The 15 Minute Hack You're Not Using to Grow Your Online Community as a Therapist (But You Should Be!)

If you’re posting consistently… putting real thought into your content… and it still feels a bit quiet — this is probably why.

There’s one part of social media that most therapists are skipping. And it has nothing to do with your content.

In this episode, I’m breaking down the 15-minute habit I recommend to every client — the one that actually builds connection, increases engagement, and gets more eyes on your work.

It’s simple. It takes no extra planning. And you’re probably already spending the time… just not using it this way.

Once you hear this, you’ll start seeing exactly what’s been missing.

And you can literally start doing it right away to increase your engagement, your community and your reach.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Welcome to the Freedom Therapist Podcast. Your safe space to learn and unlimited all the things about scaling your business, without losing yourself in the process. I'm your heart made a book of COVID, a previously mental mental health occupational therapist and business owner who found her way to fall back in love with business and life all over again. Because success doesn't have to come at the cost of your freedom. You're going to get so much chat, a lot of energy, and of course, a little bit of chaos because it comes with the territory. I can't wait. Hello and welcome back to the Freedom Therapist Podcast. I'm your host, Mia, and today's episode is super fun and something that I speak to all the time inside the Freedom Therapist Club. Today we're going to go through the 15-minute hack that you are not using to grow your online community, but you should be. This is the thing that I see most overlooked in the therapy space. It's literally going to take you 15 minutes and it is going to help you to grow your community, grow your connections, and also boost your engagement on your account as well. Now, what I want to speak to today is something so simple, but I think that when we are constantly focusing on growing our community, showing up online, it can feel like a little bit of an isolated or silo space. And that is not the point of social media. That is not the point of Instagram. The whole point of a social media platform is that it is social. And I think this is the part that we often forget when we are growing our account on Instagram, when we're growing our social media platform, whether it's on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Freds, all the things, we get so focused on the content that we're outputting that we actually forget that it is a social platform at the end of the day. And the whole idea of a social platform is to be social. And Instagram literally rewards us, all the platforms reward you for being social as well. Now, this 15-minute hack is what I recommend all of us should be doing on our accounts, whether we're trying to grow or not, because often, especially when we're trying to grow our accounts, we are putting out content and we're hoping people will engage with it, we're hoping people will comment, we're hoping they'll like it, share it, all the things. But I always come back to are we also doing that as well in our connection building on the social platform? Because often we're putting out all this content, we're really hoping that we're getting those comments, those likes, those shares, those story shares, all those things. But are we actually doing this ourselves as well? And the accounts that I see most successful in the space are the accounts that are actually role modeling this as well. Because, like I said, it's a social platform, it is designed to build connection. And if we are just sort of focusing in our lane, we're not having those really important conversations. We're not connecting with other people in our space, we're not connecting with our ideal client, and we're not connecting with our community. And we know the whole point of having a community is to make sure we have a connected community that we are talking to often. And the Instagram algorithm actually rewards this activity. It doesn't just reward your content. Engagement is a two-way street. So the more that you show up in other people's spaces, the more other people are also gonna find their way to yours, and vice versa too. It's kind of like networking at one of your conferences. You're not just gonna stand at your store and wait for everybody to come to you. You're gonna walk around, you're gonna introduce yourself, you're gonna have conversations, you're gonna have some really beautiful interactions. Social media is the exact same thing, but it is just online. And so often when we're focusing on the content output, we don't leave space for this part. And this is a really important part if you're wanting to grow your account. And it's also gonna make you feel really good and start to build those online relationships as well. And so here it is, my favorite, favorite hack that I literally recommend to every single client. Every single day we are on our phones, we are scrolling. There's a lot of mindless scrolling. What I recommend is that you spend 15 minutes of your scrolling time being super intentional, commenting and interacting with other people's accounts. That's it. Comment on their posts. If you really like something, if it's really connected, share it with your community, share it on your stories, but engage with other people's content. We can't just expect people to engage with our content and not lead from example or be a role model too. And in spending that 15 minutes being really intentional, engaging with other people's content, also please, please, please make sure that you are replying to comments that have been left on your posts. This is the number one thing that I see forgotten about all the time. Somebody comments on our post, we like it. We maybe don't reply, we forget to reply. It is such a beautiful thing when someone comments on your content. Please, please, please reply to them, even if it's just to say thank you. And it's also going to increase the engagement on every single post that you have as well. It's a no-brainer. It's also the nice and the right thing to do as well. We would always say thank you in person. So, in your 15 minutes of Doom scrolling, be more intentional, respond to every single comment on your post and engage with other people's accounts, engage with their content, tell them when something resonated, tell them when you really loved something, tell them when you thought something was funny, tell them when something connected with you. Because that genuine comment, that genuine feedback is going to build so many connections in the online community for you. It's going to let you come across as the authentic human that you are. And it is also going to make sure that your platform is being shown to more people as well. When I talk about actually engaging on other accounts, commenting on other accounts, sharing other people's posts, I always come to this from a place of being authentic and genuine. It's not just commenting on the people's posts just for the sake of it. It is leaving genuine, thoughtful comments. It is leaving real life comments that you would say to somebody in real life, not just, you know, great post, leaving an emoji, all those things, unless, of course, you actually want to comment that. But it's actually being like a real human being behind that comment as well. So when you're doing your little daily scroll, this framework spends 15 minutes engaging with other accounts, engaging maybe with other therapists who do the same work as you, engaging with people in your local area, engaging with other small businesses. You never know who's going to see your comment. You never know who's then going to connect with your page through that comment. You're literally putting your name and your details in more spaces, but then you're also actually building up other small businesses at the same time, which is the whole point. We can't expect everybody to build up our small business and not give a little bit back as well. I think this is such the key piece. It's like when we're teaching kids sharing, it's like we can't teach them to not share their toys with someone else, but expect other people to share with us. Like, same goes. It's got to be that two-way street. So when we're being really intentional, actually making sure that we're building those connections, making sure that we are being active online, that we're using it as a social platform and we're coming back to that conference mentality. We're not just staying at our little booth, our little stool. We're getting out there and we're making those connections as well. A, because you never know who someone could introduce you to, B, because you never know what you could be missing and not having an interaction with that person. And C because people are going to find you through those comments. You might comment something really funny, people are going to click on it, they might start following you as well. Like there is so many little loops that all connect the dots. But if we're not showing up and we're not doing that, that's not going to be happening for us. And Instagram also rewards us for being active and being a part of being a social media platform, which is being social as well. My other little hack, I'm going to give you a little bonus one today on top of my 15-minute hack. And this one takes you literally two minutes, is when you go and grab your morning coffee or when you go to your local gym, go to the local market, use a service in your local area this week. I want you to take a picture and I want you to reshare that small business as well. A, because it feels really good to support other small businesses and we know how good it feels when somebody shares our content. And B, because they might repost it as well. And they're in your local area. And then that's increasing engagement for everybody as well. The whole purpose of a social media platform is to be able to connect, to be able to be social, to be able to make those beautiful connections, to be able to market our small businesses. But at the end of the day, we have to be social. We have to be kind human beings, we have to be authentic human beings, and we have to give a little to get a little as well. When we think about being active on other people's accounts or resharing other small businesses or taking a two-minute photo of your coffee for the morning and resharing that incredible coffee shop that you go to every day, it's not only going to help to make you findable and relatable into so many other people in your community, but often your ideal client is living the same local life as you. They might be going to the same coffee shops, they might be going to the same markets, they might be hanging out, looking at the same pages. It's going to build genuine relationships with local business owners who may refer to you, who may build another connection in your community, but it's also going to extend your reach and allow you to be present in more places other than just on your platform as well. It also applies when we're thinking about, okay, what is the content that your ideal client is searching for? Are they looking up parenting accounts? Are they looking up local community groups? It can be really cool to actually be active and present in these spaces too. And not just being active and present to advertise our services or, you know, for the sake of it, but to authentically be active and present in spaces. Offer something when we have something to offer. Comment and respond to things when they resonate. Remember that at the end of the day, we're all human beings, whether we are the marketer, whether we're being marketed to, whether we're the small business, we are all human beings and human beings thrive off connection and community building. And none of our brands are anything without the communities that we build behind them. And so, what better way to really celebrate that, to really celebrate small businesses, to really celebrate other women in business, to really celebrate other brands, personal brands, communities by actually bringing each other up as well and lifting each other up and sharing something when it really does connect with us. Not being worried that it's going to, you know, implode on our sparkle or anything like this, but actually sharing something when it connects with us because it's a really great piece of content. So what I would invite you to do is this week pick 15 minutes out of your daily scroll and engage with some other accounts. Comment on something that made you feel really good that you connected with or that you learned something with. You know, it's all great when we say things, it's all great when we send things to somebody else, but think about how much it means to you when someone comments on your account and think about giving that back and paying it forward too. It's going to build you a genuine engaged community and it's probably going to increase your followers, but it's a genuine community that is truly interacting with you. That is what we want. We want a community that is in our space, that is having those conversations with us. It's also going to keep you visible to the algorithm without needing to be online and posting every single day. And it's also going to give more people the chance to find you as well. You literally do this in real life every day. When someone asks you, you know, do you have a good hairdresser you would recommend? Do you have a good facial place you would recommend? Do you have whatever it is, a favorite shop? You're recommending businesses all the time. Do this in the online space too. Because the more that we put out, the more that we get back as well. And the more likely people are going to reciprocate that as well when we share something really cool too. And so the way I like to look at this is I want you to start thinking of it less as like a marketing strategy. Yes, it's going to do that as well. But I actually want you to come back to being more present in your community, being more present in your online community because your online community is just as important as your in-person community as well. So there you have it. There's my little favorite community building hack. If you're not doing it already, bring it into your daily routine. I promise it is going to help to grow your account, grow your connections. You're going to get so much back from this, and it's literally going to take you two seconds. I hope you love it. As always, let me know if you loved it. On Instagram, you can find me at Miapoco at M I A P O K O, and I'll see you next week.