In case you’re a new yoga teacher, you might be feeling a bit overwhelmed by social media. What should you post? How often? I used to feel the same exact way. It took me a long time to figure out what really works and helps me to grow my tribe authentically.

Here are my top 5 social media tips for yoga teachers that will help you grow your tribe with intention, authenticity, and joy.

1. Be Reliable And Consistent

Use social media to keep your yoga students up to date on what’s going on. Consistently post your class schedules, events, and workshops—at least on Facebook. For example, you could post your teaching schedule for the week each Monday.

Even when your followers hardly see your updates in their feed, they’ll visit your page when they are looking for specific information—if they know that they’ll find it there. That’s why you have to be consistent. If your last update is from a few months ago, people won’t bother visiting your page again.

I prepared a nifty checklist that will tell you exactly what to do on social media each day, week, and month. Click here to get it for free.

2. Be Real

Being a successful, social media-active yogi does not mean that you have to post pictures of you doing handstands on a tropical beach (unless you want to).

Instead, post pictures with a purpose. You want your feed to be pretty AND have substance. If you don’t have a purpose or a mission, then ultimately, your business will feel kinda “meh”.

Give people a reason to care. Paint a picture of a future world, a better society, or a lifestyle that inspires passion. That’s how you’ll get a tribe of followers who are emotionally invested in what you have to offer.

Also, don’t strive to be perfect! Show the REAL you—from the behind-the-scenes to the perfectly executed poses everybody sees on Instagram all the time. Be real in your descriptions and keep them relevant. Posting a photo of a handstand and a Rumi quote has been done too many times.

As social media has become pervasive, people have also started to crave authenticity more and more. This is why live video is becoming SO popular; it’s hard to hide behind a perfectly tailored Instagram photo when you’re live on camera.

3. Speak in Your Student's Language

Are you speaking your client’s language? Or are you babbling in a foreign tone? If you speak industry jargon (all this Sanskrit) all the time, phrases you were taught during your certification program, words that you and your yoga teacher friends use, that‘s YOUR language.

And then there’s the way that your students express their hopes, dreams, desires, wants, needs and fears. That’s THEIR language. Your job is to decipher what your students are really asking for, and then describing how you can help them—in their language, not yours.

I’ll give you an example to illustrate what I’m talking about here.

Your language: "I have a new workshop coming up in which I‘m going to teach myofascial release techniques."

Your student’s language: "I have this tension in my shoulders that I can’t seem to get rid of. I wish I knew some techniques that help me and that I can practice at home."

See the disconnection? You have the same goal (release of tension), but you and your client are expressing that goal in very different languages. Here’s how you can translate your offer:

“All those hours sitting at a desk left you with stubbornly tight shoulders? Come to my next workshop where I’ll share some amazing techniques on how to get rid of deep muscle tensions and open up your body, leaving you feeling super relaxed and light as a feather.“

4. Connect and Engage

Social media allows you to connect with your students and fellow yoga teachers and build a deeper connection.

To grow your followers on social media, you need to engage with them. It’s not enough to post beautiful photos and have a well-designed Instagram feed. Find other accounts you like and follow them, comment on their posts, like them, and build a community.

Your goal should be to bring the "social" back into social media.

Build online friendships with people in your niche. Share your expertise and your passion with your community. Grow, learn, and get inspired!

5. Measure Your Growth, Not Your Followers

You have your first few hundred likes on Facebook or Instagram and people are liking your posts and maybe even commenting. So now you may be wondering, "how do I know if this is good?"

First, let’s clear this up: It doesn’t matter how many followers on social media you have! Don’t compare yourself to yoga teachers with a bigger following on social media. Your worth as a yoga teacher can’t be measured by how many people liked your Facebook page in the last 24 hours.

It’s not that tracking your numbers isn’t important, it’s that you should focus more on tracking the things that matter so that you don’t waste your time and your sanity.

Instead of looking at your total number of followers, look at the development from one month to the next—in other words, your growth. Look at what you may have done differently and where you can improve your posts when you see your growth declining, and celebrate when you’re getting more followers.

Image credit: Drinie Aguilar