How To Use Facebook Groups To Market Your Child Care

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You’ve probably noticed that Facebook is constantly testing and adding new features. It might drive some of us in the child care business crazy, as social media can sometimes be hard to keep up on while running a very involved business! Part of why I write this blog is to help you stay up to date with new features that are relevant to child care owners. This is one brand new (and free!) way to market your child care on social media. It just takes a little bit of know-how, which you can get from this step-by-step, and a dash of your time. 

The new feature is the ability to join Facebook groups as your business page. What this means is that you can seek out local Facebook groups (there might be more than you think!) and interact with people in those groups as your business. This is a great way to reach the local community, grow your following, increase your engagement, and be social with the right people! 

However, you’ve got to do it right to get engagement and not scare people off. No one likes spammy businesses! Some groups also have certain rules. In this step-by-step we’ll talk about how to find the right groups, how to interact as your page, when and what to post in the groups, and how to follow the rules so you don’t get kicked out!

Before reading anything else you need to remember this one rule for using Facebook groups:

THE NUMBER ONE RULE FOR USING FACEBOOK GROUPS AS YOUR BUSINESS: BE USEFUL AND BE ENGAGING! 

Just like your regular social media posts on your business page, you can’t just post promotions for your business. This is boring and not what people are interested in seeing in their Facebook groups. Think about posts that families will find useful, and you’ll become a rockstar. It’s important to create posts to allow families to get to know you better, get valuable information from you, and start thinking about you as a trusted authority (which you are!)

An example of this would be to link to a blog post or PDF about HOW to choose a child care, hopefully to your blog that lives on your website and highlights your center. This is much more engaging and useful than posting a self-promotion. Even if you don’t have blog on your website, helpful links that enable you to talk about your child care will go much further. For example, a link to the benefits of yoga or yoga resources for kids is helpful for families. You can add on to the post at the end that you offer yoga at your program. When you do this, your are being helpful and it’s not an ad.

Being Engaging vs Not Being Engaging In Facebook Groups Is The Difference Between…

This, Which Isn’t Very Engaging And Considered Self-Promotion:

Affordable child care, in home daycare, available from 6:30am to 7pm, now enrolling! Visit our website at abcchildcare.com

Vs This, Which Is Engaging, Useful, And Sends You The Right Website Traffic:

This type of post isn’t self-promotion, yet attracts families with interests that align with the school’s core values. This school is being useful to local families with interests that align with their own and, therefore, beginning a relationship with them!

So, now you understand how to be helpful And engaging In Facebook Groups. How to do the rest? It’s easy! Just follow this step by step.

*This is on desktop – mobile may look a little different!

Step One: Search For Groups In Your Local Area

You’ve probably noticed the Facebook search bar and maybe have used it to search for businesses, friends, etc. Well you can also use it to search for groups. I’m going to start with the example of “Denver moms.” I’ll give you a list of different search terms we can use in later steps. 

USE THE SEARCH BAR:

Step Two: Make Sure To Select Groups In Your Search

After you search for a term, you’ll come to a screen that looks like the picture below. From here you want to make sure to choose “See All” to view all the groups, or click on the “Groups” tab. This shows you more groups to join.

Step Three: Select Active And Popular Groups And Press Join

Join any relevant groups. Try to stick to groups of over 1000, they will be more active and a better use of your time! Pretty straightforward, you got this!

Step Four: Choose To Join The Group As Your Business

When you click to join the group, a box will pop up where you can choose to join as your business. For example, you can see my own business page, and I am choosing to join as that page. Some groups will not allow you to join as your page. In that case, there won’t be a pop up box. But the majority of the time you will have the option. 

Step Five: Answer Any Questions The Group May Require

Some groups will require you to answer some questions to join the group. For example, “Denver Professional Moms” group asked me what part of Colorado I am in, what my profession is, and if I have kids. Just answer the questions as honestly and as best you can. If the group decides not to allow you in, don’t fret, it just wasn’t a good fit. Some of the groups will be a good fit! 

Step Six: Remember The Rule….Valuable Content!

When you’re answering the questions it’s important to remember that you are an early childhood education expert and that you have valuable advice for people in your local area. You won’t just be posting promotions. You’ll be posting content families want, as you learned earlier. I tell you this because as you see below, some groups will tell you that you can’t sell or post promotions. Don’t be scared away by these questions. If you stick to my rule of posting valuable content you are good to go! For the example below I just typed “Yes, I understand.”

Step Seven: Look For Other Groups To Join Using Local Search Terms

Start off with simple local groups. Just searching for your city like “Denver” or “Exeter, New Hampshire” or “Sandwich Massachusetts” will turn up some groups. News groups and community centered groups are great places to post. Some of these even allow general business promotions, so this is a great place for that.

Here are some other search terms:

  • [your city] moms
  • [your geographical area] moms
  • [your state] moms
  • [your city] parents/parenting
  • [your geographical area] parents/parenting
  • [your state] parents/parenting
  • [your city] kids
  • [your geographical area] kids
  • [your state] kids [your city] child
  • [your geographical area] child
  • [your state] child
  • [your city] baby
  • [your geographical area] baby
  • [your state] baby

Some towns are small and you may not have many groups you can find. For example, I am originally from Exeter, New Hampshire and when I search for many terms in the town I don’t find much. But if I expand my geographical region to New Hampshire Moms or Southern New Hampshire Moms or New Hampshire Seacoast Moms, I find a lot more! Just play around with the terms.

Step Eight: Read The Rules Of The Group Before You Post

Make sure to read the rules. Some groups encourage self-promotion, while others strictly forbid it. Understand your groups.  For example, this group in the example below does not mind an occasional share of your business.  Sometimes the rules will be in the “About Us” and sometimes they will be pinned at the top post of the group. Sometimes they will be in the questions you answer before joining the group. It might be helpful to keep a spreadsheet or list on what groups allow, so when you go back to post on a regular basis, you will have a good reference. 

Step Nine: Start Posting

If you have a blog for your child care, this gives you tons of content to post in the groups. If you don’t, consider shooting a couple blog-type videos and grab them to post in the groups every once in a while. If you need some ideas on what your videos could be about, check out my social media content guide cheat sheet here. If it is a general community page, pictures of “news” at the preschool is always great.

A general guideline on frequency, is once a week. However, it also depends on how often people are posting in the group. If it is a quiet, slow group where people only post a couple times a week, you may want to post every other week. If it is an active group with more than 15 posts per day you may want to consider posting more. If you are posting regular engaging content on your Facebook page you can just grab that content. Link back to your page when you can, as long as it’s in a useful way! You’ll also start getting a lot morel likes on your Facebook page when start marketing your business in Facebook groups.

I hope this helps you with your social media marketing! Feel free to comment with any questions you may want answered on marketing your preschool business.

Do you struggle with figuring out what to post on your child care center’s social media pages? Never be stumped again…get the Social Media Content Cheat Sheet, just for child care centers.

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Is Your Facebook Page Helping Or Hurting Your Business?

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Have you ever Googled yourself? How about your business name? I bet you have! Guess what? Parents are Googling your business too!

If a parent is searching around for child care and have just learned about yours, they will almost always Google your business name to find out more. In Google search results, your business’s Facebook page will more than likely show up. The parent will be landing on it and what they see immediately shapes their opinion of you, before they ever even call you or walk in the door. This means, like it or not, the Facebook page of your child care center, preschool, or early education center is already one of the most visited online sites representing your business!

So is your Facebook page helping you or hurting you?

A well-maintained and engaging Facebook page with a strong following can be a powerful marketing tool that can turn into enrollments. And a neglected, deserted page can send people away, causing a parent to second guess your center, wondering why there aren’t reviews or pictures, and creates a sense they can’t trust you with their child.

Let’s step into the shoes of that parent that is shopping around online for child care centers. This is a big decision! They are gathering information online and forming opinions, before ever talking to you! This parent is comparing, checking out websites, and landing on the Facebook pages of the all these centers. If a parent lands on an almost empty Facebook page that has been forgotten, it starts to form a sense of distrust. Think about how much more likely the parent is to pick up the phone and call the business with a vibrant Facebook page that showcases lots of pictures, has a lot of reviews, features, descriptions, and many likes. An engaging, interactive Facebook page helps parents form a connection with you and makes them aware that other people trust you too. It nurtures a relationship.

Why is this? Any client needs to get to know, like, and trust you before they decide to do business with you. This is especially true in the child care industry where a huge amount of trust is necessary! Think about all that information a client gathered before they decided to even give you a call for a tour. They Googled you, they looked through your website, they read reviews online, they got emails from you, they saw your Facebook page, they read your blog. THEN they called you to ask you questions, they asked their friends, and THEN came in for a tour. All of these points of communication are called “touch points.” The more touch points, the more a relationship develops. And it’s really all about forming a relationship during this time and building trust. An engaging, optimized Facebook page helps you do this.

So how do you start optimizing your page? How do you develop a page that helps your enrollment building? It’s time to start posting valuable content on a regular basis! This complete content guide teaches you how to do this if you need some more help.

A lot of child care business owners get frustrated because they don’t have a lot of likes on their Facebook pages. This is totally normal for child care centers and in fact, many local brick and mortar businesses! With time, consistency, and an understanding of what is engaging to your audience, your Facebook page WILL grow if you stick to it. When you have excellent engagement and are posting useful, valuable content, your fan base will grow organically. Using this guide on what to post on your child care’s social media pages will show you how to do that.

To make a child care decision, a parent really NEEDS all these touch points to get to know you. Social media is essentially a tool for nurturing a relationship with potential families! And ultimately, Facebook is an effective marketing platform that you can use to send traffic to your website, collect leads, and convert leads into enrollments. But where do you start? Start by posting consistently on Facebook. With consistency, you will get results!

If you get overwhelmed by coming up with daily content to post on your child care business’ social media accounts, follow this definitive content guide on how to create a powerful social media presence. It will simplify the process and ensure you reach your audience with ease!

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Having An Event Or Open House At Your Child Care? Here’s How To Market It On Social Media!

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An event like an open house or a family fun day is a common way to invite families in your area to experience your child care center and possibly enroll with you. But how do you get the word out about your event? Social media can be an extremely effective tool for marketing your child care event or open house. Here are some common social media strategies I use with my child care clients to get more people to attend their event…

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How To Get Child Care Enrollment Leads From Social Media…

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If you’ve been waiting for the right time of the year to run social media ads for your child care business, this is it! As most of you know, the beginning of the year is usually a very busy time for child care centers. January can mean a time of change for some families, and other families are planning for changes to come. That means it’s time to get some social media ads out there to engage with the people that will need your services.

My child care clients have been seeing great results this January. Social media ads can get expensive towards the end of the year (November & December), because you are competing with all the other businesses that are running ads over the holidays. (This happens because you usually pay for the ads based on a bidding system.)

How should you take advantage of this time of the year? For many of my clients, I will run offers to potential families for a special to save $300-$1000 off enrollment. I’ll put together targeted Facebook ads that run specifically to families with the right age children within driving distance to the school. A parent will see the ad and click to input their information in order to get the flyer or coupon to save on enrollment. On the coupon will be a number to call to book a tour. If they don’t book a tour right then, it’s ok, now you have their email information and phone number so you can continue to market to them throughout the year. If you are consistent about sending out emails and engaging with your leads, this means even more enrollments down the road.

This January I’ve seen some of the best results from social media ads yet. If you have an offer or special that you’re running in a newspaper or have on a flyer, now is a great time to create an online ad for it. I started a campaign for one of my clients just a couple days ago and they have already gotten 6 leads!

If you try out this strategy, make sure to have a tracking number set up that you use on the coupon, so you know which calls are coming from the ads. The coupon should also state that the touring family should show the coupon to get the savings. The director or person doing the tour can then mark that person in your tracking software as coming from Facebook. This is a complete system that will let you know exactly how many enrollments you get from running the campaign.

If you’ve been waiting to build Facebook ads, now is the right time.

Try it out, and let me know what kind of results you get!

Do you struggle with figuring out what to post on your child care center’s social media pages? Never be stumped again…get the Social Media Content Cheat Sheet, just for child care centers.

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The Big Mistake Child Care Centers Make On Social Media

Do parents ever message your child care business on Facebook asking about enrollment?

Do you get mildly annoyed, wishing they would just call you or email you?

Does it make you feel a little uncomfortable communicating with them on Messenger?

Facebook Messenger might seem like an unconventional, maybe even slightly unprofessional, way to talk to parents about enrollment. However, Messenger is actually one of the most popular forms of communication with the new generation of parents. Knowing how to communicate effectively on this platform can help you grow your child care enrollment.

I see SO MANY child care centers simply respond by telling the person to call the center to check for availability and information. Others will respond only to the question (usually about availability and/or rates) without encouraging further communication. These are all lost opportunities to engage with potential customers. This is a great time to communicate your value beyond price, build trust, find out more about them, and get that person in the door for a tour!

Communicating on Facebook Messenger allows you to interact with potential customers in their preferred means of communication, since this is the way they reached out to you. Enrollment inquiries on Facebook Messenger should be treated just as you would treat a phone call and in this article I’ll give you some tips on how to guide the conversation. You may be surprised about the amount of tours you can book right from the online conversations you have with parents when this is done right.

1. Set up an auto responder.

Facebook has the option to set up an autoresponder to anyone that messages your business page. This is a great opportunity to let the person know you will be with them as soon as you can and the perfect time to introduce what makes your school great! You still have the option to go and answer whenever you have the time, but gives them a little bit of information in the meantime.

To turn on Instant Replies for your Page:

Click Settings at the top of your Business Page.
Click Messaging in the left column.
Below Response Assistant, click to select Yes next to Send Instant Replies to anyone who messages your Page.
To change your instant reply message, click Change, update the message and click Save.
Don’t just use Facebook’s autogenerated responder! Change the message. You have 250 characters. Let the person know that you will be with them as soon as you can and say something quick about your unique benefits.

2. Use Facebook’s personalization option in the autoresponder.

Right underneath the option to change the responder message there will be the option to add personalization. You can add in the person’s name to the message, which adds a nice touch. You can also add in your clickable phone number, which is a great opportunity to encourage people to call you for a tour if they are looking for a spot right away.

3. Designate who will be answering Facebook messages for your child care business.

You don’t want just anyone handling your Facebook messages. It should be the people that are already handling the enrollment conversations on the phone, using the same strategies. If you have your teachers, an intern, or an outside company handling your social media that may not know how to handle an enrollment conversation, it’s important to make sure you have a designated person inside your company to do so.

4. Use their message as a catalyst to gather their email and engage. Do not make the conversation about availability or rates.

Many parents will message your with simple questions about your rates or availability. Make sure to keep the focus on learning more about them, letting them know about what makes your child care special and unique, getting any info from them for further marketing, and encouraging them to book a tour. If you just respond by sending along your rates, then you are only competing with other child care centers on price.

The easiest way to sidestep this question is to say something like, “Sure, I’d love to send along our info packet. What is your email and I’ll get that to you right away?”

5. Continue the conversation and engage.

Ask them questions! After asking for their email to send them the info they are requesting, start a conversation. One simple starter: what prompted you to reach out to us today? This can be a great way to connect with parents. It may be that they are unhappy with their current child care, that they are pregnant, or that they just started a new job. This allows you to connect with them on a personal level and hear more about them. This also can usually lead into you getting more information about the child and program (name, age, FT, PT, etc.).

6. Share your unique benefits.

This is your chance to highlight what makes your child care special and unique. You can say something like, “In your email is now the information packet about our program. I’m sure your family will love our (unique benefits).” Example: 30-day Happy Family Guarantee, unique and separate classrooms by age, organic lunches, diapers provided, highly experienced staff with average of ___ tenure, screen for kindergarten readiness with an average score of…

What you have done here is effectively turned the conversation from price to what makes you stand apart and why the parents should choose you, regardless of price.

7. Ask for a tour.

You can encourage a tour in Facebook Messenger by saying something like…

“We do have limited availability. I would hate for any spots to be filled before you make your decision. Would you like to schedule a tour for you and your family to come in. I have _________________ or _______________ open, what works better for you?

Have them agree to the commitment and to communicate if they need to reschedule. “Thank you for messaging us today, we look forward to seeing you at _______________. If for any reason you need to reschedule would you please promise to call _______________ so that we can give that time to someone else who’s waiting?

This time has been reserved just for you. We all look forward to meeting you!”

8. Follow up!

If they do not want to tour at that time, make sure to set a reminder for yourself to follow up with them via Messenger in a couple days to see if they have any questions. This is a great time to engage them in further conversations to answer any questions they have in their search for child care and, again, encourage them to book a tour.

Do you struggle with figuring out what to post on your child care center’s social media pages? Never be stumped again…get the Social Media Content Cheat Sheet, just for child care centers.

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Social Media For Child Care: Better Engagement Means Lower Cost Ads

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There’s one important thing you should understand about engagement on social media. It’s something I call the “Wave Effect” that happens with Facebook and Google search and riding the wave will save you money with ads!

When your audience starts responding to and engaging with a particular post, Facebook recognizes that this is happening, and is more likely to show your next post to more people (or more of your posts, if it is happening a lot). In other words, if you put out a highly engaging post one day, the next post you put out after that is much more likely to reach more people.

Facebook also recognizes when a particular link is getting a lot of click-throughs from your posts and that makes a difference in creating your ads. If you create an ad from a link that is getting a lot of social media attention, then Facebook is much more likely to show your ad to your audience, which will cost you less, since it has been deemed relevant and engaging.

For example: Let’s say you post a link on your Facebook page leading to your blog post called, “10 Questions You Should Ask Every Daycare On A Tour,” and you get a lot of natural engagement. Then, when you turn around and create an ad or a boosted post with that link, you’ll save money because it has already been deemed a high-quality link. This means you’ll reach more people for less money. So, an ad or boosted post can be used to amplify an already engaging post to reach a massive amount of people with a more cost-effective ad.

If we put out a social media post, and it’s engaging, highlights our brand, and supports our marketing, this is generally a good time to at least boost it, because it will be a more cost-effective boost, and we’ll “surf the wave” of engagement, so to speak.

Facebook even takes into account signals from around the web. If you get a lot of website visitors because people search for “child care Dayton, Ohio” and you’re the first one that shows up in search results for those terms, Facebook recognizes you as a high quality site. This means they will more likely show your posts and ads to your website at a lower cost. It all works together!

Hate staring at your computer screen, trying to figure out what to post on social media? Get The Social Media Content Cheat Sheet, Just For Child Care Centers

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My Child Care Client Just Hired 2 Amazing Professionals From Facebook Ads

I opened my email the other day and received the nicest email from a child care client about the social media ad campaigns I just ran to recruit employees for her child care business.

She said,

“I have to say that hiring you was definitely worth every penny! I cannot believe the qualified applicants we have received from your social media campaign!!!! We have hired two amazing professionals and have a dozen or more resumes. Not only did we get great applicants but we also have had more visits to our website and Facebook page in the last month. In addition we have also scheduled a few tours from this campaign. I would strongly recommend anyone who is struggling to find good applicants to hire you. I will no longer waste valuable time or money when I need teachers. I will always look to you in the future for your assistance in searching for great professionals in the Early Childhood Field!! Thank you for your help. Of course you can use this as a testimony!!! I look forward to working with you in the near future.”

Facebook ads can be an effective way to get leads for new enrollments at your child care business but did you know you can also use Facebook ads to find staff?!

I know finding qualified staff for your child care is one of the biggest issues child care owners are facing today. If you’re struggling, it might be worth it to try out a Facebook ad campaign. I helped another client set up an ad campaign a couple weeks ago and her director just hired on 3 new people that applied after the campaign!

There are a couple ways to go about hiring from Facebook. The simplest way is to just boost a post out to your Facebook fans and their friends. Another option when boosting a post is to choose people to target. You can target people that live in your area that have interests that are related to early childhood education, preschool, pre-k, child development, etc. Try this out and see what kind of results you get. Targeting when boosting a post though is EXTREMELY limited so it can be worth it to try out Facebook Ads Manager.

Once you get into Facebook Ads Manager you can get even more targeted. In Facebook Ads Manager you can run ads to people that live in your area with certain degrees, that have gone to certain schools, that have particular job titles such as preschool director, child care provider, child care assistant, etc. You can run ads to people that have just moved to the area (so may be job hunting) or even people that work for other child care businesses! Explore around the demographics options and you will find endless options to find potential staff that might be right for your center. I have compiled entire lists of demographics and interests options that are working really well for hiring!

In the ad/post make sure to explain why your child care would be such a great place to work! Video of your employees having fun or talking about why they like to work in child care and at your business works really well. If you don’t have video, images of your happy staff and testimonials also works.

Just as with posting the job anywhere else, don’t post boring job descriptions that state pay and hours! Give people reasons to want to work for you, people choose jobs for many reasons beyond pay and hours. You’ll want to write your ad so that you find people that are a good fit.

Good luck, I can’t wait to hear your results!

Get The Social Media Content Cheat Sheet, Just For Child Care Centers

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How Do You Get Child Care Leads From A Blog?

Do you have a blog for your child care business? Even though most child care centers don’t, setting aside time to consistently create valuable content will set you apart from the competition and give you a ton of opportunities to communicate with potential families, drive traffic to your website, and get leads!

How do you get leads from a blog? With my own clients I’ll craft content with lead generation in mind. If you’re posting your blog on social media (which you should!) think about what would make someone that is actually searching for child care to click over. Sure, a craft how-to post or recipe is great from time to time, but is it enticing for leads searching for child care? More appropriate for this goal would be a child care search checklist, what makes a child care safe, a post on what makes your educational style different than other child care centers, “How To Tell If (insert your child care name) Is Right For Your Child”, an interview with the owner, “The Ultimate Resource For Transitioning Into Child Care” etc.

So now you have a topic, the blog is written, then what? Post the blog on Facebook, then create an ad with the post targeting families with children ages 0-5 (or whatever is appropriate for parents of the blog post you are writing and the age group you want to fill at the center). You will need to do this in Ads Manager, but this will give you the opportunity to show your Facebook post to your prime target market (while also getting your page more likes as an added benefit).

I’ve been sending my clients hundreds of website visits per blog post doing this. But what about the leads? Sure, I send them a click, but then what?

Make sure to end every blog with your phone number and/or a button to your inquiry form. Here’s an example of what I end every blog post with:

Does this sound like it might be a perfect place for your child to thrive? Give us a call at [preferably a tracking number so you can measure success] to book a tour and come see for yourself what a [your school] education is like!

Or for more info about our programs click the button below and we’ll send you an email!

Then we’ll end the blog with a button like this, sending people to the online inquiry form:

That way you are leveraging your blog posts into a lead generation machine!

The next step is to create Facebook ads to people that have visited your blog post (this is called REMARKETING) but that is a whole other article! For now, think about how you can leverage your blog for lead generation. Stay tuned for future tips on how to write a good blog!

Never Be Stumped About What To Post On Social Media Again…Click To Get The Social Media Content Cheat Sheet, Just For Child Care Centers

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Just For Child Care: 10 Social Media Hacks

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If you are wanting tips on how to grow your social media audience and connect with new families, then look no further.

Here are 10 Social Media Hacks for your child care to help you grow your presence and kick start your social media…

1. Add all of your social media links to your email signature. Every email you send should automatically give people a connection to your website, Facebook page, Instagram, Twitter, blog, etc.

2. Boost a Facebook post. Even with a $5 budget you have the potential to get HUGE reach! By playing around with strategy and carefully selecting your target audience, you can connect with families right in your area and market your child care center to the right people. You can tweak your settings and gain the best reach by logging into the Facebook Ads Manager and following the prompts.

3. Always include graphics with your Facebook posts. Adding graphics to your posts can dramatically increase the number of people that view, comment and share them, helping to build engagement

4. Schedule your daily social media posts ahead of time. Rather than throwing up a random post at a random time of the day, set aside some time once or twice a week to plan and schedule. It will save you time in the long run and make things much easier! Scheduling also helps create consistency for your audience and sets expectations for when they’ll see posts from you. A user-friendly scheduling site such as Buffer gives you the ability to send out one post on multiple accounts- Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook and Pinterest! And because Buffer allows you to see all of your posts at a glance, you can evenly spread out the different types of content you share.

5. Optimize your posts for engagement. Use hashtags, add descriptive text, and ask questions. A ‘call-to-action’ will significantly increase engagement on your social media posts.

6. Use Geotags. A simple way to build your local network and attract new clients is to add geotags for the location of your photos posted to Instagram and Facebook. After you’ve posted, click into the geotag you used and start browsing through the photos others have shared using the same tag. Now you can connect with local families and businesses, and start a conversation that could potentially lead to new clients and enrollment for your child care center.

7. Use popular #hashtags. Hashtags are great for visibility, and increased visibility leads to follows, likes, clicks, and more engagement. Websta has a running tally of each day’s most popular Instagram hashtags. If any of these fit with what you’re posting, it is a good chance to see the effect a popular hashtag has on your engagement! Hashtags can also be used on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

8. Create ‘Pinnable’ content on your website & blog. Pinterest can be one of the most effective ways to promote your child care center online. Have pinnable images on both your website and on every blog post you publish and post them to your Pinterest page. You have two opportunities with each pin to add your link: one in the description and one in the source for the pin. Linking back is always key!

9. Keep it brief. Try to keep posts relatively short. Aim for between 100-250 characters in length as they generally receive 60% more comments, likes and shares.

10. Engage and communicate. Search out new people and local businesses to follow on all social media platforms. Take time to comment on their posts. ‘Liking’ posts is great, but making a comment gets more attention from both that person and the public. Get your child care center noticed!

Get the content guide to help you with your child care’s social media content.

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Child Care Owners: Do You Have Facebook Reviews? Now Is The Time.

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Facebook is testing out a new service similar to Yelp that could impact your child care business. It is a search engine of local Facebook business pages based on reviews.

So therefore, a potential client can go in and search for child care services near them and see all the top reviewed child care businesses. You can check it out for yourself here.

A search for “child care” in my area turns up results like this:


You probably already know how important reviews are for your child care business and Facebook is one hot spot where you should be collecting them, alongside the others. But this new service is all the more reason to start doing it NOW.

While Facebook is still testing and perfecting this service (there were some non-related search results in there for my area) it is definitely something to keep an eye on. It’s yet another area where parents (potential clients) will be able to find you, judge credibility, and do their information gathering on their enrollment decision.

If you don’t see any way for people to give you reviews on your Facebook business page you need to make sure your page is categorized as a “local business.” Only local businesses can receive reviews. You can change your category in the “About & Info” section of your business page.

How to collect reviews? Just ask. Send out a link to your email list. When you send out a link to the reviews section of your Facebook page people will automatically have the option to leave their own review at the top if they are signed in to Facebook (which most are). Offer an incentive for leaving a review such as a drawing for a gift card. Getting these reviews is not only great for where you show up in the Facebook Services listing but also where your Facebook page shows up all around the internet (Google, Yahoo, etc.).

Now go out there and get some reviews for your business!

Want more tips on how to do social media for your child care? Click here.

 

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