Who are you, IBCLC? Knowing is key to building your social media brand
Knock knock. Who’s there? Anyone? Is your target audience knocking on your business door? Have you recently established your lactation practice, but find you’re having a hard time connecting with families? Or are you an experienced IBCLC who is experiencing a “lull” in your business that’s lasting longer than usual?
Two critical concepts to explore when thinking about effectively promoting your business are identifying your unique personal brand and understanding the power of an online presence.
In 2024, who you are matters almost as much as who knows it. A strong personal brand and online presence lend you credibility, visibility, and control, especially as you grow your private practice in lactation care.
Identifying your personal brand
Ashley Strahm, Director of Content at The Lactation Network, suggests that you think of your personal brand as your story, and how you present it to the world. She points out that combining a strong personal brand (once you’ve cultivated it) and an online presence is “paramount.” You can have a personal brand that others know and respect you for, but without an online presence, your influence is limited.
So, how do you identify your personal brand?
- Define who you are: Choose three words to describe yourself.
- Decide what you want to be known for: Do you have a specialty?
- Understand your audience: Who, specifically, are you hoping to serve?
- Sum it up in a sentence or two: Who you are, what you uniquely do, and who you specifically help.
This might require you to dig deep — after all, “who you are” is a huge question! But once you discover who you are as a caregiver and private practice lactation consultant, you’ll be able to describe what you value and offer to precisely who needs your care.
Understanding the power of social media
If your personal brand is the story you present to the world, your online presence is the online representation of you as a person or your business. It is the catalyst to creating an impact: Your foundational goal when you’re promoting your business. If you’re building a private practice, you want to reach families who will benefit from your expertise.
Alex Fritsch, Senior Social Media Manager at The Lactation Network, wants business owners to know that “social media is a tool that should serve you.” Social media should help you reach your goal of growing your business, not cause you stress.
Take these three easy steps to get started:
- Create content pillars: Think of your content pillars as idea “buckets” that you can easily fill. Some examples include: Myth Mondays, Breastfeeding FAQs, or “common questions I get from my patients.”
- Choose the forms of content you want to use: The form your content takes is the digital asset you will be creating. Think: Videos, carousel posts, photos, or graphics. You’ll want to experiment creating different forms of content to see what best suits your working style and creative skillset.
- Utilize captions and hashtags: When trying to decide where you should spend your time, remember that captions are more important than hashtags. When thinking about your captions, they can be short, funny, an expansion of your content, or explanatory. For hashtags, create a list of 10 that are in your niche, then pull from your list of 10 and choose 3-5 hashtags for each post.
Once you’ve thought through your content pillars, forms of content, and captions, you’ll want to put them together. You can assign each content pillar a form of content or mix and match depending on what works best for you!
Combining your personal brand with a thoughtful social media strategy is key to building a great online presence for your private practice. Stay connected for more tips like these!
Are you new to building a private practice and looking for a step-by-step guide to establishing one? Log into the myTLN portal to access the “Starting Your Practice Playbook.”
Not yet a TLN IBCLC? It’s free to join. Go here to schedule a call and learn how TLN can help you grow your practice.
