One of the questions that therapists often ask about running a social media page is, how long is this going to take me? And is the time investment worth it? They worry that they’ll be forever scrolling Instagram or Facebook for a limited return in terms of client inquiries.
So welcome to this month’s social media toolkit, where we’ll look at what you can post in June and also give you a few pointers to help you manage your planning and time so that you can concentrate on what’s really important, your clients.
Let’s start with a few tips to help you with your planning. Now, right at the outset, I want to share that I don’t rate my planning skills very highly. So much so that I do have a coach who helps me to prioritise. And she also says no to me quite a lot of the time, in the nicest possible way. She usually asks, and what are you going to let go of, Josephine, so that you can fit in this new idea?
Personally, I suspect the world is divided into 2 distinct camps in terms of social media planning. Those who find time in their diary to sit down and plan in advance, and others like me, who post on the day, or should I say post on the fly. And actually, either approach is okay. Much as I try, I have never been able to fit into that mould of the organised social media planner. So, over time, I’ve developed my own way of doing things, and I think you’d agree that I’m visible on social media, and I do attract a lot of coaching clients this way.
If you come across someone who tells you the best way is to batch and schedule, yes, that may work for them, but don’t allow it to stop you. There’s many, an ADHDer, who’s fallen at the hurdle of planning. And I think that’s such a shame because they’re incredibly creative people with a lot of ideas. If it suits you to post when you think about an idea, then go for it. But do remember, you can actually write the post and then schedule it to come out later, using a tool like the Meta Business Suite on Instagram and Facebook.
An example of this is, I did this the other day when I created a post about how I’d had to be chased about 7 times by Amazon to sort out a payment. It tied in so well with the subject of chasing clients for payments that I wrote a post about it. And just in time, I remembered I had a podcast on fees coming out the following week. So I scheduled the post to tie in with that. And I actually felt quite smug about it, because I don’t usually think that far in advance.
But what I would say is I do find it useful to have a schedule of ideas that I can call on. I have a social media planning diary, and I do actually produce post ideas in advance for members of my paid membership, the Therapy Growth Group. It does mean that when you’re sitting and thinking, what the hell do I post? You do have ideas to call on. I’ll often be consulting my planner about 30 minutes before my post is due to be published.
I usually write it on the spot and then publish it straight away. So if you’re someone who finds planning in advance difficult, it can be useful to create a posting habit. That’s what I do. So for my Facebook groups, I’ll always post in the mornings, and I’ll fit it in sometime between 7 and 9 AM. Then in the evening, I’ll be writing a post for my business page at around 6 or 6: 30 PM to publish for 7 PM.
What I find is, this daily habit supports me in consistency of posting. It doesn’t have to take long, but it means I have that dedicated time each day, and that helps me to show up for people. I also find it useful to have weekly themes. So, for example, I’ll create content around that week’s podcast episode. That will help me to decide what to cover in my Live at 5 training on Tuesdays, and I’ll usually be seeking people’s opinions on a Monday in advance of that.
I’ll produce posts that promote the podcast on a Wednesday. So you can see I have a little theme during the week that enables me not to have to think too carefully about what I’m going to be doing. This is something that you could do if you’re writing a weekly blog on your website, create one longer piece of content that forms the backbone of your social media, and then use that to create shorter posts for the rest of the week. Another way of doing it is to have a theme for a particular day each week. You’ll notice I do this in Good Enough Counsellors.
My Therapy Tuesdays will be a post about an aspect of therapy. Well-being Wednesdays will be an aspect of self care. And Thankful Thursdays will be celebrating the good stuff that is coming into our lives. So even if you’re not a planner, you can make it a little easier on yourself by creating a structure. In Therapy Growth Group, I help people to decide on their content pillars, the subjects you’d like to focus on, that are relevant to the client group that you’d like to reach.
Let’s use the example of reaching out to parents. You may like to have a day where you share a piece of news in regard to parenting, another day where you share a therapy tip for parents, and a collapse on the sofa at the end of the week post, and you could ask people to share what their week’s been like on that one. With a structure like this, you just need to keep your eye out for that piece of news, or make a list of therapy tips you can post. And if you’re like me, you might think of them about 10 minutes in advance of posting. However, the other thing to say at this point is don’t be afraid of republishing your posts.
You can publish them every few months or so and that means that you don’t have to come up with so many ideas. People won’t particularly remember them, so don’t be afraid to put your posts on a revolving post schedule.
Now, if you’re someone who is more of a planner than I am, you can make your social media posting structured by scheduling in a planning session or 2 at the end of the month to prepare for the upcoming month. You could also schedule in a batch processing day or half day, where you create your posts and pop them into a tool that will publish them for you at the appropriate time. You can use the free tools within your social media app, like Meta Business Suite, or you can use commercially available software, like Buffer or Hootsuite.
But before moving on to talk about dates in June, I’d also like to remind you to keep your eye on your social media for replies. Include engaging with post comments as part of your social media work. And what I’ve started to do is give myself a specific time to do this every day, And that means I can set boundaries about how much time I’m on social media and that I’m checking social media. But to be honest, if you’re still learning about how to make your post content engaging, you probably won’t have a huge number of comments to reply to.
However, another thing that you can do is engage with other creators online, because this can help to do what they call drive traffic to your page or profile.
If you chat to other people and make comments on their posts, That will make more people check you out. I find this particularly effective on LinkedIn, which is my secondary social media site. It’s really good to remember that social media is just that, it’s social. It’s about making connections, and you never know who may get to know, like and trust you and recommend your services to a friend. And it can also be another great way to create posts.
You can share what other creators are saying, and add your own perspective. You may remember that Fi Hewkin spoke about this in episode 11 of the podcast.
Now let’s move on and think about what you can post in June.
The first thing to say about June is it is Pride Month for the LGBTQ plus community. If you work within this area, you’ll be seeing a lot of posts.
And this may well make you think, well, what can I say that is original or any different to what anyone else is saying? And if lots of people are talking about Pride, what’s the point of me talking about it too? And I’d counter this by saying it’s more important than ever for people to be using their voices to stand up for LGBTQ plus people. If you post on this subject you’ll be showing your support for the community and you’ll reassure potential clients of your inclusivity. Remember, you actually don’t have to be original.
We tend to put so much pressure on ourselves to come up with something different or clever, but adding your voice adds to the number of people who are marking the month, and it makes it more mainstream to actually be out there and supporting gay and trans people.
You may worry about putting potential clients off, but what I’d say about that is marketing is about both attracting and repelling people. For example, today I’ve done my twice weekly task of archiving my contacts, those people who have unsubscribed from my email list. I don’t mind that they’ve left, because they obviously don’t need my services. So what’s the point of me writing to them?
People sift themselves out of your world, and that’s okay, because it means your messaging is clear, and that means you’ll attract more people who do want your services. Never be afraid of deleting and blocking people who are trolls. They don’t need to be in your world, and you don’t need to be in theirs.
Coming back to Pride Month, you may like to share stories about LGBTQ people who inspire you, share some history, or even share how you’re celebrating Pride. Perhaps you’re on a Pride march?
Share some photos and say why it’s important to you. Your followers will love to see these behind the scenes images of you. It satisfies people’s natural curiosity about others, and future clients may scroll and see them and be reassured about your inclusivity. Now, another aspect of Pride Month is it’s not just for June. Pride is for the whole year, so do keep an eye out for other LGBTQ plus themed days throughout the year, so that you can’t be accused of tokenism.
And a little reminder, it’s Autistic Pride Day on 18th June, and Stonewall Day on 28th.
While we’re on the topic of inclusivity and minorities, it’s also important to note that June 19th is Juneteenth. Now this is a day that’s celebrated in the US, and you may think what is the relevance to UK counsellors. But by acknowledging Juneteenth, you’re showing your awareness of the impact of slavery on the global majority.
June also marks stillbirth and neonatal death awareness month.
So for those of you who work with bereavement and in the field of parenting, this is one for you. Coronation Street, the TV soap, is currently running a storyline about this, so you may like to tie your posts in with this topic, as it makes your page very current. You can ask if people are watching it and what they think, and use that to share about the impact of losing a young baby on parents and their family and friends. And there’s also a Sands Garden Day on 22nd June.
If you’re someone who works with anxiety or trauma, there’s also some days to take note of.
It’s International Panic Day on June 18th and PTSD Awareness Day on 27th. You may also like to cover Tourette’s awareness on 7th June. When you’re choosing one of these days to work with, you could use them as a prompt to share content during the week. Typical themes you could choose are to share information, debunk myths and explain how you work with these issues. For example, if you choose Panic Day as a focus, you could produce several posts such as, how to recognize panic attacks, how to help yourself, the causes of panic attacks, how to help others if they’re having a panic attack, and how you work with people who suffer panic attacks, and the sort of results a client can expect from working with you.
And remember that you can also use these posts as mini blogs on your website. Now, for more general posts this month, you may like to know it is loneliness awareness week from 12th 16th June, and world well-being week from 26th. Loneliness is a great topic to choose, because you can approach it from a particular specialism. So, if you work with bereavement, you can talk about loneliness after loss. Loneliness applies to children, teenagers, young people.
In fact, people at any stage of life, including their parents, it can apply to those who are ill, those who are in active addiction, those who are in recovery, those who are in relationships, those who are separated. Just think about the people that you like to work with, and how loneliness applies to them, and how therapy can help them. And it’s very similar thinking if you look at well-being. What do the people you like to work with need to know about their well-being?
I hope these ideas will help you to think about how you can use your social media page to reach out to people.
Just think, someone who is looking for help and unsure about what to do may stumble across one of your posts and it may just be exactly what they need to help them to get through a difficult patch. Your social media page can be a force for good. It can help people to learn more about counselling and encourage them to seek therapy. All it takes is willingness to spend some time creating posts and some courage to publish them. Remember, if you need any support I help people in Therapy Growth Group to find their voice.
I do that by helping them with their confidence, and giving them practical support, such as post ideas for every day of the week. Just get in touch with me if you’d like to know more. And happy creating. Thanks for listening. Do come and join my Facebook community, Good Enough Counsellors.
And for more information about how I can help you develop your private practice, please visit my website, josephinehughes.com. If you found this episode helpful, I’d love it if you could share it with a fellow therapist or leave a review on your podcast app. And in closing, I’d love to remind you that every single step you make gets you closer to your dream. I really believe you can do it.