Social Media - Advantages and Disadvantages

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1 MANITOULIN SUDBURY DISTRICT SERVICES BOARD SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY MANITOULIN SUDBURY DISTRICT SERVICES BOARD SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY FOR YOUR LICENSED CHILDCARE CENTRE 1

2 Table of contents Social vs. Traditional...3 Why Social?...4 The Benefits of Being Social...5 Measuring Social Success...6 Time-Saving Tools Minute Strategy... 8 Facebook: The Best Platform For You...9 Using Facebook Consistent Communication...11 One Last Thing Document created by Studio123 on behalf of the Manitoulin Sudbury District Services Board 2

3 Social vs. Traditional Traditional marketing, like print advertising, billboards, TV, and radio, has a linear, A to B, one-way communication process. Social marketing is a multi-stream communication process that allows you to send a message out to your audience, allow them to share it with others, receive a message back and interact with them in real-time. It is the best way to communicate with current and prospective clients in the absence of face to face interaction. TRADITIONAL MARKETING SOCIAL MARKETING YOU CLIENT 3

4 Why social? 92% of consumers trust peer recommendations (which can be done more easily via social media.) Only 14% of consumers trust traditional advertisements. over 60 million status updates happen on Facebook daily Imagine how fast that positive referral could spread between friends. More than 50% of the world s population is under 30 years old They are young parents using social media to interact with their peers. Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the U.S. Social media is a very inexpensive way to access information. Brands who engage on social media enjoy higher loyalty from their clients. * In terms of accessibility, social media is at the forefront. For those living under the poverty line, the last thing they will let go of is their smartphone. * Statistics from socialnomics.net 4

5 The benefits of being social It is an inexpensive way to generate exposure for your childcare centre It is effective in increasing your web traffic and social media followers It will help you expand your reach It will improve your search engine optimization ranking. Search engines such as google and yahoo rank you higher when there are social media posts linking to your website. The higher your rank, the more quickly you can be found. It will help drive traffic to your childcare centre It will help strengthen and solidify your traditional marketing efforts Exposure for your childcare centre Interaction with your clients and potential clients Staying top-of-mind with parents Successful marketing is engaging your audience and having them interact with your centre online. Your goal is to align yourself with the online conversation. 5

6 Important questions about social media Measuring social success Metric tools: Google Analytics can measure how many hits your website is getting in reaction to social media posts. It can also define where your clicks are coming from geographically, how often users return to your page and how they found it. Measuring clients reactions online: If your audience is participating in the conversation on social media, you are on the right track, and your strategy is taking shape. Bottom-line: If more clients are coming into your centre, accessing your services, visiting your website and engaging online in response to your social marketing efforts, then you re succeeding. 6

7 Important questions about social media Time-saving tools HootSuite is the most effective tool for spreading your message across Facebook. If you manage multiple Facebook pages, you can change your status on all accounts, or specific ones, all in one application. You can also preset a date and time for your posts to be published so you can carefully craft your messages and more easily reach your target audience at a time that will be most convenient for them. This feature also allows you to better manage your time for those employees taking on social media above and beyond their other regular duties. Facebook s Pages dashboard has a multitude of metrics accessible to all administrators of your centre s page which you can use to help you measure your success on social media. It tracks in real-time the effectiveness of individual posts and your overall social presence. This allows you to gage what type of content your audience is most interested in and strengthen your presence online by tailoring your posts accordingly. 7

8 Important questions about social media 10-minute strategy Write two new posts, and schedule them to go out in the following few days. Reply to comments posted by your followers concerning your previous posts. Scan your Facebook news feed and make at least one comment per day on relevant status updates from other Facebook Pages you follow. Share significant events with parents on a weekly basis. You can also share community events if they are relevant to your followers. Reply to pending inbox and direct messages within 24 hours whenever possible. 8

9 Important questions about social media Facebook The best platform for you Facebook is a simple and effective tool to reach parents. The popularity of Facebook in your region makes it the platform of choice for your licensed childcare centre. Facebook has over 500 million active users so you re sure to find your audience. More and more, Facebook is being used as the online platform of choice for people seeking a particular product or service. By having a professional and current page that is representative of your centre, you will make a great first impression with your potential clients. Tools like the Facebook Like button can also improve your website s performance by increasing your Search Engine Optimization ranking. In addition, it s no secret that women aged 55 and over are the fastest growing demographic on Facebook. This growing population paired with peer recommendations will create great referrals between grandparents and new parents. YouTube is the second most used search engine on the internet, topped only by Google. Whenever possible, post videos that pertain to child development, licensed childcare, and other content you think parents might find valuable. Short videos engage your audience, they make content simple to absorb and they make for great shareable content. 9

10 Guidelines to effectively manage social media accounts Using Facebook Make your posts as concise as possible. The more quickly you can get your message across, the more people it will reach. It has been proven that shorter posts get read more than longer ones. Use relevant images in your posts as much as possible. The presence of an image is simply more visually appealing than a block of text and will stand out in the News Feed. Reply to comments within 24 hours on weekdays and within 72 hours over the weekend. This shows the importance you place on engaging with your audience and will promote others to join in the conversation. Maintain posting consistency. By posting in a certain timeframe day after day, your audience will come to expect your posts and will return more often. Be sure to share information from other agencies that is relevant to your followers. One caution for this is limiting the amount of posts you share to a few per week. As a general rule, shared content should account for no more than 20% of your centre s original posts. Facebook ads can be used to promote larger events. Using this tool allows you to target a specific demographic including age, interests, geographic location, and more. These ads are very inexpensive and are often more effective than traditional advertising methods. Do not create personal pages or group pages for your centre. Always create a public page using facebook.com/pages/create - we recommend choosing an Organization page and then selecting Community Organization from the dropdown menu. General Facebook page information Customizing your page: Watch Video Controlling posts on your page: Watch Video Improvements to page insights: Watch Video When naming a new Facebook page To maintain consistency among licensed childcare centres within MSDSB, use the following format: *Your centre* - Licensed Childcare Centre. e.g: Chapleau Child Care Centre de Garde d Enfants - Licensed Childcare Centre 10

11 Consistent communication Delete unused pages and groups they confuse and misguide the user. It also makes the licensed childcare brand seem less current. Reply to messages within 24 hours on weekdays and within 72 hours on weekends. This is just good practice across all social platforms. Answer to criticism. Engage with your customers as you would if they came into your centre with a complaint. Deleting their critical posts will only upset them even more. Be kind, listen and offer the great customer service you would expect from a community organization. That being said, vulgar, defamatory, offensive and discriminatory posts should be deleted as soon as possible. When posting images, make creative choices that highlight your programs, your cultural offering and children flourishing at your centre. Post content that relates to quality of life and family benefits (educational resources, recreation, events, workshops etc.) Use a professional yet casual and friendly tone when posting and interacting with your audience. Use complete and concise sentences. 11

12 Consistent communication (cont.) Avoid the use of internet slang such as lol, nm, :), ;), etc. Always consider your target audience and how they ll react to your posts. Double check you re spelling. Triple check your spelling. Only post content that is relevant to your organization for your clientele and avoid mundane information (ie. It s Monday! or Look at that snow! ) When linking external content, remove the textual web address link from the status update. Don t worry, the attached link will remain. 12

13 One last thing Social media is an interactive way to express the style, tone and personality of your organization. Don t be afraid to bend the rules a little and see how it works. By monitoring the reaction to your posts, you ll get a better grasp of what your audience is receptive to. Once you get to know the type of content your audience reacts to, run with it! 13

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