Listen, I own a chisel, but that doesn’t mean I can carve David out of a hunk of marble. Same thing applies to Facebook.
Practically every studio has a facebook page, but making it a work of art – that’s something entirely different! This simple, elegant and downright brilliant idea was spotted on the facebook page for Stephanie’s Dance Shoppe in Hibbing, MN.
Each day leading up to the opening of online registration, Stephanie posted a photo and fun mini bio for each instructor on her team. We can name 30 different reasons this is a rockstar level marketing idea, but here are our top 10:
-
It boosts confidence in choosing her studio, especially for new students. It’s social proof that other people know and love the dance studio, and instantly accessible feedback on what they think of their experiences there. Total win!
- It adds fresh, authentic content using things she already has on hand – headshots and a personal knowledge of the team. There is no artifice here, just real people sharing real people. #awesome
- It is naturally engaging content that existing dance families will comment on and share, so that amplifies by showing up in their feeds where potential new recruits are hiding.
- It shares the love with her staff and reminds them, even in the quiet down time of summer, that they are valued, loved and respected. Her instructors are her product – so this is a super smart investment. Tip from Stephanie: Tag your instructors in the posts to help get more exposure.
- It makes the studio about the team, not just the studio owner. When your name is also the name of the business, it can be hard to create that team feel. Hey, Martha Stewart and Oprah struggle with that same challenge, but they round it out by celebrating other experts on their team too!
- It means less confusion on the first day of classes. New dance families can instantly recognize who the instructor is or which of the 10 people standing at the front of house can answer questions. Tip from Stephanie: create a gallery wall with your instructor’s photos too!
- It shows off the personality of the studio and helps new dance families orient to the kind of instructors she has on staff, their depth of experience and their areas of focus. If you have competing studios in your area, and each has a different style of instruction, this can be invaluable in getting the right students in the door.
- It calls out in a lovely way the kinds of classes she has on offer, from Hip Hop and Tumbling to Ballet without being super salesy.
- It warms up her social channel from the lazy days of summer into the activity filled fall, without starting with promo after promo after promo. It’s so authentic you can’t help but love the approach!
- It naturally leads into the opening of fall registration, following a burst of social channel activity and awareness. The daily posting means she is top of mind for dance families so they are more likely to be responsive when her more promotional posts about registration start showing up. It also helps to feed the Facebook algorithm, showing it that your content is high quality engagement content and gives it a much better shot at exposure.
We talked with Stephanie Radovich of Stephanie’s Dance Shoppe about this campaign, what she learned and what advice she has for other studios that might want to try this idea.
What do you think fueled the post engagement the most?
“The posts were doing very well organically, even from the start. The real magic happened when I tagged the instructors in the posts, which drove the engagement way up. By doing that, it shared the posts with people beyond our own facebook followers.”
What inspired this idea?
“We have the most amazing team. They are kind, smart, loving, funny and dedicated to their students. It occurred to me that new dancers don’t yet know how lucky they would be to have these ladies in their corner. This seemed like the perfect way to make the introduction. Plus, it was a way to add something different to our facebook page – something that wasn’t about schedules or registration or ticket sales – something full of heart like we are.”
How much time did it take you to set this up? Any tips to share?
“Maybe 30 minutes in all. I pulled the photos from our staff page on the website, and I emailed a survey link to each instructor asking for some fun facts we could include. (I learned some fun things about my team I didn’t know too!). I wrote all of the posts at one time and then used the facebook schedule posts feature to set their publish dates.”
“Each year we have headshots done for the entire studio staff when we do the costume photos for the classes (our photographer Rhonda is amazing) and we use those photos to create a gallery wall in the lobby, on our website along with full bios, and for smaller projects like this one.”
“My best tip is to use the facebook scheduling tool. That let me plan the content, write the posts, schedule them all at once and then move on to other things. It did the work in the background, making me look organized and consistent, while I was busy working on other parts of the business.”
A huge ‘you go girl!’ to Stephanie’s Dance Shoppe. We hope you found this idea equally inspiring. If you need more marketing ideas for your dance studio, grab this freebie before it’s gone!
Have a great idea for adding authenticity and engagement to your dance studio facebook page? We’d love to hear it! Add your thoughts in the comment box below.