Join Birth and Breastfeeding Professionals 

You’re invited to the monthly BirthGenius Twitter chat!
Tuesday, April 17th, at 1:30pm ET

If Twitter = 140 characters and Facebook = 420 (ok, now it is actually 63206, but shorter posts tend to have more reach) then how do we use these and other pivotal platforms to communicate the complex ideas we’re working on?

This month’s topic:

Spreading Complex Ideas in Short Format Social Media

Let’s discuss and share:

How do you boil your complicated topic down to 140 characters?

How are you using other tools – like infographics, images, and videos – to communicate what can’t be captured in a status update?

How are you using other platforms to drive traffic to your blog posts, where you can elaborate on your longer ideas?

With so many important issues out there, what can you do to elevate yours?

Connect with Birth and Breastfeeding Professionals on Twitter!

Date: Tuesday 4/17
Time: 1:30 pm Eastern
Details: Join the chat using the #BirthGenius Hashtag –Learn More Here
Tips: Use Tweetchat.com for a better chat experience

Please invite your friends on Facebook and tweet the details on Twitter. Thanks!

Join Birth and Breastfeeding Professionals

You’re invited to the monthly BirthGenius Twitter chat!
Tuesday, March 20, at 1:30pm ET

You’ve probably heard that on March 30th all Facebook pages will switch to a new format. Last week the fabulous Amber McCann shared a helpful tutorial on how birth and breastfeeding pros can switch their Facebook pages with ease (and style) and now we’re taking the conversation live on Twitter.

Come chat with birth and breastfeeding professionals about the impending Facebook changes, what they mean for your page, and learn how you can leverage this transition. If you’ve already made the switch come and show off your page, get feedback and help answer questions from those who are about to take the plunge. If you haven’t switched over yet, you still have time! Come ask questions and get ideas and tips for your page!

Remember this is a mandatory change, so let’s figure it out together before Facebook hits that switch in a few weeks! As always, all tech levels welcome.

This month’s topic:

Navigating the New Facebook Page Changes

Let’s discuss and share:

The Logistics: The Do’s and Don’ts for your new page (Yes, there are rules!)

What do these changes mean? How will these changes affect how moms use and interact with your page?

How to design a page that will best reflect your practice or organization.

Get feedback, ideas and inspiration and peek at some awesome pages that have already made the switch.

Connect with Birth and Breastfeeding Professionals on Twitter!

Date: Tuesday 3/20
Time: 1:30 pm Eastern
Details: Join the chat using the #BirthGenius Hashtag –Learn More Here
Tips: Use Tweetchat.com for a better chat experience

Please invite your friends on Facebook and tweet the details on Twitter. Thanks!

Editor’s Note: I (Jeanette) just had the pleasure and honor of meeting Amber McCann face-to-face at the LCinPP conference. She’s one of our top go-to-girls for social media in the breastfeeding world. We asked her to share her insights on the coming Facebook changes – here’s her take on making the most of this important platform for reaching moms. 

Change is coming, my friends! Facebook just launched their new Timeline for Facebook Pages. I know that for many of you, the thought of it makes you want to crawl in bed, throw the covers over your head and wait out the storm. But I also know that you value communication with the mothers and their families that you encounter online so I’m here to help walk you through the changes to your Facebook Pages.

The goal of all social media communication is conversation! Many mothers having babies today have spent much of their adult lives engaging their peers online on Facebook and Twitter. They are very accustomed to sending out their thoughts and ideas to the world. As those that serve mothers (and mothers-to-be), we want to be a part of that conversation.

Since Facebook is built upon the idea that connecting online is important, they are making changes to the structure of business Facebook pages. The goal? Increasing interactions on your page. Too often in the past, people were “liking” your page and not returning to engage. Now, getting the information you think is important (for example, a link to the new American Academy of Pediatrics statement on Breastfeeding) to the eyes of others is even more efficient.  The changes were rolled out last week and will go into effect for all pages on March 30.

There are several major changes that will help you to connect with the moms who are seeking your support:

Cover Photo

The most obvious change to Pages is the large photo at the top of the page. What a great opportunity to give those interested in your business a big “WOW” when they come to your page. I encourage businesses to either put a photo in this space that really shows the essence of who you are OR use the space to highlight a graphic image that gives a quick “This is what we are all about!”

While this space gives us a chance to be wildly creative, there are four rules that must be followed:

It may not include price or purchase information like “20% off services for those on our Facebook page” or “Purchase products on our website.”

It may not contain contact info. Your phone number, website, etc. should be in your page’s ABOUT section, not on your photo.

It may not contain a Call to Action. You can not have words like “Please like our page” or “Tell Your Friends.”

It can’t have language that references any of the “actions” you would take on Facebook like “like” or “share.”

But when you understand these parameters, you’ll recognize that there is still so much you can do with your Cover Photo. Here are some great examples from doulas and lactation consultants who are already using their Cover Photos well!  (Check these folks out on their blogs, too at Breastfeeding Support (Dublin, Ireland); Breastfeeding Arts (Rockland Co., NY); and the Breastfeeding Center of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA))

Messages

Facebook pages will now be able to receive messages from those who have liked their page. At first, you might think “Oh my! One more place where I have to retrieve messages!” I understand! But, this makes it so much easier for those who might be potential clients! Instead of having to go our our “About” section, finding our email address or website, and then taking that information over to their email, now they shoot you a message with a single click.

On a related note, this would be a great time to develop a Social Media Policy (editor’s note – watch here for more on this soon!)  so that you have clearly communicated to your clients how you will and will not use social media. By deciding how you will deal with these new Facebook messages BEFORE they arrive, you make your life much easier!

Pinning Posts

Another great feature of the new pages is that YOU control what those visiting your pages see. This is especially relevant for those pages who regularly have members of their community ask questions and provide conversation. With the new pages, you can “pin” statuses, pictures or articles to the top of your page. For example, you could share a post from a former client with a recommendation of your services! What is it that you’d like to be the first thing people see? You are in control!

There’s more to learn about what Facebook Pages offer, but this is what’s most useful to the birth and lactation community. I think it is vitally important that we acknowledge how our moms are communicating  - but speaking with our own voice is the most important thing! Make your new Facebook Page tell those you encounter exactly who you are.

If all of this seems overwhelming and you’d like some Facebook coaching, Amber offers consultation for those who work with pregnant and new mothers. She will help you set up a Facebook page for your birth or breastfeeding related business for $50 ($30 if you already have a page and want to convert now to the new Timeline for Facebook Pages) and walk you through how to connect better with your community. Find out more ~ email her at amber [at] nourishbreastfeeding.com.

What are your favorite tips for the new Facebook Pages?

Hashtags help you find the tweets that are of interest to you.  Do a quick search on any of these hashtags to see what’s hot today in birth and breastfeeding. An app like Hootsuite can help you set up regular streams of your fav interest areas.

Birth:

Breastfeeding:

Chats:

Hello Birth Professional! We are *so* glad to see you here.

Maybe you’ve been on Twitter for awhile and are just setting up your professional account. Or maybe you are touching your toes into this social media platform for the very first time. Either way, we really need you and your genius in the twittersphere.

More specifically, the 2.0 mom needs you.

The 2.0 mom – that digitally savvy woman who googles her question about birth, pregnancy, or breastfeeding *before* she calls her doctor or midwife – is clamoring for evidence-based information about the childbearing year. And we here at BirthSwell want to be a part of a community of birth and breastfeeding professionals who are excited to meet the 2.0 mom right where she’s at.

Just in case you are new to Twitter – or new to Twitter’s birth community – we wanted to say hello and share with you resources and strategies we found useful as we got our start.

Here’s a few to get you going:

Meet new birth pros.

BirthSwell holds a monthly twitter chat of birth pros, which is a great way to meet likeminded folks and share skills. Here’s a guide to how to join in!

Use hashtags!

Hashtags are a way to sort out the tweets on topics of interest. Here’s the hashtags we’re following to help us stay up-to-date. Apps like Hootsuite can help you organize your faves into easy-to-use columns.

Follow the pros.

Here’s a great list of birthpros who have participated in the BirthGenius chats and are building strong tribes. Follow them to see how’s it’s done (and don’t be afraid to introduce yourself and say hello).

Make yourself useful.

Like all social media platforms, Twitter is about talking with people, not at them. Share your favorite on-line resources with women looking for info – if you are using the Twitter native app, it will automatically shorten your link, saving valuable real estate in your 140 characters.

Develop a routine.

We’re working on a post right now to share with you our routine (sign up now to make sure you get this and all our posts). But in the meantime – keep it simple.  Swing by twitter one time a day, three times a week. Each time you get there, set some small goals – follow five new people, send out one post about what you are doing, share one great link, and respond to a handful of interesting tweets. Then get on with your day!

Enjoy your new community.

I am constantly in awe of the amazing community of birth and breastfeeding professionals I get to interact with every day, all thanks to social media. Find the folks that make you happy to sign in to Twitter!

Please think of us as the Birth Pro Social Media Welcome Wagon – and your personal help desk. Have questions about Twitter, Facebook, or other social media platforms? Come say hi – you can find us on e-mail, Facebook, and of course, Twitter.

Birth pros: what are your tips for Twitter newbies?

I (Jeanette) just got back from the Lactation Consultants in Private Practice conference ~ inspiring! IBCLCs are on the leading edge of thinking about how to reach pregnant and breastfeeding mothers where they are at – online.

More to follow on inspired talks – both formal presentations and late-night sessions at the bar – with social-media-forward folks like Jake Aryeh Marcus, JonaRose Feinberg, Amber McCann, Diana Cassar-Uhl, HopeAllyson Dwiggins, Deirdre McLary, Robin Kaplan and the unsinkable Liz Brooks.  (Just to name a few – my brain is still hazy from late night travel . . . )

In the meantime, thought you all might appreciate these Twitter archives of the conference, assembled by Fleur Bickford (thanks for doing this!) who was there in spirit!

Friday

Saturday

Sunday part 1

Sunday part 2

What was your shiniest, most inspired moment at #LCinPP?

Join the monthly BirthGenius Twitter chat this Tuesday (2/21) at 1:30pm et! More details below.

Are you ready for conference season? Don’t get us wrong, we love all things digital, but nothing can replace connecting with other birth and breastfeeding professionals face-to-face. Attending a conference is a great way to continue your education, stay up-to-date on the latest research, network with peers and stay inspired. Come join birth and breastfeeding professionals and chat about what conferences you’re attending, share tips and best practices and do some pre-conference networking!

This month’s topic:

Attending a Conference: Best Practices and Tips from Birth and Breastfeeding Pros

Let’s discuss:

Which conferences are the best to attend?

How do you get the most value out of attending a conference?

What are tips for connecting with other attendees before the conference?

How can I plan or attend a tweet-up?

What are best practices for making the most out of social media when attending a conference?

Join Birth and Breastfeeding Professionals

Date: Tuesday 1/21

Time: 1:30 pm Eastern

Details: Join the chat using the #BirthGenius Hashtag –Learn More Here

Tips: Use Tweetchat.com for a better chat experience

Please join us for this important topic and invite your friends on facebook and tweet the details on Twitter. Thanks!

We know. You are not in this for the money. We’re all too busy helping moms and babies to worry about the money side of things — but it’s important to talk about! As birth and breastfeeding practitioners we find ourselves wearing hats we may have never imagined: entrepreneur, work-at-home-mother, business owner, philanthropists or . . . volunteer?

This month’s topic:

What role does money play in our birth and breastfeeding practices, our businesses and our blogs and social media presence?

Let’s discuss:

How do you balance your volunteer/paid commitments?                                                                                                                        Are there multiple streams to your income model?                                                                                                                                 How does your social media time impact your income? Are you getting leads from your social media efforts?
What does your business get from you being on social media?
Are you using tools to provide remote services?
What are your philanthropic efforts?

Join Birth and Breastfeeding Professionals

Date: Tuesday 1/17

Time: 1:30 pm Eastern

Details: Join the chat using the #BirthGenius Hashtag –Learn More Here

Tips: Use Tweetchat.com for a better chat experience

Please join us for this important topic and invite your friends on facebook and tweet the details on Twitter. Thanks!

Ensuring Safe Births During Unsafe Times

When disasters strike – like the earthquake in Haiti, Sri Lanka’s tsunami, or hurricane Katrina – emergency tents are set up and medical aid rushes in. What we at BirthSwell recently learned, though, is that the need for reproductive health care – including basic care for women in the childbearing year – rarely gets women to the front of the line. That’s where Circle of Health International (COHI) comes in – and why we at BirthSwell decided to get involved.

COHI is one of the few non-profits that focuses exclusively on working with women in times of disaster to ensure access to reproductive, maternal, and newborn care. What makes COHI even more unique: they work at the grassroots, partnering with the local community to identify their priorities and needs. They respect local cultures and values and focus on building skills in the community with local providers. This means their work is sustainable, long after COHI volunteers have moved to the next disaster.

When we learned about COHI, we first wanted to sign on as volunteers! But since neither of us are in a position to haul our nurslings into disaster zones, we offered to do the next best thing – work to get one of their well-trained volunteers to Haiti.

Bring A Skilled Volunteer Midwife To Haiti

We offered to organize a fundraiser to support their inspirational work. We wanted to create something that echoed their model of grassroots volunteerism. COHI knows that change isn’t built by just one person – it takes a community working together. Similarly, it won’t be just one splashy contributor that makes a difference for COHI (though we sure do love big checks!).

We believe that we can find at least fifty women who could each give what they can, between $10 – $100. That’s what it will take to pay the way for Karen Feltham, a skilled midwife, to get to Haiti – and that’s what grassroots is all about!

Knowing the power of social media to reach the audience most likely to get this issue – other moms, who can only imagine what it must be like to be pregnant and in a time of disaster – we’ve focused our efforts online. To spread the word as far as possible, we called on the people who best understand the power of grassroots organizing through social media: bloggers.

We invited bloggers from across genres – activists, birth experts, inspirational moms – to join a circle of support for COHI. Each blogger has agreed to take on a day of the campaign. These amazing women are educating their readers about the need for women’s health care in times of disaster. Of course, we’re hoping that readers will provide much needed funds to COHI – which will help get a trained midwife to Haiti.

But like COHI’s operations on the ground work to create long term success in a community, we have a longer term goal of sustainabiltiy for COHI. We’re hoping that readers of this campaign will like COHI on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and otherwise stay in touch! We want to build and deepen a network that sustains COHI not just through Haiti, but for the disasters to come.

Because sadly, each year, one-third of the world’s population will be affected by natural disasters. 13 million will become refugees and 20 million will be displaced within their own countries. Women and children constitute as 80% of the world’s refugees and displaced people.

Please consider helping out today:

Contribute! You can even get perks!

Get connected! Visit our indiegogo site and be sure to share it on Twitter, Facebook, and your listserves.  (The indiegogo site has great tools and widgets for sharing – try them out!)

Thank the bloggers who are building a circle of support for COHI! (Check out the schedule below)

Join us! Would you like to join in and write a post for your blog? Drop us a line and we’ll get you everything you need to get started.

The circle of supporters include:

Monday the 9th – Our Bodies Our Blog

Tuesday the 10th - Desiree at So Fawned

Wednesday the 11th – Anthrodoula at Doula Ambitions

Thursday the 12th – Life Intertwined

Friday the 13th – Amber at Strocel.com

Sun the 15th – Hillary at Infinite Learners

Mon the 16th – Dionna at Code Name Mama

Tues the 17th – Molly at First the Egg

Wed the 18th – Alice at Your Doula Bag

Thurs the 19th – Robin at The Birth Activist

Fri the 2oth – Molly at Talk Birth

Sat the 21st – Veronica at Crunchy VT Mommy

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If you are reading this, you probably already use tools like blogs, Twitter, and Facebook to reach moms with evidence-based information about the childbearing year.  But what about your peers and colleagues?  Are they tweeting with you?

This month’s topic:

How do we convince peers/colleagues that social is not only important, but a necessary part of working with the modern mom?

Let’s discuss:

For those of you who are part of an organization whose mission is to reach women of childbearing age, then this is a must-do activity – let’s discuss our best arguments for social!

If you are a sole-proprietor or a part of peer group – do you feel like it is your job to sell social to your collegues?

What measurements tools help tell the story?

Who do you hold up as successful examples of reaching moms?

Join Birth and Breastfeeding Professionals

Date: Tuesday 12/20

Time: 1:30 pm Eastern

Details: Join the chat using the #BirthGenius Hashtag –Learn More Here

Tips: Use Tweetchat.com for a better chat experience

Please join us for this important topic and invite your friends on facebook and tweet the details on Twitter. Thanks!