Understanding Your Camp’s Brand Voice
One of the biggest questions I get asked by summer camps is "What is my Camp's Brand Voice?" For each camp this means a different thing, but most often they are asking...
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Sponsored Snapchats are Here!
A few weeks ago Snapchat surprised everyone by running a Sponsored snap in their feed! While camps are really just starting to explore Snapchat, this is a very interesting move toward paid promotion on this platform. If your camp has been hesitant to try Snapchat, now may be the time to start thinking about it!...
Read MorePromoted Tweets on Twitter for Summer Camps
A lot of camps have recently been asking me about Promoted Tweets on Twitter. These are essentially just Twitter ads that are promoted to reach a specific target audience. Twitter recently analyzed 200,000 promoted tweets and shared some best practices with the public that I am now sharing with you. 1. Be brief: "Stay under 100 characters per tweet, which Twitter says gets 18% more engagement. For an even more effective campaign, Twitter suggests aiming for three to six Promoted Tweets...
Read MoreFacebook Mobile Ad Network for Summer Camps
For summer camps that are interested in expanding their reach on mobile, the launch of the Facebook Mobile Ad Network could be a huge deal for you all. According to Mashable: "Audience Network, which was first announced in April, allows businesses to use Facebook's ad targeting tools to better serve ads on mobile applications not named Facebook. In one example offered by the social network, Shazam used Audience Network to sell native ads in its own app, including an ad for...
Read MoreVideos Getting a Boost in News Feed
There was a really interesting article in the NY Times a few weeks ago about how Facebook's news feed is giving a huge boost to video. According to the article, "Since June, Facebook, which has about 1.3 billion monthly users worldwide, has served up an average of a billion video views a day, two-thirds of them on mobile devices. About 100 million new videos are uploaded every month. While that is a small fraction of YouTube’s traffic, it is up significantly...
Read MoreFall Marketing Plan: Returning Campers
Now that camp is officially over, it is time to put together a fall marketing plan for your summer camp. One big component of this plan is what message your camp will use to market to returning campers. There are a few ways to do this: 1. Reach Parents- Parents are the ones who are most likely re-enrolling their camper for next summer. Appeal to them with a few different types of messages during your early bird period. A few messages you...
Read MoreSnapchat Still More Popular
There was a really interesting article in Mashable last week about how Snapchat is still more popular with teens than Facebook. "The study found that while 70% of college students report posting on Snapchat at least once a day, only 11% report posting on Facebook with the same frequency." The study was organized by Sumpto, a New York-based marketing company. As your camp begins their fall marketing, this is something really interesting to keep in mind. Should your camp be actively using Snapchat? If...
Read MorePromoting Videos on Social Media
Now that camp is almost over, it is time to take a look at all of your digital assets from the summer. One of the most important assets to look at is your camp videos. Whether you had a professional videographer or not, you will want to take an inventory of the videos you have. Once you have the inventory taken care of, upload all of your relevant videos to YouTube or Vimeo (whichever your camp uses). Once they are uploaded,...
Read MoreFall Planning: Social Media for Summer Camps
It's hard to believe we are over half way through the summer! Some camps in the South and Southwest are already wrapping up their sessions. Camps up North are finishing up their Visiting Days and settling in for another month of Camp. Even though during camp can be very hectic, you should try and set aside some time for Fall Planning. This is what I recommend so that it isn't too overwhelming. 1. Spend 1 hour writing 30 days of content...
Read MoreThree types of advertising
I wanted to share with you all a great blog post from Seth Godin on advertising. What kind of advertising is your camp running? What do you want to be running? From Seth's Blog: "Direct response ads pay for themselves (at least they do when they work). Socially acceptable paid-for interruption leads to response, and the response (a sale, generally) generates revenue and you can run the ad again. Google's business is driven by direct response advertising. Trust ads are generally unmeasurable. "I've heard of...
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