As a Doula Business & Marketing Coach, new doulas often ask me about when and how to start using social media in their doula businesses.
Social media is a great opportunity to educate people in your area about doula support, showcase your doula services and help potential clients get to know you. After all, hiring a doula is a personal and intimate choice. You can use social media to educate people about your role and services AND showcase your personality and style.
The sooner you can start social media accounts for your postpartum doula business, the better. In fact, creating a presence for your doula business on social media is often easier than getting a website up and running. And, it’s free!
When you have a presence on social media, that can only help you as you start networking in your local community and as you start spreading the word about your doula services.
In today’s digital age, if you don’t exist online, people are not going to hire you.
Even if you come highly recommended from a friend or provider, potential clients are going to look you up online before reaching out and booking an interview.
Make sure there is something there for them to see!
If they can’t find you, or there are only 1 or 2 posts on your account, people won’t see you as “legit” and they may wonder if you’re actually in business. And, they’ll probably keep on scrolling along to the next doula account.
No one is going to hire you to come work in their home and care for their precious newborn if they try to scope you out online and they don’t find much of anything.
SO WHAT DO YOU POST?
It can be hard to come up with ideas of what to post on your social media accounts.
Hera are 3 areas of content to focus on:
1. Education
Social media is a great chance to educate people in your area about doula support and the role of a postpartum doula. I hear from so many doulas who tell me, “No one in my town has ever heard of a postpartum doula.” Social media gives you a platform to spread the word about your work, your role, your services and all the ways that a postpartum doula can support new families.
You can also use social media to educate people about newborn care tips, postpartum planning tips and other evidence-based information. This helps establish you as a local expert and valuable resource.
2. Personality
Use your social media posts as a way to help potential clients get to know you and your style. After all, hiring a doula is a personal and intimate choice. Your posts can also be a way for pregnant people to familiarize themselves with you and get a feel for working with you, before they even call to set up an interview.
This doesn’t mean that you have to post all the personal details about your life and family. But you can use your social media posts to show that you enjoy time in nature, or that you love coffee or have a cat with a silly personality.
3. Resources
A big part of our role as postpartum doulas is to share resources with our clients. So extend this to social media! Use your social media account to share local and national resources with people. By doing so, you show potential clients that you are knowledgeable and well connected.
We all love to complain about social media, but the sooner that you can embrace it as a powerful (and free!) tool for spreading the word about your doula business, the better!
Need more ideas on what to post? Get 30 days of posts that highlight postpartum doula services with Instagram for Doulas (Insert Marjon’s affiliate link here)
The Doula Darcy is a Doula Business Coach who combines her unique background: 10 years in advertising and 12 years as a postpartum doula to help other doulas build thriving businesses. She attributes her background in marketing to her success at building a thriving postpartum doula business in a small town in New Hampshire. Now she loves sharing her industry expertise with other doulas. The Doula Darcy is the founder of the My Doula Village, a monthly membership community which helps doulas with the marketing side of being a doula so that they can get more clients. Darcy has been a DONA certified postpartum doula and lactation counselor since 2010. She lives near the Seacoast of New Hampshire with her husband, three kids and a turtle.
