1. Write a Fantastic Bio
When people choose to follow your camp, they will go to your profile to look at your feed and read your bio. Having a great, eye-catching bio could mean the difference between them following you or not. Bios are important, but there are only 150 characters available.

Begin with something descriptive but to the point, such as ‘We are a music summer camp.’ Then, do something enjoyable as a follow-up. One idea is to include some emojis to represent your camp’s personality, followed by a CTA (call to action), such as ‘Click below to begin the best summer of your life.’
2) Create an Instagram Business Account
If you aren’t already using Instagram Business, you should start right away. There’s no need to install any new apps; simply go to your settings and select ‘Switch to Business Profile.’ The benefit of having Instagram Business is that it gives you access to a wealth of information. This information will help you determine which posts are performing well and which you should continue to do or change.

It will tell you when your target audience is on Instagram and when you should post. This is useful for reaching out to your audience while they are using the app.
3) Create a Strategy and Goals.
Many of us post on Instagram just to post on Instagram, but there are significant benefits to having some goals and strategies in place. You know how we campers are…we love goals!
Setting goals can be a breeze. For example, a goal could be to schedule 5 posts this week or to gain 10 followers per week. These objectives can be tracked and reported on. I would recommend setting more impactful goals, such as driving 50 people to your website from Instagram or engaging with followers six times per week. Set goals, report on them, and evaluate them frequently.
Developing a strategy can be more difficult, and I recommend approaching it as a comprehensive marketing exercise that includes print, digital, and social media. Because your audience is different on each medium, you should have a different strategy for each one.
Posting the same content on Facebook and Instagram is a good start, but if you want to have a killer presentation, this content should be unique, and each platform should have its own strategy, like if you want to create a post about your summer camp then create camping poster for Facebook wall and then different summer camp banner or video for Instagram would be a good strategy to get visitors. Your Instagram strategy should be centered on your target audience, which is typically campers, staff, and young alumni. Be visually appealing and provide a solid feed for people to follow.
4) Understand Your Audience
Knowing your audience is the next step after developing your strategy. As previously stated, your Instagram audience will consist of campers, staff, and young alum. Create an Instagram calendar based on that. Posts should be directed specifically at those audiences, and engagement should be sought. Have posts directed at those audiences specifically and seek engagement. Ideas for this might look like this:
Campers
- Post a group photo and ask them to comment on what session they’ll be attending this summer and who they’ll be with.
- Post a cabin photo and ask them what cabin they were in last summer.
Staff
- Share memory highlight posts from last summer that only staff is aware of, such as a themed event during staff training or the end-of-the-year banquet.
- Inquire about their best night out last summer, for example.
Young Alumnus
- Highlight them in TBTs from the last 10-15 years. ‘Check out the Coronado Backpacking trip from 2006, spot anyone you know?’ If so, please leave a comment below.’
5) Share High-quality Photographs
During the summer, most camps will have media staff who use DSLR cameras. I advise camps to only share high-quality photos and videos on Instagram. Yes, iPhone photos are improving, but I can still tell the difference between a good iPhone photo and a bad iPhone photo. Use the photos you have if you have them.
Having organized digital files is critical to this session’s success with social media. You can make digital organization a requirement for all members of your media team. For an example of high-quality photos, look at McGaw YMCA Camp Echo’s feed; there are very few phone photos on this feed.