Facebook offers childcare settings a cheap and efficient way to market their services. Why is it so effective? Because its outreach is huge – with more than 31 million people (over 60%) in the UK being active users. In fact, this social media platform has more users worldwide than LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat.
Once you’ve decided to start using social media for your setting, one of the first stumbling blocks is deciding whether you need a Facebook group or a Facebook page. Do you know the difference? We explore this in more detail below.
Facebook page
Having a Facebook page for your business is like having a shop window to the world. By default, it’s available for everyone using the internet to see. It’s the equivalent of having someone walk past a high street store and peering in to see what the merchant is selling.
Facebook group
A Facebook group allows for private communication between a selected group of people. Therefore, it’s an ideal platform for your current parents to talk to each other and also contact you, without members of the public seeing.
The main purpose of a Facebook page is to generate enquiries from new parents. It’s a good idea to publish all your contact information and a link to your website on your ‘About’ section so that visitors can find out more about what you do.
If you like the idea of creating a group for existing parents, the best one to use is a secret group. Here, you can share photos of the children and information about forthcoming events at your setting. Parents can also use this group to communicate directly with you, for instance if their child cannot attend because they’re ill. Rather than Mrs Smith letting you know Jonny won’t be coming in to nursery today on your Facebook page (for the whole world to see), she can post her message privately in the secret group.
So, to summarise, a Facebook page and a Facebook group serve entirely different purposes. However, you can benefit from using both for your setting. Remember, one is a ‘shop window’ for new parents and the other is for existing parents to talk to each other (and you) on a private platform.
Need help setting up social media for your nursery? We can help!
