Being a self-promoter

These days, one of the first places an employer looks is at the social media pages of a prospective athlete. Coaches must think carefully about political posts and pictures they decide to share with the world, and most importantly, the way they discuss women’s tennis. Social media can be a great way for a coach to build a profile. Many coaches like to stay in the background and tend to shy away from photos and media. A good reputation is very important. Coaches often worry that they will look egotistical and self promoting.

Being a self-promoter is actually very positive when referencing a professional profile. There are numerous ways to build an online presence, including photos with your players, written blogs, cooperation with media requests, and on court videos showing tennis instruction.

Recently the WTCA formed a corporate partnership with Socialtennis.com. They would like to call themselves a resource for tennis coaches.  Social tennis has the ambition to be able to provide a worldwide directory of coaches, so that anybody, anywhere in the world can locate, choose and contact a coach to help them train.

Last week the WTCA caught up with social tennis CEO Mark Wylam to find out more about his mission.

MARK WYLAM; We are aware this is ambitious, but this is what we are setting out to achieve.  The directory is important, however the most important thing for any coach is to get their name out there, to be known and if at a higher level, be recognised worldwide.

Can any of you say that you know who is the coach of all the top 10 men and women in this world?  I doubt it, but fair play if you do!  We, as coaches are not recognised for what we do, and certainly not paid for it.  Lets get our names out there and be heard…

We have a portfolio of web pages which are high quality, low cost and easy to set up and maintain.  If you use this facility correctly then you will add the domain to your email signature, business cards and any printed literature.  A good friend of mine Susan Nardi recently used this to fantastic effect.  She set up her page in October, promoted it via social media and also added the domain name to all of the above.  Susan then found herself being approached by other tennis facilities to potentially work for them.  She recently went for an interview in Florida for a Director of Tennis role.  Such was her enthusiasm for the role, she was more or less told there and then that she had the job.  She waited a few days and sure enough an offer of employment came.