Managing our online presence
- Kidsfirst
- Dec 15, 2022
- 2 min read
The Kidsfirst brand has so many different online shop windows. The network’s online presence is an important part of the overall brand, and so its expression is tightly managed, both to put the best face forward in a cohesive way, and for risk management.
Individual kindergarten Google profiles are part of this ecosystem, and these are managed centrally, both in terms of the listings and images, and reviews.
We make regular changes to keep up with the Google algorithms, that can automatically change details in profiles, like directions and opening hours, based on feedback from people, and Artificial Intelligence. For example, it often tracks the number of people at a shop or certain venue at a certain point in time, and will automatically change the hours or entrance location based on this without consultation. This happens regularly to our kindergartens, and we make manual changes to both prevent the AI for taking over our listing and to amend wrong information.
One recent example is Google showing the back entrance as the main one for Kidsfirst Northcote. They had contractors and whānau having difficulty finding their main entrance, and we were able to add a ‘second’ entrance to their listing, and anticipate Google will recognise this as the more frequently used one.
More and more we’re seeing an increase in whānau, both potential and current, who are using Google profiles as a part of their research – it’s a great sign, and something we work to take advantage of. Now, every time we update photos on each kindergarten’s individual page on the main website, we do the same to the Google listing.
If you have any questions about how these listings work, concerns about their content, or have some new images to submit for consideration, please drop an email to Jenny. We’re also happy to come out and take photos, where we can, however there can be a bit of a wait sometimes due to the sheer volume of requests.
In the meantime, look up your kindergarten by Googling its name – the Google profile is in the box on the right, containing images, words, and a map. Please note that our kindergartens are not classified as kindergartens, but as preschools. This is another part of the equation that is subject to AI interference – we do work to keep it under control. The kindergarten category is unavailable for us to use in our context, as in the US it refers to the first year of school. Additionally, the term ‘preschool’ is frequently searched by prospective whānau, and we want to have as many of these requests sent to our listings.