Outsource2Us Shares the Dos and Don’ts of Mastering Social Media Marketing for Childcare Centers
Currently, social media is one of the most used – and effective – marketing tools available for businesses. As of February 2022, approximately 82.7% of Australians were active social media users – that’s a lot of potential families! The childcare industry is very active on social media, as there are numerous ways to leverage the various platforms to help push your centre to the forefront of parents’ minds. We outline the dos and don’ts of social media marketing for childcare centres below.
Dos…
Create a strategy
Before you begin marketing on social media, you should create a structured plan that includes when you will post, what you will post, and on what platforms. This will enable you to form clear goals and objectives for your content, as well as help ensure that your branding stays consistent across all platforms. Our marketing experts can help you out with designing an effective marketing plan to match your budget and time constraints.
Showcase your facilities
Social media gives you the opportunity to showcase the amazing facilities you have on offer at your centre – so make sure you’re taking advantage of this! By sharing images and videos of your centre, parents will feel more confident contacting you. Introduce each room, go on Live and walk through the centre, and upload videos answering FAQs from families… the options are endless.
Collaborate with other local businesses
You should not pass on opportunities to collaborate with other businesses for marketing purposes. This could be as simple as exchanging Google reviews or co-organising a community event that can be advertised across your social platforms. Forming both online and in-person relationships with other businesses in your community offers you the chance to expand your reach and credibility.
Encourage user-generated content
Where appropriate, you should encourage your parents to contribute user-generated content such as photos, testimonials and success stories. With permission, these can be used on social media to help build trust in your childcare centre. This can also help encourage positive word-of-mouth.
Monitor your analytics
Ensuring that you’re consistently reviewing your results and applying necessary changes to your social media management is very important. Using the analytics section of each platform, review what content types are generating the most interest as well as what platform has the least activity. This can help you determine what to post the following month and how much time you should allocate to each platform. It can also be helpful to monitor the performance of your competitors, which is why we offer comprehensive competitor analysis for our clients.
Don’ts…
Share images without permission
As you would already know, you must obtain parental permission to use any images of the children in your childcare centre. This extends to social media – make sure you request permission from your parents every time a child is to be featured in your social media posting or advertising.
Neglect your social media accounts
When the weeks get busy, it can be easy to let social media management slip onto the back burner. However, consistency is key when striving for success on social media, so ensure that you are consistently posting, as well as updating your business’s information so that it is current. Using scheduling platforms such as Creator Studio or Hootsuite can help you to schedule posts ahead of time so you are regularly uploading on platforms.
Rely on self-promotion
It’s important that you strike a balance between promotional posts that help to boost your business with educational or centre culture-based posts. This gives your posting schedule more substance and helps to flesh out your brand more effectively to your target audiences. Constant self-promotion can create social media fatigue and could result in losing the interest of your audience.
Ignore comments
Comments are the primary way for your target audiences to interact with your brand on social media. Therefore, making sure you’re on top of responding to comments is essential. Actively engaging with your audience is an important aspect of any marketing strategy. You should also always address any negative feedback via comments openly and professionally to demonstrate your commitment to solving problems and accommodating your customers.
Ignore trends
Unfortunately, social media marketing for child care isn’t a set-and-forget venture. To stay relevant on social media, you should be keeping up to date with current trends or updates to platforms that you could potentially leverage for more engagement.
We understand that developing an effective social media presence can be challenging and time-consuming. If you’re looking for help managing your centre’s social media presence, contact Outsource2Us – we’re the experts in social media marketing for child care.
