SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ECES

 


As an ECE you have great ideas, creative ones that you love to share with the children in your group, and they, of course, adore them and enjoy them on a regular basis.

But you’d like to show the greater community what you can do!

Social media is a great way to put your creative self out there, and especially if you are an introvert—no problem getting in there and having a great time with the children, but self-promotion to your peers? Not so much.

Be Clear and Consistent.  

Clarity is the bedrock of successful social media, as is regularity, reliability, predictability and consistency.

In order for people to be interested in what you have to say (and to come back to your blog week after week), they need to know what to expect from you—

Know Your Purpose

The first step to blogging is recognizing why you’re doing it. Do you write to advance your career in a specific field? To improve your writing, or to eventually quit your job and blog full-time? To position your company as a leader in its industry? All of the above (and more) are valid reasons for blogging, but if you don’t first understand your own specific purpose, it’ll be hard to define success.

Define Your Personal Brand

A personal brand is the identity you present to the world; the extension of you that you feel comfortable sharing with the public. who you are, what you’re doing, and what you have to offer your readers.

One simple way to begin identifying your personal brand is to think of what you would like people to say or think about you when you aren’t in the room.   

Identify Your Target Audience

After you’ve defined yourself—or, at least, the you you’d like to share with the world—it’s important to define exactly who you’ll be sharing yourself with.

Parents? Other ECEs? Children?

Then refine, ECEs who work in your curriculum area? Parents looking for crafts they can do at home with their children? School age children who need after school things to keep them busy?

Gather all the information of who you want to reach, who will benefit the most from your ideas and imparted knowledge, and/or who will most likely seek you out for more information on your chose topic?

 


ONE PAGE WEBSITES – Where can people find you?

A very quick, easy and effective way to get your name out there so people can find and learn about you is to create a one page website that showcases you, your ideas and your work.  One page is all you need to create short blurbs about your child care philosophies and practices, your programming highlights, and where to get connected to you via email or social media.

HOW TO CREATE A ONE-PAGE WEBSITE

1.    Decide on your content and break it into sections. What are the important things you want people to know about you?  What are your philosophies toward children and child care?  What makes your programming for children stand out?  Do you have a curriculum focus, Reggio, play-based, emergent? What is your education and experience? Emphasize your strengths and what makes you unique in the field. 

2.    Choose a website template.  There are a few online services that specialize in this. Try, 'wix' or 'about me'.

3.    Make it colourful, interesting and informative;

4.    Make sure that it's easy to read and mobile-friendly.  Add photos, social media links, and an email address. Use white space and a larger font, and always check spelling and grammar use. Review what your site looks like on an table and cell phone because often that is what people are using, before you hit publish.




CREATE AND BUILD AN ECE PLATFORM – Let your inner creativity shine

FIRST TAKE PHOTOS:  A battalion of them that showcase your activities in action.  Then add a few descriptive lines so people have a rounded idea of what you're doing.

THEN CREATE PAGES:  Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Put up your favourite art activities, crafts, or circle time stories for people to see.  Your goal is to make a collection of your best programming ideas.

NEXT CONNECT:  Connect your pages with like-minded people so you have a little hub of sharing.  Now you not only have a platform that showcases you, you are connected with other ECEs so new ideas can flow.

FINALLY SHOUT OUT:  Include one of your pages in your resume.  Not only will you show some of your best and most successful activities, you'll show yourself to be innovative and in-tune to the online ECE community.

 


BLOG USE IN CHILD CARE

BLOGS USE IN CHILD CARE IS REPLACING THE TRADITIONAL PARENT INFORMATION BOARD OR NEWSLETTER. They are bring used to keep parents informed of centre events and activities, and to gain parent input and feedback on various centre issues.

BLOGS ARE ALSO REPLACING ART AND OTHER PROGRAMMING VISUAL DISPLAY PANELS.  Educators are using blogs to display the children's activities: art work, field trips, outdoor programming etc.  In addition, blogs are being used to inform parents about the why's of programming: why we encourage free play, why messy or tactile play is important, why play based learning works for young children.  

BLOGS HELP PARENTS GAIN A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF A CENTRE'S DAILY PROGRAM; beyond speaking to the teacher at the end of the day, hearing from the child about how their day was, and seeing the final production of art work that comes home. 

BLOGS ALLOW PARENTS TO CAPTURE THE EDUCATOR'S IDEAS AND PASSIONS ABOUT THEIR PROGRAMMING FOR CHILDREN.  Because a teacher can put so much of themselves into a blog, and parents can read and interact with the information at their leisure , teachers and parents build a fresh communication network.

 


 

ARE YOU READY TO START A BLOG?

AN ECE BLOG is a way to showcase your work or the work you do with the children.  Use bright colourful photos that show your programming creativity. Include:  

FOCUS. People will come to your blog because they have an interest in, or want to know more about a certain subject or person.  Keep your blog’s focus clear and on track. 

A HIGH QUALITY BLOG WILL BE INTERACTIVE.  People will come to your blog to learn about you and what you do.  Always have space for comments and how people can connect with you. 

KEEP A JOURNAL OF YOUR IDEAS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS. 

Why do you like the art form, how long have you been doing it as a hobby, when do you find time to do it, if you had more time when would you do it more, what materials do you need for it?

     KEEP A LIST OF PROGRAM ACTIVITIES YOU'LL SHARE. 

Which type of activities could you do with children to introduce the art, discover more about the art, maintain an interest in the art, expand upon the art to other ideas?

THINK ABOUT NOT EVEN USING A FULL BLOG.

Will micro blogging work better for you? A Facebook page or group, an Instagram feed, Pinterest if you want to focus on visuals, or Twitter if you have the time to tweet things during the day?

 


LET’S TRY BUILDING A CREATIVE ARTS FOCUS PAGE AS AN EXAMPLE:

How do you define creativity?

Why do you think it's important to nurture children's creativity?

What are your thoughts on the creative process?

How do you nurture children’s creativity. 

What do you consider your role is in the children’s discovery process.

What will you create and share? Things you create or the children’s art?

Who is your target audience? Parents who want ideas? Parents of the children in the program? Other ECEs who need new ideas or guidance?

How often can you share (a predictable and consistent time line is best)

Where will you share (what is your choice of social media) FB Page or group, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube videos, Blog posts, Pinterest visuals, TikTok?

Creating an online presence in the child care community is important, and a great tool to focus and further your career in the child care field.

The best way to start is to collect a foundation of ideas, decide on a platform and go.  You will learn everything else along the way.

 ___________________________________________________________________________

Some ideas adapted from: How to write a quick and effective about me. Indeed.com


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