Branching Out of Yoga: Becoming A Social Media Manager

I would have never imagined how much success and fulfillment that Yoga would bring into my life. Yoga has opened the door to a whole new world for me. Not only have I lost an incredible amount of weight, along with a great deal of emotional baggage, but I now own my own businesses teaching Yoga and managing the social media accounts of other local businesses. I never would have thought I would be working with social media to make a living, but I am thankful every day that I do.

You may be wondering how Yoga allowed me to venture into starting a new business managing social media accounts. It started with having to take the time to figure out Instagram. I had decided to record my Yoga journey, starting with my first attempt at home Yoga. I posted this to Instagram, and talked about how I felt after my first Yoga session and my commitment to Yoga with Adriene's 30 Days of Yoga Challenge. As I followed through with this promise, continuing to post on Instagram, I gained some followers from the Yoga community. It was one of these followers whom I had been communicating with who suggested I start taking photos after each practice for my daily post. My camera angles were not great, but I did my best to show the majority of my body in each pose.

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This then lead to researching hashtags to find the best ones for my posts. Did you know that you can use a maximum of 30 hashtags per post? I continued to post daily on Instagram with this new knowledge, continued to develop new types of photos, and learned to add GIFs, effects, and changed up the fonts in my posts to grab more attention.

Through continued posting I learned about formatting to grab people’s attention, and worked to be more precise and to the point with my information. I also started experimenting with stories, posting multiple times daily, culminating with connecting my Instagram and Facebook accounts. My mastery of the use of Instagram, and the impact it can have on personal business growth, when I traveled to Bali for my Yoga instructor training. At the end of my 27-day adventure, I had 5 highlights full of my trip photos – and I learned that highlights hold a maximum of 100 posts.

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Upon my return from Bali I switched my Instagram account from a personal to business account and created a new Facebook page as my original page was named Mikenzep – not very business like. Lesson learned – choose the name of your Facebook Page wisely.

The next step in moving from the personal to the professional – better quality photos. Both in my Instagram and Facebook accounts, the new pictures were of excellent quality and looked fantastic. These better advertised my journey, the steps in said journey, and my own personal progress with weight loss and fitness.

Yoga With Mikenze Facebook Page Cover Photo

Then, a few short months after I opened my business, I decided to solicit the services of a Webmaster. He was the first person to inform me that my use of Instagram and Facebook was excellent. He suggested that I create a Reddit account and let it age for a few weeks, then find subReddits that pertain to my local area and to Yoga and introduce myself; all in the name of more personal exposure. I posted in a few different subReddits to start to gain Karma and exposure. (Karma on Reddit is a way to track your accounts activity and positive or negative feedback.) It worked: when I showed my Webmaster my success in the Yoga subReddit, he was shocked! He had never seen anyone get that kind of response on Reddit before.

Post for My First Social Media Client

Due to these successes, my Webmaster suggested that I become a Social Media Manager. I told him I would love that, and shortly after he suggested me to one of his clients. Within a few days of that conversation, I received my first social media client, and spent a month figuring out how to use social media for other businesses. I now have two social media clients and am set to get more soon.

So that’s my story – from Yoga newbie to experimenting with social media as a way to document my journey – to using social media as a promotional tool for my own business – to being encouraged and supported to starting in a new venture as a Social Media Manager. I never would have thought that Yoga would take me in this direction and provide me with success in so many ways. I have never been more thankful for something in my life. My life is forever changed and for the better. And hey, if you need a Social Media Manager to help steer your accounts in the right direction, email me at mikenzesocialmedia@gmail.com.

Mikenze Pearsoll - Social Media Manager Facebook Page