This summer, Camp Alta Mons launched Camp @ Home—a 100% online and free-to- all camp program created to help connect kids, families, alumni, and supporters to a summer camp experience. It ran for 9 total weeks and was a huge success. Here are my top 10 pieces of advice that I learned from my summer creating, producing, and publishing this online content. 

As a baseline: We utilized Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and our website to spread our message. All of these platforms are free or low cost. If your camp doesn’t have all of these, make sure to create accounts ASAP! Your campers are looking for you online and they want to see your content. Make sure to connect with them in as many ways as you can!

1. Make A High Quality Video

This one is mega important, so it has 3 parts!

Can you hear me now?

Make sure you use a microphone or stand close enough to the camera to capture sound well. No one likes videos where you can barely hear the person speaking or where there is a lot of background noise. Do your best to film in quiet areas where the speaker can be heard clearly.

What to film on?

Using a DSLR camera will produce a higher quality product than a phone camera (in most cases and depending on the type of phone you have.) Whatever device you choose, make sure to utilize a tripod. Shaky videos are distracting and mistakes like fast zooming, blurry transitions, and uneven pans take away from the overall quality of your video. If you do decide to film on a phone, make sure to film landscape (side to side) and not portrait (up and down.)

FOCUS!

Make sure you focus. Blurry videos are hard to watch and if you’ve invited guest speakers/surprise guests, you likely only have one opportunity to capture the footage. Make sure to check if someone is in focus before they begin speaking. Also, remember to mentally focus! It can be easy to take filming lightly and brush off the impact that you are having. Standing alone in front of a camera can be sad, but your message matters! Make sure you focus and get into the correct headspace before speaking. Pretend like the campers and staff are right there in front of you and give it your all.

2. A Pretty Preview

When filming a video, make sure to take a “thumbnail” photo for both Instagram TV (IGTV) and YouTube. When you upload videos to these platforms, they auto select a thumbnail if you don’t add one. These images can often be blurry and seemingly random; your video will look much better with a thumbnail that you chose. 

3. Be Descriptive

For both IGTV and YouTube, utilize those description spaces! Include Bible verses referenced and names of those speaking. Type out as much information as you can to make it as easy as possible for folks to connect with your content. Pro Tip: When uploading videos to YouTube, make sure to check “YouTube for Kids” so that your campers with restricted access to YouTube will be able to see your camp’s content!

4. Schedule & Save Time

At Camp Alta Mons, I use Buffer.com to schedule our Facebook and Instagram posts. Buffer does not work well for videos, but it is a great resource for posting photos. You can schedule things ahead of time and check your daily posts off your to-do list in one day. It’s a free resource that offers paid plan upgrades. You can also “premiere” videos on YouTube at a specific date/time. 

5. Name It & Promote It!

Create a campaign. Draw people in! Title things in an organized fashion and follow a consistent structure. Post every Bible Study every Monday at 10 AM or campfire livestreams each Wednesday at 6 PM – whatever works best for you. Create a hashtag for your followers to use when they connect with your content. Do as much as you can to build excitement for whatever it is that you are advertising. The buzz will generate more interested individuals. 

6. Campy & Consistent

Patterns in imagery and design help create a consistent look that folks will recognize and connect with week after week. Reach out to your staff to see who has a knack for graphic design and utilize their talents and skills. It’s fun for everyone to follow along with graphics that speak to the heart of camp.

7. Be Authentic

Represent your camp brand well and honestly. Be true to who you are and what your camp represents. For my camp, this includes enthusiastically singing songs with hand motions and doing everything with the goal of letting campers know that they are loved by God. 

8. Film Advice

Learn to edit your films and practice several times before uploading your first one. You can make short teaser videos or promo material for something else. In your videos, utilize music (follow proper copyright protocols!) and B Roll (supplemental video footage; think shots of a campfire while someone talks about a campfire) to create the best video possible. And most importantly, keep it SHORT. Long videos lose engagement from parents and campers alike and are hard to follow along with. Be concise and to the point! A 5 minute song or dance is way too long. 

9. Instagram Specific Advice

Instagram can be a bit difficult to work with—or at least to understand. Make sure that you have a link in your bio and that link directly correlates with what you are promoting at the time. Typing out URLs in the text of a post is NOT a good idea because followers cannot click on and follow that link. Always make sure your “link in bio” is up to date! Also, IGTV is not editable. Proofread your caption/description and title before you hit post! There’s no going back unless you delete and re-post.

10. A Final Word to Camp Folks

Take a shower before you go on camera. Look clean and neat. If you're like me and you're living at camp during a pandemic, your day-to-day vibe may not be camera-ready. Have some fun showing off your collection of camp t-shirts or other fun “you” accessories. Plan ahead so your outfit will work well with your background. Put your best foot forward as you do the most that you can to help camp reach as many people as it can.

If you’re interested in checking out what Camp Alta Mons did this summer, head on over to www.altamons.org/camp--home to see all of our online content and the details of our Camp @ Home Box delivery!

Meredith Simmons is the Program Director at Camp Alta Mons in southwest Virginia. Meredith graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in physics, which we're sure has deeply guided her work at camp. She enjoys the natural beauty and hiking opportunities of living onsite. An avid hiker, backpacker, and Girl Scout, Meredith hopes to one day thru hike the entire Appalachian Trail. Like many of us in 2020, she's learned a lot of tech skills the hard way.