Last year, I wrote an EOM on the horizon all organizations will be facing as social media evolves and changes. Will we keep in-step with the evolution? Sustain our current modes of engagement? Leave the space completely? There’s no right answer, and I hope we (NCYCA camps) will engage in a conversation as one neighborhood of this industry.
Since Closing Day of the 2022 summer, we have posted less on Instagram and Facebook, however.
Here are a few pros:
- Our daily summer posts have remained close to the top of our feed. First time visitors will be able to access the summer fun through the summer lens/voice more quickly.
- We’re trying to practice what we preach. Our parents rate the value of a screen-less summer as one of the main advantages of a summer camp experience.
- Each post we do post (for now) has a direct information or CTA.
- Other communication channels have performed far higher at what they set out to accomplish or communicate.
There are a few cons though:
- Less people may see individual posts based on Facebook/Instagram’s algorithms.
- We have to be diligent in checking Direct Messages & Tags.
- This has the potential to perpetuate the question we all receive occasionally: “What do you do in the off season?”
There’s no right answer. Similar to our Covid summer(s) I hope camps continue to try new models and communicate discoveries.
I look forward to more conversations as an industry around social media’s impact on residential summer camping!
Daniel Weatherby
Camp Rockmont
