You’re a dance studio owner, which means you’re a performer baby, so let’s turn that natural skill into some marketing power for your studio.
Let’s start with the why:
- People prefer video: 82% of viewers prefer live video to social media posts, and 80% prefer live video to reading a blog. So why not give the people what they want and try some video?
- Video is more sharable: Video on social media produces 1,200% more shares than text and images combined. If you’d like to have your facebook content shared more organically, this is a natural hook.
- People spend more than 3x more time watching a Facebook Live video compared to a video that’s no longer live. Facebook is pushing live video higher in the newsfeed because of this! This translates to move engagement with the content you create and more organic exposure for your studio. Win-win.
So what can you do with Facebook Live video for your dance studio?
Questions & Answers Live!
Dance parents have questions. Lots of questions! You likely have a treasure trove of questions sitting in your email inbox, the queue on Facebook Messenger, comments on Facebook or even the discussion forum attached to your facebook page if you doubt me for even a moment. Turn that natural set of questions into a Live Q&A session. And if you’re nervous about having no one show, choose a theme and just use some questions from your treasure trove like “first time dancers”.
Teach Viewers How To Do Something
When you teach for a living this seems like an easy win! How about ballet positions? A session all about arms? Breaking down a popular dance moves? Reviving a hot dance move from the 70’s? Stretching exercises? The list is literally endless. Add some coffee, a great sound track and let your brain percolate with creative ideas!
Shameless plug: download our marketing planner which is full of ideas you can tap into for monthly themes, hashtag holidays and other nuggets of inspiration. It’s free, so grab that here or at the bottom of this article.
Exclusive Interview With An Expert
Your audience is interested in anything related to parenting, family, food and fun. Embrace your inner Oprah and invite an expert in to answer questions, inspire and educate. Topics can include things like building confidence, healthy cooking for picky eaters, dealing with conflict, sleep, school readiness, creative snacks, organizing for sanity’s sake, yoga benefits for athletes – again an endless set of options.
By engaging with a local expert, you can also tap into their audiences and get your dance studio brand in front of more potential customers while providing valuable, usable content for your dance families at the same time.
Interview With Your Teachers
We recently shared a killer Facebook strategy of using teacher profiles and pics to put a human face on your Facebook channel, but live video would take that to a whole other level. Choose an interesting but simple background (you don’t need much space) that has good lighting and get to it.
You can extend this idea by creating themes for a series of videos. For example:
- Teacher interview + hashtag holiday = theme
- 5 things no one knows about you
- If you were a super hero what would your super power be
- Dance challenge you overcame
- Come prom season, reflect on prom dresses past and photographic evidence encouraged!
Announce Something New
New class? New hours? New instructor? New achievement? Whatever the new is for your dance studio, share the news with your dance families with a live Facebook video. The key is to build up some anticipation on your social channels before the big reveal, so you have plenty of viewers for the big announcement.
Give A Live Tour
Every season you have new students arriving at the studio. Use Facebook live to give a tour of your space and point out the little nice touches like seating in the lobby, ample parking, and shoe storage and the big things like the amazing marley floor you installed, the importance of a spring floor, or the fun props you use for engaging the littlest dancers. It’s all fresh and new and exciting for new dancers.
Create A Recurring Feature / Show
If you do regular awards and recognition like student of the week, why not turn that into a Facebook Live moment? Or how about a weekly commentary on a cult dancer show like So You Think You Can Dance? Or a weekly dance challenge? This can be a fun way to lean into your brand!
Behind The Scenes Goodness
Everyone loves a good behind the scenes story. Whether you’re preparing for a big show, building a cool float for the local parade, sorting and steaming costumes or editing photos for the end of year slideshow, a peek behind the scenes adds a little flair.
Weekly Ask Me Anything (AMA)
Made popular on Reddit, AMA’s offer a chance to ask questions of popular business leaders, celebrities and startups. Embrace the AMA idea and create your own AMA for your dance studio. Let dancers and parents write in their questions, then answer those questions live on Facebook. If you need to seed some content to start, see the reminder in our first idea of all the great questions you have hiding in plain sight.
Get A Little Crazy
How about a live dance party where contestants show off their best dance moves, as suggested by the audience and voted on by the same?
Feed A Private Facebook Group
Do you run a private facebook group for your dance studio? How about for the competition team? A Facebook live video for this group can add to the insider feel and help tackle information issues at the same time. For example, you could do a how-to video on putting stage makeup on kids across ages, how to do a bun properly, tips and tricks for eyelash application and even address the undies and leos issue. Consider how many kids have divorced parents these days. Mom isn’t always the one who handles the makeup or the dressing parts of dance, so even something that feels basic to you can be wildly helpful to parents. Bonus – you can store that content for later to create a recital guide or competition guide.
Run A Contest
If you’ve run a contest before, this isn’t a new idea. But adding Facebook Live to the mix can create more excitement. Do a launch video to announce the campaign, explain the rules and get folks excited. Do a mid-campaign video to keep the momentum going and then wrap with a winner announcement via Facebook Live. The winner video will attract views from entrants and you’ll get views their friends/family too as everyone waits to see who won. It’s a great way to expand the viewing audience of your brand.
Extra credit if you have entrants use video you can share as part of their contest entries! Heck, the next time your studio has a snow day, break out a quick contest to share your best snow angels and take advantage of lots of wound up kids and their parents sitting at home watching the snow come down!
Bottom line, you don’t have to be fancy, you just have to be yourself and have fun with it.
Are you already using Facebook Live to help with the marketing of your dance studio? Tell us about it in the comments below. And be sure to grab our free marketing planner because it’s really, really good and it’s free.
