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Introduction

In the United States, going to camp is a customary way to spend the summer for millions of children. There are hundreds of different types of summer camps like day camps, science camps, religious camps, sports camps and traditional residential, or “sleep away” camps. Each one is unique with different traditions, activities and goals for camper outcomes. In the U.S alone there are more than 12,000 camps which are attended by 11 million children and adults and employ more than 1.5 million adults to work in various camp positions (American Camp Association, 2014). It is important for such a large industry to utilize social media practically and to understand how social media affects their campers, camp families, and staff. There are so many ways camps can use social media for marketing and increasing enrollments, helping to maintain a community through the off season and keeping parents up to date during the camp season, and many more which will be discussed throughout this analysis.

Some camps are already using social media platforms like Facebook, but what is certain is that most of their campers are on Facebook, and likely some of the parents too; what does this mean for summer camps? How can they use social media to their advantage? What are the implications of this on a traditional summer camp experience? These are all issues that will be addressed and analyzed with hopes to help traditional summer camps keep up with the internet and social media while maintaining their values. The “traditional” camp experience in the U.S is to attend a sleep-away camp for several weeks during the summer break. These camps usually promote the benefits of being outdoors, making new friends, nurturing personal growth and giving children the ability to take risks in a safe environment to develop feelings of independence, leadership and moral values (Dahl, Sethre-Hofstad, & Salomon, 2013). The opportunity to go to camp is one worth taking and it is through social media that camps can extend their reach and bring more people to camp.

Advertising and Staying in Touch

Often times parents will send their children to a camp because of a family tradition, but generally enrollments come from word of mouth and camp fairs at schools or in communities. Wise use of social media could allow camps to use their fan page to reach further to friends of friends. By being engaged on Facebook and showing up in news feeds there is high chance that the camp's Facebook page will be visited more. Or by posting regularly about enrollments, important dates or pre-camp information and linking to the camp's website and inquiry page, they may be able to increase the traffic to their website and bring in new enrollments. It is much easier to stay connected to the families that are already related to camp, so how can Facebook help attract new families and campers and not just maintain the existing community?

Facebook is a “free” social media platform that provides users with a database of their friends and easy way keep in touch and up to date on the people in your life. What makes Facebook able to provide people with this service without any fees is through the use of advertising on every single Facebook page. Information about each users clicking habits and interests are gathered and used to target advertisements. Businesses can use Facebook to reach any of the 1 billion users, and Facebook will help you target the right ones (Facebook, 2014). Targeted ads can be really beneficial in this case to camps if families are browsing and an ad for your camp comes up on Facebook. Especially if they are on Facebook already and maybe looking for Facebook presence which they may consider as boosting a camp's credibility. It is easy for summer camps to utilize the same advertising techniques to get their ads out to the right people and start to be seen.

Here are the steps from the “How it works” section of Facebook's advertising page:

1. Build a Facebook Page

• Add a unique cover photo and use your logo as a profile picture
• Create a post so when people visit your Page they see recent activity
• Make sure to like your Page and share it with your friends

2. Connect to your fans with ads

• Create multiple ads to help build an audience for your Page
• Use the targeting options to show your ads to only the people you want reach
• See which versions of your ads work best

3. Engage your fans with great content on your Page

• Add a new post to your Page at least once a week
• Pin your most important posts to the top of your Page
• Ask questions, share exclusive news and respond to people when they post or comment on your Page

4. Influence the friends of your fans

• Encourage check-ins, participation in events or create an offer to encourage more activity on your Page
• When people interact with the content on your Page, their friends are eligible to see the activity
• When people do things such as like, comment or check-in to your Page, you can promote those activities to their friends

(www.facebook.com/advertising/how-it-works)

Setting up an advertisement is easy, however the key points to examine are from section 3; “Engage your fans with great content on your Page”. Adding posts to the camp page is essential to keeping your page active and present on news feeds, because really the first time they like your page is probably the last time they will look at it unless you stay active. Posts should include resources and links for questions like homesickness, getting ready for camp, or other issues that parents would be concerned about like water safety and camp food. The content on your page should be compelling and interactive (Shenker, 2012). Besides information it is also necessary to post pictures, stories, memories or other content from the summer. One of the benefits of having social media as a tool is being able to engage in two-way communication. To use that two-way model to your advantage, our camp page can post questions competitions to keep members active, also boosting your presence in their extended friend group. Posts like these should be short so campers or families don't need to read through a lot to post a comment. An example post would be a photo from an event at camp with a caption competition, or a “throw back Thursday” post with a picture from the archives, or a quick “what smell makes you think of camp?” would allow some fun and productive engagement from your camp community online. Besides trying to reach new target audiences, camps can use social media to keep their online camp community up to date with practical things like information and announcements. By keeping up with your camp community online you are also creating a track record on Facebook for parents to watch so they know what you do for a few years prior to sending their kids to your camp. This means you can also have your previous posts act as a resource for new families. Developing Facebook ads and using your camp Facebook page can help you track engagement and monitor what is working and what is not (Selke, 2012). By linking to your camp website you keep traffic flowing and can keep an eye on how many visitors come through your Facebook advertisements. Even having a camp Blog attached to your website can benefit your SEO, or search engine optimization, by making frequent posts to show that your page is active and therefore more likely to appear at the top of search engine lists.

Staff and Social Media

Once camp enrollments are underway, attention shifts to hiring counselors and other staff for the summer. Hiring the right people to be counselors at camp is an entirely separate process of its own which requires another discussion completely. Particular to this analysis however, is that employers now have the ability to see their potential employees in a different light; through their online presence. It is no secret that companies will look up the Facebook page of applicants because it offers a look into what they are like outside of a job interview. It is a good idea for camps to do the same and get a feel for what kind of person they are on Facebook in addition to their extensive interviews and background checks.

After camp have started gathering their ideal staff into place for the summer, there is another way that camps can utilize Facebook to prepare the counselors. Some camps are already creating staff groups where counselors can start compiling ideas for the summer. It is also a good place for veteran staff to connect with new staff and answer questions about packing, what to expect, or how to prepare. This ability to start forming connections can be really beneficial to the staff. Prior to arriving at camp they can start to memorize names, re-connect with staff from previous years, or generally start to get into the mindset of being at camp and getting excited for it. Another important part of having your staff on Facebook is specifically maintaining a relationship with them in the hopes of retaining them for another few years. It is difficult to find qualified counselors, and recruiting and retention are major concerns for camps (McCole, Jacobs, Lindley, & McAvoy, 2012) so it is important to do what you can to keep them around.

Making the counselors feel like they are part of a community means that they have boundaries, personal investment, a sense of belonging and identification, emotional safety and common symbol systems (McCole, et al., 2012). Even though giving them the chance to feel these elements before camp starts could give them a certain level of comfort, it does not compare to the real thing. The real sense of the staff community starts when they meet each other in person and go through staff training together. The online kickstart to community can provide reassurance to the new staff who may feel alone in going on a big adventure, and giving veterans a sense of responsibility in helping out those new members by sharing their experiences prior to arrival at camp.

The last thing to consider when connecting your staff members on Facebook is that they will be visible to everyone as linked to your camp. It is critical to talk to staff members about their online presence so they understand the impact that it has on their lives as well as that of the camp. A wise thing to do would be to include a code of conduct for employees, for example including details on expectations for “friending” campers and posting pictures. This includes before, during and after employment.

Campers and Social Media

Contrary to what was mentioned with the staff, the camp should not form Facebook groups for campers prior to the summer starting. Granted, most of the veteran campers are probably all connected on Facebook, however they have already established their relationships and sense of community in the actual setting of camp. For new campers it is essential to the traditional camp experience that they meet their new friends in the oldest of fashions. Forming relationships is one of the most important parts of being at camp and it is not the same as creating relationships online. A study on learning environments describes the summer camp environment as “a safe space characterized by support for thinking and development, room for identity-supportive interactions, room to experiment, and a place with mentoring adults and a second-home feeling” (Dahl, Sethre-Hofstad, & Salomon, 2013, p. 91). I would argue that these are qualities that can not be found online, especially not for children.

Forming an identity is a key part of growing up, and a lot of it is based on your parents, teachers, friends and environment. Camp is a place that supplies children with all of the key factors to help a child connect with their identity and independence. Children will be around peers, mentors, teachers, friends, competitors, challenges, risks, triumphs; all of which exist online, but not in a safe and nurturing environment.

Traditional residential camps will usually be set somewhere close to nature with access to lakes, woods and mountains. They try help youth appreciate nature and the outdoors. As such, most camps will ban electronics so there is no option to revert to their comfort zone and play games or chat online. Games at camp are interactive, outdoors, generally involve team work and at least a little athleticism. It is important for children to be immersed in their learning environment so they can fully engage and realize the benefits to being at camp (Dahl, et al., 2013). Another reason for removing devices from campers is homesickness. Though it seems tough, camps often take away phones so campers can not contact their parents. It is hard, but it has to be done so they can really experience independence and learn how to tackle difficult things on their own or by being supported by counselors and their friends. Homesickness is always a factor for camps to consider, but with the right encouragement and support, campers almost always forget about it after the first few days. Children at camp are put into a situation where they can develop a personal identity, become independent from their parents and form relationships that are fulfilling and meaningful (Wallace, 2006). Being at camp and getting away from phones, computers, social media, and the internet as a whole can help them accomplish those tasks.

By taking away the devices which serve social media, campers are forced into actively participating and having experiences that they will keep with them forever. Campers form friendships and memories that are lasting, and part of their ability to last in this modern age is through social media. Once relationships are formed at camp, social media gives the campers the opportunity keep in touch and share memories and experiences throughout the year. The fact that social media in a sense extends summer camp into a year round activity can be really beneficial to the kids and the camp. Excitement builds through the year, friends on Facebook will see awesome pictures and want to go to camp too, and campers will return the following summer.

Parents and Social Media

While the kids are at camp it is really important for parents to feel that they are safe and looked after. Before the age of the internet parents relied on snail mail report cards or some other form of updates from the counselors. Now with email, blogs and social media platforms camps can keep parents up to date regularly and help them experience camp a little from the outside. The campers are there to be without their parents for a few weeks, but that does not mean that the parents are not still totally concerned with what is going on.

The idea of two-way communication on social media is something that can really benefit the camp during the off-season. However, it also allows for videos, photos and highlights to be posted straight to the parents in a one-way manner. By keeping the camp Facebook page up to date with photos or news of the day, camps can keep the parents involved without any direct contact. Of course when things need to be discussed personal emails or phone calls are always an option, but in general social media can be a great way to keep parents in the loop. Depending on the style of your camp daily posts may not be practical or necessary, but weekly is a good idea. Camps still need to maintain closed contact for keeping parents up to date with specific details about their children, but posts on Facebook or Twitter could include things like sports days or hikes that are heading out that day.

By documenting the summer through social media, camps once again have the opportunity to form a database and wonderful resource for prospective campers. Using hashtags can help keep the photos, information, and updates in order and easily searchable and accessible. Seeing how the camp maintains contact through the summer, and almost seeing a first hand account of the summer, could really help families make the decision to send their child to your camp.

Camp Values and Social Media

Using the internet and having an online presence may not be totally in line with your camp values and traditions. This is a completely valid concern to have and each camp will have to establish how an online presence fits in with their mission statement and values. There may be a happy medium in using social media during the seasons leading up to the summer, but not engaging in it at all while at camp. Also camps should keep in mind that there is a big difference between using social media for business purposes and having social media be a part of camp. By no means does it have to affect the daily routine during the summer, nor does it have to even be thought about, certainly not by the campers. What is important is making sure that a specific camp and its traditions can carry on for many generations, and part of that is keeping up enrollments. This means there may have to be some adjustments to fit into modern times, but it does not mean camps have to change their core values or the fundamental camp experience.

References

American Camp Association (2014). ACA facts and trends. Retrieved from http://www.acacamps.org/media/aca-facts-trends

Dahl, T. I., Sethre-Hofstad, L., & Salomon, G. (2013). Intentionally Designed Thinking and Experience Spaces: What We Learned at Summer Camp. Learning Environments Research, 16(1), 91-112.

Facebook. (2014). Advertise on Facebook. Retrieved from http://www.facebook.com/advertising/

Gillard, A., Roark, M. F., Nyaga, L., & Bialeschki, M. (2011). Measuring Mindfulness in Summer Camp Staff. Journal Of Experiential Education, 34(1), 87-95.

Henderson, K. A., Whitaker, L., Bialeschki, M., Scanlin, M. M., & Thurber, C. (2007). Summer Camp Experiences: Parental Perceptions of Youth Development Outcomes. Journal Of Family Issues, 28(8), 987-1007

Jacobs, J. A., & McAvoy, L. H. (2005). The Relationship Between Summer Camp Employment and Emotional Intelligence. Journal Of Experiential Education, 27(3), 330-332.

McCole, D., Jacobs, J., Lindley, B., & McAvoy, L. (2012). The Relationship Between Seasonal Employee Retention and Sense of Community: The Case of Summer Camp Employment. Journal Of Park & Recreation Administration, 30(2), 85-101.

Selke, J. H. (2012, November). Social marketing: Where should you start?. Retrieved from http://www.acacamps.org/campmag/1111/social-marketing

Shenker, N. (2012, September). The 24/7/365 camp community: Sitting around the online campfire. Retrieved from http://www.acacamps.org/campmag/1209/24-7-365-camp-community

Wallace, S.G. (2006, September).  Their space or yours? Social networking sites bring risks and rewards to the camp community. Retrieved from http://www.acacamps.org/campmag/0609wallace