Top 7 ways to Boost YOUR Adoption Outreach!!
Adoption outreach programs have greatly changed over the years and are essential to your adoption journey. Your adoption outreach efforts could lead you to making a connection with potential birth parents considering adoption. We have some exclusive ideas on how to boost your adoption outreach!!
Get Social!
The world is filled with posts, photos, and tweets! It seems like everyone is on social media these days, even Grandma. You should be active in social media world too! Create social media accounts that are just for your adoption outreach journey, and post something everyday. Everyone loves to share heart-warming stories, and who knows? Your posts and videos could go viral and fall into the lap of the right person, at the right time, who might think you're just the person they have been looking for.
Recruit your Adoption Team!
Do you have a bunch of friends and family that keep asking if there's anything they can do to help with your adoption process? This is a great time to put them to work! Ask them to share your story with family and friends and let them know that you are looking to meet expectant parents considering adoption. Ask them to share and post all of your content on their social media to reach an even larger audience, and ask them to encourage their audience to share your content as well! Tell them to spread the word to everyone that they know to boost the amount of people that are aware that you want to adopt a child.
Create your own Adoption Profile!
Creating your adoption profile is like creating a very personal resume with text and photos so expectant parents considering adoption can get to know you better. They can get an inside look to who you are, your family/friends, your hobbies with your favorite photos as well as your promise to the potential birthparents. If you need help creating an adoption profile you can call in the pros over at Our Chosen Child who will help you create the most awesome, amazing adoption profile that you could ever imagine having!
Create your own Adoption Website!
Now that you have a gorgeous profile made by Our Chosen Child, use it to host an online adoption presence. You already have great photos and written content sharing your adoption journey, so half the work is done! Your website can be your adoption outreach hub with links to ALL your adoption social media. With your own website you can share blog posts that share your daily life and how you are preparing yourself and your family for baby!
Use Outreach Cards!
Why not create adoption outreach cards that have your contact information on them? Outreach cards are a great way for friends to share your contact information with an expectant parent considering adoption. Does Uncle Joe sell vegetables at the Farmer’s Market each week? Ask him to put your outreach cards on his table. What about your doctor?? I am sure she sees hundreds of people each week and could potentially run into an expectant mother considering adoption. One suggestion is to add a number for texting, it will add a level of comfort for someone who could be timid to call you. Outreach cards are inexpensive yet powerful ways of doing adoption outreach!
Create custom Email signatures!
How many emails do you send out a day? If you're like us it's a ton! How many times do you think you have emailed a someone considering adoption, or a friend or relative of someone considering adoption? It is crazy to think that you could have just emailed a potential birth grandparent to ask if they are selling their famous fresh strawberries again this year, and if you had only had an adoption related email signature you could have shared so much more than strawberries? Or what if you are emailing a vendor at work who is best friends with an expectant parent considering adoption? Or you just sent a review on your favorite new hand knitted slippers that you received for your birthday, and one of the employees at the business is currently considering adoption. Emails are flying out of your outbox so rapidly some days, and sending the message that you want to become a parent through adoption could be the most important message you ever send. If you put your adoption dreams in your email signature you might be connecting with someone you weren’t expecting who knows someone who is expecting.
Blog about it!
Blogs are a great way to share your inner feelings about adoption, about waiting, and how much you want to be a parent. A blog is your own personal journal about your personal journey. As a potential adoptive parent, a blog will give you a voice to share all that you want about you and your family. When you were writing your birth parent letter or creating your adoption profile, were there many things you wanted to say but either didn’t have enough space or couldn’t find a great way to incorporate it into it? This is your chance to share, share, share! Share stories from your childhood that shaped you and influenced you to be the person you are today. Share traditions that you do each holiday or special time of year. Share your parenting methods that you hope to use when parenting your child. Just think about all the things that this blog gets to tell about you! It is a special way of seeing deep into your life and letting potential birth parents experience what the child’s life will be like with all your love and care!
Adoption outreach is essential these days! There are so many ways to put out the word that you are looking to connect with someone considering adoption. Often they are looking for someone just like you- and it's up to you to make yourself available to be found. Have fun, be consistent with your efforts, and good luck! Let us know what methods you've found that have been successful!