Using Social Media to Grow Your Student Base
Overview
Now that you’re on Metafy, you may be tempted never to leave the Feed. But if you’re serious about growing your student base, you need to get serious about your social media presence.
When gamers need help, they turn to social media, gaming communities, and people they already know and trust. It goes without saying that they’re not likely to be persuaded by overt sales pitches. So the best way to reach gamers is to find online communities that focus on your game and become a trusted, active participant. That way, when the topic of training comes up you’ll be there as a natural part of the conversation.
There are two important goals that coaches need to keep in mind. First, you want to build a strong, engaging presence on social media, and generate content that attracts followers. Second, you need to turn those followers into students. With this guide, we'll dig into specific ways to focus on each of those goals, both in general and for the sites where you’re most likely to reach gamers.
General Strategies for Social Media
Building Your Social Media Presence
If you want to establish yourself on any social media platform, it’s critical to be active. You may be tempted to make accounts on multiple platforms, but claiming the name and walking away isn’t enough. It can even be detrimental, as it can make you look unavailable, inactive, and unresponsive. Instead, choose sites where you stand the most success of reaching fans and potential students, and participate.
Read your Replies. One of the reasons people follow you on social media is to have the chance to directly interact with you, so be absolutely fastidious about replying — or at least reacting — to people who respond to your content. Be generous with likes, replies, and shares.
Share your Knowledge. Make it your goal to become as much of an authority on your game as you are on its gameplay. Information travels very quickly, and you should be aware not only of news and updates, but also trending discussion topics and memes, when it comes to your game. That means following hashtags and accounts that are prominent in your game, your league, and gaming in general. Get involved in conversations about your game whenever possible, even if it’s just to react or share.
Get those Alerts. Set up some Google alerts as well, so you’ll get inbox notifications when news sites post articles about your game and about gaming in general. News stories, reviews, and even opinion pieces are great fodder for sharing on social media, and for starting conversations and creating relationships with other gamers.
Cross-share your Links. So if you’re focusing on Twitch and Twitter/X, for example, add your Twitter/X account link to your Twitch profile and vice-versa. If you’re streaming content or having a giveaway on one platform, link to it on all of your other pages. Encourage your followers on one site to follow you on the other. And make sure to add all of your links to your Metafy.
Polish that Profile. Spend some time making all those pages look slick. That means using a consistent avatar and username from site to site, so people will quickly recognize you, and making your profile look complete and professional. It’s not just the specific information on your profile that will attract followers, it’s also the overall attention to detail. Remember that your endgame is to establish yourself as a coach, and the impression you make with your social profile will go a long way toward convincing people you’re serious.
Growing Your Student Base
Your social media profile (and even your username) is a key tool in turning your followers into ongoing customers for your coaching business. You’ll gain followers based on your reputation as a gamer, and by being entertaining, interesting, and authoritative about your game. It’s up to you to identify yourself as an expert and make it easy for people to book a lesson with you.
Polish that Bio. A good first step is to create a brief writeup that you can use in the About Me or Bio section of all your social media accounts. You can use your Metafy profile as a starting point, but remember to keep it as short as possible. Not only do most sites have a character limit, social media users expect blocks of text to be brief and to the point.
You should specifically mention coaching, the name of your game(s), and your Metafy URL. Use the available space to mention your strongest qualifications / gaming achievements and use motivating language like, “is currently accepting new students.” List the link to your Metafy profile in the following format:
- Metafy: metafy.gg/@YourUsername
It’s critically important to include that link. Because social media profiles are so brief, you won’t be able to incorporate much detail. Your Metafy profile will. It serves as a standalone advertisement for your coaching: It highlights your key achievements, contains your full-length pitch (in the Bio), and directs students to the packages you offer for coaching.
Examples of Social Media Bio Text
- Currently accepting new Fortnite bookings. I’m a four-time national champion, and can be booked at metafy.gg/@Username. DMs open.
- Top-ranked Hearthstone player and coach. Currently accepting new students. Metafy: metafy.gg/@Username.
- M:TG Top 10 Player | Coach since 2017 | Openings available | metafy.gg/@Username
- Tired of wiping in League of Legends? I can help. Metafy: metafy.gg/@Username.
Introduce yourself. Many social media sites have an introductory thread or channel that’s specifically tailored toward welcoming new participants. They’re the perfect opportunity to tell people you’re a coach and are accepting new students. Even if there isn’t a specific welcome protocol, there’s a window of opportunity when you’re new to a site when participants will be open to posts explaining who you are and why you’re there. Be on the lookout for other opportunities to remind people about your coaching activities, as well. Whenever you reach a milestone on Metafy or as a gamer, post about it.
Offer Advice. You’re an authority on your game, and giving advice will help cement that in potential students’ minds. You might be hesitant to give your expertise away for free, but consider this: A sentence or two on a social media site likely won’t be all the help a person needs, but it will open the door to inviting them to go into more depth with a hands-on lesson.
Be Easy to Reach. And that includes making sure your messages are open to all senders. Privacy settings vary from site to site, but tend to default to preventing strangers from contacting you. Not only should your direct messages be open, but you should let people know that they are, whenever possible.
Site-Specific Strategies
Some sites have a higher concentration of gamers, and you can take steps on each platform to improve your chances of reaching them. Each one has its own norms and expectations — and so will fan groups on the same site — so it may b e a good idea to lurk at first, to find out what each community’s rules are. Here are some best practices.
Twitch
Twitch’s conversational nature and active community make it a popular streaming platform for gamers. And because of its video interface and rolling chat, it’s a good space for building relationships with potential students. As a bonus, you can connect Twitch to Metafy through your User Settings, which enables you to offer discounts to your Twitch subscribers.
Building Your Presence
Before you start streaming, give some thought to the kind of content you want to create. There are lots of types of gaming streams, and having a consistent approach will show viewers that you’re serious — even if your brand is comedy. Will you be an instructor? A role player? Whatever it is, commit to it and do it well.
Invest in some decent equipment before you get started, and test it out before you go live. Having a stream that looks or sounds choppy will lose you followers, fast. A boom arm or standing microphone is an important investment, because headset microphones are notoriously low-quality.
If you need help setting up your channel, check out Twitch’s Creator Camp. Not only will it walk you through the nuts and bolts of getting started, it offers articles and videos with advice on building your brand and retaining viewers.
Invite absolutely everyone you know to your stream. Even if they’re not active, having even a dozen or so people in your channel will bump your stream up to a much higher position in its category so it will attract more viewers.
It’s incredibly important to be consistent and treat streaming like a job. Fans need to know when they can tune in to catch you, so post a schedule and stick to it. Missing even one stream could lose you followers who may never return.
Be sure to interact with your viewers. Keep a close watch on the chat and answer questions. Even if you find yourself answering the same question over and over, always respond. People will come and go, and won’t know that they’re asking the same question another person has asked. Be respectful of lurkers, too, though. Some viewers want to watch your stream unnoticed and will feel uncomfortable if you call them out. As your following grows, you might consider a general greeting that’s meant to include anyone who hasn’t posted in the chat and doesn’t require that they reply. They’ll appreciate feeling seen without being put on the spot.
Growing Your Base
The most important thing you can do to convert your viewers into students is to make your Metafy link as accessible as possible. This means that you should set up a bot command (e.g., !metafy, !coaching, !coach) that has a brief summary and your Metafy link. Then put that bot command in your stream title every time you stream.
People new to the stream often try out the bot commands listed in the title and so will inadvertently advertise your link for you when they try them out. If you are a big enough streamer that you have active mods, you can also have your mods use the command periodically to help you promote your Metafy while playing or in response to questions about how to get coaching from you.
In addition to having and using the bot command, it is also helpful to mention coaching on stream. Many viewers don’t look at the chat, so be sure to mention that you are offering coaching when it is appropriate. For example, when people ask for gameplay tips and you help them out, close by telling them that you can give more individualized advice and guidance through coaching.
Remember to set goals for yourself and talk about them during your stream. Highlighting your own objectives and the steps you are taking to reach them will make your stream more educational, which adds value for viewers. More importantly, it will prompt those viewers to think about their own goals, and it will motivate them to return to future streams to see how you’re doing.
Finally, it can be helpful to remind viewers about your Metafy at the end of each broadcast, as part of your wrap-up. Letting viewers know when you’ll be streaming next is a basic courtesy, and adding some detail about your coaching schedule is an extension of that courtesy. Mention your Metafy, and make sure it’s linked on your profile and info panels. The bio field is very short, on Twitch, so having an active Metafy link is really important.
Twitter/X
Twitter/X remains a solid resource for building a following and reaching potential students. Because it gives average users direct, easy access to brands and celebrities, fans frequent the platform specifically to interact with top gamers and developers. They’re also more likely to retweet posts on Twitter/X than they are to share content on any other platform.
Building Your Presence
Follow @TryMetafy and your fellow Metafy Pros. They’ll be a good resource for retweets, and give you ideas for ways to grow your following. In addition, be sure to follow hashtags and keywords that are relevant to your game, esports, and gaming in general. Here’s how:
- Search for a hashtag or phrase, and while it’s in the search bar, use the ... menu to Save Search. Going forward, that query will show up at the top of your search menu.
- Search for a hashtag or phrase, then bookmark the results of that search. Each time you load that bookmark, it’ll repopulate with the current results.
- Use a Twitter/X interface tool, such as TweetDeck, that offers the ability to follow hashtags and topics.
You should also keep an eye on Trending Topics. You never know when one of your posts will go viral, but it stands a better chance if it relates to a popular discussion on Twitter/X. Along the same lines, keep an eye on Topics to Follow for suggestions relevant to your brand. These are similar to hashtags, and can be modified in your Twitter/X settings. For specifics on how they work, check out this article.
Post images whenever you can, whether they’re screenshots, gifs, or even memes. Twitter/X users are much more likely to engage with a post when there’s a picture. Use hashtags, but use them sparingly. Post with hashtags are more likely to be seen and retweeted, but posts with multiple hashtags will have less engagement than those with just one.
Make it a goal to check Twitter/X several times a week, and to post one to three times per week. Because of the rolling nature of Twitter/X it’s hard to tweet too much, but tweeting more than three times a day won’t really help you to build your brand. Tweet about your game and about the coaching experience, but avoid tweeting direct sales pitches. Your tweets should focus more on accomplishments, funny observations/stories, tips, and such. Remember to share screencaps and video clips, to give your feed visual punch. If you can make memes, now’s your time to shine.
Be aware of how your tweets and follower count are doing. Twitter/X offers detailed analytics on its site that are easy to access by clicking More and selecting Analytics. You can check your tweet count, how many impressions your tweets are getting, how many people have looked at your profile, how often you’re being mentioned, and your follower count — and whether each of those numbers is rising or falling. Analytics also shows you your top tweets, follower, and mentions for each month, and you can dive into deep post-by post traffic data by clicking View All Tweet Activity.
Growing Your Base
As soon as possible, tweet about your Metafy, and include your profile link. Consider including a screenshot of your Metafy page to make it more eyecatching. Tag @TryMetafy, and we’ll retweet it.
Make sure you have a pinned tweet (the one that stays at the top of your Twitter/X page) about coaching. You can draft a specific description of your coaching experience/availability/activities, or you can just pin the tweet where you announce your Metafy affiliation.
Consider holding some giveaways. You can create promo codes either for discounts or free lessons through your Pro Studio, and you can use them as contest prizes or even just random giveaways. Free and discounted lessons are a great way to drum up excitement and add new students.
Make sure your DMs are open. You never know when a prospective student will want to get in touch with you, and if you’re not following them, they can’t send you a direct message. You can do this by going to your Twitter/X Settings, selecting Privacy and Safety, then Direct Messages, and make sure that Allow message requests from everyone is checked.
Other Social Media
There are a number of other social media sites that you can leverage to build your student base. While they might not have the same follower mechanics that Twitter or Twitch have, there are still opportunities here to build your Metafy.
YouTube
Maintaining a channel on YouTube will absolutely establish you as a resource for gamers. As with Twitch, you should decide what your lane is before you launch into the work of video production. Will you review your game? Post walkthroughs for quest chains and in-game challenges? Play in the most hilarious way possible? Find bugs? If you’re already active on Twitch, your clips should give you plenty of material for your YouTube channel.
When you craft your videos, it can be helpful to add a brief intro to some of your videos where you mention your Metafy and that viewers can book some time with you by clicking the Metafy link in your description. Consider using motivating language like, “I’m currently accepting new students,” or “I have a few openings,“ to remind potential students that: 1. you’re in demand, and 2. they should commit to ongoing lessons.
Make sure to create some vertical shorts, in addition to longform videos. People who already know you will show up for you traditional videos, while shorts will get you in front of casual scrollers.
To help new people find your videos, make sure to choose keywords that will drive viewers, and keep your video titles brief and specific. With your description, find that balance between hitting your keywords and incorporating helpful information and links. Once you’ve gained a viewer, you can keep them watching your channel by creating a series of videos on a related theme. You can also build playlists, not just of your own videos but of other videos that fit in with your work. Sharing videos from other influencers or partners establishes you as authoritative and connected, and may encourage those users to mix your videos into their playlists.
Discord
Discord has a lot to offer. It has text, audio, and video support for both one-on-one and group chats. It also supports streaming to users in a Discord. This has made it the preferred platform for many gamers to communicate in real time. Gaming companies, esports leagues, and player groups all build Discord communities to focus specifically on their game. It’s also your main tool for interacting with the Metafy team, and connecting Discord to your Metafy is a required step in setting up your account.
It’s a good idea to add your students as friends on Discord just in case you are unable to reach them via Metafy chat. Even if they don’t accept the request, they’ll be easy to find through the Pending list. Make sure your settings (and those of your students) aren’t preventing you from receiving friend requests or messages. For help with Discord’s privacy settings, go here.
To promote yourself as a coach when you’re on non-Metafy Discord servers, consider using your status to display your Metafy link.
- Click on your Discord profile picture and select Set a Custom Status.
- Type in your Metafy link (Metafy.gg/@YourUsername) and pick an emoji (for example, the :videogame: icon, which looks like a controller).
- Select Don’t Clear in the Clear After dropdown.
Reddit is another high-traffic site for gamers, and because of its long-form format is the home of deep, detailed conversations. Because of its staying power and engaged participants, you’ll want to take the time to learn each Subreddit’s community rules and culture before jumping in.
Many gaming Subreddits have a pinned megathread where you are permitted to advertise yourself as a coach, so make sure to comment there. Reddit offers formatting options such as links and bulleted lists, so there are ways to make your post stand out. Something else to keep in mind is that your recent posts will show in your user profile, so if you refrain from making additional posts and instead participate by upvoting, your promotional post will be the first thing that visitors see when they view your profile.
Facebook is an absolute juggernaut and remains the most popular social media site on the planet. Odds are you’ve already got an account there for keeping up with relatives, and there are a few steps you can take to update it to identify yourself as a coach. On your profile, you can edit your 101-character intro with the About field, add your Metafy to your Website and Social Links, and add your work as a coach to your Work and Education list. You can also seek out groups and pages where players are discussing your game, and participate in the conversations.
Links
The Bottom Line
Social media provides multiple natural opportunities to build your Metafy. Because social media is interactive by definition, your presence on sites like Twitter/X and Twitch builds relationships with potential students. Becoming a familiar, comfortable, expert presence in your followers’ lives will lay the groundwork for a teacher/student relationship. So if you take the two-pronged approach of building your social media presence and helping fans to see you as a coach, the bookings will follow.
