How To Promote Your Wic Nutrition Program On Facebook & Instagram

Federally Qualified Health Centers provide services for the complete wellness of their patients, which, at a minimum, includes services for maternity and prenatal care, preventive health and dental services, emergency care, and pharmaceutical services. This includes providing services to low-income pregnant or postpartum women and families with young children through the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program. 

Offering health services and support as well as access to healthy foods and nutrition counseling, as recently as 2018, nearly 50% of all infants born in the US were eligible for participation in WIC. Since the Coronavirus Pandemic, the reach of this program has declined, so it is important for providers and Community Health Centers to promote and screen patients eligible for this valuable assistance.   

When developing a marketing plan for healthcare organizations, it is important to focus efforts where you’ll have the greatest impact among your target audience. Facebook and Instagram see the lion’s share of interaction among all the social media sites with users between the ages of 18-64. It makes sense to focus marketing efforts here, where your patients are most likely to come across information about the programs offered by your FQHC. Luckily, there are several resources available to help when generating content to promote your WIC Nutrition Program across these platforms.

We’ve talked in more detail about utilizing social media to engage with your community and promote your Federally Qualified Health Center, but when promoting your WIC Nutrition Programs, or any of your other programs and services, there are some basic tips to remember.

The National WIC Association has created the WIC HUB, a website focusing on providing tools for the advocacy of WIC Programs. This site offers ready-made fact sheets, toolkits, and statements to make promoting WIC easier while maintaining their established brand. Their Instagram profile regularly shares information about programs with helpful links to additional details. Remember when we talked about using your social media platforms to follow key stakeholders and take advantage of content creation tools to broaden your available content? (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

Earlier this year, the National WIC Association released a new report, The State of WIC: Investing in the Next Generation, which features an accompanying social media toolkit of helpful graphics and social media copy with helpful testimonials, facts, and images.

The US Department of Agriculture has an entire segment of their website devoted to their social media message collection, providing curated messaging covering a broad range of topics of interest to breastfeeding moms and their support systems. Sharing to your social media channels is quick and easy.

In addition to their ongoing updates to their online library, the USDA has also put together a toolkit of information for use during National WIC Breastfeeding Week which takes place the first week of August. This includes suggested sites to follow, hashtags to use, sample posts, and much more.

You can see, it’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel when promoting WIC Nutrition Programs offered by your FQHC. All you need is a little grease on the axles. At Firefly Marketing, we are your advocacy partner as you reach your community with helpful programs.