Summer Camp Social Media Case Study: Albuquerque Academy
How one summer program turned a 90-day reach of 188 into nearly 5,000 in a summer.
Think Summer · Case Study
Key Growth Metrics
One summer of coaching a first-time social media manager, from June 1 through the end of the season.
The Challenge
Think Summer is Albuquerque Academy's six-week summer program, open to the whole community and not just Academy families, with classes running from math, reading, and science to art, world languages, and pool time, for kids from kindergarten through 12th grade. Families in the community already knew it well. What wasn't happening was much effort to promote or market any of it beyond that circle. In the 90 days before this work began, the account reached 188 people total, and posting happened occasionally, if at all. The account had 558 followers, mostly families who already knew the program.
The Approach
It started with a strategy built around what Think Summer was trying to do: grow awareness that the program is open to the whole community, not just Academy families, and turn that into enrollment, tracked through profile visits and link clicks. From there, execution followed, and posting more was part of it, since not much had been going out before.
Once that was moving, it became about what to post and who each piece was for. Some posts needed to catch a parent who'd never heard of Think Summer. Others needed to give the families already there something that felt like their own summer, a reason to feel good about the choice they'd already made.
Every week the questions were the same: Who is this post for? What does someone outside the community need to understand? What needs to be shown, not just said, to make that real?
The hooks changed first. Instead of describing the program, we led with something specific: a kid mid-laugh in the pool, two girls painting together next to a text bubble that read "It's already been one month," real quotes and reactions gathered around campus instead of just photos with captions. Both audiences mattered the whole time: the families who didn't know Think Summer yet, and the ones already there, watching their kid's whole summer play out in real time.
The Results
The goal from the start was getting Think Summer in front of more families across Albuquerque, not just the ones already enrolled, in a way that could eventually turn into new registrations. Here's where the season landed.
30 days before this started, compared to the full 60-day season since:
Twenty people tapped the link in the bio to learn more about the program. The account ended the season with a net 88 new followers.
What’s Next
This season was about telling stories that built interest, with new families and the ones already here. Next is turning that interest into registrations for next year, starting with the mailing list and keeping current families engaged through the off-season.
The Takeaway
Posting consistently mattered, and so did having stories to tell, and a strategy for who each one was for and why someone would stop and pay attention. There's no trick to it. Any program willing to do the same work can get the same results.