Meet The Teachers

I've decided a great way to encourage re-enrollment as well as a family atmosphere would be supplying parents with Meet Our Team Fliers when they attend the party. 

My plan is to create small bios of each teacher show their enthusiasm and love for our programs at The Little Gym of Hagerstown. This bio will also have the Facebook pages of these teachers so that the members can keep in contact with their teachers. 

Not only are teacher Bio's important to parents but it is also fun for the kids to know some fun facts about their teachers. It shows their qualifications as well as their reason for working with children. 

An example of one that I have created for myself is:

Miss. Danielle 

As a Flip Facilitator at the Little Gym of Hagerstown Miss. Danielle is always excited for new students to join her classes. As a graduate of Brunswick High School and Frederick Community College, Miss. Danielle is now furthering her education as a Senior at Shepherd University. Miss. Danielle is a sports fanatic not only watching but playing basketball and volleyball at her Community College. She has found her home at The Little Gym saying everyday how much she truly believes in what we do! Miss. Danielle Started at the Little Gym of Frederick in 2010 and rose from Teacher to Director of the facility.  Since starting with the Little Gym her dream is to eventually own a gym and work for The Little Gym International!

This year she has moved to The Little Gym of Hagerstown and she cant wait to teach your child gymnastics The Little Gym WAY!

Check out Miss. Danielle's Facebook page: Miss. Danielle TLG Hagerstown 

Starting My Engine

Thus far my job has been this, to not only start the planning process of The Little Gym of Hagerstown's Priority Enrollment Party but to also start looking for ways to advertise the event. 

The type of business we have is most successful via word of mouth advertising. Moms want to take their children to a facility that they hear great things about. They want safety, security, cleanliness and responsible and trustworthy instructors helping their child grow skills. 

This is why I would like this night to not only be a night of fun and entertainment but also a night for people to meet their teachers, and see the facility at its best and brightest. 

Unfortunately we had an accident with the pipes this week and will be replacing the majority of our flooring but that is a great opportunity to spruce the place up and make it look great leading to more enrollments. 

I plan to get the word out about the party is by having the members of my team use social networking to advertise to members, friends, and families. We will be advertising the by having each teacher send home a special invitation to the event with students after their classes and birthday parties. 

We will have fliers hanging in and outside of our The Little Gym and we will be asking some members to take flier with them and hand them out to friends, families and hang them at their job or small business. 

Most of our families come from the Hagerstown City limits and we are interested in bringing people in from other towns. We can do this by advertising outside of Hagerstown in newspapers that offer community event advertising for free such as small business spotlights.

These papers include: 

Greencastle, Pennsylvania - Echo Pilot 

Martinsburg, West Virginia - The Journal

Middletown, Maryland - The Gazette

Shepherdstown, WV - Observer & Chronicle

Waynsboro, Pennsylvania - Record Herald 

Press Kit

My first task was to look at different components of advertising that I could use to make people in the community aware of the event that we will be having for Priority Enrollment at The Little Gym of Hagerstown. 

I will be using a Press Kit, also known as a Media kit to release information about the event to media in the area we need the most promotion. My press kit will be made up of some of the most pertinent information about our facility and event. 

It will include:

- A Press Release about our Summer Priority Enrollment

- A Cover Letter or Table of Contents

- Our Companies Class/Camp/Birthday Brochures

- A Fact Sheet about our Facility

- Company Backgrounder

- Staff Bio's

- Member Quote Sheet

- Photo's of Facility and Fun

And will have information about or member benefits, classes, camps, and parent survival nights. 

I also plan to find reporters in the areas of Shepherdstown, Martinsburg, Sharpsburg and other areas to be decided after finishing my market segmentation.  

Effectively Using Social Media

Looking deeper into the ways that businesses can be helped by the wide world of social media I came to the studies of, Jefferson Graham, of USA TODAY. Graham writes many articles on how social media has become a growing trend in small businesses. I was interested in studying these articles and seeing the way that they could help my business, The Little Gym. 

The first article I was interested in was "5 Tips to Make Social-Media Marketing Sing." It was interesting how the tips fit into "The Little Gym - Customer-Centric Way of Life." 

Tip 1: Use FACEBOOK to make friends, not customers. 

Tip 2: Post Three times a day, no more.

Tip 3: Don't post silliness just to add another item.

Tip 4: Provide incentives, don't be pushy.

Tip 5: Be exciting. 

Each of these tips seemed to be things that would be easy for my coworkers to do. In our business we care about the children and are using Facebook as a way of constant contact. We care about our students and not only encourage our "Families" to post photos of their children but videos of their children developing skills and hitting milestones.

I was surprised by the article saying that we should post three times a day, and no more. I would think that three times would be an overwhelming amount but once reading further best posting times are 7 a.m., 5 p.m., and 10 p.m. which are the "peak high-traffic times for Facebook." These times make a lot of sense especially in my business because parents wake up early, get off work around 5, and put their children to bed around 9 so they can have time to relax and spend time on the internet. 

Each of the tips seem to be fairly easy to follow and I'm interested in how this can help my team and I effectively use social media.

Thinking About the Future.

Serious Fun. 

Recently I've been spending a little time everyday thinking about where I would like my life to go. What I would like to learn before officially leaving Shepherd University and going out into the world on my own. 

Since beginning my time here at Shepherd I've become very interested in Advertising and Public Relations. I have also always thought it would be fun to be an event coordinator, to make staff schedules, plan food and drink arrangements, as well as plan entertainment, send out invitations, and all the other work it takes to do this type of job. Therefore, for my project I plan to plan an event and include a press kit as well as advertisements for the event.

As for my event, I have been an employee of The Little Gym for the Past three years I have found a home with this company.  Not only do I love the ability to have "Serious Fun"playing with the kids and teaching them gymnastics, but I truly believe in the developmental aspect of the program. This is why once I've graduated from Shepherd University I am hoping to pursue a career with The Little Gym International.

I've decided to organize a fun and necessary event for The Little Gym of Hagerstown. This years Summer Enrollment Party! The Little Gym is always very successful through the school years with  student numbers rising from fall to winter while the cold weather is about. Unfortunately, during the summer this is not the case, many parents choose to have their children in other programs such as swimming and soccer and do not see the benefits of the Little Gyms air conditioned and fun facility. Parents do not always take advantage of our Parent Survival Nights, Birthday Bashes and summer camps but this event will hopefully inform and persuade parents to enroll for the summer semester.