Facebook!

Advertising

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Several years ago, a parent encouraged me to start a Facebook page for my Music Lingua business.  At first, I was skeptical about the need to do this or the benefits that might arise from pursuing it.  With her encouragement, I entered the social media world slowly and now I have over 400 weekly views!  Initially, it was a fun way to share images of what happened in the classroom, especially the crafts.  It’s easy for parents to tag themselves and share on their own timelines so family and friends can see what fun they are having in the Music Lingua classes.

My students enjoy my posts that tie into the curriculum we are covering.  For example, parents may appreciate a link to a grammar explanation that time does not allow us to address during class.  They also enjoy videos in the target language that may correspond with the vocabulary that they can share with their children.  I also use Facebook as a forum for directing parents to activities in our community such as foreign language conversation groups, international festivals, etc. and certainly to alert them to upcoming classes and activities I support.  With a little encouragement and a click of a button, they can help spread the word to their family and friends.

I try not to post more than once a day, but do try to post something every couple of days to keep my audience engaged.  This doesn’t mean I need to be on Facebook every day.  Facebook makes it very easy to schedule posts well into the future so you can be actively engaging your Facebook audience even while you’re on vacation!  Statistically, the posts that get the most attention are the ones that ask people to respond with a comment or idea, so consider doing this to ensure your post gets the maximum visibility.

Do you use social media to promote your business?  What has worked for you?  Please comment below!

QR Codes – What are they and why do we need them?

Advertising

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We’ve all seen them, those crazy-looking squares of digital gobble-gook, right?  In fact, a QR (Quick Response) Code is a machine-readable code consisting of an array of black and white squares, used for storing URLs or other information for reading by the camera on a smartphone.

This is a really cool and handy technology for marketing Music Lingua classes!  QR Codes are easily created online for free – try QR Code Monkey, QR Code Generator or the original Kaywa.  You can even embed images such as the Music Lingua logo!

Once you have a QR code linked to your website or registration page, you can use it in all kinds of marketing materials.  People are much more inclined to use their phones to scan a QR code on a poster, brochure, flyer or business card than type in a url to get to your website.  I have even seen them used on car magnets!

The added benefit of using a QR code in your advertisement is simplicity.  Find a catchy phrase to capture attention such as “French Classes for Kids!” along with the Music Lingua Logo, your website name, phone number and QR Code.  Bigger, eye-catching images with few words will attract more attention than a wordy piece that overwhelms the eye.

Have you used QR Codes?  What has worked for you?  Please add your comments below!

Barbara French teacher small

Effective Logo Placement

Advertising

Music Lingua provides high-quality logos to use in advertising, and marketing studies tell us that a customer needs to see a logo 12 times to immediately recognize it, so be sure to plaster your community with this amazing logo!

In addition to using the logo on your marketing materials (brochures, flyers, etc.), consider making magnets for your cars.  Your vehicle is an excellent mode of free advertising, especially if you tend to go where other parents go.   Strategically park your vehicle where it will have the most visibility, even if it means walking a bit further to your destination.   Your community will soon recognize the driver as the Music Lingua teacher too – just be sure to be a polite driver!  😉

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The logos make great stickers to hand out at the end of a free class or during a school expo.  Kids love stickers and make great walking billboards for your program!  You can have them printed or print them yourself.  I use the round Avery 8293 labels.

You may also want to consider purchasing yard signs with the logo, your number or website with “French/Spanish/German for Kids!”  Place them around schools, preschools, popular toy stores or anywhere there are children or children’s events.  Pay attention to locations where signs stay put.  Many communities and businesses are quick to pull up these types of signs, but eventually, you will find the spots where they remain for a good amount of time.  I consider it the cost of doing business when one disappears, but it’s still much cheaper than placing an ad in the paper.  I strategically place signs around the language school at the beginning of the year when families are looking for activities, knowing that it will only be there until the school mows the grass again.

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Local print stores are a great place to visit and talk about what products will help build your visibility in the community. I like Vista Print where you can save money by creating the designs yourself.  I have used them for my printing needs for many years with great success.

What has worked for you in your community?  Please add your comments and questions below!

Barbara French teacher small

 

Want to Build a Bigger Presence in Your Community? Go to the Library!

Barbara at library

By Barbara Mills

 

 

One of the ways that I have successfully built a Music Lingua business is by being a presence at the local libraries. The children’s section of the library is always looking for content providers. It’s a win-win situation if you can offer to do a free French program for them from time-to-time. I like to do this between sessions, a couple of weeks before I have classes starting up, so that I can get some renewed exposure in the community.

The program that I do is primarily a public service outreach to parents of young children who may not know about the importance of early language training. While most parents think it would be cool for their kids to learn a foreign language at an early age, and they understand the benefits of being bilingual for education, travel and job purposes, not many people understand the important physiological changes that the young brain undergoes when exposed to another language. These benefits extend to other cognitive learning areas such as better math and analytical skills, and reading and writing ability in the mother tongue. I remind parents that the ‘Window of Opportunity’ to learn a language effortlessly is before they are 8 years old, and preferably as young as possible. While it is a mini Music Lingua class for the kids, I weave in information for the parents, highlighting the resources at the local library.

For example, parents can expose their children’s ears to the many sounds of languages by checking out the Little Pim DVDs and international music CDs. I don’t expect kids to start speaking languages by utilizing these resources alone, but training theirs ears and reproducing the sounds of other languages is one step towards getting the accent right when they are studying languages. I like to use the example of English-speaking Japanese who were not exposed to English as children. As we age, it’s very hard to get our brains and mouths to make new sounds – especially the English L’s and R’s for the Japanese.

The other side of language learning is to replicate a meaning in several languages. I ask the kids what I am saying when I wave my hand in the air – everyone knows that means hello! I then ask them to say hello in another language they may know and out comes, “hola”, “bonjour”, “konnichiwa”, “nihau”, etc. Then I ask what their favorite DVD is to watch at home and the excited voices tell me all about their favorites with the nodding parents rolling their eyes behind them. I then tell the parents that they are in a great position to help inspire language learning by allowing the children to watch that DVD yet another time, but this time in whatever foreign language is available. If the children have memorized the video, they will anticipate, by the music and context, the words the character is about to speak. By simply giving them the words in another language, they will pick up snippets of language – which is one of the main principles used in the Music Lingua curriculum. Is this free, at-home strategy as good as taking a class and having a face-to-face interaction? No, but it is something they can easily do and opens up the conversation of what actually happens in a Music Lingua class!

Now that you have a free Music Lingua class booked at the library, it’s time to get some exposure. Make sure that the library will help advertise the class through their normal venues (posters, flyers, newsletters, online calendars, etc.). In my community, there are several children’s publications and newspapers that have community calendars. If the library doesn’t plan to list the activity in those publications, ask permission to do so yourself. These publications make their money through advertising, but they pull in readers through their community calendars. Parents often skim over the advertisements but look at the calendar carefully for fun things to do with their children. Save your advertising money and focus on being highlighted in the calendar instead!

Please add your comments, ideas and questions about this concept in the comments section below!

Barbara Mills has been a French Music Lingua teacher in Colorado Springs for the past Barbara French teacher small5 years and has successfully grown her classes, starting with 5 families in 1 class to over 20 families participating in 5 classes currently. She credits her success with the love of children and the French language as well as a strong background in entrepreneurship, marketing and business development.

E-books in many languages

Teaching Resources

by Gigi Swenson

Are you struggling to find books in your language to read to your students? The website Children’s Books forever.com offers free picture ebooks in many languages that you can print out on card stock, creating an easy-to-read book. There are numerous topics, and I’ve been able to find some that correlate, at least in some part, to some of our units. If they are too long or complicated for your age group you can read an abbreviated version of the text on each page. The illustrations are cute and quite descriptive themselves, even if kids don’t know all the words. For most kids it will be pretty clear what’s going on.

Of course you can also use any English book in your language classes by “reading” them a version that you’ve translated ahead of time. I like to translate the text and print it out small, then tape it to the back of the book so I can just read the back while showing the pages of the book to the students, and noting on the back when to turn the page.