Show Notes

Welcome back to The Designer Practice Podcast, and I’m your host, Kayla Das.

Facebook is my absolute favorite social media platform, and I joined way back in 2007. And even though I have accounts on other platforms, I’m a Facebook girl through and through. So, it made complete sense that when I started my private practice, that I immediately started using the platform to advertise my services and later my business coaching business.

Now, I don’t want to say that Facebook is for everyone or social media overall, but I am going to share with you some of the lessons that I’ve learned since I’ve been using Facebook to market my business and my practice.

In the beginning, I’ve learned a lot about what to do, but mostly about what not to do or what’s not the most effective. So, in today’s episode, I want to share with you some of those lessons and some of the insights that I’ve learned from promoting my services on Facebook. And also share with you some of the things that I found that didn’t work so that you don’t fall into the same trap that I did. And also, I’m going to give you some tips on how I overcame those traps.

So, let’s first talk about Facebook business pages.

Lesson #1: Funnel Your Facebook Business Page Posts to Free Content

So, lesson one is funneling your Facebook business page posts to free content. An important lesson that I have learned is not to always sell yourself. And I know as therapists, one of the things that we worry about is that we’re going to be that salesperson. And sometimes when we start, it feels like that’s who we need to be.

And I’m going to admit, when I started, I was very salesy. And maybe even now I’m a little bit here and there. But I feel that through my free content, I’ve actually earned the right to sell my services.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “I’m a business. Isn’t selling myself what I’m supposed to do?” And yes, it is. But from my experience, it’s best to build the know, like, and trust factor. People need to know you exist. They need to like what you have to offer. And they need to trust that you and your services are the best for them. And the best way in doing this is giving some type of free content. Now, this doesn’t mean you have to give everything away. But what I do is I use blogs and my podcast. Not saying you have to start a podcast, but using blogs and other content that you can start funneling your posts to that brings them away from social media and onto your website.

One of the most important things to remember about any type of social media, Facebook or otherwise, is that people are on social media platforms to be entertained and educated, not necessarily to be sold to. Now, of course, we know that social media has a lot of selling potential and people do sell and make lots of money from that. But it’s best to encourage that engagement and give that free content so that you start building trust with people so that you come front of mind when they’re looking for someone.

So, like I said, how I use my Facebook business page is I funnel my existing content such as blogs, podcasts, even lead magnets to get people on my email list and I share that through my business page. All are free, but it’s going to bring them somewhere and usually it’s my website. This helps move potential clients to your website, where your services are so that they can learn more about that. But it also gives them a reason to start trusting you.

There are so many people and businesses out there selling, selling, selling that sometimes our brain actually sifts out all that noise. But if you show up with true help and you’re really helping someone or educating someone, or entertaining someone in some way, People start building that trust with you, and when they’re ready to reach out, you are going to come first of mind.

Now, like I said, I don’t expect everyone to start a podcast. Where I started was blogs and I still consider myself a blogger. And blogs don’t necessarily mean that you have to create these really intense articles. But they’re really to give someone a small win, whether it’s a specific information about some of the services that you provide, whether it’s specific information on maybe symptoms or different techniques that can help someone overcome something that they’re dealing with. But really thinking about what does my ideal client need to know or want to know?

And what’s really nice about this, and I know that this isn’t a podcast about blogs or podcasts or any of that, but it really also helps your SEO in addition to building that trust. But when it comes back to your Facebook business page, this is where you can create small little excerpts encouraging people to go to this free content. So, if it’s a blog, they can read your blog. If it’s a lead magnet, they can sign up for your free lead magnet. Now you can certainly add promotional posts here and there, and I do do that. But I try to earn the right to sell because like I said, initially I was quite the salesy salesperson. And no joke, it did not work. Actually, if anything, I think people just stopped listening for a bit, so I had to really change the way that I was showing up. It didn’t feel authentic to me either. That’s why I love doing what I do now, because I really want to help people, and I do that through my blogs and my podcast.

But what it really does is that once I started doing my blog, I started noticing an increase in clients. And the same since I’ve started my podcast, I’ve even seen even more clients. I think what happens is it starts building that trust and different people go on different mediums, right? Some people like to listen to content. Some people like to read content. Some people like to have free guides like in lead magnets. So, it’s really important to think about how can I build this trust with potential clients and not just potential clients, potential referral relationships as well? So, if other therapists are going to your Facebook business page, what are they going to see? Are they going to see really helpful information that they’re like, “Yes, I need someone to refer my clients to, and this person knows what they’re talking about.” Or do they see a lot of promotional posts of, “I’m selling my services, looking for new clients,” all of those types of things. Again, that becomes quite noisy on social media.

So even though it’s super common for us to list all of the trainings that we’ve taken in hopes that that positions us as experts so that people know that we know what we’re talking about. It doesn’t often work. And like I said, it becomes noise. Most of your clients don’t understand any of the trainings that we have taken, even though it’s really important that you’ve taken them. And it’s definitely something that you should be proud of. It is not something that clients really understand and it just becomes really overwhelming. So, it’s much better to show that you get them instead of telling people that you do. So, I’m going to repeat that again. It’s much better to show that you get them instead of telling people that you do. So, showing is through this free information that you’re sharing.

And one thing also, and this doesn’t necessarily work with the funneling piece, but you can create little snippets and not necessarily bring anyone to your website or any other free content. Maybe you just want to do a single tip as a social media post. That is definitely something that a lot of people do, and some people even share other people’s content if it’s relevant and if it helps their ideal client.

So again, just really making sure that you’re really thinking about that building trust piece and other lessons that I’m going to talk about today too, and really talks about that trust piece because that is a huge piece of being successful in growing your practice long-term.

Lesson #2: Share your Facebook Business Page on Your Personal Page

Okay, so lesson two that I’ve learned. And again, we’re still talking about Facebook business pages. So, sharing your Facebook business page on your personal page.

So, Facebook business pages are a great free option to advertise your business. However, it’s important to know that people are not likely just going to find or land on your page without some intentional, I’m even going to go back to funneling, funneling people back to your Facebook business page. And it’s important that you share your business page on different platforms such as your website, business cards, other social media platforms, amongst any other way that you want to share your business page.

One way that I do this, and we’ll talk about groups later, is I also have my Facebook business page connected to my Facebook group, so I’ve actually noticed since I’ve done that, not that everyone’s going to create a Facebook group either, but that actually helps other people, specifically therapists, because that’s who I work with now, they will see that and they’ll click on it and they’ll go to my business page. And I often get people signing up that way. So, it’s important to know that people are not likely just going to fall on your business page. So, it’s important to start sharing that.

Also, when you create a business page, or if you have a business page, you can also invite your existing personal friends list to your page as well. So, when I first started mine, I sent it to my friends list. Of course, not all of your friends are going to follow you but I did get a decent amount from my friends list to follow me. So, from time to time when they see posts, they’ll like it or comment and things like that. They might not be therapists. But that also helps with the engagement as well.

Now, in saying that, it’s important to realize you want most of your ideal clients on your Facebook pages. I’m not going to go into great detail about this, but there’s something called social media pods, I am not very experienced with that, but it’s getting anyone or everyone onto your page to make it look like you have more friends. That doesn’t work because that isn’t going to actually, in the end of the day, give you clients. Sure. It might look like you have a thousand people following you. But if 999 of them are people that will never buy your services, that is not going to make a difference. That is not going to get you clients. So I really think it’s important to do the organic way.

But the reason I think it’s a great idea to also share like your posts when you have them on your personal Facebook page is because your personal friends can see your posts, and this gets you out there Now for ethical reasons, you might even be thinking to yourself, I wouldn’t work with my Facebook friends or my friends because that is unethical. However, it’s important to know that when you share your business page post to your individual page, your friends already know, they like and they already trust you. And now that you’re starting to put this information out, it’s even building trust more because they might have not even known that you were a therapist or a coach. And as a result, now they’re like, “Oh, now I know someone who needs a therapist.” And guess who’s going to come front of mind when they have a friend or a family member who is seeking support? It’s likely going to be you because you already have that trust with them. So, it’s important to also tap in to those existing relationships you have to start growing your practice as well.

So, I want to go back to it’s important not to underestimate the power of the know, like, and trust factor when it comes to referrals. And again, when we talk about this, this is pretty much through all of my lessons. Is that people need to know you’re out there. They need to like your services. And they need to trust that you and your services are the best to help them. Or if they’re giving a referral to the person that they’re referring to.

So now we’re going to move on to Facebook groups and how to leverage them.

And now none of these lessons are about actually starting a Facebook group because of course, as we know, there are still ethical concerns when it comes to Facebook and things like that. So, none of these lessons are to go out and start a Facebook group, even though I’ve done that. But how you can leverage existing Facebook groups and things to avoid, to prevent you from getting lost in the sea of posts in these groups.

Lesson #3: Build Referral Relationships Instead of Posting Ad-Like Promotional Posts

So, lesson number three is building a referral relationship instead of posting ad-like promotional posts.

As someone who runs a Facebook group for therapists, one of the things I see happen so, so free frequently is that therapists will post what I call ad-like promotional posts in groups, and whether it’s my own Facebook group or other ones that I’m in, I see it all the time. And it’s something like, “I’m currently accepting new clients. These are my approaches. These are the trainings that I have taken. Looking forward to receiving your referrals. Thank you. Have a great day.” Now this doesn’t typically work, and I’ve talked to a lot of people who’ve used these posts, and I’m going to still put myself in that, when I first started out, I also did these types of posts too, and I don’t think I ever got a client or a referral this way. And I’ve talked to other people who’ve done it and they haven’t either.

There certainly isn’t anything wrong with creating promotional posts. But like I said, you’re not likely going to see the traction from these posts for actually a couple reasons:

One, therapists who don’t have a pre-existing relationship with you aren’t likely going to refer to you. And I think of my own referral list. I have a referral list that if I have a client that I can’t serve for whatever reason, I know a therapist in this particular area or maybe a couple therapists that I will refer to. And it’s because I built trust with these therapists. I know that these people are going to serve the client either as good or better than I can. And that’s where this trust piece really is important, that when you’re just posting, I’m currently accepting new client’s post: one, people have no idea who you are. They have no idea of how you work. Even though you might be the best therapist in the world, they don’t know this yet. So, when you make these posts, it’s not likely going to create those referrals like you would hope so.

Also, when we think of specifically therapist groups, because again, I run a therapist group. Some therapists will post in the group as if they’re talking to clients, not even looking for referrals. So, they might say, “I’m looking for new clients. Set up a consult with me.” And that doesn’t work either because you’re not in the right type of group because you’re actually in a group where you should be building those referral relationships, not looking for clients. Because unless your clients are actually therapists and you are looking for therapists as your clients, that’s not likely the right verbiage or language to help you get clients.

Also, when you’re still posting in therapist specific groups, some therapists are in these groups because they are not in a position to refer out right now. They are also building their practice and there’s nothing wrong with still building these relationships, even if you are not yet at that place of referring out because it’s good to have this list anyway. And the truth is, is you might not feel confident or want to work with specific populations and it’s okay to refer out even if you’re not full, if that makes sense. But when you are just putting this post in a Facebook group, therapists might not actually be at the place where they are referring.

And number four, and I think this is really important to also know about social media as a whole, not just Facebook. Unless you encourage engagement on your posts, no one will see it or very few, I shouldn’t say no one. But very few people will see it. And that’s because social media algorithms thrive on engagement. So, engagement includes, likes, comments, and then also you commenting back in comments. Now, if we’re specifically looking for clients and clients are writing back and forth, this can be challenging because the truth is for ethical reasons, we can’t engage in dialogue in our posts. So if it’s a client, this actually the directly impacts, some of what’s happening when it comes to therapy clients specifically.

But when it comes to, say even in therapist groups, if you are just saying, ” I need a referral. Please refer to me. Thank you. Have a great day.” You’re not encouraging any type of dialogue or you’re not asking people to comment. And as a result, the social media platform is not going to see that as a very engaging post. So other people in that group are not likely going to see it in their newsfeed because the algorithm already is very specific about who it shares content to, but usually content that tends to have more comments or more likes and more engagement overall tends to show up in more newsfeeds than others. So even though the social media algorithm changes all the time, one thing that I don’t think has ever changed on any social media platform since like social media started is that engagement is important. Now how they track engagement, what engagement looks like, and the percentage of people who see posts that change pretty frequently. But engagement as a concept has always been important for social media platforms, and I actually do not see that changing. So, when it comes to posts in general, when you’re posting just a general ad-like promotional post, you are not going to see the return on investment that you’re hoping and your post is just going to get lost in a sea of other posts.

So instead of creating ad-like posts, try creating a post where you’re asking other therapists to meet up, like even virtually, right? Creating a group of people. Specifically in your location and people that you can actually build referral relationships with. You can still share the population you work with in the post, but actively seek to build the relationship so that it’s mutually beneficial for you and the other therapist, instead of really focusing on you only receiving clients. And this is because even though you might be really at that stage where you’re like, “I need clients. I need clients.” The truth is other therapists are as well. So, if you can start building these relationships with people, this is where you start building that trust. And just like I have a list of people that I refer to. You can start getting on other people’s lists that they’re going to refer to. So that’s really important.

Again, going back to trust. People need to trust you, so you need to talk to them, you need to reach out to them. You need to encourage that engagement. And what’s really great about when you ask people to meet up or creating some sort of ask or question in your post, that also in turn creates engagement. So, people comment, people like, and as a result, that also helps with the social media algorithm. So, kind of like two wins there.

And I also want to bring this back to, it actually goes the same with sending emails and as therapists, and again, I want to say that I was this person. This is all lessons that I’ve learned along the way, is that when we’re sending emails to potential referral partners as well, we want to still build that trust. If we focus more on how we can be mutually beneficial to the other party and show that we’re truly interested in that organization or that person or how we can help their clients, people are going to respond much more than if we create an ad-like email saying, ” Hi, I’m Kayla Das. I’m a therapist. I’m accepting clients. This is the area that I work in. Please send clients my way.” Because again, you’re not going to see that return on investment. If anything, you might actually get deleted when it comes to emails. So really put the other person first in this respect, say like, ” this is how I think we can be mutually beneficial to each other. This is how we can serve each other, and this is how we can support each other along the way.” And then you can have a call to action of ” if you would like to have a further chat about this, here’s my scheduling link. Please schedule a time or let me know what time works best for you and we can set up a call or a video call or even go out for coffee” kind of thing. Because when you start putting the other person, I don’t want to say first, but forward. When you put them forward and you really show that you can help them just as much as they can help you, lasting relationships are mutually beneficial. If one person is expecting so much from the other person and not really giving anything in return, you’re not going to see at least long-term a lot of success with that.

So, whether, again, its Facebook groups, whether it’s sending emails, it’s really important to have that engagement, have people comment, have people reach out to you, get to know you so that they can build that trust with you, because otherwise you’re not going to get that referral. And again, let’s be honest, we all want to build our businesses. So, when it comes to having a mutually beneficial relationship, it seems like a no-brainer. As helping professions, we also care about our clients. Our clients are the top priority, and we want to ensure that whoever we’re referring to is going to treat our client the absolute best. And we don’t know that unless we actually meet the person and get to know this person well.

So even if you have hundreds of trainings and you list all of the things that you do, a self-promotional post is not going to really support what you’re looking for because it always starts with trust.

Lesson #4: Have Posts that Include Where You’re Located

So, lesson number four, have posts that include where you’re located.

Many posts I see, even if they’re trying to build a referral relationship, often omit where they’re located. And unless you’re in a Facebook group that is location-specific. There are likely therapists from all over the country and even the world in that group. As therapists, we are bound by our registration or license and can only practice therapy within the jurisdiction that we are registered. So, if you are putting a post out there, whether it’s a promotional post or whether it’s even a building a relationship post, if you don’t say where you’re from, you might get some engagement or you might get some referrals, but it might not be people that you can work with. Because if you are in Alberta and you’re not registered in Ontario, and then someone in Ontario wants to build a referral relationship with you, I mean, great. It’s a new network, there’s nothing wrong with developing that. But when it comes to a referral relationship, it might not be as fruitful unless they know that they get a lot of Alberta clients or something like that.

But it’s really important to just not assume that people, just because you’re in a specific location, that people are going to know where you’re from. And even if you’re in a location-specific group. So again, going back with Alberta, maybe there’s a group for Alberta therapists or something like that. It’s still important to identify which town you’re in, especially if you’re providing in-person services. Obviously, if you’re virtual, you know, it might be a little different, but if you’re providing in-person services, if someone say in Edmonton, wants to refer to you and you’re in Calgary. And you only do in-person, or maybe they have a client that only wants to see someone in-person. Again, it’s important to know that.

So just ensuring that when you are sharing this with people in any way, shape or form, that you’re really being clear about where you are so that you can really build the relationships that matter to you. And you’re also going to likely see more therapists comment and engage, because if they’re also in that area or close to it, or have clients from that area, they’re going to likely comment as well.

Lesson #5: Be Strategic with Where You’re Posting

So, number five. And again, we’re still talking about Facebook groups. It’s being very strategic with where you’re posting.

It may seem super appealing to share your services all over Facebook, but this will take a lot of time and effort. When you’re sharing your services ensure that you’re advertising in the right places. For example, let’s say you are trying to find clients in different groups where your client is actually housed, not necessarily therapy groups, but other groups. If your ideal client is someone who is experiencing workplace stress, and let’s say you’re only registered in Alberta, you’re likely going to be wasting your time if you advertise your one-to-one services in groups for expecting mothers in Ontario. Obviously, there’s two issues there. One, it’s a whole different province. But two, it’s a whole different clientele. You’re not likely going to see a lot of results. Sure. There might be an expecting mother who actually moved to Alberta and are also dealing with workplace stress, but the chances of that being the case is very low. Whereas, again, your return on investment, the time you spend into trying to find a referral, even if it exists, is going to be really, really difficult.

It’s also important to know that various Facebook groups have rules about sharing promotional posts. And I learned this very early on. Some may have Marketing Monday posts created by admin. I do this in my group because I do think it’s important for people to be able to have a space to market. And I do think I grew my business, specifically my business coaching practice based on other people being open to having marketing Monday posts as well. But of course, you want to stick to those rules. Some also allow marketing posts whenever you can post whenever. And some don’t allow self-promotional posts at all. And sharing your services could get you banned from the group.  

I do want to go back to like, Marketing Monday posts. I have Marketing Monday posts and sometimes people will post outside of the Marketing Monday. Sometimes I’ll leave them in. I’ll allow them to stay there and sometimes I won’t. And how I determine, what I keep and what I don’t is, again, I think marketing is really important. But what often happens, and this is why I actually created Marketing Monday, instead of allowing just anyone to post whenever, is that when people start posting, I noticed if one person posts a promotional post, then everyone in the group starts posting promotional posts as well. And then, comments and questions and really relatable content gets missed. So that’s why I usually delete posts. But now there’s some that I’ll allow in because I do know the people in the group care about these services.

And some seem less self-promotional than others. And this goes back into when I mentioned about groups. Like if you are still trying to advertise your service, but you’re actually looking for referral relationships or building those referral relationships, even though you might still say, “Hi, I work with this population, I’m looking to build referral relationships. Anyone here want to build a relationship.” I’m not likely going to delete that because I know it’s actually encouraging engagement, even though it’s a little self-promotional, it is really meant to help someone. Versus random promotional posts, I delete them because they are so generic and I know they’re like cross- posted on other platforms.

So again, thinking about the groups that you’re in and really utilizing them to the way that best fits you as well as the group. There are some groups who marketing is an absolute no. And it hasn’t happened very often, but really early on, I think I got deleted in like two different Facebook groups because again, I was very salesy at that point. So now having my own group, I totally get why that happened. But it’s again, being really clear about what you can do, what you can’t do. But also, when you put yourself as being more authentic, and, again, this is my experience of being a Facebook group moderator, is people are going to be more likely to let you post it if you try to encourage engagement. And that it’s not just self-serving, if that makes sense. And yes, you’re still promoting your services, but you’re doing it in a way that is truly beneficial to other people in the group.

Now, a lot of people probably notice I use my Facebook group as sometimes a promotional piece, whether it’s sharing my blogs and my podcasts. But I think this is the other thing to also understand when people have Facebook groups is even if they don’t allow self-promotional posts from other people, they might also use it to share their own. And that’s because that’s a part of. The marketing piece, right? They created the group. They put so much effort in supporting people with this group that yeah, they’re going to allow their own self-promotional material. But again, going back to what I said in the very beginning, even with my business page, I try not to sell as much in my Facebook groups. It’s usually content that I know people would find valuable. i.e. my blogs or my podcast, which is absolutely free.

Going back to lesson number five is being very strategic with where you’re posting because that truly matters in you actually getting referrals but also not necessarily wasting your time or getting banned from groups or so on.

So that is the five lessons that I’ve learned. I’m sure there’s lots of lessons that we have all learned, and I’m not saying that this is exhaustive, and I’m not saying that this actually works for everyone. There might be someone listening saying, I do self-promotional posts and I don’t get banned, and I get a lot of clients from that.

Well, you know what? I’d say that’s great. That just hasn’t been my experience and I really want to help you know what I’ve done to change some of this, and it’s really helped, right? Overall, if I build trust first and I put value first. So, I try to really build that trust through value. So again, going through blogs, podcasts, and then funneling my content and really trying to build those referral relationships and really getting to know people on a personal level versus just those promotional posts, I have seen so much benefit in that and so much return on investment in that just by shifting from being that salesy salesperson to really wanting to help people. And I always wanted to help people. It’s just I didn’t know originally, which a lot of us do, is how do I help people?

So, this is how I do it, this is how I use Facebook as really my main social media. I do have other social media platforms, but like I said, I’m a Facebook girl through and through. So, this is how I’ve done it.

So, I hope you found value in today’s episode, and I hope this was helpful. I would really appreciate if you enjoyed this episode or you enjoy the podcast as a whole, and you’re listening on a major podcasting platform, if you could leave a review so other therapists can know that this podcast can help them too, I would be so grateful.

Thank you so much!

And until next time, bye for now.

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