Facebook just announced that Right Hand Side ads will now be different on Facebook. The ads will be bigger and will allow for more creative media design. Newsfeed ads will still be available after the change. Although the new ads will be more expensive, the change will likely be worth it. The new designs are expected to have three times the engagement of the old ads – meaning more people should click through to your website. Here is how the...
Read MoreI get asked a lot about pulling Instagram stats for your camp. Right now there are not a lot of tools that allow you to pull Instagram stats, but I do recommend trying Iconosquare. Iconosquare provides you will the following metrics: - Followers - Likes - Comments - Like per piece of media - Lost followers - Top performing content - Tag usage - Post history If you know of any other Instagram metrics sites, please comment below. Until then, I'll be getting my metrics from Iconosquare....
Read MoreWhen 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...
Read MoreThe Social Summer Camp March social media newsletter is now live! You can read it here. This month I cover the following topics: Summer marketing plans, Facebook buying WhatsApp and How to increase your Facebook reach. Don't forget to subscribe to continue to see my newsletter. Thanks for reading!...
Read MoreCamps often send out brochures to potential or current campers during the year to give them a taste of camp. Frequently, camps’ social media accounts are left off this brochure. Rather than making a new brochure, camps can make a small card and send it out along with the brochure. This is a fairly inexpensive way to ensure that all camp families have access to your social media networks. Here is an example of a social media card from Birds iView....
Read MoreOne 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...
Read MoreFacebook 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...
Read MoreI 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...
Read MoreWhen I spoke at CampMinder Camp a few weeks ago, I was on a panel discussing Twitter. Prior to the panel I brainstormed a few ways that camps can use Twitter and I wanted to share them below. How camps can use twitter: - Promotion (sign up more campers with conversion tracking) - Real-time information sharing (specifically during camp) - Cross promotion with partners and other brands - Connect with mommy bloggers - Reach new target populations (22% of online African American users are Twitter users,...
Read MoreWhile 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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