children's carers. Kate Tyler explains how to go about it
When it comes to children's success, good relationships between parents and practitioners are almost as important as regular food and sleep.
Any early years practitioner knows that better engaged parents equals improved outcomes in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).
Parents who have some understanding of their child's likely development in the EYFS are more informed, more supportive and more likely to help the child learn at home.
Communication with parents has renewed emphasis under the Common Inspection Framework, yet getting information to parents isn't always as easy as it should be.
To get your message across, you have to be prepared to do it in a variety of ways.
I would never advocate using social media as a replacement for all your other, previous channels of communication - there will always be parents who prefer to consult a paper newsletter or a display board - but adding a communication option via networks they are already using usually sees increased involvement and better parental engagement across the board.
Facebook really comes in to its own here. Having a Facebook page to promote your setting, and a closed Facebook group to communicate with parents, is a really effective strategy.
This could mean separate groups for each age range or a single group for the whole setting, depending on the size of your nursery.
Here are a few things that you should bear in mind when using social media to communicate with parents.
Check your channel
Is the information you are sharing relevant for everyone to see or just for parents? Some messages are better shared in a closed Facebook group than on a public Facebook page.
Respect privacy
Avoid individually naming children, even in a closed group, and continue to get the right permissions for sharing images, just as you would in the public domain.
Remember it is permanent
Don't say anything in a closed group you wouldn't say in public. Screenshots are too easy for an offended parent to take. I have seen a few settings caught out this way.
Be personable
Let parents know who is updating and sharing messages and who they can follow up with if they need to. Don't just be a faceless team.
Set limits
Make sure staff know the boundaries to their communications with parents, on social media and other forms of digital communication.
Kate Tyler is managing director of Shake Social, a social media agency for the early years
- Let us know how you get on using the #nwsocial hashtag on Twitter
The most popular network and the most powerful for nurseries. People can collect 'friends' and companies can collect 'likes' for their profile pages.
This real-time service is unrivalled for fast-paced, breaking news. Use hashtags (#) to group conversations together. Tweets are limited to just 140 characters.
A virtual pinboard for all the things you love. Boards are based on different themes, with images 'pinned' on your board linking back to the website they came from.
YouTube
YouTube is now the second largest search engine in the world. Owned by Google, it is immensely popular and affects your online search rankings.
Blogs
A blog (web-log) is an online article or journal that can include text, images and video.
Google+
Although not as widely used as other social networks, Google+ does influence search engine rankings.
Connects people for professional purposes.
With its square format and retro filters, Instagram gives your images a polaroid feel. Only available for use on mobile phones, it is intended to be about recording the moment.
Snapchat
Allows users to create 'snaps' - photos or videos that only last for up to ten seconds once the recipient has opened them.