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

[5 Little Monkeys]

So to start....I have facebook, however, after I sign up a family I block both the parents so that they can not see my fb postings and activity. I have nothing to hide (really I don't!! lol) but I very much prefer to keep my social and personal life separate from my business life. I don't want to feel that I have to censor my postings and such "just in case" a parent sees it and is either offended or misinterprets something.....know what I mean? lol. I also don't want the parents to think we are "friends"...that sounds harsh but I'm truly not friends with the parents outside of dc hours. I am friendly with them and like them but that is it. I will have playdates with past parents but only during dc hours. I keep in contact with past parents and will visit with them if I see them out and about but that's about it.


So now my dilemma.....I send pictures throughout the day to all the parents of their child and occasionally the activities we do. I used to post our snacks and meals on a white board but often we are outside at pick up time so parents don't see it anyways. I post things to my own personal fb page (but never with the children, just art, baking, sensory etc). However, I think it would be great if parents could see what we do!

I am considering making a fb page or group. I would use it to post our snacks and meals, the activities we do throughout the day/week, pictures of the children playing, daycare closures/reminders (but still do my newsletter as well).

For those of you who have a fb page or group, do you like it? Do you find parents like it? Do you make it private and once a family leaves they are removed from the group? When you first started it did you ask permission from all the families? What if a future family says no they don't want that...do you just make sure you don't post pics of their child? Any pros and cons you can tell me would be appreciated. Oh and would I have to unblock the parents or would I just create a page or group (which one do I do?) and that way my own personal fb page wouldn't be linked to it?

Or for those who have a website, how do you make one and do you find that better than a fb page?

[Rachael]

I have a FB page for my business which is just a public page with sparse information. I also have a private FB group for my current client base. I've had it for about 5 years now.

The down side is in order to add someone to a private group, they have to be a friend and a public group won't work because of the photographs of the children.

What I do is tell anyone coming for interview about this group, I explain that it's current clients only because of the photos, and I explain that if they use FB I am happy to add them but...I will and do put them on a restricted list so they can't see anything other than the group information. No one has ever responded negatively about my statement that I will be restricting them. I tend to further explain that with all my family in England, and the time difference, FB is how I share information about my own family with those in the UK and because I can't control the settings of FB friends, in order to protect my elderly parents and aunts (and indeed my own sons) from inappropriate content from "friends-of-friends". That seems to be understood so it's never been an issue.

The group is fabulous though. I have master copies of my handbook and contracts in it so if they have misplaced theirs and want to double check anything, they can. I also encourage all my day care families to share information/tips. If someone is sick, the tend to post the information in the group so other families can watch for the same symptoms. And it's also great for when someone is running late - much better than a phone ringing and waking the whole house in the early hours. FB events in the group are created by me for any vacation dates - I add all the stat dates when I'm closed at the beginning of the year so as the time approaches, my day care parents can see it right on their screen, and I do the same for annual leave days too. It tells me who has seen the posting so I know if any of my day care parents haven't seen that I've booked a day off. By titling my vacations dates as "Day 1 of 10" there is a running count with all the historic dates so they can look back and see that I've not taken more than I said without having to keep track themselves.

So in summary - I love having the private group and feel it needs to be private for parent's peace of mind. Making it a secret private group means it can't be found by searching and you can just send a friend request to a new client and once accepted, add them to the group and place them on restricted access to your own information.

Oh - And I don't tag any images I post in there. If the parent wants to tag themselves, so that images can be seen by their own friends and family, that's fine, but I won't tag. It gets flagged to be to approve their request to tag, and I then do so providing it's an image which just has their own child, not the group.

[AmandaKDT]

I haven't done a Facebook group, but I would be hesitant to post picture of the daycare children on it. Once you post pictures on social media you lose control of them, and this could cause you problems in the long run. Check out the Facebook rights and responsibilities and it states that you agree to:


For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

[5 Little Monkeys]

Amanda, that is one of the reasons I am hesitating. I don't like that once it's online it's pretty much there forever.

Could I just make a new fb page with, for example, 5LM's Daycare as the name and add parents that way? I guess it wouldn't be private though but I could set the privacy settings high? Or if I created a profile called 5LM's and than made the page through that fb profile>

[Rachael]

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.

[cfred]

My regular FB page is the one I use. I spoke to all my clients, who also post a billion pics of their kids. They were all thrilled that I decided to do it and have been avid followers since I started. They were unconcerned with the fact that my other friends could see photos. My friends are all people that I actually know - I don't have 500 friends, most of whom I've never met...though my clients don't know that and seemed unconcerned by it anyway. My clients are involved in my personal life and little or no line has been drawn in that regard. This is how I've chosen to run my business and it has worked very , very well for us. The FB page is just a logical extension of that. Parents often add me quickly....I suspect as another avenue to see what I'm all about. Being a very open person, it doesn't bother me in the slightest....in fact, I quite enjoy it

So, in short, yep, it's a great business tool. Clients often share pics with family and friends which lends to awesome word of mouth advertising! They seem to really enjoy this and comment on each picture daily. This tells me it's a social medium wisely employed.

[5 Little Monkeys]

I'm still undecided lol. I am also a VERY open person, ask anyone who knows me lol but there is just something in me that tells me mixing business with pleasure will bite me in the ass someday LOL. The fact that I'm so open is one of the reasons I want to do this....I love sharing pictures and comments about our day so that the parents can feel like they better understand what/how their child's day is like!

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.

[playfelt]

If it is just about getting info to the parents I would probably do the email route. Send out one during naptime with the days meals and events and include anything you want to tell them as in it could be mass sent out to all or sent individually with a couple lines meant just for that family added to each. Pictures can be added as attachments. Still an issue though as once you send it they are free to forward to grandma or whomever.

Some also have a website with a secure area that is only for current clients.

[bright sparks]

5LM I see the appeal in having a dedicated page to share your wonderful daycare experiences and day to day activities, but I too share in your concerns and I think they are warranted. Do you have a website? If so then you could have a parents page which is password protected so they can access children's info and then change the password periodically when parents leave and new people start. If you don't have a website it's easy to make one for free as basic or as complicated as you'd like through wix or weebly. Both have the optional feature of a password protected page for certain content. I'd think this would give you way more options to personalize it exactly as you'd like without any of the worries of FB and I think overall would offer a much more professional approach in my opinion. Also it would be a great first impression in terms of advertising to show prospective families that not only do you have a great website that you have taken the time to put together, but that you maintain it and update it regularly too.

[cfred]

Everyone has their own way of doing things. I don't doubt that you are very open....I've sensed that in some of your discussions in here My 'extreme' openness with my clients is part of my (for lack of a better term) 'schtick'. It's kind of how I present myself and my business. Of course, I've had 1 or 2 in the past who have made me question this method, but overall, it's been great! The FB page is an excellent tool, whether your personal one or a business dedicated. I just find it easier to maintain the one page and if the parents are cool with it, then so am I. Besides, they see me in an unprofessional light fairly regularly....such as this Friday night when we go to a 'Parents' Dinner' possibly to be followed by a pub crawl As long as I'm professional when I need to be, they don't mind....though my atmosphere isn't for everyone. It draws exactly the clientele I want.

Good luck sorting out your decision. I think you'll find the additional advertising to be beneficial.