In strong activities, you should be able to build social engagements within it, in a variety of ways. Consider what happens inside the program, as well as outside the classroom or program. During the program, there should be social engagements from both the parents and the students. Consider how to build communities within your classroom, program, and activities. When there is a community within your program it leads to a better experience for everyone involved.

Why Online (and using online tools)?

When building social engagements within your activity, online engagements and tools can be very effective with today's generation. Our world revolves around online outlets and engagements. Communities can happen both organically and inorganically. Young kids have a new generation of parents (millennials & gen-z's) than what we’re used to, they have grown up with technology, they will expect their children’s programs to be modernized, and create environments where they can socialize with other participants & stakeholders.

Technology allows for more engagement between the Organizers / Educators and their users than ever before, which makes it even easier to build social engagements. It also leaves more opportunity for additional communication and engagement throughout the week, rather than just at the time of the program.

Benefits:

You may be wondering why social engagements are so important for a business and the answer is very simple, it helps facilitate group & social bonding which builds a foundation of engagement.

• When people find a community they enjoy, they tend to stick around. In a program where they feel part of a group, customers are more likely to be happy and loyal.

• The more engagement you have within your activity, the more opportunities customers have to talk about it, therefore promoting it to more people.

• When people are engaged in your activity, they will engage with the content that you share on it which is the best way to reach more people.

Methods:

There are several ways to build your community, it is super beneficial to build it early on, even if you have nothing to offer yet. Create an attractive, fun space for virtual members to hang out and build a strong sense of community.

• Newsfeeds: With the newsfeeds, you can share pictures, videos, and text descriptions from key moments of learning and development. By doing this you can engage with clients and even connect with certain people by tagging them on a post.

• Variety: Using a variety of outlets gives even more room for engagement. Forums let users get to know each other through active dialogues, which is also great for crowdsourcing ideas for the classroom.

• Discussion Boards: Similarly, discussion boards are useful since you can share important announcements that your facilitators and instructors want to present and vice-versa, announcements that participants want to share as well.

• Additional Methods: Some other effective methods to gain additional social engagements within your activity are Community pages, Newsletters, Alumni groups, participating in social media channels, social media groups, text channels such as WhatsApp, Dischord, or Slack, etc. Group posts.

Overall giving other options and ways to connect is a great way to enhance your social engagements, which leads to a stronger business.

Considerations:

• When running a social group, design it so that it’s relevant to the cohort, classroom, or program.

• Keep it engaging to encourage participation, be well organized, and be under control.

• With a dull social group, no one is going to want to interact or take part, so it defeats the purpose.

• When having groups you need to be consistent with your online interactions so your members know what to expect at all times.

• Create a comfortable, engaging environment for your user to spend time in.

• To have it be a success you need to ensure there is participation from members and quality information.

When running a business there are so many different things that hold a lot of importance that you may have never even thought of before. Social engagements are one of these things, they’re very important to build as it enhances the level of involvement within your company. Try to go about it in a few different ways to get the best results possible. With today’s society being so reliant on technology, bringing some technology into your program is a good idea to maintain engagement with the younger generation at all times.