Over the past couple of months, the tools I’ve been using have really helped me have a more frequent online presence while at the same time allowing me to have more time to do other things in my life. Once again, here is a list of the tools I shared:
Tools to Connect:
*Topify
*SocialOomph
*Rapportive
About a month or two ago, I discovered there’s a buzzword that describes people like me. I’m a “curator” – someone who finds informative and useful online content and shares it with friends and followers. I’ve been the resource gal for as long as I can remember! Being a curator is very time consuming (fellow curators, please nod along with me). Luckily there are apps people just like us!
There’s no going back – many of us lead busy social lives… online. Social media needs to be an essential ingredient in a birth pro’s marketing and networking strategies. It’s where a large number of expectant mamas hang out, and it’s where we can get their attention. It’s where we can be influential, and where we can change the state of maternal health in our society. The issue many face is that aside from the learning curve newbies face when starting out, to get the most out of social media, time must be invested in it. Anyone who is a heavy user of Facebook and Twitter (and now Google+) knows all too well the time suck that can result.
After more than a year of not paying much attention to what’s happening on Twitter, I began dedicating more time in an effort to connect with others. In doing so, I remembered how interacting with Twitter is so much more instantaneous than Facebook, and how it’s a great way to find new resources and content.
In the past, I’ve participated in a few chats where I have “met” new people to follow, and I’ve learned a lot about the chat topic. About a week ago, I discovered @DoulaParty, a twitter chat that’s run by Desirre Andrews of @Preparing4Birth. It was a lot of fun, talking about all things doula-ish. Questions were asked and answered, support was offered, links and stories were shared.
Three years ago, I decided to figure out what Facebook was all about. In the beginning I made an honest mistake – I accidentally sent a friend request to EVERYONE I had ever emailed from my Gmail account. Within a week I had over 100 friends!
I discovered high school classmates and business colleagues. I sent out friend requests to people I’d known and liked. Eventually I began getting friend requests from blog readers and other birth workers. Occasionally, I began getting friend requests from people who saw I was a friend of their friend, or I was on a forum they were a part of. Sometimes I’d reject a request, but most of the time I’d accept them all.
A few months after I joined Facebook, I came down with bronchitis which turned into pneumonia. I was bedridden off and on for about 3 months, so I decided it was time to decipher Twitter, since reading and clicking was about the only thing I could bring myself to do during that time.
New subscribers to my newsletter receive an email from me asking if they have any burning questions about starting or growing their birth business. This morning, I received a letter from Rebecca. She is thinking about becoming a doula, and she wanted to find out some ways to keep herself informed with up-to-date information. Here are some resources I offered to her.
