Love Birth – Love Pinterest

Do you love Pinterest?  So do I. I have gathered on my Pinterest boards a lovely collection of craft projects, recipes to try, gift ideas, homeschooling projects, and inspirations for my one-day, long-awaited, much-dreamed-of kitchen reno.  This is of course, my personal Pinterest page.

Thankfully, Pinterest allows you to have both a personal page and a business page. You may protest that this would mean one more social media tool to keep track of.  Believe me, I’m all about trying to keep life simple.  Our life & work are so intertwined anyway, why not just keep it all together on your personal Pinterest profile with a few boards devoted to your passion for all-things-birth? Here are my thoughts…

In my recent free call on Pinterest I talked all about the lovely creative things you can Do with your business Pinterest board and how to help drive traffic, but for now we’ll focus on the logic behind having a business page rather than keeping it all together on your personal page.

Often I see birth professionals with elaborate pinterest boards filled with items of personal interest, together with a few birth-specific boards.   Often they have included their website address, and somehow included their practice name in their profile, such as “Mary of Best Birth Ever Doula Care” instead of “Mary Smith”.

Here is a hypothetical example:  With over 1700 pins and 700 followers, “Mary” is clearly an active Pinterest user. Within her Pinterest page she has one board specific to birth such as “Birth and Doula Stuff” and within her “Books” board there are clearly some birth-related titles selected. The result?  Her friends & followers know she is interested in birth and are likely sharing some of this content, but this social media activity isn’t supporting her business in the way that it could.

A Pinterest business page is a chance to define your practice online using imagery and style.  Imagine if Mary had a business page instead, including boards featuring all of her favorite birth topics, along with topics that would be of special interest to her clients such as nursery decor or infant sleep.  What you see above here is a wonderful personal use of Pinterest, but it is missing the tremendous potential for her doula business.

You may be passionate about birth, but I’m guessing there are some other things that make your heart sing:  Travel?  Vegan Cooking?  Holiday Crafts?  Motorcycle Photography?  Vintage Sewing Patterns?  Keeping these interests within your personal Pinterest profile allows you to post to your heart’s content without creating conflicting messages with your birth practice branding or personality.  And given how intertwined our life and work tend to be as birth professionals, wouldn’t it be nice to keep them separate every once in a while?

If you Love Birth & you Love Pinterest, why not use some of that time you invest in gathering awesome posts & images to help market your practice & support your clients?