Your adoption profile is how you introduce yourself to expectant mothers; it’s a sort of family resume, allowing you to make a great first impression as you introduce your family. While these profiles were traditionally written out longform with images attached, social media offers some more innovative solutions.

Benefits of Using Social Media for Your Adoption Profile

• Tell Your Ever-evolving Story - Social media allows you to tweak your profile as you go, meaning you can add updated photos or change any pertinent information as time goes on.
• Reach a Wider Audience - Social media is exactly that — social — meaning that if you use the right hashtags, you might find a connection that otherwise might have slipped by you. With more than 3 million users accessing social media channels each day, you’re opening yourself up to a lot of opportunities.
• Marketing Made Simple - Most social media sites and apps allow you to promote a particular post, making it simple to run ads without having to spend extra on designing graphics.
• It Works - This isn’t just conjecture — plenty of adoptive parents have had success connecting with a birthmother who found their social media profile.

Social Media Options

With so many social media websites and apps available, it can be easy to become overwhelmed with the options available. Below are some of the best options when it comes to turning a social media page into your online adoptive family profile.

• Facebook - When you think social media, Facebook is probably one of the first things that comes to mind. It’s a giant in the online world, and with good reason — it’s got the most active users of any social media site out there. Facebook makes it easy to create a page, which you can control using your personal account. This keeps the page separate for privacy while posting updates consisting of text posts, links, and images. Pages are open to the public and make it easy to run ads.
• Instagram - Humans are visual creatures, and Instagram takes full advantage of that. If you’ve had some great photos taken of your family, or are just a shutterbug in your everyday life, Instagram may be the best choice for you! Instagram allows you to use hashtags to get seen, while also allowing for paid promotional posts.
• Twitter - Twitter is known for its short posts — there’s only so much you can fit in 280 characters, after all. It’s also known for moving quickly. If you don’t post regularly, and use hashtags, your account can easily get buried under a million other tweets. With that in mind, it may not make the best primary account for your adoptive family profile, but you can certainly use it to increase your reach and drive traffic to other pages, such as a Facebook or Instagram.

What Should You Post?

So once you’ve decided which social media route to take, what do you post? That will be entirely up to you. Every adoptive family profile is different, so you can get as creative as you’d like. Just remember: your goal is to make a great first impression. Think of your page as a digital handshake, and consider what might catch an expectant mother’s eye as you begin building your online presence.