for coaches using web 2.0 technology is the sorts of technology that can help them run their business at the back end - I’m talking about on-line databases or say on-line survey tools or project management tools. All those sorts of tools are very affordable and easy to set up.
47:30 Robyn Logan
BaseCamp, for example, is a really good project management tool that coaches can use. Survey Monkey is an on-line survey software tool and I remember when we started in business none of this stuff was around and we spent the first three years trying to either create it ourselves or paying a lot of money to get it from somewhere else. And now you can very easily survey all your clients, or not even your clients, you can survey all the people who come to your blog and get an idea of the sorts of things that they are interested in getting coaching on.
47:58 Tom Floyd
It’s actually a tool that they could use in doing their initial self assessment or their pre-assessments with clients, for example. They could use it to get feedback from existing clients, how things are going and all of that. I could definitely see where that would be useful.
48:52 Dave Taylor
If I could jump in Tom.
48:54 Tom Floyd
Sure go ahead.
48:56 Dave Taylor
This is Dave, and my concern with everything that you are saying and I think that it’s terrific stuff, but I see a lot of people get lost in the tactics and don’t really think through the strategy. It’s just like well there are all these really cool tools, so oh I can put a survey on my site and then I’ll just come up with some new survey every couple of days and then I’ll start asking them things like, what kind of cell phone do you have, or did you like the latest movie that came out or something. And it ends up where it becomes very social, but it’s no longer serving the needs of the business or the needs of the consultant or coach. And I can’t emphasize enough how that can really sour you for years where you spend a few months and you get into all this stuff and it’s great fun. I have to say that from a personal perspective it’s very enjoyable, but you end up looking back three months later and saying, I just spent 450 hours and I don’t really see much gain for that and I’m therefore, going to go ahead and throw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater and I’m just going to skip all this web 2.0 social media stuff and it’s just not – the people getting the results with that are just, you know, I think they are lying. This is just not true. An I really, genuinely encounter this with clients, with some alarming frequency where the president’s son hooked up some sort of a Facebook page and then started talking about their favorite bands and then the company says, oh we already have a Facebook presence we don’t really need to go any further.
50:26 Tom Floyd
So it’s almost like, to use one of my favorite sales phrases that I’ve heard from our sales clients a couple of times, it almost sounds like you are saying you don’t want to spray and pray with some of these web technologies.
50:39 Dave Taylor
I don’t know why, but my whole imagine with that is of my cat.
50:44 Tom Floyd
I have three cats, I can get that same visual.
50:49 Robyn Logan
I think you are right David, I think that extends to social networks as well, you know, a couple of coaches recently emailed me to say they are starting a community, starting a social network and my question would be to them, you know, why are you starting that social network? I agree, you don’t just use the tool for the sake of the tool. It has to be built into your business plan and there has to be a reason and a motivation to use a particular tool.