S.T.E.P. Your Way To Social Media Success

Dance Advantage is very happy to announce Suzanne Blake Gerety’s new column Studio Bizwax! To wax lyrical means “to talk about in an enthusiastic and effusive way.” I can’t think of a better description for the way Suzanne fulfills her role in the dance community. Not only is she the Vice President of her her mom’s very successful dance studio but she is the co-founder of DanceStudioOwner.com, a wonderful site for those who are exploring, starting, or growing their dance studio business. I am an affiliate for DSO because I have witnessed first-hand the care Suzanne has taken to make the site a a truly useful support for studio owners. I’ve found her to be a wonderful resource and she’s been a great friend as well so I am thrilled that she’ll be sharing her knowledge with Dance Advantage readers bimonthly.

-Nichelle

Here’s how you can S.T.E.P. your way to social media success!

#1. Share

Retweet other people’s posts, quote and link to great blog posts by others, share what you are reading, let people know information that could benefit from.

Be a connector.

Social media is about making connections.  One of the things we do with our dance studio fan page is to post about local theatre productions and community events.  Why?  Because we know that the hours of dance lessons that our young dancers have has a potential impact on local theater. We want to spread goodwill to our sister arts organizations.  See yourself as part of the thread woven between your arts community.

#2. Teach

Post favorite quotes, share your expertise, add value, be generous with your knowledge it does make a difference.

A crossroads for dance studios. Many dance studios today are still very protective, not only their class schedules, but tuition fees, competition schedules, studio policies and more. It’s the fear that the studio across town will take or steal information that would cause that studio to lose students. I completely understand the worry.

Here’s the reality. I also represent a demographic I like to call ‘busy mom’. I’m the target market for many dance studios, I have two young kids. First thing in the morning, I don’t read the local paper. But I do read the newsfeed on Facebook and I certainly check trending topics and updates on Twitter. Text messaging is the best way to reach me.

How will you serve this demographic by decreasing your presence, hiding a class schedule, or making registering for classes a challenge? Dance studios want more students; they want their current students to be loyal raving fans. Social media is a great way to achieve this if done well.

#3. Engage

Talk to people! Reply to them, help them, connect people, be social, have fun. Be yourself, let your personality shine through.

Take it one step at a time. Social media is not a race with a winner crowned at the end. You’re missing the point if your approach to social media for your business is all about getting more followers as fast as you can. Soon enough it will become commonplace for every business and brand to have some sort of social media outlet to connect with their clients, customers, and students. We all started with one fan or one follower.

If you are a studio owner (or are going to be), I highly recommend Dance Studio Owner. It’s membership includes studio owners from 44 of the United States and countries all over the world including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, People’s Republic of China, and Norway.

America’s Best Dance Studio Contest 2010

Everyone thinks his or her dance studio is the best.

Dancers, teachers, parents, here’s an opportunity to shout it from the rooftops.

America’s Best Dance Studio Contest 2010 wants to know what makes your dance studio unique – what makes it different from the other dance studios in your area, and from other dance studios across the country. Via the ABDSC social network, you will have the opportunity to submit testimonials, videos, and photos highlighting all of the wonderful things about your dance studio – your teachers, your students, the classes you offer, your involvement in charities, non-profit organizations, and even dance competitions! Here’s a chance to rally the community and make some noise in support of your dance studio.

Dance instructor staffing agency, Kiner Enterprises, Inc. are the architects of America’s Best Dance Studio Contest. President, Ashani Kiner has been busy shooting video at some of New York City’s biggest (and brightest) landmarks to let you know more about the contest.

Click here to view video on YouTube

So here’s the nitty gritty…

To enter, you need to head over to americasbestdancestudio.ning.com. Create a complete profile for your dance studio, and of course, invite all of your friends, family, and fans to join too.

A select number of dance studios will be featured in a special YouTube video series throughout the contest. If you’d like to be featured, enter the contest before Dec. 30th, and your studio may be chosen!

While voters and members of your dance studio community can independently sign up at the America’s Best Dance Studio Contest network, there are some rules and participation requirements for dance studios officially entering the contest:

• Entrants must be 18 yrs or older
• Entrants must be a U.S. Resident
• The Dance Studio must be in business for a minimum of 3 yrs.
• The Dance Studio must have a website

Enter before December 30th and pay the early-bird entry fee of $30 (may be paid by check or money order); after that entrants pay $50.

Further details regarding video submission and where to mail your entry info can be found at americasbestdancestudio.ning.com

10% of the contest proceeds will be donated to Child Cry, a non-profit organization that feeds hungry children around the globe.

Voting will begin on January 1, 2010 and the studio with the most votes will win!

What does the winning studio receive?

Click here to view video on YouTube

• A video feature on the DanceChannelTV.com website for an entire year
• A dance marketing video package and e-book with money-making strategies for your dance studio from Dance Marketing Queen, and CEO of DanceMassTV, Dawn Demendonca
• A stage backdrop from Grosh Backdrops and Drapery, for your end of the year recital performance
• A website banner or logo redesign from the web design and development experts at DanceSignUp.com
• An online press release and feature article on DanceAdvantage.net about your dance studio
• 6 Months of free Social Media Management for your studio’s Facebook fan page, Twitter, and Myspace accounts from Kiner Enterprises Inc.
• A banner to hang inside of your dance studio that reads, “The America’s Best Dance Studio Contest Winner 2010”

Yes, Dance Advantage has sponsored a prize for America’s Best Dance Studio Contest 2010! I will feature the winning studio here on Dance Advantage during National Dance Week (April 23-May 2). I look forward to showcasing the community that turns out in full force to support their dance studio.

Be positive, creative, and energetic!

Each and every dance studio is special and unique. I’m looking forward to witnessing the diverse ways you’ll show it. Good luck to all the competitors!

10 Ways to Support Charity Through Social Media

This post is a collaboration between Mashable’s Summer of Social Good charitable fundraiser and Max Gladwell’s “10 Ways” series. The post is being simultaneously published across more than 100 blogs. I’ve chosen to participate and publish this post because I feel it has quality links and information and because I like the idea of creatively using social networking for initiating positive change. I’ve added my own thoughts here and there in hopes of helping you relate ideas to dance.

Social media is about connecting people and providing the tools necessary to have a conversation. That global conversation is an extremely powerful platform for spreading information and awareness about social causes and issues. That’s one of the reasons charities can benefit so greatly from being active on social media channels. But you can also do a lot to help your favorite charity or causes you are passionate about through social media.

Below is a list of 10 ways you can use social media to show your support for issues that are important to you. If you can think of any other ways to help charities via social web tools, please add them in the comments. If you’d like to retweet this post or take the conversation to Twitter or FriendFeed, please use the hashtag #10Ways.

1. Write a Blog Post

Blogging is one of the easiest ways you can help a charity or cause you feel passionate about. Almost everyone has an outlet for blogging these days — whether that means a site running WordPress, an account at LiveJournal, or a blog on MySpace or Facebook. By writing about issues you’re passionate about, you’re helping to spread awareness among your social circle. Because your friends or readers already trust you, what you say is influential.

Recently, a group of green bloggers banded together to raise individual $1 donations from their readers. The beneficiaries included Sustainable Harvest, Kiva, Healthy Child, Healthy World, Environmental Working Group, and Water for People. The blog-driven campaign included voting to determine how the funds would be distributed between the charities. You can read about the results here.

You should also consider taking part in Blog Action Day, a once a year event in which thousands of blogs pledge to write at least one post about a specific social cause (last year it was fighting poverty). Blog Action Day will be on October 15 this year. [[Dance Advantage has participated in Blog Action Day, as well as other events like it.]]

2. Share Stories with Friends

Another way to spread awareness among your social graph is to share links to blog posts and news articles via sites like Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, and even through email. Your network of friends is likely interested in what you have to say, so you have influence wherever you’ve gathered a social network.

You’ll be doing charities you support a great service when you share links to their campaigns, or to articles about causes you care about.

3. Follow Charities on Social Networks

In addition to sharing links to articles about issues you come across, you should also follow charities you support on the social networks where they are active. By increasing the size of their social graph, you’re increasing the size of their reach. When your charities tweet or post information about a campaign or a cause, statistics or a link to a good article, consider retweeting that post on Twitter, liking it on Facebook, or blogging about it.

Following charities on social media sites is a great way to keep in the loop and get updates, and it’s a great way to help the charity increase its reach by spreading information to your friends and followers.

You can follow the Summer of Social Good Charities:

Oxfam America (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube)
The Humane Society (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Flickr)
LIVESTRONG (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr)
WWF (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr)

4. Support Causes on Awareness Hubs

Another way you can show your support for the charities you care about is to rally around them on awareness hubs like Change.org, Care2, or the Facebook Causes application. These are social networks or applications specifically built with non-profits in mind. They offer special tools and opportunities for charities to spread awareness of issues, take action, and raise money.

It’s important to follow and support organizations on these sites because they’re another point of access for you to gather information about a charity or cause, and because by supporting your charity you’ll be increasing their overall reach. The more people they have following them and receiving their updates, the greater the chance that information they put out will spread virally.

5. Find Volunteer Opportunities

Using social media online can help connect you with volunteer opportunities offline, and according to web analytics firm Compete, traffic to volunteering sites is actually up sharply in 2009. Two of the biggest sites for locating volunteer opportunities are VolunteerMatch, which has almost 60,000 opportunities listed, and Idealist.org, which also lists paying jobs in the non-profit sector, in addition to maintaining databases of both volunteer jobs and willing volunteers.

For those who are interested in helping out when volunteers are urgently needed in crisis situations, check out HelpInDisaster.org, a site which helps register and educate those who want to help during disasters so that local resources are not tied up directing the calls of eager volunteers. Teenagers, meanwhile, should check out DoSomething.org, a site targeted at young adults seeking volunteer opportunities in their communities. [[Volunteering is putting your actual time and efforts where your mouth keyboard is. You might use social media to help organize and promote a food drive at your studio, a benefit performance, or charity walk.]]

6. Embed a Widget on Your Site

Many charities offer embeddable widgets or badges that you can use on your social networking profiles or blogs to show your support. These badges generally serve one of two purposes (or both). They raise awareness of an issue and offer up a link or links to additional information. And very often they are used to raise money.

Mashable’s Summer of Social Good campaign, for example, has a widget that does both. The embeddable widget, which was custom built using Sprout (the creators of ChipIn), can both collect funds and offer information about the four charities the campaign supports.

7. Organize a Tweetup

You can use online social media tools to organize offline events, which are a great way to gather together like-minded people to raise awareness, raise money, or just discuss an issue that’s important to you. Getting people together offline to learn about an important issue can really kick start the conversation and make supporting the cause seem more real.

Be sure to check out Mashable’s guide to organizing a tweetup to make sure yours goes off without a hitch, or check to see if there are any tweetups in your area to attend that are already organized.

8. Express Yourself Using Video

As mentioned, blog posts are great, but a picture really says a thousand words. The web has become a lot more visual in recent years and there are now a large number of social tools to help you express yourself using video. When you record a video plea or call to action about your issue or charity, you can make your message sound more authentic and real. You can use sites like 12seconds.tv, Vimeo, and YouTube to easily record and spread your video message.

Last week, the Summer of Social Good campaign encouraged people to use video to show support for charity. The #12forGood campaign challenged people to submit a 12 second video of themselves doing something for the Summer of Social Good. That could be anything, from singing a song to reciting a poem to just dancing around like a maniac — the idea was to use the power of video to spread awareness about the campaign and the charities it supports.

If you’re more into watching videos than recording them, Givzy.com enables you to raise funds for charities like Unicef and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital by sharing viral videos by e-mail.

9. Sign or Start a Petition

There aren’t many more powerful ways to support a cause than to sign your name to a petition. Petitions spread awareness and, when successfully carried out, can demonstrate massive support for an issue. By making petitions viral, the social web has arguably made them even more powerful tools for social change. There are a large number of petition creation and hosting web sites out there. One of the biggest is The Petition Site, which is operated by the social awareness network Care2, or PetitionOnline.com, which has collected more than 79 million signatures over the years.

Petitions are extremely powerful, because they can strike a chord, spread virally, and serve as a visual demonstration of the support that an issue has gathered. Social media fans will want to check out a fairly new option for creating and spreading petitions: Twitition, an application that allows people to create, spread, and sign petitions via Twitter.

10. Organize an Online Event

Social media is a great way to organize offline, but you can also use online tools to organize effective online events. That can mean free form fund raising drives, like the Twitter-and-blog-powered campaign to raise money for a crisis center in Illinois last month that took in over $130,000 in just two weeks. Or it could mean an organized “tweet-a-thon” like the ones run by the 12for12k group, which aims to raise $12,000 each month for a different charity.

In March, 12for12k ran a 12-hour tweet-a-thon, in which any donation of at least $12 over a 12 hour period gained the person donating an entry into a drawing for prizes like an iPod Touch or a Nintendo Wii Fit. Last month, 12for12k took a different approach to an online event by holding a more ambitious 24-hour live video-a-thon, which included video interviews, music and sketch comedy performances, call-ins, and drawings for a large number of prizes given out to anyone who donated $12 or more.

Bonus: Think Outside the Box

Social media provides almost limitless opportunity for being creative. You can think outside the box to come up with all sorts of innovative ways to raise money or awareness for a charity or cause. When Drew Olanoff was diagnosed with cancer, for example, he created Blame Drew’s Cancer, a campaign that encourages people to blow off steam by blaming his cancer for bad things in their lives using the Twitter hashtag #BlameDrewsCancer. Over 16,000 things have been blamed on Drew’s cancer, and he intends to find sponsors to turn those tweets into donations to LIVESTRONG once he beats the disease.

Or check out Nathan Winters, who is biking across the United States and documenting the entire trip using social media tools, in order to raise money and awareness for The Nature Conservancy.

The number of innovative things you can do using social media to support a charity or spread information about an issue is nearly endless. Can you think of any others? Please share them in the comments.

Special thanks to VPS.net

A special thanks to VPS.net, who are donating $100 to the Summer of Social Good for every signup they receive this week.

Sign up at VPS.net and use the coupon code “SOSG”to receive 3 Months of FREE hosting on top of your purchased term. VPS.net honors a 30 day no questions asked money back guarantee so there’s no risk.

About the “10 Ways” Series

The “10 Ways” Series was originated by Max Gladwell. This is the second simultaneous blog post in the series. The first ran on more than 80 blogs, including Mashable. Among other things, it is a social media experiment and the exploration of a new content distribution model. You can follow Max Gladwell on Twitter.

This content was originally written by Mashable’s Josh Catone.

Some Places to Start

ASTEP — Artists Striving to End Poverty on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Change.org

Dancers Responding to AIDS on Facebook

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS on Twitter, Facebook (they also have a cause and group on FB)

Dizzy Feet Foundation on Twitter (via Nigel Lythgoe) – this one’s new so stay tuned

Travelling Tutus on MySpace, DoSomething.org

Don’t forget that while there are plenty of artist-led charities and  hundreds of worthwhile causes, the arts also need your support! Through social media you can champion nonprofit dance or arts organizations and non-profit programs dedicated to bringing dance to communities, schools, and special populations.

Know of a great dance or arts-related charity our readers should know about? Post them below!

Exclusively Ours — Anthony LoCascio Talks About Danceregister

In case you haven’t noticed, social networks are all the rage. Since 2002, when MySpace emerged as one of the Internet’s earliest leaders in social networking, interaction online has been focused upon building communities within this vast realm.

One such community focused entirely on dance is Danceregister.com. Though you may not have heard of it yet, the site has been around since 2007. According to Anthony LoCascio, the master teacher and Tap Dogs alum who helms the community, “Danceregister seeks to unify the dance world and to increase the strength of present dance-related entities for a more prolific future of dance in the physical, mental, and digital world.” Based in the Silicon Valley, Danceregister is in an excellent geographic position to investigate, explore, and test online technologies and ideas before they are widely exposed to the public. Therefore, Danceregister is ever-evolving, making use of these new technologies to further their mission, which is to create a positive legacy that represents and makes available, all aspects of the dance studio community in one safe, helpful, user-friendly, positive, like-minded network.

Anthony took some time to talk with me about social networks, Danceregister, and the online dance community.

Dance Advantage: In 2007 you launched Danceregister.com, a “gated social networking community.” Who is Danceregister for?

Anthony LoCascio: Though it was originally created for the safety of dancers, Danceregister ultimately became useful to each individual demographic of the dance industry. Our community is utilized by studio owners, teachers, students, parents, merchants, services, and even other dance-related web sites. It is exclusively ours, exclusively dance!

Photo by William Hook

DA: I understand that parents are notified when their child applies to join Danceregister. That’s a great way to keep parents in the loop about their child’s activity online.

AL: We do send an email to the parent, as well as verification letters to dance studios. We monitor the site personally and have a volunteer “crew” to report anything suspicious in the community. In two years we have had a perfect record when it comes to the safety of our members.

DA: A gated community implies that there are additional security measures that ensure student safety. Are there ways you make certain that only members of the dance community are gathering at Danceregister?

AL: Because nothing in the world is perfect, we use a few methods which act as a checks and balances system. Some we make public and others we keep private. All of this is because of our main goal – safety. No other dance website can claim they are as safe as us.

DA: You are extremely passionate about the subject of online safety and I know that Danceregister was born in part from your concerns about students’ security on MySpace and other networks. What are some of the dangers related to the use of social networking sites?

AL: The idea is not to scare anyone but to educate them on the facts, both good and bad. In addition to personal safety concerns on Myspace and Facebook, there are issues that may result in damage to your computer, the spread of viruses, unauthorized access to accounts, and spam.

Teachers are also quickly learning that by using social networks they expose themselves to a “business mixing with personal life” scenario. Just because they don’t think to search out students online, doesn’t mean students are not searching for them. Plus assistant teachers may not be mature enough to see the damage one posted photo or video can do to a business. Look at Vanessa Hugeness (Disney), past American Idol contestants (Fox) or previous pageant winners (Trump Enterprises). Ask them what one mistake on the net can do to a person or how it can hurt a product or business. Also, studios are their own living, evolving worlds that can contain drama. Danceregister deters drama where a site like Bebo, Myspace, Youtube, or Facebook can easily fuel drama.

DA: So, in your opinion, should dance studios stay away from these larger networks altogether?

AL: When used properly, these sites can be useful. It would be wise to have a studio profile on all Facebook and Linkedin-type sites. These profiles should be used as marketing tools. They should include limited but clear contact info or links to your own studio web site. They should be seen as a way to direct traffic to your own web pages, not to “friend” students and parents. Studios should use these sites primarily for marketing and directing business. Danceregister, with its security measures, is better suited for personal networking and in-studio communication.

Image by AnnDerground

DA: Danceregister is free to join, will this always be the case?

AL: With the community currently small enough to control, we will continue to be free of charge. However, with provision of safety, technology, time and exposure comes growth and additional costs. In the future we may charge a nominal fee for a lifetime membership. This is to guarantee each and every parent has knowledge of their younger dancer’s presence in our network. As membership requests become more dense, this fee will help support the site and provide a faster even more efficient verification process. We can project the fee won’t be applied until late 2009 to mid 2010 and that it will be a minimum of $8.95 and not exceed $14.95 plus tax. The goal is to have the least expensive fee for a lifetime so there is no hassle associated with reoccurring fees.

One goal, which is firmly in place and will continue to be a focus, is to charge no fees for studio owners/teachers. However, to keep the site at certain standards, there will be fees for merchants & services in the future. I do not want Danceregister to become inundated with advertisements. We are not a vehicle which plans to rely on advertising. Danceregister has a personal, friendly, positive relationship with its users and represents itself and not other corporations. Any adverts will be limited in quantity and location.

DA: What are some of the things a parent, for instance, might do at Danceregister?

AL: There’s so much to do there. They could check out our forums, get or give advice, write reviews of conventions or competitions, post video, photos, quizzes, polls, and more all in a safe environment. They could consult with master teachers, visit my live chat (which occurs Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:30 to 4:30 PST), post questions to adjudicators of competitions, share or obtain knowledge of the dance world by reading live news and updates, and develop personal relationships within the global dance community. They could also look up their home studio’s information (each studio is divided into “mini-communities” or subsets), chat live via IM or audio/video with other parents, or have a meeting with a teacher — fewer trips into the studio!

And all of this applies for everyone, not just parents!

DA: In addition to running Danceregister, you are also a teacher. Do you think technology is changing the way we teach or the way students learn?

AL: Dance websites and exposure to individuals and ideas has been excellent for the dance community, as has accessibility and the ability to download instructional videos. I have a Dance4teachers subscriber who takes my tap DVD’s, uploads them to her Mac, and puts them on her ipod touch. Now she can reference them during class right in the palm of her hand. That is a big leap (pun intended) from less than 10 years ago when I was still sending people VHS tapes!

DA: What are some of your favorite resources for dancers and dance educators online?

AL: Early in 1999, when I started my first web site, just4tap.com, dance had a very limited online presence – mostly on forums. Therefore, there is great history on a forum site like dance.net. With blogs gaining recognition over the past few years, they have become the personal voices of the dance community. Tapdanceman, and Danceadvantage are blogs I personally frequent. Danceregister even has a public blog for people who are not part of the private community.

For investigating or developing professional dance gigs, there are sites like sceneinteractive, exploretalent, and many others. For music editing or cutting songs for a performance, there is www.musiceditingonline.com. Plus every dance media outlet now has web representation.

DA: Dance has certainly exploded online recently. How have you seen the Danceregister community grow and change since it began?

AL: When I started Danceregister, I had about 125 members and they were all from my local classes. The major focus of Danceregister was safety and due to the safety issues on MySpace, I chose not to advertise Danceregister directly to the public. Year one was all about working on the best ways to cost effectively provide an environment where it was safe to post videos and photos and chat about dance in a like-minded positive setting. I only used word of mouth to expose the community. That said, we had just over 350 members by the end of the first year.

Comparing Facebook Pages and Groups — Which is Best for My Dance Studio?

Utilizing Facebook as a Forum and Communication Tool for Studio Members

Public Profile Pages on Facebook (which I’ve talked about here) are certainly one way to reach out to your current customers but, like an interactive business card, these pages also represent your business or brand. If you are looking to utilize Facebook to interact with members of your organization (rather than promote your studio), it is possible to create an area for these internal conversations to take place via the Facebook Groups application.

Any Facebook user can create a group (about any subject) by heading to Applications, selecting Groups, and clicking on the Create a Group button. Groups can be “Global” and either “Open” for all of Facebook to view or join, or “Closed” – offering a limited view to non-members and moderated membership. Or, they can be completely “Secret” – viewable only by members who are added by invitation only.

Comparing Pages and Groups

Facebook sums up the differences between Pages and Groups nicely by stating,

“Pages are designed to allow Page admins to maintain a personal/professional distinction on Facebook, while groups are a part of your personal Facebook experience.”

Here is further comparison to help you decide which may be best suited to your needs:

A Drawback to Groups

I have noticed in my use of Facebook that I do not visit Group pages that often. Because much of the activity in my groups does not appear in my News Feed, I often forget to visit. I do, however, receive inbox messages from my groups which can help to keep them in my consciousness. Groups based around actual “real-life” social circles (such as your studio) may fare better that Groups focusing on subject matter. If you use Facebook, what has your experience been?

Using Both Pages and Groups

It is possible you may find use for both a Page and a Group for your studio. Many organizations do. It is easy to set up both to complete your presence on Facebook. And remember, should you decide you need help maintaining these spaces online, Facebook offers the option of appointing administrators in either case.

Broadway Dance Center in NYC maintains a Group and Page.

• Click here to visit their Open Group.
• Here is their Page

I realize that using Facebook may not be for everyone. However, if you are considering it as a possibility to promote or interact with members of your dance studio, I hope this was a helpful guide!

Do you participate in Groups on Facebook?

Does your studio utilize other forms of online communication?

Have opinions on the use of Facebook for Dance Studios? We want to hear your thoughts!

Mashable.com has written a comparison of pages and groups too. Some more relevant info that may help you with your choice! CLICK HERE

Your “Face” on Facebook

Promoting Your Dance Studio with a Public Profile Page

First, a Bit of Background

Whether you currently use Facebook or not, by now you have probably heard of it. Initially introduced at Harvard University, the service was essentially (although not exclusively) a way for students to attach names to faces. Expanding to high schools and then large corporations, Facebook has developed into the gigantic social network service (definition found here) it is today.

Image: Massimo Barbieri

I have been a member of the site since 2006, when it was first opened to anyone 13 and older with a valid e-mail address. For much of these three years Facebook lived in the shadow of MySpace and I was lucky to find one or two people I knew with personal profiles. Recently I’ve witnessed the rapid increase in popularity and growth that has brought to the site friends, colleagues, former classmates (and their parents). Someone I know joins almost every day. New websites, applications, and online tools come and go but so far Facebook has been savvy regarding trends and proactive in updating and improving their service.

Why Create a Facebook Page for your Dance Studio or Organization

With the addition of (and recent changes to) what Facebook calls “Pages” or “Public Profiles” local businesses are finding Facebook useful for word-of-mouth advertising. Customers can become “Fans” of your organization and directly interact with your business in nearly the same way they would interact with their “Friends” on Facebook. In addition, their interactions with your page are visible to the Friends they’ve added, helping to spread the word about your business. Facebook describes the process this way:

When your fans interact with your Facebook Page, stories linking to your Page can go to their friends via News Feed. As these friends interact with your Page, News Feed keeps driving word-of-mouth to a wider circle of friends.

How Do Fans Interact? And, What the Heck is a “News Feed?”

As the primary method of interaction on Facebook, The Wall is an important feature of any profile. On your page, within a box that encourages you to write “What’s on your mind” you can add any kind of broadcast message regarding your business – these can include links (be sure to use http://), upcoming events, fun facts, or even questions. These are added to your wall. Fans (if you allow them), may also write something on your wall, add their thoughts to a discussion, or comment on a photo or note you’ve added.

Activity that appears on your wall will be seen by Fans via their News Feed. A listing of the latest activities and actions taken on the network, the News Feed is the primary method a user employs to keep track of the activity of his friends and now, also the entities of which he is a fan. Likewise when a fan adds or interacts with content on your Page, his activity appears as an action/activity visible to his friends in their News Feed.

Therefore, the more interaction between you and your Fans, the better. If you don’t feel you can do it alone, you can add administrators to help you simply by sending an invitation from Facebook via email.

Examples of a Page

Here is Arthur Murray Dance Studio’s facebook page. NOTE: If you are not a Facebook user or are not logged in, you will see a more limited version. In order to interact, write on their wall, or comment on their activity, you must be logged in with a personal profile account. The “public” version of their page is searchable via Google – that’s how I found it. Here is another example of a Facebook Page… mine: Dance Advantage

How to Set Up Your Public Profile Page

Signing up is easy. Visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and fill out the appropriate information. Most dance studios would be considered a Local Business, however there is not a specific category for dance so choose what you think is best, place your business’s name in the appropriate field, and submit. You need not have a Facebook account to set up a Page, however it can be a bonus in learning how to use and navigate the network.

At first, your new Facebook Page will appear rather blank. Prompts, however, will help you to get started. You might begin with uploading a picture (this will be your avatar throughout the site so you may want to choose a logo – you can always change it later). You can also click Edit Information and enter the basic details about your business. Clicking on Edit Page (under your photo) offers additional settings options.

Pages may feature and display Discussion Boards, Events, Links, Notes, Photos, and Reviews, as well as other applications. Many of these can be added or removed as a tab at the top of your page. For example, if you think posted photos may be important to the promotion of your studio, creating a Photos tab is a good way to feature them.

A Note on Pages and Privacy

It is imperative to remember that Public Profiles are exactly that…. public! Public Profile Pages do not have the extensive privacy settings that Personal Profiles do. Therefore, do not not add or show anything in the content of this page that you would not want broadcast to anyone/everyone on the internet! Items posted on your Wall can be removed.

In Conclusion

Like an interactive business card, Pages on Facebook represent your business, organization, or brand. They are visible in web searches to those not on Facebook. And, within Facebook, Pages offer a chance for any dance studio to directly interact and share news, info, links, events, and more with their fans and to spread the word about your classes or programs to others on this vast social network.

Should you desire to take this a step further and have the budget to do so, Facebook also offers advertising opportunities for Pages that can be targeted to certain users.

Learn about Personal Profiles and Privacy Settings HERE!

Also Check Out Comparing Pages and Groups — Which is Best For Your Dance Studio?

Does your studio have a Facebook Page?

Are there other social networks you use to interact with potential students or their parents?

What are some other ways you can advertise your dance studio online?

Featuring… Yours Truly

For those of you that don’t know, bloggers are pretty social creatures. Not only do we tend to communicate and “hang out” with others who blog about our subject, we have ample opportunity to meet (usually in a virtual sense) bloggers covering a wide variety of topics and representing regions all over the world. In fact, bloggers seek out these opportunities through reading and commenting on other blogs and through various social networking sites. We know that encouraging others strengthens this growing community and, in turn, strengthens our own place or role within that community.

A result of relationships formed online is getting the chance to interact with people and investigate subjects that you might not normally. And some bloggers take it upon themselves to facilitate this by occasionally opening their blogging home to others with guest posts, interviews, or features. I’ve recently been fortunate to share the spotlight at two different sites. You won’t find much about dance or dance classes at either blog, but you’ll find some interesting stuff there! Both are more personal in nature than Dance Advantage, filled with stories and reflections on the everyday and extraordinary aspects of life.

Below, you’ll find a little more about each blog and how I’ve come to appear there.

Citystreams

Citystreams is Cindy’s blogging home. After two years of medical school she dropped out and went on to become a high school teacher. She is also mother to a sweet little girl and the wife of a police officer. She writes about all of these things on her blog, which she says is “cheaper than therapy, easier than scrapbooking and helps me remember the millions of moments, that I would surely forget if I didn’t write them down.” I was first drawn to Cindy’s blog because of her obvious dedication to teaching and because her daughter is around the same age as my son. Recently, she invited other “Blogistas” to answer a few questions about themselves as if they were talking to an old friend they hadn’t seen since high school and I took the bait. It was a fun exercise and may give you a peek inside my life outside of Dance Advantage. Click on the image below to be swept downstream to Citystreams.

Middle Zone Musings

Middle Zone Musings is the blogging home of Robert, a fellow Houstonian whose last name is almost as difficult to spell as my own. Robert has an interesting life story with lots of twists and tuns, ups and downs. His posts are usually his own musings and life lessons delivered in a “down-home” writing style. Each month he hosts a group writing project called What I Learned From…, to which others can submit their own life lessons on a particular subject. As a project for the new year, Robert created a variation of What I Learned – a Blogapalooza, or blogging event that gives others a chance to reflect on their growth in the past year. Participants were to select one post from each month of 2008 and express what it is that they learned from each post/month. This year there are over 100 contributors with their very own guest spot on Middle Zone Musings (and there’s still time to participate). Again, I felt this was a fun exercise and a great opportunity to look back at my first year (well, eight months) of blogging. You can join me in the Middle Zone by clicking on the image below. Be sure to check out what others learned from 2008!

Your Turn?

I hope you enjoy these little diversions featuring yours truly. They were fun to do! In fact, even if you don’t have a blog, both of the exercises above offer great writing exercises for your journal or just because. Perhaps you could answer Cindy’s questions yourself or write your own mini-autobiography in a conversational style. Or, look back at 2008 and decide what you learned from each month in dance, or otherwise. It will teach you a lot about how much you’ve grown and changed over the years or over this past year.

I hope you are enjoying 2009! Thanks for spending a bit of here with me at Dance Advantage!