Are Coaches Being Selfish on Twitter?

Before she got into coaching, Liz Scott was a reporter for the BBC. She still knows how to spot a story.

In a conversation recounted on her blog recently, Scott described a chat with a colleague over a glass of wine that led to a bold accusation leveled at coaches: “Coaches are acting quite selfishly on Twitter.”

Selfish? Coaches?

Social media savvy coaches have flooded Twitter, with many life coaches, business coaches and coaching thought leaders boasting thousands of followers. Those followers get a steady supply of inspirational quotes, links to articles of interest, and invitations to take part in webinars, conferences and classes.

What’s selfish about that?

Scott says the charge that coaches—herself included—were being less than generous with their Twittering “stung.”

“At first I felt rather defensive. How dare he make such an allegation! I thought my friendly and approachable approach was perfect for Twitter,” she says. “However on looking back at my recent tweets I realised that actually I wasn’t reaching out to the wider business community.”

“Coaches are generally talking to each other,” said David Thomas, a business owner who uses Twitter to attract new clients—in addition to serving the clients he already has. “(Coaches) are generally swapping information about what they’re doing with their clients and pointing them to blogs and to websites, which is fine for the coaches, but it is only for the coaches.”

Hildy Gottlieb is a coach, consultant and writer. She’s also noted a surprising lack of strategy among coaches in their use of Twitter. “They just get on and tweet. They have no plan, no idea what they want to accomplish by engaging in social media,” Gottlieb said. “Someone told them it’s the place to be, so they jump in. As a result, they have no choice but to go where the flow takes them, which is why they wind up talking to each other – it’s easy.”

Gottlieb suggests coaches take a page from coaching to find a better way. “If our clients told us this story, where would we encourage them to go? What would we suggest?”

Gottlieb calls the problem “The Cobbler’s Kids Syndrome.”

As she sees it, “coaches are the first to give you 4,305,406 reasons why “My business is different – I can’t plan for it,” or “I just let it go where life is going to take me,” or some such. And when I work with them to do for themselves what they do for their clients, it is liberating, exhilarating. It truly never occurred to them that they not only had the answer all along, but that they are actually expert at helping others do that exact thing.”

And yet some coaches simply bristle at the suggestion of selfishness. “I’m fascinated with the debate this topic has generated,” said Liz Scott. “It just goes to show that Twitter is a powerful medium and maybe we (coaches) should reconsider how we use it.”

To pursue the validity of the selfishness claim, Scott fell back on her training as a journalist—interviewing an outsider to get his perspective on coaching. She grabbed her camera and talked to David Thomas about “selfish” coaches and the huge potential for coaches on Twitter to broaden their reach. (You can watch Scott’s 1:25 minute interview below)

Coach Wendy Kier took a look at her own Twitter feed and decided to try some new things. “I started out on Twitter as many people do by randomly following people who share similar interest,” said Kier. That led to the insular, limiting conversation among coaches some describe as “selfish.”

Expanding reach and trying new things may offer an immediate—and possibly dramatic—upside. “I think (coaches) can always be more authentic and real,” said Rose Cole, a nutrition coach and speaker in California who has nearly 8,000 Twitter followers. “People are dying for content and leadership that isn’t so surface.”

Wendy Kier decided a week ago to try new things. “I’m now following fellow Tweeters who add value by providing me with useful information and links, not only relevant to my community but also in building my business.”

Kier used her Twitter account to promote a local business event and to promote a potentially business-building event of her own. She also—-it should be noted–used Twitter to connect to this reporter, which led directly to her inclusion in this story. “Modern day networking from the comfort of my seat,” she said.

And journalist turned coach Liz Scott considers herself converted.

“I for one am now certainly going to spend time reaching out to other businesses and offering tips and ideas (where appropriate) so that businesses can really begin to understand the power of coaching,” she said.