Trust and legitimacy is a key issue in the online coaching industry.
As the industry remains unregulated in the US, UK, and most of Europe, and with the rise of social-media-driven business models, questions about its trustworthiness and legitimacy have risen.
Of course, there is a large pool of coaches that are playing by the rules.
However, this year alone has seen many reports from reputable news sources like the BBC and The Guardian written about the “seedy underbelly” of the coaching industry, with claims outlining how quickly the industry grew post-pandemic, as many “coaches” saw the boom of social media as an opportunity to capitalise on the success.
To help determine the most (and least) trustworthy industries for coaches, we’ve analysed 20 of the most prominent social media accounts in five key coaching industries.
They were then compared against five key metrics:
- Follower count
- Percentage of fake followers
- Social media engagement rate
- The sentiment of the comments in their posts
- The boldness of their claims.
Each industry was then given a “trustworthiness” score out of 100.
Key findings:
- Coaches in the careers industry are deemed the least trustworthy, due to a high proportion of fake followers and a lower follower count
- Productivity coaches rank second – despite having a high engagement rate, they have a low proportion of positive comments in their posts.
- Despite having the most followers and highest engagement rates, relationship coaches see the most negative comments in their posts.
- Business and Marketing coaches are deemed the most trustworthy, due to a large following and a low percentage of fake followers.
The data has revealed that the careers coaching industry is the least trustworthy, with a trustworthy score of 40.00/100.
The industry has among the fewest followers and some of the highest percentages of fake followers on Instagram accounts.
Tim Brownson, owner of The Fully Booked Coach, explains why these factors may influence trustworthiness:
“A strong, competent coach usually attracts a following through high-quality advice, word-of-mouth recommendations, and positive client results. If a coach has few real followers and many fake ones, it suggests they may not be able to organically grow a community, raising doubts about their effectiveness as a coach.”
Productivity coaches rank second, with a trustworthy score of 40.14100.
Despite having the third highest engagement rate score of all industries analysed (59.03/100), the sentiment surrounding the high engagement is often negative, with a sentiment score of 41.81/100 – the second lowest of all industries analysed.
Tim says:
“While high engagement usually suggests interest and relevance, the negative sentiment can reveal deeper issues related to their credibility, approach, or effectiveness. This can suggest that clients or followers aren’t seeing the desired outcomes, which creates a perception that the coach is ineffective at delivering real results, which is crucial for trust.”
Finance coaches rank third in the study. The data shows that finance coaches have the smallest follower count on average (84,140), contributing to their low follower score of 18.27/100.
Not only this, but finance coaches are seen to have the third highest volume of fake followers on average as well, with a fake follower score of 53.53/100.
This, therefore, shows their lack of credibility, as it suggests that they need to buy followers to position themselves as more popular than they are.
The relationship industry ranks fourth, with a trustworthiness score of 53.29/100.
Despite having among the highest number of followers and highest engagement rate, their sentiment score (40.25/100), is the lowest of all industries analysed.
Tim adds:
“In the relationships industry, where trust and emotional guidance are critical, potential clients are going to want to know that their coach will be able to empathise with them. Negative or critical comments suggest dissatisfaction, raising concerns about the coach’s ability to provide effective guidance. This lack of positive sentiment can erode confidence in their expertise, making potential clients hesitant to trust their services.”
Health and Fitness coaches are deemed the second most trustworthy, with a trustworthy score of 55.59/100.
The data shows that coaches in the health and fitness industry have among the highest number of followers, as well as the lowest percentage of fake followers – signalling that those that follow them are real life people who trust their services.
Business and Marketing coaches deemed “most trustworthy”
With a trustworthy score of 56.90/100, the business and marketing coaching industry is deemed as the most trustworthy.
The coaches analysed had the second highest follower score (62.82/100), as well as the lowest number of fake followers.
Not only this but despite having a lower engagement rate score (10.34/100) – the sentiment of their engagement was the most positive of all accounts analysed, with almost a third of comments being of positive sentiment (30.98%).
Tim adds what you should look for if you’re looking to choose a coach:
“When choosing a coach, potential clients should look for genuine, organic engagement, such as positive feedback from real followers, and avoid coaches who appear to rely on inflated follower counts. In an industry where personal guidance and trust are the most important, authentic interaction and positive sentiment are key indicators of a coach’s ability to deliver meaningful results.”
Methodology
- The Fully Booked Coach sought to uncover the least trustworthy coaches based on social media data.
- Firstly, a seed list of the top 20 coaches in the following industries was sourced: Business and marketing, health and fitness, relationships, careers, productivity and finance.
- Next, their Instagram follower count was sourced directly from Instagram.com
- Thirdly, using Modash.io, the percentage of fake followers was calculated.
- Following a meticulous review of the coach’s website and Instagram account, their claims were analysed for perceived “boldness.” Each account was given a score from 1 to 3 based on its boldness claim (1 being very bold, 3 being not very bold). A less bold claim was deemed more trustworthy, as it suggests the coach is aware of their competence and what they can achieve.
- Following this, the sentiment of the coaches’ comments was analysed by running an AI coding script into the comments of the Instagram posts. The percentage of positive comments in each post was thus found.
- Finally, The Fully Booked Coach used the PERCENTRANK formula to score each metric cohesively. Follower count, fake followers and sentiment score were deemed as the most important factors for trustworthiness, thus receiving a higher weighting. The final scores are an average of all accounts analysed within that industry.
Data was collected in August-September 2024 and is accurate as of then. The full dataset can be found here.
