When you post for your child care center on Facebook, do you feel like you’re talking to a void? Are you fed up putting work into your posts, just to see no results for your efforts? There’s one huge thing to understand about Facebook (and many social media platforms) and that is how to get engagement. When you know how to engage with your audience, you actually start seeing results from your efforts.
Engagement is when someone likes, shares, or comments on your posts. A lot of engagement signals to the social media platform that your post is interesting and relevant. This means your post gets shown more, and then you get even more engagement. This gets your business in front of more of the right people.
But how do you craft engaging posts? It comes down to understanding what your audience cares about.
Your key audience members are parents and community members. And this means ALL parents, not just the ones enrolled in your center! It means anyone that could potentially care about your child care business and become a client.
Most of you are parents yourselves, or at least know what it’s like to be one. Think about the values that are important as a parent. What would you care about? What would be worth your time to look at or to tell others about?
For example, a post about an arts and crafts idea may get a couple likes, but a post that taps into what it’s like to be a mom in a busy world, or a post that a parent can really identify with, will likely get a lot more engagement and shares. Most Moms already feel guilty that they don’t have enough time to craft with their kids, or create that cute recipe on Pinterest, so they will most likely skim over that post about crafts. But if you can create or share posts that tap into their values or identity, that is where you are going to get the most engagement.
It’s also important to take a step beyond posting only about your center. Remember to try to be helpful and engaging for any parent!
The following stats will help you further understand…
People share and engage:
- To bring valuable and entertaining content to others. 49% say sharing allows them to inform others of products they care about and potentially change opinions or encourage action.
- To define ourselves to others. 68% share to give people a better sense of who they are and what they care about.
- To grow and nourish our relationships. 78% like and share information online because it lets them stay connected to people they may not otherwise stay in touch with.
- Self-fulfillment. 69% like and share information because it allows them to feel more involved in the world.
- To get the word out about causes or brands. 84% share because it is a way to support causes or issues they care about.
Keep all of these reasons in mind the next time you are on social media and are about to like something or share something. Is it because of one of these reasons? Most likely yes!
A social post will get much more engagement when it resonates with people’s values, taps into their self-identity, or will help them demonstrate to others what is important to them. Think about how that relates to your child care and your audience. How can you tap into the values or self-identities of a parent?
Sharing helps people connect to others, so tap into that motivation. What do they care enough about to share? What really taps into their values? What demonstrates their identity? Think about what you share on social media.
I hope this article helps you think a little bit differently about what you post on social media and helps you get more engagement for your child care center, preschool, or early education center!
