Facebook and Daycare...Do you mix the two?

[mickyc]

I have 3 actually! lol - my private page, a daycare page and a daycare business page

I have my own private page and I do not add daycare parents as friends EVER. In the beginning I started a daycare page and invited all parents to be friends. Only some accepted. I don't ever post pics of the kids. Only our art/crafts, any important info, any open spots etc. I had one parent who did NOT want his child's pictures taken never mind posted on facebook (weird to me because he has facebook himself and posts pics of the kids). Any pictures I took of the kids I posted on a bulletin board in my daycare space but never posted on facebook. It was very hard trying to take pics of the kids and not being able to include the one boy. I was glad when they left that I didn't have to worry about it any further.

When it came to my facebook page I found that parents didn't want to "friend" me, likely because then I could see everything THEY were posting LOL. Same as you 5LM we are friendly but not friends, some obviously didn't want me to see their pages. When I found this wasn't working I opened a business page that I can access from both of my accounts. I moved all photos over to that page and anyone can "Like" my page to follow it and I don't get access to any of their pages. I find it works well because I can get people on my waiting list to "Like" my page and then they can follow if I have openings or not. I have had compliments from potential parents on our art/crafts pictures.

[5 Little Monkeys]

Thanks for all the feedback!!

I don't have a website (don't even know where to start to make that lol) but I'm interested in that route as well. The reasons for wanting to do something like this are a couple things....sharing our day with current parents and also the added benefit of advertising. I am finding that there are more and more hdc's opening up in my city and it's becoming harder and harder to compete so to speak. To my knowledge there aren't many (if any) who have websites and there are only a few who have fb pages (actually mickyc is the only I've noticed but there might be more that I just don't know about...it's a small city though) so I feel that doing something like this would be beneficial and add something to my program. I was thinking fb as the main option just because it is so easy to keep up to date because I can send the photo's and comments straight from my phone.

I like the email idea too and I could send it to the parents of children who are here on that specific day but it than doesn't meet my want to use it as advertising.

I have a section on my permission form about using pictures but it is very brief. It goes "Permission Form for Photo's
I understand that 5LM may take photo's of my child for display in the daycare or for art activities. Group photo's of the children may also be shared with other parents. I give my permission for her to do so. YES______ NO______". For those of you who have something similar, what does yours read like? Do you list all the possible ways that the photo's may be shared such as text, email, hard copy, fb, etc?

[AmandaKDT]

Those terms and conditions are more problematic when someone earns money from their images i.e. a photographer as the Terms try and take the copyright of the image and transfer it/share it with FB. But if you continue to read, it's subject to your security settings. This is why "sharing" creates such huge problems for those in the industry - they are expected to have examples of their work on-line but doing so publicly makes it so naive or unscrupulous people, use their images without permission or financially compensating the photographer. These terms protect FB from being sued if and when that happens - which is more often than you think.

By creating a private secret group, which is not visible to non-members, the content is not publicly visible for sharing. By not tagging parents in images, then it doesn't filter into their own accounts where their friends can see it, share it, etc.

The only way on FB to create a truly private group is as stated. Any other way would allow people to search and find the group, read the content but not add to it.

It for sure problematic for professional photographer, but I also see it from the prospective that if parents doing any sharing of pictures from your page (even just a dad linking it to the grandma or something) then you have the problem that those pictures can never actually be deleted. So if you have pictures of all the daycare kids and a family leaves it can make it impossible to get rid of those pictures off the Internet. There is a certain level of loss of control with social media (even with the use of security settings) as opposed to posting pictures on a personal website with password protection. You can even make it impossible to have pictures downloadable or able to be copied using a personal website.

I have a social media policy for my daycare where parents are not allowed to post pictures online (facebook, etc) or share the pictures with anyone if it has anyone other than their own child in the picture. Whenever I email pictures I always have this reminder accompany the photos.

I think the idea of using a private Facebook page for everything other than posting pictures of the kids is a good idea.

[Rachael]

If I do this though, I would want my own personal page to not be linked or affiliated with the daycare fb page at all! It just seems more professional IMO. (not that I think you are not professional cfred!!) I am just not sure how to go about doing that. Fb settings seem to magically change themselves sometimes lol.

Unfortunately, the way FB is set up, only a few scenarios will suit you.

A FB page is public - you have no control over who can view it. This can have a completely separate name and not be linked to you personally but all it's good for (IMO) with this business, is generic information such as business hours, little tidbits about activities and photographs with do not show the children's faces. Think of it like a one page website. All content is available for all to see.

The alternative is FB groups - there are several options here. A public group where anyone can add themselves and see all the content before they do so. A group with members, where again, the content is publicly visible but an Admin agreement is required before a new member can join and comment/add. Or is private (secret) group, which is not publicly visible, cannot be found be searching, where the Admin (you) has to add members and can only do so, if they happen to be FB friends with that member. With regards to all the groups, a search within the group will show your personal account as the Admin. The publicly seen groups will only permit access to your information in as much as what is already visible to a non-FB friend who looks at your profile. (as per your own security settings). A private group will be allowed to view your personal page based on the need for them to be FB friends in order to be included in the group - however, again in your own security settings, you can limit individual's on your friend list to only see what a non-member does by making them a restricted friend. This is how I get around it.

My day care clients cannot see any more of my personal FB account, than a non-friend member of FB can. I am not on the public search. If I need them to see something I am posting on my account, I would have to change the settings for that post to public. They can however see everything that is posted in the private day care group pages.

I don't mix business with pleasure. I don't aim to be a friend of day care clients. There is no reason at all, for these people to have access to my family and friends. They don't need to see what my great Aunt wrote on my wall for my birthday, they don't even need to know it's my birthday.

[AmandaKDT]

Thanks for all the feedback!!

I don't have a website (don't even know where to start to make that lol) but I'm interested in that route as well. The reasons for wanting to do something like this are a couple things....sharing our day with current parents and also the added benefit of advertising. I am finding that there are more and more hdc's opening up in my city and it's becoming harder and harder to compete so to speak. To my knowledge there aren't many (if any) who have websites and there are only a few who have fb pages (actually mickyc is the only I've noticed but there might be more that I just don't know about...it's a small city though) so I feel that doing something like this would be beneficial and add something to my program. I was thinking fb as the main option just because it is so easy to keep up to date because I can send the photo's and comments straight from my phone.

I like the email idea too and I could send it to the parents of children who are here on that specific day but it than doesn't meet my want to use it as advertising.

I have a section on my permission form about using pictures but it is very brief. It goes "Permission Form for Photo's
I understand that 5LM may take photo's of my child for display in the daycare or for art activities. Group photo's of the children may also be shared with other parents. I give my permission for her to do so. YES______ NO______". For those of you who have something similar, what does yours read like? Do you list all the possible ways that the photo's may be shared such as text, email, hard copy, fb, etc?

I have the permission to take photos/video taping as part of my contract. I also have a social media policy that has parents understand that any group photos are for personal use only and cannot be shared on any form of social media.

[Rachael]

So if you have pictures of all the daycare kids and a family leaves it can make it impossible to get rid of those pictures off the Internet.

As said, day care photos I do not tag with parents names. They can tag themselves and I will approved that but I will not approve the tagging of other family members, not will I approve the tagging of a photo which includes any one else's child.

Sure, that means someone can copy the photo but like you, I have a contract which covers this - I work as a photographer too and so there is a huge conflict on interest and that has to be covered by my contracts and also explained to day care parents.

If I have photos of a day care child and they leave, they are immediately untagged from any images they had tagged themselves in, and also removed from the group. It's current clients only. If they have copied the image, there's not much I can do about that - but my contracts do state they aren't to do that and so I suppose if it became an issue, I could pursue that matter if it was deemed serious enough.

[5 Little Monkeys]

So I'm thinking I will just make a daycare profile. This way I could add the parents and yet they still wouldn't have access or even know my real fb profile name. I would let them know that they are more than welcome to put me as restricted so I can't see their page and I won't be offended.

In regard to pictures, I think I will stick to texting or emailing. The only pictures I would post to fb are of our activities, art, baking. At the most, a hand or arm but no faces!

Would that work and get around having parents see my personal page?

[Rachael]

Would that work and get around having parents see my personal page?

Yep - you can also go one further :-) If you search for your day care parents FB account, you can actually block them. You can also block them using their e-mail addresses if they use the same e-mail address to log into their FB account - that's a bit hit and miss though.

Blocking anyone will hide you completely from them. Even if you have a mutual friend and both comment on their page, they will not see the comment you made.

You won't come up in any search they perform and any comments you make in public groups cannot be seen by those you have blocked.

[5 Little Monkeys]

I have them all blocked on my main fb page but I can't block them from the dc page if I go that route can I?

[Secondtimearound]

I'm very open about myself but extremely private with my child or children in my care . I do not post pics on FB anymore at all and will text a parent their child's day or cute face but def not the whole group . I do not allow my child to be photographed ie ballet or library ect . I know I am prob way too paranoid but it's how I've always felt comfortable .
I would start a page describing our day , meals ect so parents could get caught up on the days events and any notices but would not have pictures of the children on it .