Blog

Most-Used Social Networks on Mobile in the U.S.

I'm always encouraging my camps to figure out a strategy for mobile. I found this great chart in Mashable I wanted to share with you all that discusses % of time spend on mobile for certain social networks. It's not surprise that Instagram is almost at 100% (given that they barely have a desktop all), but I love to see how high Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook are too. The chart below from Statista can be found here.   If you haven't figured out...

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Facebook Ad Delivery

I wanted to take a few minutes to share this article from Facebook's FAQ on ad delivery. "Facebook's ad system uses an algorithm that chooses the best ad to display based on a variety of factors, including the historical performance of each ad and their bids. The bid necessary to win our ad auction will fluctuate as our system learns more about your ad based on its actual performance, and as the pool of competing ads changes." Optimize your Page "Make your Page engaging...

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On Moving Fast

When I worked at Facebook, my favorite motto was "Move Fast." To this day, I still always err on the side of moving fast as opposed to waiting to ship something until it reaches perfection.   Sometimes though, I move so quickly that I forget to share with you all some of the things that are on my mind. This blog post is a combination of all of those things! So here is what's on my mind: 1. The death of organic reach: I...

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Book Review: Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook

One of my awesome clients started reading Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook and asked me to join in with her for a work-related book club. This is the third book from award winning social media expert, Gary Vaynerchuk. We both found the book fascinating and I wanted to share some learnings with you all here. This book is a social media blueprint on how to jab, meaning to excite and delights your customer, on the right social media platforms at the...

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Facebook promoted posts v. ads

I get asked pretty frequently if camps should use Facebook promoted posts or create an ad using ads manager. My answer is always the same, always create an ad!! Why you ask? 1. Targeting- When you create a promoted post Facebook limits your targeting to "fans and friends of fans," or basic geo and interest targeting. When you create an ad using Facebook ads manager you get a lot more targeting options that will help you reach your audience without wasting...

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Facebook buys WhatsApp. What does that mean for camps?

Facebook just announced that they are buying WhatsApp for $16B!!! According to Facebook, "WhatsApp has over 450M MAUs, with 70% of those active each day. In a staggering comparison, Facebook also notes that the messaging volume of WhatsApp approaches the SMS volume of the entire global telecom industry — and that it’s adding 1M users a day." So what does this mean for camps?? There is definitely a shift going on where messaging is becoming an important part of daily life. Right...

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Facebook Secrets for Summer Camp Marketing

Travis Allison and I just hosted our second ever Facebook Secrets for Summer Camp Marketing webinar! He focused on the social content side, while I discussed social ads. I absolutely love collaborating with Travis because of his deep understanding of the camp industry. If you missed the webinar, you can watch it here! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIHVrgSd8FI&feature=youtu.be...

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Holiday 2013 Wrap Up

I wrote a lot about holiday marketing for camps this past year! Now that the holidays are over, Facebook released some information on how consumers shopped using Facebook over the holidays of 2013. Here are some interesting stats I wanted to share with you all: According to Facebook, this was the holiday shopping lifecycle: "Before: Shoppers start with a plan but are open to discovery During: Mobile is perceived as a hero for shoppers and Facebook is a key companion After: Once the presents...

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Buzzfeed for Camps

While I certainly don't think camps should make it a huge part of their marketing strategy, there is something interesting to be said for camps using Buzzfeed. In fact one of my favorite Buzzfeed articles this year was about summer camps. If your camp is looking for a great way to engage campers, consider making a list on Buzzfeed. Example lists could be: 1. 21 ways you know you went to Camp Name 2. 10 things only campers know 3. 15 throwbacks from...

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Levers to improve Facebook ads

I presented a webinar a few weeks ago with Travis Allison on Facebook secrets for summer camp marketing. I wanted to elaborate a little on some of the things I chatted about there and provide more information for you, my loyal blog readers. One of the most important things I discussed were the five levers you can pull to improve your Facebook ads. Here are the questions I like to ask myself for each lever when I am running my ads. 1....

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