Small business owners wear many hats, and have so many competing demands on our time that we often don’t know where to focus efforts for the biggest benefit to our bottom line. Social media is a big hot button, and I for one struggle with knowing which platforms to invest in, how to message, and how to build community.
I recently read a great research piece by Heidi Cohen, author of Heidi Cohen’s Actionable Marketing Guide. Some key take aways include:
- LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are the dominant social media platforms for the INC. 500;
- Companies maximize the power of LinkedIn by creating strong, complete LinkedIn profiles for key employees, joining relevant LinkedIn Groups, and leveraging the LinkedIn publishing platform;
- Facebook users are most interested in their family and friends, their core interests and not your business. You must craft your message to be relevant to the users, post frequently and interact with your page visitors;
- Twitter can help you broaden your reach, yet you are challenged to gain sufficient traction to attract a following;
- Blogging requires resources and time to provide useful, quality content and it creates your ‘home base’ for your other social media messaging;
- Video should be diversified beyond YouTube to include Facebook and Instagram Video. Video allows you to showcase the personal side of your business and you can leverage your video into your blog, website and other social platforms;
- Pinterest is considered a female haven, an important consideration for nanny agencies. Pinterest can by used by the nanny agency for aspirational sales, the “I want this type of nanny” market, and to build community with nannies seeking curated recommendations for activities, products, books, and childcare methods. Images that grab the viewer are pinworthy, and are a key component to Pinterest success.
So just what is social media for nanny agencies? What to do? I asked Jennifer Abernathy, the CEO of Socially Delivered, INA’s social media concierge, for her recommendations on key, actionable tips for a nanny agency seeking real ROI on their social media platforms. Jennifer recommends:
- Get Organized
- Pull together a key list of each site you have a presence on.
- Make sure you know each of the usernames and passwords.
- Understand who in the company is spearheading each site.
- Examine the sites you are on.
- The CEO of the agency should have a great profile made up on LinkedIn.
- Each agency should give their employees a company description to put on their individual LinkedIn profiles. This way the company brand is consistent on each employees page.
- Headshots
- Make sure everyone on the team has a great social media headshot. It says a lot in today’s social business environment and shows a consistent agency brand.
- Facebook Business Pages
- Ask do the links work? Is the website URL on the page?
- What about our phone number is it listed? Are the pictures we posting royalty free?
- What about our timeline photo is it current?
- Are we consistently posting each day?
- What is our theme for the month/ week etc.?
- Twitter
- Is our bio current? Is our website link within the bio area on Twitter?
- Who are we strategically following?
- What are we saying? Is it consistent?
- Whom on my team is monitoring the discussion?
- Pinterest
- Do we have a page?
- What kind of boards are we posting?
- Are the photos royalty free?
- Social Media Policy
- Be sure to tell employees to keep their pages “clean.” Have rules in place if they post photos or comments about your business that are in bad taste. Make sure everyone on the team knows what social sites the company is using. The team is your biggest brand ambassador!
And a reminder, at the INA’s 30th Annual Conference in Cancun there will be an in-depth workshop presented for nanny agencies with important tips and “how to” advice for INA nanny agencies! Don’t miss this!
A special thank you to INA member HomeWork Solutions’ Kathy Webb for providing this roundup of social media for nanny agencies.
HomeWork Solutions offers both household payroll and household payroll tax compliance services to US families on a nationwide basis and has partnered with INA nanny agencies since 1993.
SociallyDelivered.com is a boutique social media concierge firm. The concierge team happily creates, writes, posts, tweets, pins and shares social media copy on behalf of clients around the globe. SD is led by Jennifer Abernethy 2x National Author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Social Media Marketing and was a popular workshop presenter at the 2013 INA Conference. Attendees may remember Jennifer had to be Skyped in when weather cancelled her flight to Louisville!
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