Black Rocket

Reinventing your summer camp in a digitally focused world probably sounds intimidating. There’s so much to know and learn. On top of that, you want to keep things fresh and exciting. With the amount of resources available now, it can be easy to get overwhelmed in the world of digital advertising. However, social media is a good place to start.

If you’re trying to reach out to parents, social media is where you can find them. In fact, according to Pew Research Center, 83% of parents use social media! This gives your camp a very high chance of gaining the kind of expansive exposure that leads to more registrations. 

Creating social media for your camp is also a great way to keep your community engaged year round and provide updates about events. 

The Social Media Platforms

You’ll need to be familiar with the platforms themselves. Instagram is a photo and video driven social media platform. Twitter is mostly text driven but you can post photos and videos as well. Lastly, Facebook is very important for any camp because that’s where people will go if they just want basic information. It’s best for information such as your camp description, events, reviews, and opportunities to interact. Facebook pages as a secondary webpage that encourages interaction from customers. Facebook also has a feature called “Facebook Groups”, which are like exclusive online clubs. It’s highly recommended to create a group for your camp because it’s a great way to form a member-like community for parents, program directors, or anyone who is interested in your camp!

YouTube and TikTok are video only platforms. Video content is a great addition because it’s easy for people to view, and can be more informative than a text based post or a photo. Not only that, but YouTube and TikTok are extremely popular platforms for parents. TikTok actually surpassed Google as the most popular website of 2021! These videos can also be integrated into Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook posts to reach a wider audience.

Each platform is different and has its own unique features. If you want to skip one of the platforms so you can balance your time and energy, we find that Twitter is the least important of the group. Explore each one to see how they function and remember to have fun with it! 

What Do You Post?

Setting up the profile is the easy part, but then you have to start thinking about what you’re actually going to post. One thing that you could post to get started, are articles relating to the content of your camp. For example, we post articles relating to tech education, STEM, and video games. By posting about these topics, we’re bringing in our target audience and exposing them to our camp. 

Of course, you want to post about your camp directly! These posts could be about upcoming events, past events or new courses you might be introducing. You could also post videos about your camp or pose questions to the community to encourage interaction. 

Try your best to stick to a posting schedule. If you can get a post out 3-4 times a week, your exposure is likely to grow! Consistency is key. 

Insights

Make sure you make your profile a business account. This will allow you to see all of your statistics. Each platform has a different version of a business account, but they all pretty much have the same featured insights and analytics. Your insights are your engagement numbers, such as how many people viewed your post, how many people shared your post, or how many people clicked to your page. You can also see data on followers, including demographics like average gender, age, and their most active times of the day. As you go, use this data as a guide for creating better content based on audience feedback.

Hashtags

A hashtag is a word or phrase followed by ‘#’ and is a user-generated tagging system that helps a social media post to be seen by a larger audience. People are also able to follow hashtags if it’s a topic they’re interested in seeing, which will give them automatic updates on that topic. By using hashtags that relate to your camp, you will get the attention of people who share similar interests or hobbies to what your camp offers. For example, we use hashtags like #teched, #STEM, and #Roblox in our posts to help them gain exposure. 

Make it Easy With Third Party Software

Most of what you need is on the social media platform already, but there are a few software companies that offer social media marketing services should you choose to use them. 

Zoho Social is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software where you can create social media posts and blast them to your platforms all at once. You design the post and schedule it to go out immediately or at a later date. Once it’s posted, you’re able to see all of your analytics. This is helpful because all of your social media marketing is on one platform. Sprout Social and HubSpot are examples of a few others that offer similar services. 

Social media is the cheapest, fastest, and easiest way to reach your customers. Learning to use it in a successful way is a process, but well worth the initial time investment. Parents love social media and they’ll love your camp more if you jump on board