In a (training) world being flipped upside down, the best coaches often have smaller followings because they are busy keeping it real.
“Follower count on social media does not equal quality resource/level of success.
Social media is largely a game of selling out to amusement, to leverage attention from consumers desiring to be entertained.
This is why the best coaches go socially unnoticed.
They’re busy keeping it real.”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
For most, social media is a game of leveraging attention by whatever means necessary.
More attention = More clicks = More ego boost = More (perceived) credibility.
Hell, some “influencers” even dupe large companies into paying them because of their ability to create viral content.
I’m not hating on these people at all. If there is a game out there and they know how to play it and win, who am I to say they shouldn’t play the game? All the power to them.
In the “fitness” space there are undoubtedly a few (emphasis on few) coaches who have deservingly created large grassroots social followings, by producing high quality, educational content.
I am proud to call several of these guys friends and overjoyed for their success not on social media, but in real life.
This said, the overwhelming majority of “influencers” in our fitness/training space aren’t worth the salt that won’t even come out of the bottom of the shaker.
They are charlatans who are really good at least one of the following (often a combination of):
-Telling false information.
-Wearing clothes that are too small.
-(Re) “creating” new exercises (that are actually bogus).
-Taking drugs.
-Owning a nice camera.
-Purchasing social media followers.
“Huh!? Then if they are frauds and do some/all of this, why do they have a bunch of followers!?”
It’s because, again, most consumers do not desire to be educated, they desire to be entertained.
So most (unknowing) people will gravitate towards “what’s (temporarily) hot” if they see some bro in Gym Shark shorts or a grown woman in an adolescents’ yoga pants.
Get the lighting right, get a low angle butt shot in the camera, and tell people all about your new triceps exercise, the “triceps kickback.”
Buy a few thousand bot followers to get yourself started, and voila, simply sit back and let the internet, internet.
For this reason, you should never discredit a Coach based on follower count.
Some of the best coaches in the world have the smallest social media followings because their time is invested in learning, growing, and actually coaching with fundamentally and scientifically sound practice.
They’re concerned with actually helping you.
Not duping you with some theatrical productions for a 10% off code of some garbage supplement.
