I recently read a post by Seth Godin that had me thinking about how we try to operate at Social Summer Camp. Here is what the post said: "There are endless opportunities for people and organizations that can reliably and fairly take a problem off our hands. "I'll take care of it," and I'll do it well, at least as well as you can, for a price that won't make you feel stupid. "I'll take care of it," and I won't come...
Read MoreI've mentioned it a few times before, but summer should be the biggest time for marketing your summer camp. During the summer I spend a lot of time looking at what other camps are doing and, of course, refining the strategies of my current clients. I've noticed a few things that really back up my recommendation for how important summer marketing can be. 1. Many camps are not posting during the summer, but the ones who are see large increases in...
Read MoreWe absolutely love summer at Social Summer Camp (no surprise, we are camp people after all!). It's hard to believe that another summer is upon us and that our 40+ clients are in their "playoff" season. As a part of our services during the summer we help camps reach a few of their marketing goals. We help summer camps: 1. Get their best summer content out to their current families 2. Get more parents to share their best summer content 3. Reach more people...
Read MoreInstagram is finally ready to roll out advertising to small and medium size businesses, including summer camps! In a recent article in TechCrunch they said, "After a year and half of format experiments and basic targeting, Instagram is giving advertisers much more powerful tools. Those include “Shop Now”, “Install Now”, and “Sign up” buttons, interest and demographic targeting, and an API for efficiently managing huge campaigns." BUT...
Read MoreThis is sort of a silly update, but I want to always keep you informed on what is hip in social media! :) You can now post GIFs to Facebook and they will show up both on desktop and mobile! Even though GIF links currently only work on personal profiles and not on pages, I am sure it is only a matter of time before you can use them on your page as well. Not sure what a GIF is? Take a...
Read MoreIf you are a Facebook marketer, you are always trying to remember the best image size and dimensions for Facebook! Luckily Jon Loomer (a fantastic Facebook marketer) made this handy guide for us that includes all of them. I've also embedded the guide below for easy access. Courtesy of: JonLoomer.com...
Read MoreWe talk a lot on this blog about developing a Pinterest strategy to reach moms, which is why this Mashable article took me so by surprise! "Earlier this year, the five-year-old San Francisco startup announced that men are actually its fastest-growing user demographic, with the number of men pinning and re-pinning doubling in 2014 to an unspecified number. From March 2014 to March 2015, Pinterest's user base climbed 25% year-over-year to 72.8 million monthly active users. And during the same period,...
Read MoreI've said it before and I'll say it again: the summer is the best time to market your summer camp. If you have ever wondered when the best time to start a social media program is, the answer is right now! Here are some of the benefits of marketing during the summer: 1. You have a large audience- Parents, friends, aunts and uncles are all online looking for information about what their camper is up to! This is your best chance...
Read MoreAdvertising is such an incredible way to spread the benefits of summer camp to people all over the world. Unfortunately, we have limitations in the advertising world as to who we can reach with our messages. Even for some of the richest people in the world, reliable internet access is often not available due to infrastructure in their countries. Facebook is working to give internet access to everyone all over the world in a move I think could significantly impact...
Read MoreThis is a post from the Social Summer Camp blog archives that I find to still be VERY relevant today. One of the most successful ways for camps to market is through email. I happen to love email marketing, especially if like most camps you already have a list of parents and campers who have opted-in to receiving your newsletters and updates. That being said, I am definitely concerned about email marketing open rates and how camp email marketing has become less...
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