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Creating holiday-specific messaging

Posted on September 30, 2013
in Social Strategies
by Nick Middleton
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I love the idea of creating holiday-specific messaging for your camp. Most camps have a good brand voice, but don't often change their brand voice to focus on timely events. We talked yesterday about how to set long-term and short-term holiday goals for your summer camp. Once you have completed that, it's time to figure out what messaging you are going to use to reach your goal. Usually when creating messaging I recommend figuring out the following first: What three main...

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Social media and summer camp video trainings

Posted on September 23, 2013
in Social Strategies
by Nick Middleton
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I have a lot of video trainings available on my YouTube channel and I wanted to make sure that you all had access to them. I'm uploading more each day, so make sure and check out my channel here. Here are some of the most useful video trainings available: Top three ways to target Facebook ads for summer camps How to track social activity using the Google Conversion Tracking Pixel and the Facebook Conversion Tracking Pixel How to build Twitter ads for summer camps...

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Creating a Pinterest board for your summer camp

Posted on September 18, 2013
in Social Tools
by Nick Middleton
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If you love pinning on Pinterest as much as I do, then this post is for you! Pinterest is a great marketing tool for camps to share photos, articles and tips in a fun and engaging way. It can be difficult to get started pinning, but once you have your boards set up it can come pretty easily. Here are some ideas for Pinterest boards for summer camps: - Packing list and tips - Camp recipes and foods - Camp activities - Camp staff -...

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Thoughts on “marketing” as a bad word

Posted on September 16, 2013
in Camp Inspiration
by Nick Middleton
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A lot of camps I talk to don't want to prioritize marketing as one of their main goals for their summer camp. I hear a lot of people say that it just isn't a priority, or they don't have time to fully focus on it and a number of other excuses for why marketing isn't that important to them. But the more and more I think about camps who think that "marketing" is a bad word, the more and more...

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Social Media Roundup for Camps- September

Posted on September 4, 2013
in Social Media Roundup
by Nick Middleton
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Here are some interesting articles on social media and summer camps from this past month! Mashable: A marketer's guide to retargeting on Facebook- This is a great beginners post on how FBX (the Facebook Exchange) works for retargeting. American Camp Association Blog: Famous campers and camp staff share thoughts on character- Did you know Michelle Obama went to summer camp? Me either until I read this blog post! Mashable: Social media project monitors keywords to prevent suicide- This is a very interesting article...

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Personal branding for summer camp directors

Posted on August 26, 2013
in Social Strategies
by Nick Middleton
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Each person has their own individual brand that represents how they portray themselves to the world. For a camp director or assistant director, this personal brand can go very far in helping establish their credibility to new and returning parents. Not all directors are going to want to promote their brand (I'll cover marketing your personal brand in my next blog post), but it still is important to actively cultivate your personal brand. The first step for defining your personal...

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Make your Facebook posts engaging: Content

Posted on August 16, 2013
in Social Tools
by Nick Middleton
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This is the last post in a series of posts around how to make your Facebook posts more engaging. I have already covered imagery and post type, but today I want to focus more on content. I specifically want to cover the following three questions: What should your posts say? What links should you drive to? Which videos/photos should you promote? It can be tempting to post anything and everything to your summer camp's Facebook page. But you should definitely be selective and only...

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Make your Facebook posts engaging: Post type

Posted on August 14, 2013
in Social Tools
by Nick Middleton
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The next entry in this series on how to make your Facebook posts more engaging revolves around post type. According to SocialBakers, who looked at over 5,000 Facebook posts in the past year, the most engaging posts on Facebook include photos. However, depending on the kind of content you create, other types of posts can be equally engaging for your summer camp: Photo: As mentioned above, this is the most engaging type of post. Camps have amazing imagery and photo collections, so use...

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Make your Facebook posts engaging: Images

Posted on August 12, 2013
in Social Tools
by Nick Middleton
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Today, I am starting a short series on how to make your Facebook posts more engaging. The first part of the series is going to cover imagery. Luckily, summer camps have great images from their summer photographers, which means they always have an arsenal of photos to use for Facebook posts. Still, I see camps all of the time using images that don't perform well on Facebook. Here are five quick tips to make your Facebook images more engaging: 1. Pictures...

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Social media planning sessions

Posted on August 9, 2013
in Social Strategies
by Nick Middleton
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With the summer season winding down, it is time for your camp to hold an annual social media planning session. Here is an example of an agenda for this type of meeting: 1. Complete an audit of current social media activity, tools, and analytics 2. Decide if you are going to hire a social media consultant. Does your program need help? Or are you in a good place with the current staff? 3. Brainstorm your main marketing objectives for next year 4. Set a...

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