Snapchat is a very cool real-time photo chatting app on iOS and Android. According to Business Insider, they have 350 million photo uploads DAILY. It may still seem like a little app to a lot of people, but the growing popularity among middle and high school aged students is something that most marketers (including camp marketers) can not ignore. I always like to look toward big brands for advice on what smaller brands should be doing when a new social medium...
Read MoreLast month Pinterest announced that they will be starting to provide promoted pins (also known as ads). They are currently testing this with a few companies and promoted pins will only show up in search results and category feeds. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before this is open to everyone and available in the Pinterest news feed. Of course, this is exactly how Facebook started out, first allowing a few promotions on their right hand side and...
Read MoreI talk to a lot of camp directors who want to know if it's possible to do it all. What they really mean is, can a camp successfully run a social media program without a consultant. I've written before about how many hours a month you can save by hiring a social media consultant and I estimated that a full-time social media focused person would spend about 55 hours a month to accomplish everything that needs to be done. BUT, here...
Read MoreA lot of camp directors I talk to are VERY short of time. In fact, most of the times their entire staff is short on time. I totally understand that, which is why I am posting today about the ONE social media activity you must do. This means, if you are short on time that you shouldn't do ANY activities except for this one. It's better to do one thing very well then to have a mediocre Twitter/Instagram/Blog/etc. If you can...
Read MoreHere are some interesting articles on social media and summer camps from this past month! Mashable: Facebook has a quarter of a trillion user photos!! (How is your camp maximizing on the photo sharing capabilities of Facebook?) Huffington Post: A cute blog post about the Marriott family and their time at summer camp. Social Summer Camp: A blog post I wrote on "marketing" as a bad word and how camps can fulfill their missions in the world. Digiday: What to expect from Instagram ads. New...
Read MoreIf your camp is doing a lot of traditional print media (newsletters, newspaper ads, magazine ads, etc.) then it is really important to measure your success against your social marketing. Most print media only has two measurement qualities: 1. Reach: How many people received your newspaper/magazine/newsletter? (There is no way to know how many people actually read it, but this is a good enough metric to lean on.) 2. Response to your call to action: How many people either dialed the number or emailed...
Read MoreIn the last week I've covered how to develop your holiday marketing goals and how to create holiday-specific messaging that maps back to your goals. All of this is great, BUT if you don't execute on your plan and measure your success none of that will matter. Executing your plan should be pretty simple because you know 1. what your goals are and 2. what messaging your want to use to reach your goals. Usually executing on your holiday related...
Read MoreIt may only be the end of September, but camps should definitely be thinking about the holidays already. Why is that, you ask? Because most moms decide what they are going to get their kids in the months of October and November. We all know that a summer at camp makes an amazing holiday gift, so it is very important to stay in front of these moms. I'll be doing a series over the next few weeks about how to...
Read MoreI 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...
Read MoreIf 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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