Facebook. On a personal level, you either love it or you hate it. As a dance studio, you can’t afford to ignore it. If you’re going to keep up with only a single social media platform, we recommend Facebook, hands down. In fact, if you had to choose between a website and a Facebook page, we might just encourage you to nix the website. (Don’t do that quite yet, though. You don’t actually have to choose. More about how to leverage the two in your favor, later.)
Facebook Appeals to Your Dance Studio’s Target Clientele
The first and possibly most important reason you need to maintain a Facebook page for your dance studio is that your target demographic is, generally speaking, already there. Think about it: if you’re going to set up a table at a local event where you hope to meet prospective clients, what would you choose: a free space at a preschool carnival or a paid one at a hearing aid convention? Sure, there might be a few parents and kids at the hearing aid convention, but the preschool carnival is the obvious choice. And it’s free. Consider the percentage of your target demographic, parents (and especially moms, let’s face it). They’re going to be in either the age range of 18-29 or 30-49, which means that about 86% of them are on Facebook. Trust us: you want to be there, too.
Facebook Is the New “Word of Mouth” (Amplified!)
You may not have the staff or expertise to be able to provide high-resolution website design or regularly post high-impact content to your dance studio’s site. You can’t compete with the “big guys” in that arena. However, no matter how small your studio is, you can easily keep your Facebook page’s content current. Perhaps the biggest benefit to any small business is the way Facebook works.
Social media posts are more far-reaching than actual word-of-mouth recommendations, because of the extent of their reach. (Who actually talks to as many people in a day as they have Facebook friends?) Even if someone isn’t looking for a dance studio now or isn’t personally looking for one, this kind of marketing amplifies your visibility. Each post or mention adds to your exposure.
Facebook Provides a Platform for Peer Recommendations
In addition to those unofficial recommendations, people can easily respond to requests for official recommendations by “tagging” your studio’s page. You probably knew that already. But did you also know that those who are less overt about looking for recommendations can find you on Facebook, too? Referred to as the “graph search,” a person can search Facebook for a “dance studio” and select your city and posts by anyone or their Facebook friends? The more your studio is mentioned on Facebook, the more often it comes up in their search!
In our next post in this series, we’ll get a little more detailed about how you can intentionally amplify your Facebook presence & further extend your visibility as well as your likability, in view of social media users.
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