ActionCOACH Stays Ahead of the Game with Social Media

Las Vegas, NV, June 03, 2009 --(PR.com)-- As the online space becomes a more vital and important part of marketing mix, ActionCOACH is one franchise company in the franchising category that has developed greater visibility in social media arena – even dedicating an in-house specialist in its marketing department to facilitate and oversee social media initiatives.

“Social media is a natural evolution of the web, and presents great opportunities to communicate with our coaches, our clients, buyers of our products and the business community in general,” ActionCOACH CEO Brad Sugars says. “It also allows us to connect to those people who are interested in learning more about our franchise.”

With an in-house social media specialist on staff, the ActionCOACH social media presence is unmatched by any business coaching company in the world.

“We have a full-time specialist that looks after our presence and our community,” Sugars says. “Our resources allow us to leverage our communication and to create a dialogue and connection with the business community.”

The company’s presence in the social media space has allowed it to leverage training and information in a variety of ways.

One of the latest company initiatives was a webinar hosted by Sugars about how to do business during a recession.

Invitations were sent to those people in Mr. Sugars’ Facebook network, and he was able to deliver his presentation to a live audience of more than 1,000 participants.

The event was such a success, ActionCOACH and Mr. Sugars are planning additional webinars targeted at those who opt into selected social networks.

“The ability to go out to the global community through these networks offers a tremendous opportunity to heighten awareness for our company and for coaching,” Sugars says. “Imagine hosting an event in a conventional way for 1,000 people – and all of the leg work and preparation and cost that goes into that. Compare that to a webinar with 1,000 people where you can deliver the same information in a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost and you can easily see the advantages of this media.”

Sugars’ comment also points to the immediacy and real-time nature of the medium – both of which are major benefits for a company like his.

“Social media is a great way to interact with the global community, and our webinar was something we just decided to do at the spur of the moment – something you obviously can’t do in other media,” he says.

“We are in a relationship business, and the future of connecting and fostering relationships and leads is social media. With a simple call to action after our webinar for owners on the call to ‘get a coach,’ we had a surge in the number of inquiries wanting to know more about a free coaching session with a coach.”

Sugars also notes that more ActionCOACH Business Coaches are successfully using social media to build their business by connecting to new audiences, adding value through business help and advice and creating links to free tools.

In addition, many are finding it easier than ever to convert their online “friends” and “followers” to live seminar attendees and clients.

“In the past, people got business information from advertising. Then, they got it from the press,” he says. “Now, buyers or interested customers get information from communities, and the more a company can interact on a personal level and a level of ethics that is both candid and transparent, the more successful those companies will be. We’ve made the commitment to be one of those companies, and we are starting to see the positive results of those efforts.”

Leveraging its expertise, ActionCOACH introduces new franchisees into traditional and new media marketing with custom blogs, suggested templates, educational webinars, conference information booths, as well as ongoing e-mail and telephone support.

ActionCOACH is the world’s number one business coaching and executive coaching firm, with more than 1,000 offices in 26 countries. To learn more, go to actioncoach.com.

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