Shine Early Learning

Shine Early Learning organic social report

October 2026

John Murdock, John Murdock Digital | Published 11/10/2026

8,647

Impressions

Up 178.6% vs September 2026 on two fewer posts.

5,269

Total audience

Up 1.7% vs September 2026.

12

Published posts

6 LinkedIn, 3 Facebook, 3 Instagram.

Headline findings

  1. 1

    LinkedIn carried two thirds of program engagement on half the posts.

    LinkedIn delivered 639 of 962 engagements and 76 of 89 net new followers on 6 of 12 posts, at an 11.5% engagement rate.

  2. 2

    One leadership announcement drove 59% of the month.

    The October 14 post announcing the next CEO of Acelero, Inc. earned 568 engagements across the three channels. The other nine posts still produced 394 engagements, more than double September's full-month total of 177.

  3. 3

    Proof beat provocation on LinkedIn.

    The SPARK Indiana case study (33.3% engagement rate) and the MDRC two-year pre-K research post (21.9%) were the two most efficient posts of the month. The two open-question thought leadership posts landed at 5.3% and 9.5%.

  4. 4

    LinkedIn cadence hit the top of target.

    Six company page posts against a 4 to 6 target, with no week above the 3-post cap.

Program scorecard

Month 1, baseline

Shine's scorecard tracks what has been agreed so far: LinkedIn cadence, buyer coverage, pillar balance and month over month direction. Numeric growth tiers are an open item and will be added once confirmed.

KPIOctober actualBasisStanding
LinkedIn company page cadence6 postsTarget 4 to 6 per month, max 3 per weekMet
Impressions8,6473,104 in September 2026Up 178.6%
Engagements962177 in September 2026Up 443.5%
Net follower growth+89+56 in September 2026Up
Buyer type coverageB2B and B2G both presentBoth buyer types at least once a monthMet, B2G thin
Pillar balance0 of 12 posts taggedSix-pillar framework, P6 proportionateNot scorable
Numeric growth tiersPending confirmationOpen

Comparisons are against September 2026 as reported in the Sprout Social Profile Performance compare-to period. Program figures cover the three Shine Early Learning brand profiles only.

Platforms

LinkedIn

Primary

5,552

Impressions

Up 143.2%

639

Engagements

Up 366.4%

+76

Net followers

Up 46.2%

407

Post clicks

6

Posts

11.5%

Engagement rate

6.0% in September

Share of program

64.2%

of impressions

66.4%

of engagements

85.4%

of net follower growth

What worked

  • Content with a downloadable or readable asset drove clicks. The SPARK Indiana case study (130 clicks) and the MDRC research post (90 clicks) produced 220 of the month's 407 post clicks.

  • The leadership announcement reached 2,485 impressions, the largest LinkedIn post of the month by more than double.

  • Follower growth was steady through the month, with gains on 23 of 31 days.

Where to lean in

  • Space posts across the month. October had no LinkedIn posts from October 3 through October 13, and two posts landed on October 27.

  • The two open-question posts (October 19 and October 27 morning) averaged 27.5 engagements against 123 for the two proof posts.

Facebook

Secondary

2,827

Views

Up 383.2%

294

Engagements

Up 880%

+10

Net followers

3

Posts

10.4%

Engagement rate

5.1% in September

Share of program

32.7%

of impressions

30.6%

of engagements

11.2%

of net follower growth

What worked

  • The leadership announcement earned 276 engagements, 16 comments and 29 love reactions, the most-engaged single post across all three channels.

  • Audience grew from 797 to 807.

Where to lean in

  • The two thought leadership posts earned 13 and 5 engagements. Facebook responded to people news far more than to field perspective this month.

  • The October 27 Facebook post links to bit.ly/shinearly while the LinkedIn version uses bit.ly/shineearly. Confirm the Facebook link resolves.

Instagram

Tertiary

268

Views

Up 13.6%

29

Engagements

Up 190%

+3

Net followers

3

Posts

318

Followers

Share of program

3.1%

of impressions

3.0%

of engagements

3.4%

of net follower growth

What worked

  • The leadership announcement accounted for 27 of the 30 post-level engagements.

Where to lean in

  • Both thought leadership posts were direct copies of the LinkedIn text and earned 2 and 1 engagements. Instagram's role in the mix is an open item.

Engagement rate is not shown in the Instagram tiles. On a base of 318 followers, rate swings are noise. The rate (10.8%) appears in the appendix with its follower count.

Content

Content pillar mix

Not scorable

No October post carries a P1 to P6 pillar tag in Sprout, so the pillar mix cannot be read from the data this month. Tagging at publish starts in November.

Buyer type coverage

Buyer typePostsNotes
B2B11Tagged in Sprout
B2G1SPARK Indiana case study, B2G by standing rule, untagged in Sprout
D2P0

Cross-posting

Three of the six LinkedIn posts ran with identical copy on Facebook and Instagram, so 9 of 12 published posts belong to one of three cross-posted sets. Cross-posting practice is an open item and is reported here for visibility.

Top performing content, program wide

  1. 1

    Next CEO of Acelero, Inc. announcement

    FacebookOct 14

    Leadership announcement celebrating a career that began in the classroom.

    276
    Engagements
    2,227
    Impressions
    12.4%
    Eng. rate
  2. 2

    Next CEO of Acelero, Inc. announcement

    LinkedInOct 14

    Same post on the company page, 153 reactions and 98 clicks.

    265
    Engagements
    2,485
    Impressions
    10.7%
    Eng. rate
  3. 3

    SPARK Indiana case study

    LinkedInOct 2

    Statewide training, coaching and technical assistance results, case study linked in the first comment. 130 clicks.

    145
    Engagements
    436
    Impressions
    33.3%
    Eng. rate
  4. 4

    Two years of pre-K growth, MDRC research

    LinkedInOct 15

    Three findings from research published in AERA Open, aimed at public systems leaders. 90 clicks.

    101
    Engagements
    461
    Impressions
    21.9%
    Eng. rate
  5. 5

    HELP 0-3 reliability study at DEC 2026

    LinkedInOct 27

    Session promotion for the observation-based assessment presentation in Omaha. 44 clicks.

    71
    Engagements
    915
    Impressions
    7.8%
    Eng. rate

Site traffic

Not available this month. The Google Analytics export in the October set is connected to a different property, and no shineearly.com property is connected in Sprout yet.

Action: connect the shineearly.com GA4 property in Sprout so site traffic from social can be reported from November.

Learnings and opportunities

Proof and research outperformed open questions.

The two posts carrying real results or published findings averaged a 27.6% engagement rate. The two posts built around an open question averaged 7.4%. Program directors and systems leaders engaged most when there was something concrete to read.

A single announcement can carry a month.

The leadership announcement drove 59% of program engagement. October's baseline should be read with that in mind: without it, engagement still more than doubled September, which is the more durable signal.

Facebook rewards people news.

Facebook delivered its strongest month on the back of one leadership post, while its two field perspective posts earned 18 engagements combined. The channel's role as the practitioner and community-facing feed is showing in the data.

Timing gaps cost reach.

October 3 through 13 passed with no LinkedIn post, and two posts shared October 27. Spreading the same six posts more evenly is the simplest available lift.

November preview, focus areas

  1. 1

    Hold LinkedIn at 4 to 6 posts, spaced weekly. No gaps longer than a week and one post per day.

  2. 2

    Lead with proof at least once. One case study, research or partner result post, routed for approval before scheduling.

  3. 3

    Tag every post at publish. Pillar (P1 to P6) and buyer type (B2B, B2G, D2P) in Sprout, so the pillar mix can be scored.

  4. 4

    Strengthen B2G. At least two posts written for state and public systems leaders.

  5. 5

    Fix the export set. Re-pull the LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram page exports with the Shine profiles selected, and connect the shineearly.com GA4 property.

  6. 6

    Confirm the open items. Numeric growth tiers, cross-posting practice and Instagram's role in the channel mix.

Appendix

AccountPlatformAudienceNet growthPostsImpressionsEngagementsEng. rate
Shine Early LearningLinkedIn4,144+7665,55263911.5%
Shine Early LearningFacebook807+1032,82729410.4%
shineearlylearningInstagram318+332682910.8%*
Program total5,269+89128,64796211.1%

*Instagram rate shown with its follower count (318). Facebook and Instagram impressions are Sprout views.

September 2026 comparison basis

PlatformImpressionsEngagementsNet growthEng. rate
LinkedIn2,283137+526.0%
Facebook58530+35.1%
Instagram23610+14.2%
Program total3,104177+565.7%
  • Program audience September 2026: 5,180.
  • Published posts September 2026: 14.
  • Post link clicks September 2026: 89.

Methodology

  • Sources: Sprout Social Profile Performance and Post Performance exports for October 1 to 31, 2026, and the Profile Performance PDF for the September 2026 compare-to period.

  • Scope: the three Shine Early Learning brand profiles. All other profiles in the shared Sprout account are excluded before any calculation.

  • Audience is the last day's value for the month. Flow metrics (impressions, engagements, clicks, follower growth) are summed across days.

  • Program totals reconcile exactly to the Sprout Profile Performance PDF: 8,647 impressions, 962 engagements, 410 post link clicks, 11.1% engagement rate, +89 net audience growth.

  • September per-platform figures are derived from the PDF's per-platform totals and percent changes, and sum exactly to the PDF's September program totals.

Data notes

  • Paid exclusion: a LinkedIn boost ran October 15 to 22 for $300.00 across two campaigns on the LinkedIn Audience Network, delivering 91,059 paid impressions and 428 paid clicks. None of it is included in this report. Daily organic page impressions in that window peaked at 800, so the paid delivery is not inside the page figures.

  • The LinkedIn Pages, Facebook Pages and Instagram Business Profiles exports in the October set covered other profiles, not Shine. Follower gained versus lost detail, reach and network benchmark percentiles are therefore not reported this month.

  • Site traffic is not reported. The Google Analytics export covered a different property.

  • Pillar mix is not reported. No October post carries a pillar tag.

  • The competitor report was not used. Its comparison set combined other owned profiles with external competitors.

  • Instagram post-level engagements sum to 30 against a profile total of 29, a normal Sprout timing variance. Profile totals are used throughout.