The final school bell has rung and you know what that means—family vacations, summer camp, barbecues…but you can also use the summer to keep the excitement about your trip going. Keeping your students engaged is all about meeting them where they are, and in today’s day and age, they’re increasingly on social media.

If you’re new to social media, we have a great guide on how to get started. Once you’re up and running, here are some ideas of how to make the most of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to boost your travel plans:

Create a Trip Hashtag (#)

Creating a hashtag that is unique to your trip, such as #whsarttrip2015 or #westerneurope15 and sharing this with students and parents as the ‘official’ trip hashtag makes it easy for parents, friends and anyone else interested to follow the happenings related to the group. A trip abroad is a big event in a students’ life. Their extended social circles will want to be in the loop!

Tag #ACIS

Include #ACIS—or a country specific hashtag like #ACISFrance—in your posts to make them searchable by the whole ACIS traveling family! There are hundreds of students, teachers, tour managers and parents who travel with ACIS every year. There’s no better way to foster a sense of community and shared interest than social media.

Link your Instagram Account to Your Facebook and Twitter

Instagram makes it really easy to share your posts across all three sites simultaneously. Why double or triple your work by posting to all three networks separately?

Start Following Other Educators

Imitation is the best form of flattery. One of the best ways to up your social media game is to take a cue (or two) from someone more experienced than you. We’ve highlighted a few role models below to follow and learn the ropes.

Set up a Facebook Group

Facebook groups are a great place to invite parents and students to join. You can make it a closed, private group, so you can keep your travel group informed about your trip without necessarily broadcasting to your entire network.

Recruit a Student Ambassador

Peer to peer marketing can be extremely effective. Deputizing a student ambassador to build some momentum with your trip’s social media accounts and increase adoption among their peer network is a great way to get traction (Plus we have an awesome contest running for Student Ambassadors this summer)!

If you’re looking for inspiration, here are some ACIS teachers who we consider social media rockstars. Check them out:

Instagram:

• Krista Maggart and Katie Forsyth from Brookstone School, Georgia, have a great Instagram account which features photos and videos from their ACIS travels.

Twitter:

• Spanish teacher, Scott Saks, from Pennsylvania
• Lynn Griffey, a French teacher from Virginia
• Also from Virginia, Art teacher Elaine Florimonte
• History/Government teacher Taylor Blanton, from North Carolina

Blogs:

Writing a blog takes a bit of work, but it’s a great way to share information, photos and memories from your trip. Here are a couple we like:

• Two recent winners of the ACIS Travel Blogger prize show how a blog can be a great record of your ACIS trip—check out blogs by Katelin Butcher (another French teacher) and Spanish teacher Mary Sarah Rader
• French Teacher Teresa Engebretsen has a really fun blog

Now it’s over to you—we’ve given you some ideas, so start using social media to create a buzz for your trip today!

FREE Ebook: Sharing Your Travels on Social Media

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