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Posting with Purpose: A Sustainable Social Media Framework for Clinicians with Bec Talia · Wellness by Designs - Practitioner Podcast

• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is Wellness by Designs, and I'm your host, Amy Skilton.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And joining us today is Rebecca Talia, a naturopath who is the founder of Socials with Beck.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Not only has she been in practice for more than 20 years, but she also helps other natural health practitioners feel much more confident about showing up online.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And Beck, we're going to talk about your origin story in a moment, but thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, thank you so much for having me.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh I'm so excited to chat to you today.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, me too.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: I am very, very passionate about social media and what a powerful tool it can provide practitioners to reach their ideal customer and affect change in the world.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I know in talking with you about how you got into the space, was you were originally creating posts for a company and managing social media for a clinic.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And from there, you actually saw just how powerful the social media engine can be.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Would you like to share a little bit of insight on what you saw during that time?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I was lucky enough to um be asked to uh make up some social media posts for a company a few years ago.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I loved the creativity of it.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: I loved being able to create things that could um send a message across to people.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: And with social media being and particularly places like or uh apps like Instagram, it's such a visual medium.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, being able to create those things to kind of grab someone's attention and be able to draw them into what your story was is something that really fascinated me.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: So after I finished that work, I was consulting in a clinic and uh our marketing job came up there.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so I managed the social media for that clinic for the last probably two to three years now.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um I've stopped I've finished now, but when I was at the time.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I loved the ability within that um being able to work in that social media of being able to connect with community outside of the clinic.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: So uh we had a large community that would be highly engaged with us.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: So we'd get messages through Instagram, we'd have comments on our posts, uh, and I primarily use Instagram and Facebook.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'll just preface that.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and uh yeah, it was a great way to be able to share a little bit about what we were about and seeing how that landed with our community, but also hear back from our community about what they wanted to hear and understand, uh, I suppose about how we worked.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it was something that I uh found that I fell more and more in love with, which was at uh very, I suppose, extreme odds to when I first started practicing and when I first started to use social media for my own clinic where I was terrified of it, absolutely terrified.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't want other practitioners to feel that way.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: So that's how I've ended up doing what I'm doing at the moment.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, fantastic.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think you know, we have so much to learn in college and then navigate when we start out as practitioners.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, marketing is not one of those.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And in an ever-changing landscape, um, particularly through the lens of you know political and cultural and societal things, I think marketing and on social media can feel quite big for practitioners and not in a good way necessarily.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, mentioned to me like some of the three key areas I think practitioners struggle with is it can feel incredibly time-consuming.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And especially if you're not a marketer, it can absolutely feel quite laborious.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's not necessarily a practitioner's zone of genius for sure.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's sourcing, you know, imagery, there's sourcing video, there's figuring out captions, there's all of that stuff, which does, you know, it does take a bit of time, but I think for for many of us it feels like really like a big drain on our our you know, our time resources.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: I know another challenge for practitioners is that it can also feel really scary for many reasons.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking forward to talking with you about that today and how to really just dissolve that experience for practitioners as a barrier that can get in the way.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then of course, there's navigating the landscape of, I mean, AI is a whole other story.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, but even before, you know, AI videos or, you know, content that was maybe misinformation, if I use that term kind of loosely, social media has always really been a somewhat of a highlights reel, I think, for many people.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: And as a result, particularly there was a stage I feel like Instagram went through this period where everything was incredibly curated and had to be absolutely perfect.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the that pressure was just extreme for everybody, and many people just opted out.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but also still now can feel a bit fake.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I I can imagine for many practitioners, I'm sure you hear this all the time, you know, at least one of those is getting in the way of how they show up online, if not multiple factors, if not all of them.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really excited to start to unpack all of that with you today.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I think before we go into like the nitty-gritty and the practical tools, I'd love to talk about really the mindset around approaching social media as a marketing platform and what you see as the type of mindset that a practitioner can adopt that will have them have the best experience online.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I suppose advertising and marketing has changed so much from when I left uni.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'd left uni 20 over 20 years ago, and that was literally leaflets in a letterbox and maybe a you know, ad in the newspaper.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: You had yellow pages back then, you know.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a long time.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's very different now.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: And this is, I think, where social media has taken the place of these sorts of things too.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of what I hear from practitioners absolutely is there's a lot of fear based around using it.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: So it's sometimes fear of saying the wrong thing, sometimes it's fear of yeah, not looking, fawn of a better phrase, perfect.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and those sorts of uh things can really just stop us dead and stop us from posting.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, even things like just the amount of time that it can take, you know, if you're not used to the platform and how it all comes together, that's that's a it can be a big obstacle for people.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I like to reframe it a little bit, um, or the way I like to reframe it for myself as well, is I see social media as a place where we can connect with our clients.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: And as I was saying, you know, it's a great place to understand where our clients are coming from, what types of things they're interested in and what they're looking at.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: So we can tailor what we're talking about to them.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: But I also see it as an extension of our website.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: So this is where people can come and see what you're doing in real time because a website's static to some degree.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we have blogs that we put up and and those sorts of things which can change.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: But if people want to get a feel for what you're like in real life or a feel for um, I suppose, you know, in real time what you're talking about, then that's where social media can really come in.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I know myself, if there's any businesses that I'm looking at, you know, uh where uh going and buying an item from or a service from, one of the first things I do once I've uh checked out their website is I go to their social media and see what that's about as well.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I think using it as a platform for education and connection is is what I use would like for people to see social media rather than this scary kind of thing where um you know you people might not agree with what you're talking about and and and say that or you know, those sorts of things.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think one thing that I learned is that it doesn't matter what you say, there's always going to be someone who disagrees with you.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just say that quiet part out loud.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, if you can get comfortable with that and maybe have a strategy to deal with um not everyone who disagrees with you is necessarily a hater or a troll, but you also have those.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I think um I'm sure you've worked many times with people on how to navigate that.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: But outside of that, I think yes, distilling down what is the intention and purpose of my platform and what am I here to do, and that is educate and connect, you know, if those are the the two pillars that you decide.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: There might be other intentions you have for your marketing outside of that.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I love what you said in terms of it's an extension of our website, but it's a real-time window into who we are and what we're up to that you don't really get to share on a website.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, a blog is really more an educational pillar, it's not a dear diary, is it?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's not really an appropriate place there either, you know, necessarily to keep people up to date.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: But social media, I think one thing we have to remind ourselves is that we're there to be social as well.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that connection piece.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's, you know, I think that's one of the tricky things I think from some of the older generations is you feel like it has to be this perfect broadcast ad, for example, and it's you're talking at people, but actually it's an invitation for people to enter into a conversation with you and get to know you a little better.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's a really nice kind of place to start in terms of getting your head around what are you using it for?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want this platform to achieve for you, which ultimately, if you're using it as part of your business, is to attract um new clients, to raise your profile, but also remaining top of mind, I think, for existing clients as well.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, there was a time, I feel like maybe five to 10 years ago, if I was looking for a product or service, I'd Google it and you'd look at their website.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, nowadays it's social media.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's like having a look at their Instagram, getting a feel for their vibe, you know, what they're up to, who they're about, because you can communicate so much even non-verbally on social media in that way.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, in terms of that, I would love to have a conversation with you about the connection piece.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now we can circle back to the education piece and like being afraid of saying the wrong thing, but I think most of us have a fair idea of what we should and shouldn't be saying or what's appropriate for a social media, you know, outlet versus what we might say to a client in clinic.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: But in terms of the connection piece, I don't think you would disagree with me, but that era when Instagram was perfectly curated everything and it was only the top 1% of your life, thank God that's over.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Thank God that's finished.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I think all of us have got absolutely bored of ourselves, bored of other people, just sick and tired of seeing things that aren't real, aren't really real?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, if this is a business marketing tool, this isn't the place to air dirty laundry or it's not wing book.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And how do you coach your practitioners around authenticity?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: What is the conversations you're having around how much of you do you share yourself online and where do you actually draw the line?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and everyone's going to have a very different view on that for themselves.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I think uh there was a bit of a thought for a period of time where people felt like they need to share everything online, you know, to be authentic.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not necessarily the case at all.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: You can uh have aspects of your um of your work, of your life that you don't share necessarily online.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's really important to know that.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: So when I'm speaking to people, I want to understand how much they're willing to share, like what parts of their life are they willing to have out there and what aren't they?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then we can build authenticity from that because you can still be authentic in the way that you speak to people without necessarily, you know, like you said, airing out all your dirty laundry or telling people what's on your shopping list or whatever it might be, you know, but then other people might have a level of comfortability where that's fine, and that's where their community responds to them.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I think whatever you're comfortable most comfortable with is going to come easiest when we're looking at social media, and that's going to uh attract the people who feel most comfortable with that as well.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I know I myself, uh my husband and I, we do not share any photos of my son online at all.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I do speak about my son sometimes in my business pages, but I will often use his for the first initial of his name.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I still feel that I can be perfectly authentic without having to share that aspect of my life too.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: And everyone will have a slightly different way of doing that.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it's important to, I suppose, know where you feel comfortable with that sharing with your community, understanding that then you will attract the people that uh most aligned with that as well.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a really good point, actually.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think deciding, you know, or being clear on your values and clear on your boundaries before you begin.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: And even having them outlined in a brand document, I feel, you know, your brand voice, what is going to be acceptable.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I know when we chatted last week, I said one of the rules I have for myself is if I was sitting on a plane and I was talking to a stranger, is this something I would share with a stranger who I've just met and who I'll probably never see again?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and yes, there are people who are perhaps oversharers, and that's fine.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but also like there is something really strange about the intimacy of talking to a camera that can then seduce you into maybe sharing things, especially if you don't have healthy outlets for them.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, being mindful of that is important.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's it's your business tool, not a personal page, or maybe you've got them separate, or maybe you've got them combined, and then you have to figure out how you want to navigate that.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, yes, children's a really big one.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: There are there are some people who, you know, act as if they don't have children because it's just completely separate part of their lives.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Others like you might mention them where it's where it's relevant either to what you're sharing on the day or your business.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Others might talk about them a little more freely, but blow their face, never show school uniforms.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think one thing I would also just say as a side note is make sure you've got location sharing turned off so none of your photos are geotagged because obviously where you are regularly, that could be an issue for sure.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, certainly you can be authentic without, you know, eroding your boundaries, oversharing.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think there was also a period of time there where vulnerability porn was was happening where people felt like they had to reveal something in order to connect, um, which I also don't agree with either.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to delve into say your own health issues or anything like that at all to necessarily connect with people.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: There are other areas of life or the way that you work that will connect with them instead.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, yeah, yeah.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I guess once you've figured out as a practitioner, like how you intend to use your platform.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, if you're listening to this, you'll be using it for business for one to one degree or another, and you've figured out you know your brand voice and your boundaries there, then comes the uh the question about you know showing up on social media, and there are as many strategies promoted as there are humans on the planet.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think different professions and industries definitely have different cadences, but there are, of course, extreme views where I remember reading someone was saying, you know, you post seven times a day.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I just want to curl up and dye the thought of that myself.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to get your thoughts on, you know, how often should we be posting?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: And in terms of like what we are sharing, how do you sort of start to work out what it is that you should even be putting on online?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: And you're right, everybody's got a formula for success where this is concerned.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the best formula for people is the one that's going to work for you.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: So if you are not able to post seven days a week, and I'm not, I'm just gonna say that now as well, but that is not the amount of times for you to post.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but consistency is important because one of the things that often um uh the almighty algorithms and things like that notice is whether or not you're actually on your page and speaking to your community often.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: And if that's the case, and and often can be once a week, but as long as you're showing up really consistently, then your posts will be shown to the people that you're you're um, you know, who are following you and you know, put potential new clients as well.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: So that can be once a week.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: I probably want to move somewhere in between once a week and seven days a week, or three times a day is another one that I've heard recently, which I feel is just way too time consuming, to be honest.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: Especially if you're a busy prack, it's not really where you want your energy to go.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I'd be looking at somewhere between one to three times a week, would be that, but something you can show up to week after week consistently, because that is the important thing.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a little bit, I suppose, like how we talk to our clients about those changes that we want them to make in their lives so that they can feel better.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of the time we talk about things that we will need them to do consistently, and social media is no different in that respect as well.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's how things will grow and improve.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: And and I can say from what I've witnessed with other accounts, certainly, you know, whatever it is consistently, whether it's once a week or three times a week or six times a week, whatever it is, absolutely, as long as the account feels alive and that there's something new popping up, and it's nice to know that the algorithm gods also support that, whatever that ends up looking like.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I do think practitioners underestimate, you know, the time that can go into it.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: I remember once drawing out a plan for myself with, you know, I've got all the ideas, like something every day, but actually creating that can be a bit time consuming.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know you do have some strategies to really like leapfrog ahead with that, but I also wanted to just touch on, you know, I guess categories of content.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever I'm thinking about social media, I think about, you know, content that might attract new people to your page versus content that might be nurturing your existing audience versus content that actually converts.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: So where you're actually inviting someone to work with you that will then result in them working with you, buying something from you.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and what I see often, and this is a mistake I made early on, and I think this was back when Instagram was more this way, and Klein was being an education-only account and just sort of talking about, you know, facts and figures from within the industry.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: And certainly that age has also passed, but at the same time, I've also seen accounts just chasing every trend, trending audio, trending, and that honestly gives me the ick, um, quite frankly.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, where is the middle ground for us as practitioners with that?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a really good question because we have gone through those stages, I suppose, of different things on social media.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel that education has a as a has a has its place within your, I suppose, your feed and what you're popping out there for people to read, but you also need to vary that with other things.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: So educating people is great, but giving them something they might be able to um work with at home, so a recipe.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: For example, I've always secipes just getting great engagement, and that's what I suppose part of what you're looking to do as well, to also help you be showed to more people is to create get engagement on things.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: So recipes, something where you're giving to somebody, and then make sure you also intersperse that with posts that are going to also have a call to action.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: So whether or not they're signing up for a lead magnet or uh a course that you might be popping together, or whether or not it's a 20-minute discovery call with you.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it's important to mix up the types, I suppose, of things that you're posting, um, so that different people, you know, at different times will see them and be, you know, likely to engage with them as well.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's a really good point about sharing content that gets high engagement.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, people saving or sharing it to their own stories, for example, or sending to a friend, because that does tell the algorithm that this is an account that's that's creating high-value content, which means your other content where you might invite them to join a discovery call, for instance, is going to be shown to more people, which I think is really, really helpful.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, in terms of engaging online, though, I know that many practitioners, especially if they're first starting out, or maybe they're feeling you know a bit worn out from what