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Less busy work, more optimization - that’s the goal of Facebook’s new Automated Rules tool for ads. Using this new feature, you can create rules and resulting actions to automatically apply to ads. Last Fall, Facebook introduced this new feature to help marketers speed up the ad optimization process. If you’re like most people, you probably spend a lot of time checking in on your ad performance. Now, Facebook can carry some of that weight to make your marketing duties a...

LinkedIn Sponsored Updates for Camps

Posted on November 1, 2013

A few months ago LinkedIn launched sponsored updates. According to their blog post, "Sponsored Updates can be seen on desktop, smartphone and tablet devices and will clearly be marked “sponsored,” appearing in the member’s homepage feed along with the organic posts from their network and the companies they follow. Members will have the option to “Follow” the sponsoring company as well as “Like,” “Comment” and “Share” posts with their network." In order to take advantage of this, camps will need to...

Holiday planning for summer camps

Posted on September 25, 2013

It 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...

How does your email open rate compare?

Posted on September 11, 2013

One of the most successful ways for camps to market is through email. I happen to love email marketing, especially if like most camps you already have a list of parents and campers who have opted-in to receiving your newsletters and updates. That being said, I am definitely concerned about email marketing open rates and how camp email marketing has become less effective in the past few years. There is no exact email marketing open rate benchmark for summer camps, but...

Personal branding for summer camp directors

Posted on August 26, 2013

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...

Make your Facebook posts engaging: Images

Posted on August 12, 2013

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...

LinkedIn Ads for Summer Camps

Posted on August 7, 2013

LinkedIn ads recruiting camp counselors always spike a couple of months before camp starts. Recruitment agencies run most of these ads, but camps have the opportunity to run their own ads to recruit the best counselors. Here are a few things to think about when running LinkedIn ads for counselor recruitment: 1. Targeting is key: Most students use LinkedIn specifically to find jobs. Make sure you layer on the best targeting possible to maximize results. For example, if you are a camp in...

Social Media Roundup for Summer Camps- August 1st

Posted on August 2, 2013

in Social Media Roundup

Here are some interesting articles on social media and summer camps from this past week! CNN: Facebook enables embedded posts- This will allow you to embed Facebook posts directly on your webpage. This will be very cool for summer camps where parents and children share their favorite camp memories on your Facebook page. You can now have those embedded on your webpage. Mashable: 50 digital media resources you may have missed- There are a lot of interesting resources and articles about social...

How often should you update parents during camp and where?

Posted on July 19, 2013