As you know using social media to engage and connect better with parents and potential new clients works really well.  Facebook is particularly useful as a lot of mums use this platform.  But sometimes keeping up to date with changes to Facebook can be difficult.

We wanted to remind you of a few different features on Facebook which will help you engage more effectively and also give you a couple of quick updates.

One of the most common questions we are asked by our clients is what’s the difference between a Facebook Company Page and Group?  Understanding the differences between these will help you decide which is most appropriate for your nursery.

Facebook Company Pages are used by businesses and organisations to promote what they offer.  It’s like a shopfront for you similar to your website so it helps to build brand awareness.  You can encourage your parents to LIKE your Company Page and then they can see regular updates in their newsfeed.  Company Pages are visible to everyone that has liked your Company Page.  It’s a great way for you to keep everyone up to date with stories, information about what’s happening at your nursery. However the level of interaction is limited to your fans either commenting on a post or clicking that they like the post.  Also it can take time to build up the number of LIKES on your Company Page.

Facebook Groups are becoming very popular as they allow much more engagement. When you set up a Facebook Group you can set three options:

• Public – Anyone can join
• Closed – Require approval
• Secret – Invitation only

A Facebook group would be a fantastic way to connect with the parents that currently have children at your nursery.  You can set the privacy so that you invite them to join and post regular updates and photos of the children without worrying about these being viewed by the general public.  There is more chance that people will engage in discussions and if you want to capture views from the parents you can post questions for the group to respond to.

So it is worth having a Facebook Company Page to raise brand awareness and promote your business as well as having a closed group which allows more engagement and interaction with your current clients.

One quick Facebook update which is worth mentioning is that from 5th November 2014 Facebook are banning ‘Like-Gating’.  This basically means that you will no longer be able to incentivise people to LIKE you Company Page by offering rewards or competitions.  Many businesses used this as an unpaid way of increasing their LIKES.  Going forward you will need to consider paid advertising to increase the number of LIKES on your Company Page.

We hope this blog has been useful, if you need any more information or would like some advice on how you can engage better with your parents using Facebook please do get in touch with us.  We can help!