While it is not too difficult to promote yourself, creating engagement is a little more tricky.  In social media terms, engagement is getting visitors to interact with you (your page), and interact with others about you.  The more your post or page is shared, commented on, clicked on or talked about, the more important (relevant) Facebook will consider your page or post to be, and the larger organic reach you will get.  While likes are a form of engagement, Facebook places far less value on them compared to other avenues of interaction.  One way to think about it is ripples in rough water.  A single ripple in rough water will dissipate in a short distance because of the waves and agitation.  If you make many ripples in the water, they will collectively travel much further before disappearing.  If every engagement creates a ripple, you can see how the more you engage, the further your reach. 

While your target audience for your page is primarily expectant mothers, and extending to the expectant fathers, and anyone else of influence in the expectant mother’s life, your target for engagement is anyone who may make a ripple for you.  Your engagement is achieved more through using your Facebook page as an extension of your profile than promoting yourself.

The first rule of engagement is don’t turn off your audience.  A well respected social media guru once said “if all you are doing on social media is selling, you’re failing.”  The majority of your posts should be engagement posts (see the 5-3-1 rule in Part 2 - Promoting Yourself), sharing much in the same way you share every day on your personal Facebook account.  Too much selling will cause your audience to ignore, unfollow or otherwise disengage from your page.  Avoid divisive content as well.  While politics, religion, and heated social commentary may be important to you, if it turns away visitors, there is no place for it on your page.  Use only relevant hashtags.  Pulling a “bait and click” to leverage trending hashtags will only turn people off.

The second rule is make the most of trending topics.  Trending topics are anything people are talking about, and if they’re talking about it, there’s probably a hashtag.  While not all trending topics may be appropriate- social unrest, tragedy, etc- sharing positive trending content can be a great benefit.  For example, sharing a picture of yourself warming up by a fire or maybe a snap of a couple of mugs of steamy hot chocolate with some cookies and using a hashtag or 2 about the winter storm or weather can reach a much broader audience because of trending topic.  There are many hashtags that have been created for a specific events and topics.  Using #SB50 to join the conversation about the Super Bowl, or #americanIdol and #thebachelor to leverage those audiences will expand your reach exponentially.

The third rule of engagement is post regularly.  Just like the lottery, you have to be in it to win it if you are using social media.  Going a few days without posting decreases your relevance with Facebook, which, in turn, will decrease your reach.  You should post a minimum of once a day, but not more than 3 times in general.  If you are involved in posting about a trending event, you can break the frequency rule, but day to day you do not want to inundate your audience.

One of the most powerful aspects of social media is that it keeps you relevant - in the expectant mother’s view.  You have the perfect platform to share a view of your life in a much more immediate and intimate manner.  You can share any kind of content- photos, videos, your musings, recipes, music- anything in your life that you care about, are passionate about.  It is through these insights that you may build a rapport, spark interest, or find the one little bit of commonality that will inspire an expectant mother to connect with you.  Your goal is to engage an expectant mother, connect with her, and create an adoption plan.  To achieve that goal you need to engage as many people as possible.  Every engagement is beneficial in that it will extend your reach beyond the borders of your followers and connections.

About the Author:

Joseph Driscoll is a cofounder of First Steps Advertising for Adoption, a full service design and advertising company specially focused on advertising for domestic adoption. Joseph and his wife Kathi are the proud adoptive parents of their 5 year old daughter, adopted domestically. With over 20 years experience serving the local and national commercial advertising and marketing industries, and providing business to business advertising and marketing services direct to Long Island businesses through his commercial company Amp Imaging, Inc., Joseph is uniquely qualified to bring his experience and expertise to adoption advertising.

Joseph freely shares his experience with potential adoptive parents through workshops offered through adoption support groups, adoption attorneys and as an internet blogger. Joseph has also addressed the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys regarding online advertising for adoption and surrogacy and utilizing the web for connecting with potential birthmothers. Click HERE to send Joseph an email.