Facebook For Your Daycare??

[Pammie]

Several members have mentioned that they've made a facebook acct for their daycare. I'm trying to join the world that many of my "young enough to be my own kids" clients are in, and am thinking that it might be a good thing to do.

But I don't even have my own facebook acct - so any help would be appreciated.

What do you put on your daycare facebook page?? Do you limit access only to current/former clients?? How often do you update?? Do your clients communicate with you through your daycare facebook page or is it just a means for *you* to post photos, share info etc.

Absolutely any and all help and suggestions will be most appreciated since I have no idea what I'm doing

[Cat Herder]

I love my Daycare Facebook account. I have only Parents, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Family friends. (and one or two folks from here )

You may want to get a separate email for your daycare and use that to open your FB account. I did a personal account since it allows you to do the most. The business pages are kind of weak, IMHO. I used my daycare name as the first name, "Childcare" as the last.

I post pictures of fun stuff we are doing about once a week. I give occasional little funny anecdotes of our day like "Guaranteed deep sleep, Just add water." on a photo of them sacked out after day of playing in the sprinklers.... Don't update too often or it will become expected instead of extra. I average 400 photos a year.

I also have a FAQ section, Annual Closing Calendar, Policies, ETC. set up in my "Notes Section". If I have a parent asking alot of the same questions or arguing a specific policy I simply "Tag" her in the "Note" or send it to her in private message depending on how public her questioning was .

Occasionally you will have those who try to bully you by starting a debate over one of your policies on your wall. Tagging them in your policy "Note" and adding "If this won't work for you, just let me know as soon as possible. Thanks! " Works like a charm. :: I have even had the other Mom's (some on the waiting list) "Like" those messages before...guess they get a kick out of it, too. ::::

The diagram...stolen from my DD.

[wdmmom]

I love my 2 separate FB accounts! 1 for business, 1 for pleasure.

My daycare account I keep private for current clients only. I will post upcoming events, I have all my newsletters on there in the "Notes" section, I post all of my breakfast/lunch menus and I post pictures of our adventures and the crafts we make.

[Sugar Magnolia]

We are a center, so we definately have one, parents like it. I post at least one picture a day. I also make announcements and give reminders there too. I "friend" all my parents (that want to) so I can "tag" them in their child's pictures. It is also good advertising, so mine is public. It also helps spread the word about your daycare. All the other "friends" of the parents see the pics this way. I've seen comments like "wow that place looks nice" or "they do great activities there". Needless to say, use FB with care. Like a thread from last week, where the provider was always b****ing, BAD idea! Lol! All my parents know I love my job anyways, so its a good thing!

[MNmamaOf4]

Posting so I can have ideas too!

I'm just starting a separate FB account for my daycare, I used my daycare e-mail address to set it up. I did have a FB page for my daycare under my personal account, but I deleted that , but I want to separate the two accounts. So I would like to see other providers ideas too!

[Crazy8]

what is the big advantage to having a whole separate account for your daycare page instead of just a "business page" or whatever FB calls them. I just have the business page "attached" to my regular account.

I have a few dc families (previous and current) on my personal page - I don't mind having them there, but reading the other thread about posting about looking forward to a 3 day weekend, or having a rough day, etc. has me wondering if they are upset about that stuff. But how do I delete them at this point without causing issues??

But really - just curious what the differences are. I can post updates and photos and notes from the page I have - what does the personal acct do that the page doesn't??