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Twitter Tips For Nurseries – Getting Started On Social Media

Twitter has changed the way the world communicates, but are you making the most of the opportunities it provides?

Julie Waite
by Julie Waite
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To the uninitiated, Twitter can seem like a daunting and confusing world; it has its own language (tweets, followers, hashtags), people have different names (@who?!) and what about the trolls!

But, it’s actually not that scary – in fact, once you get started it’s rather enjoyable and it can bring benefits for both your business and childcare practice.

Why tweet?

People tweet for many reasons: some are campaigning for change, some are communicating with friends, and for others it’s just a stream of consciousness.

However, as a business, you must be clear about why you want to use Twitter; make it part of your business strategy and set objectives.

Nurseries use Twitter to

improve communication with parents,
share and discover best practice ideas,
keep up-to-date with sector news,
network with other early years professionals,
develop relationships with their local community,
build a profile for the brand or an individual, and
promote and grow their business.

If these benefits resonate with your nursery, then Twitter could be for you. You might be feeling a little hesitant, though, and concerned about what could go wrong, but Janet Bebb, a social media consultant at Social Progress (@SocialProgress), advises, “Don’t worry too much about ‘what if’ and ‘maybe’ or negative comments and trolls. If your setting provides a great place for children to learn and play, then you have nothing to worry about. And, as for trolls, you’re a small fish in a big pond – trolls have bigger fish to fry.”

Getting started

If you’re ready to take the plunge, you’ll need to get your head around some Twitter basics:

1.After you’ve signed up, choose a username/profile name – this must be fewer than 15 characters. Choose a name that includes both your nursery name and an indication of what you do, eg @XYZnursery or @XYZchildcare.
2.Add a profile photo (your logo, a picture of your setting, an image that encapsulates what you are about or your own photo if the focus is on you) and a header photo (a colourful image, perhaps of children having fun and something that fits with your brand).
3.Complete your bio – this is your chance to sell yourself; include what you do, where you are and your website address.
4.Start following people – explore Twitter to find people or businesses you are interested in and start following them. Look at other nurseries, local businesses, membership associations, news outlets or online magazines (eg @TeachEarlyYrs). By observing others, you’ll get ideas of what to tweet and learn how people interact on Twitter. You’ll also get people following you back!
5.Tweet! Writing your first post can be nerve-racking, but, given that the average lifespan of a tweet is a mere 18 minutes and at this stage you won’t have many followers, the likelihood is that it will go largely unnoticed.
6.Interact with people – Twitter is all about being sociable and this means looking at what other people tweet, having conversations, retweeting interesting posts and ‘liking’ posts.
And that’s it – six easy steps to starting out on Twitter. It really is that simple!

The secret of success

Once you’re all set up on Twitter, you need to plan what you are going to tweet about and how often – frequency and quality of tweets are the two critical factors for success.

To build an engaged following, tweet daily, or several times a week, as a minimum. This might feel like a big commitment, but you’ll soon get used to it and the business benefits will be worth the time invested.

Before getting started, though, explain what you’re doing to parents and staff, and get them on board. Mary Llewellin of Snapdragons Nurseries (@snapdragonsltd), advises, “The biggest area for caution is ensuring that all parental consents for images of their children are watertight. We have a thorough process for informing parents about how we use all our social media platforms; they can select which ones they wish their children to appear on and can change their minds at any time.” Also, avoid using names of children alongside photos – even first names.

When planning the content of your tweets, don’t be too ‘salesy’. Perhaps set yourself a ratio of sales:social tweets, with just one promotional tweet in every 10 – and even then keep it low key.

Sarah Steel, MD of The Old Station Nursery Group (@nurserysarah), comments, “I tweet about things that are going on in my nurseries and personal things, to stop it from being too ‘sales’ focused. The most comments I ever got on one post was when I explained that it was 11pm and the hamster had escaped from his cage in my office. I had a lot of concern about his location, until I found him at 1.30am!”

As a vibrant setting, you’ve got masses of attractive content just waiting to be shared, including

events – fundraising, open days, festivals;
news – successes, awards, inspection reports, new developments, comments on sector news;
activities – images of children playing and learning, children’s artwork, outdoor fun, role play, visitors to the nursery.
The list of tweetable topics is as big as your imagination! So what are you waiting for? Get tweeting!

Twitter tips

Four ways to make your tweets count

1.Dedicate time each day to tweet, and stick to it! If you can’t do it every day, then you could use a free scheduling tool such as Hootsuite or Buffer to set up several tweets and choose when you want them to be posted.
2.Have a purpose for each tweet – are you showcasing your facilities? Demonstrating good practice? Directing people to your website? Engaging people in an event?
3.Use appropriate hashtags for a wider audience, eg #NationalStorytellingWeek, #earlyyears, #Yorkshire (or your location).
4.Include an image – posts with pictures or videos get more likes, retweets and clicks.

Julie Waite is a writer and marketing consultant working in the early years sector. Visit jwaitemarketing.com or follow on Twitter @JWaiteMarketing.

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