The Body Coach’s guide to social media
Joe Wicks shares his six top tips for becoming an Insta-influencer
Tolkien, Dickens, Rowling, McNab. Now there’s a new name to add to the ranks of the best-selling British authors of all time. Wicks. Joe Wicks.
‘I accidentally became the author of a book that went crazy and sold 1.65m copies,’ says Joe modestly. He’s smart enough to know his success is more to do with hard won mastery of social media and a liberal sprinkling of luck than literary genius.
‘People thought I was a marketing expert, that I’d studied it, but I didn’t know what I was doing, I was just mucking about in my kitchen and created a community.’
So while he may not be able to point you towards a magic textbook to help you win the internet, you can at least make a note of some of the main lessons he has learned along the way. Of course having great hair and eyes like a baby deer helps too.
1. Don’t Over-Think It
This all happened sort of by accident. I didn’t know what I was doing, there was no marketing people around me, no masterplan. So I don’t think you should think about it too deeply, just give stuff a go and if it doesn’t work, try something else.
This all happened sort of by accident. I didn’t know what I was doing, there was no marketing people around me, no masterplan. So I don’t think you should think about it too deeply, just give stuff a go and if it doesn’t work, try something else.
2. Choose Your Moment
I can always predict what a certain piece of content is going to do across different platforms. So if I post a breakfast recipe at dinner time it’s going to bomb, I know the importance of timing.
3. Be Positive
I think I stood out among the crowd of millions of online trainers because my message was simple and positive — it’s about what you can do, not what you can’t do. People are just drawn towards positivity.
4. Be Real
I’ve always tried to be honest, I’m not perfect. I do have days when I can’t be arsed to train and I eat crap food, and people can relate to that. I think they appreciate it because they don’t want to be made to feel guilty all the time.
5. Be Consistent
I’m pretty relentless, specially early on I was posting so much every day, and you realise people come to expect it from you and you have to give them what they want. If you start posting about random things they don’t expect from you they won’t stick around.
6. Work Hard
I think people like my energy; they can see I work hard. My mantra is work hard, have fun and be nice. If you do those three things you’ll smash it.
Read more: ‘I can’t believe it’s happened, really’ — The Big Interview with Joe Wicks
