Assisted Living
Can Facebook Revolutionize Heathcare?
Facebook by the Numbers
We’ve seen Facebook’s ability to help spark revolutions in distant lands, but how can Facebook help to revolutionize the health care, senior living, home care, and long-term care industries? Let’s do some math. About 50% of Facebook’s 650 million active users sign on to the site in any given day and they rack up about 700 billion minutes a month of posting, poking, liking, sharing, clicking, researching, learning, purchasing, and interacting with friends, family, companies, and organizations. The average Facebooker is connected to 130 people and 80 community pages, groups and events – and shares about 90 pieces of content (links, videos, photos, etc.) each month. Booomers and seniors are the fastest growing demographic on Facebook and they spend about 60 hours per month online. More than half of adult women routinely participate on social networks at least weekly and healthcare-related activity is something 90-100% of people across every generation engage in on a regular basis.
Now, if you want a great example of how these numbers play out in the real world, Children’s Hospital Boston (a health care social media powerhouse) has over 510,000 fans on their main Facebook page, giving them a potential reach of at least 66.3 million people (510K fans x 130 friends per fan) every day.
Facebook Is No Print Ad
Facebook is a place where people go to hangout, browse around, connect, and communicate. But, unlike old-style websites, radio ads, print ads, and mailers, Facebook is loaded with “hot triggers” or calls-to-action – items visitors can click on and do something with immediately (view a video, check out a photo gallery, play a game, accept a new friend into their network, or “like” a company Page). How many times have you opened up your personal Facebook page to read a message from a friend, and you end up spending the next 20 minutes looking at stuff you never intended on? This happens tens of millions of times each day to hundreds of millions of people. And, it’s almost all trackable. Pretty powerful stuff.
Facebook Empowers Healthcare Companies
So, what can health care, senior living, home care and LTC companies do with a Facebook Page? First, and foremost, they can cultivate community around their brand. Check out how Emeritus Senior Living nurtures a community of over 2,700 Facebook fans on their Page. Emeritus allows and encourages peer-to-peer interactions, one of the eight success criteria for Facebook Page marketing. The result is a flurry of word-of-mouth marketing for Emeritus from customers, prospects, and employees. Marketing that costs the company nothing – except the time to monitor and manage the Page.
Next, companies can provide unlimited support and resources to customers and prospects. Children’s Hospital Boston (CHB) has 16 Facebook Pages in addition to their main page. Each Page is another customer touch point and gives CHB an opportunity to provide targeted support to different groups with unique challenges or similar interests. Their Generation Cures Page empowers children around the world to help cure sick kids through online and community fund raising, digital media, music, and more. Their Celiac Support Group Page helps kids and families learn how to live healthy and happy gluten-free lives through engaging educational content. While not Facebook, websites like PatientsLikeMe, which offers people with specific diseases a place to connect with others like them, or Lotsa Helping Hands, which provides free online communities for caregivers to coordinate the care of a loved one, show that empowering social networks through social technology can have a significant impact on patient/caregiver experience as well as healthcare delivery.
Finally, companies can enhance their recruiting efforts by offering Facebook Pages dedicated to employment, like Catholic Healthcare West does, or a Career Center right on their main Page, like St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center does. Catholic healthcare West has over 5,700 fans on their Careers Page alone.
So, can Facebook, and other social networks and social media sites revolutionize healthcare? I would argue that the revolution has already begun. From the Mayo Clinic’s Center for Social Media to the Assisted Living Federation of America’s online community, to Twitter’s #HCSM, #RNChat, and #MDChat, there are countless examples of how social technology is slowing changing the healthcare landscape.
How about you? Tell us what you think?
Like This Post? Here Are More Like It…
- How Emeritus Senior Living Tames the Social Media Beast [INTERVIEW]
- Social Media Makes Cover of Long-Term Living Magazine
- How Senior Living, LTC, and Home Care Companies Can Avoid the Online Community Ghost Town
Stay Up To Date and Get Connected. Join Our Facebook Community for More In-Depth Conversation and a Bit of Fun:)
Brookdale Senior Living and Social Media: One Year Later [INTERVIEW]
Just over a year ago, I interviewed Eric Marsh over at Brookdale Senior Living for the post Nation’s Largest Senior Living Company Embraces Social Media. Because it’s one of our most popular posts, and I wanted to see how things have progressed since then, I contacted Eric to get some insights. Here’s what he had to say.
Q: How long have you guys been doing SM as a company?
We have been using social media for two years. We began with a single Facebook fan page, and have grown to what we have currently — two Facebook fan pages, a Twitter account, a LinkedIn profile and a Youtube channel.
Q: Now that you’ve been using social media for quite some time, what is your total “reach” on all of your social sites?
Her are our numbers:
13,000 e-mail subscribers
328 followers on Twitter
1,138 Facebook likes across our two fan pages
Q: Has there been any change in how your company social media accounts are managed? In other words, has your SM team grown or changed from 1 year ago? How?
Our team has grown. We added an additional person who helps us manage social media, among other things. Early in 2010 we added a Facebook page for our Ultimate Chef program. Then, during each Ultimate Chef America event we blog live with comments about the competition, photos and videos.
We also added Facebook recommend buttons to all of our pages. Doing this is just another way to get our messaging out and gives our users the ability to show their friends that they support Brookdale Senior Living.
Q: How much time is dedicated to your social media efforts now compared with 1 year ago?
It’s difficult to say exactly how much time we are spending for social media. An educated estimate would be a few hours a week. We are spending a bit more time on it this year since we are now managing the Ultimate Chef America fan page as well.
Q: Has your social strategy changed at all over the past year?
I wouldn’t say our strategy changed, we just have more to manage now, which shows growth and progression. Having the Facebook recommend buttons has been positive; we have been pleased with the results thus far.
Q: Do any of your local AL communities have their own social media accounts/blogs/etc.? If so, who manages them? Who monitors/moderates them?
Our corporate policy dictates that all social media be managed by the corporate office. We allow our communities to add content to our corporate pages, but we moderate it and control it.
We understand there is value in having separate accounts for our communities but since we are such a large corporation, we have challenges that many senior living companies don’t experience. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for us to manage 560 social media accounts.
Q: In our last interview, you mentioned that several of your communities were implementing MyWayVillage. Have you found that product to be useful? How?
Yes, in our initial pilot communities, we have found that Connected Living at Brookdale powered by MyWay Village is a resounding success. We have more than 45 percent engagement on the portal, the classes are some of the best attended, and the ambassadors provide high tech, high touch for our residents and families to live a connected life. The ability to stay socially connected is very important in the overall health and wellness of our residents.
Q: Have you been able to capture leads using social media? If so, provide some data and examples of how it works.
Through the last six months we have data that shows users connecting to our Web site through our Facebook pages and submitting lead information. Although it’s limited at this time, we are excited to see social media functioning as a lead generator.
Q: You mentioned in the last interview that you use social media for recruiting. How’s that going?
Our recruiting team continues an active presence on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The importance of social media in recruiting and networking continues to grow and challenge perceptions and opinions. Our social media policy, use, strategy and recruiting methodology continue to evolve with our learning and experience. As we continue to cultivate our use of social media, it will become a more important tool in the recruiters’ tool box as well.
Q: Have you been able to attribute any move-ins directly to SM? Do you have any data or comments on ROI?
We have not been able to attribute any move-ins yet, but we are excited about the possibilities since we have seen leads begin to trickle in.
Q: Can you share some data on how SM has impacted your overall web presence (i.e. increased website traffic, SEO enhancements, improved reach, etc.)
We have certainly seen an improved reach through our efforts on Facebook. Our Ultimate Chef America competition has been a great way to broaden the scope of our marketing efforts. People may not be familiar with Brookdale but we have been able to reach them through local efforts. The same goes for the recommend buttons.
Q: Do you think social media enhances your more traditional marketing/PR initiatives/campaigns? If so, how?
It certainly enhances it. We post every press release and article that our Public Relations Manager, Holly Botsford, writes for our Web site. These postings represent another avenue for reaching those who may not be familiar with us, were it not for social media. Social media also facilitates conversations and “buzz” about our company and our product offerings.
Q: What are the downsides you’ve experienced with using SM? Do you have any horror stories or crisis incidents you are able to share?
We have been fortunate that we have not had any horror stories. The only downside I would say is time and resources. Ideally, we would love to have an entire team do nothing but social media but in the current business landscape that just isn’t possible. However, I do think we do a great job with what we have.
Q: Do you have social media policies in place for your employees? For your site visitors and community members?
Our corporate policy dictates that our associates are not permitted to represent our company through their individual social media accounts. We want to make sure that all our messaging comes through our corporate office. We do this to ensure that our messaging and branding is consistent.
Q: Do you have any interesting stories to tell related social media and residents, family members, or staff?
One of our favorite uses of social media is to promote the heart-warming stories of our residents and our associates. We think it is an important message for people to see seniors making purposeful contributions and having life-changing experiences. We also firmly believe that “our people make the difference,” and enjoy having a different venue for sharing their stories and accomplishments.
Q: Which one SM tool do you think is the best and why?
I prefer Facebook. I think it’s the best way to start conversations and receive comments. I also like how when a user clicks a Recommend button, the information goes on their profile so the message provides value-added visibility for the company.
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For more interveiws like this one, read all of our Social Media Success Series posts. To learn more about how social media can help your organization, contact us.
How Emeritus Senior Living Tames the Social Media Beast: Part 1 [INTERVIEW]
This post is part of our Social Media Success Series, which features interviews with innovative and fearless socially networked senior living, home care, and LTC companies that are achieving positive business results using media and other social technologies. To have your organization included in this series, contact us.
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Most senior living, long-term care, and home care companies across the country have either started dabbling in social media, or have at least come to realize that it’s something they must start thinking about. With boomers and seniors flocking to social networks, and sites like Facebook and Twitter being adopted by every demographic, these companies are being forced to go where no senior care provider has gone before.
But how can senior care companies leverage these tools to best serve their business interests and their customers? What tools work best and what strategies are proving to be most fruitful? To answer these and other questions, we go right to the very creative people and innovative companies in the industry, like Emeritus Senior Living, who are helping to define how social technologies work in the senior care space.
Emeritus Senior Living (ESL) is currently the nation’s largest assisted living (AL) provider with over 460 AL communities in 43 states. Their services range from Alzheimer’s and memory care, to skilled nursing, retirement living, independent living, and rehabilitation services. I recently caught up with Chris Kim, ESL’s eMarketing Specialist, and asked him how Emeritus leverages social media. Due to the length of the interview, I broke it up into two parts. Here’s what Chris had to say:
Q: When did Emeritus start using social media, how did you get started, and what were your initial objectives?
We started our initial social media efforts back in June of 2009. Like many companies utilizing social media for the first time, we first had to really organize our thoughts and brainstorm some ideas on how we can best utilize social media as a tool. I came on board with Emeritus as the online marketing specialist in July of 2009 and started putting together a general strategy around social media. We knew right off the bat that social media shouldn’t be used as a marketing venue to convert leads, but rather we took on an approach to use social media to engage with our customer. The questions we asked were “what kind of content do our customers like to see? How do we engage with our viewers? How do we take the feedback provided by our viewers and leverage to our benefit in creating marketing initiatives?
It took a little while to get things rolling but soon our objectives really became clear. Our main goal is to use our social media outlets for brand reputation management, build an online presence, and build a reputation of being an authoritative figure in the industry. If you look at our website, we’ve continually been building out our resource section with a glossary, guides, various resources to not only help residents and potential customers, but to draw in those who may be simply looking for some information. By utilizing our social media outlets to really promote these new resources, we were able to build a following.
Likewise, we found that our social media profiles created a great opportunity to connect with our employees out in the field, as well as build relationships with 3rd party partners who help promote some of our great content and resources we provide on our social media sites.
Q: What social media tools do you currently use? I see you have a corporate blog, Facebook, and Twitter. Do you have others? Do any of your individual communities have their own? If not, why not?
We are currently using Facebook and Twitter as our main social media venues. We do have a corporate blog that we update regularly with resources, events from communities, as well as our Brain Health Blog we run in partnership with Dr. Paul Nussbaum, a leading expert in brain health.
We also have a LinkedIn profile that is closely managed and run by our human resources department. This is to really connect with employees as well as 3rd party vendors who we may work with in various ways.
Likewise, our YouTube channel is something we recently started building in. In partnership with Dr. Vicki Rackner, an expert in doctor-patient relations, we are working towards creating a resource video library that touches on topics from care giving, health, and other topics. We also work with other departments at Emeritus to promote videos for employee candidates and to provide a visual look at our company culture.
As for Facebook and Twitter for our AL communities – We currently encourage all of our communities to use our corporate Emeritus Facebook Page instead of creating their own. We found that we get great engagement from viewers when we post more localized resources and events on our corporate Facebook Page. It really provides for an online community that is not just for corporate marketing purposes, but does a great job of reaching out to the local markets as well. Likewise, we realize that Facebook and Twitter provide many ways for current or previous customers and employees to respond to occasional negative feedback on our services. We want this to be as open as possible. We feel that by having a centralized profile where anyone can write their experience, we can address these issues openly and really show that we care about the feedback. We manage our social media outlets closely to make sure all issues are addressed.
Q: There seems to be quite a bit of fan participation on your Facebook Page. How do you make that happen?
When we first started our Facebook page, our main goal was to get our fans to participate and give us feedback as often as possible. We found that something as simple as directly asking our fans to give us feedback on various topics definitely helped. On any given resource, news article, or event we post, we try to ask what their thoughts are on that topic. For example, we provide a brain health assessment test on our website that gives visitors a quick assessment on how healthy their brain is. What we’ll typically do is promote the brain health assessment test on our social media sites and end the promotional statement by asking participants to share what score they received. Our viewers are genuinely interested in what we post, our job is to get them to tell us what their thoughts are on what we post. By doing so, we’re actually able to adjust our strategy accordingly by posting topics that we’ve found are more popular.
Another thing we strive for is being current with our communities’ events and being timely with our updates. Being timely is very important as we receive great participation and engagement from our fans after an event at a community. For example, say a community hosts an Alzheimer’s related event. We’ve found that people who attend the events follow our Facebook Page and are happy to see photos and event details – and they will often engage with us.
We also run contests on our Facebook page pretty regularly. On a seasonal/quarterly basis, our marketing team creates a contest around a topic that we feel are seasonally appropriate. For example, we had a very successful contest this past Valentine’s Day by asking participants to share a story of how they or their parents met each other. We had some great stories with that one! It is such a great way to get fans to engage with us, and it also doesn’t hurt that its free! We usually get a nice kick in number of fans during these contests.
Q: Who manages your corporate social media accounts? Do you have a social media team? How much time per week do they spend on SM?
Our social media accounts are all managed by me. We do not have a specified social media team but I work very closely with our marketing team, as well as the communities to obtain the best resources, events, and news stories to post on our social media. Social Media is really only a small part of our online marketing initiative so I don’t spend too much time on it. Perhaps a few hours per week. It really helps that I have the support of our marketing team to always provide photos and fresh resources to provide!
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In Part 2 of the interview, you’ll learn about ESL’s total online reach, lead generation results, ROI, SEO, how social media enhances ESL’s traditional marketing efforts, social media downsides, and policy issues. Be sure to subscribe to our blog via RSS or email to make sure you don’t miss it.
Have you seen the CareNetworks YouTube video? Check it out and share with your friends…
Social Media Makes October 2010 Cover of Long-Term Living Magazine
Back in March of this year, Provider Magazine featured a cover story called “Social Media: Taking the Plunge” which outlined how assisted living and retirement communities are leveraging social technologies like Facebook and Twitter to engage customers and prospects. Now this month, Long-Term Living Magazine has a cover story on social media use in the long-term care industry. The article points out that social technologies are beginning to help senior living and LTC companies reach a broader audience and, perhaps more importantly, to change the perception of aging and retirement living.
In the article, Redstone Highlands Senior Living’s Director of Fund Development, Barb Hall Christner says, “You have a huge audience, whether it’s local or abroad, because you can reach so many individuals.” Christner suggests that by consistently updating Redstone’s Facebook Page with useful or visually interesting content, and then syndicating that content out to Twitter and other social networks, “not only does Redstone improve its image to those who follow or those who are interested in its services, it also assists in changing the misconception random surfers have about the lifestyle of seniors.”
Beyond Marketing
President of CRL Senior Living Communities, Ari Weinberger, who was interviewed for the article, says CRL uses a combination of traditional communication channels and newer social technologies to communicate with and stay connected to families. CRL uses Facebook and Twitter updates, monthly e-newsletters, monthly calls from executive directors, a family login page on their main website, and video calling “Skype Terminals” where residents can see their family members while they talk with them.
Fears About Bad Press and HIPAA
Companies reluctant to “go social” often state that they fear people saying bad things about them in a public forum, or they worry that an employee may violate HIPAA by posting protected health information on a company-sponsored site. For this section of the article, I was the “expert” being interviewed. Here’s an excerpt:
Brian Geyser, founder and chief social media strategist of CareNetworks, LLC, a new media consultant for long-term care providers, argues the one thing companies must have in place before transitioning online is a social media policy for employees, as well as guidelines for visitors and community members. In an e-mail interview, Geyser lays out an exact rundown of his suggestions.
“The employee policies, or employee rules of engagement, should cover the company’s (1) philosophy about engaging on the social Web; (2) expectations for appropriate participation on both company and non-company owned sites; and (3) consequences for violating the rules,” Geyser writes. “The general governing rule should be, ‘If you wouldn’t want your supervisor, your mother, or a judge to see it, don’t post it.’”
You can read the entire interview here.
Conclusion
It’s clear from both the Provider Magazine article and now the Long-Term Living Magazine piece, social technologies are beginning to have a significant impact on the industry and are here to stay. To learn more, join our growing Facebook Community for insider tips and conversation on social media in our industry, or
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Social Media Best Practices for Senior Living and LTC [STATS]
I recently spoke at the LTC-100 Conference in Key Biscayne, FL about the use of social media/social networking in senior living and long-term care. The room was packed with C-level executives who were simultaneously fascinated and frightened by the topic and my analysis of the subject. The fact is that senior living executives need to begin to embrace these new social technologies and, over time, become fluent in social media in order to keep their companies (and themselves) relevant. Why do I say this? Consider these facts:
- The Internet as we know it is only 14 years old
- Facebook alone has over 500 million active users and by numbers is the 3rd largest country in the world behind China and India – Yes Facebook’s population outnumbers the U.S.
- The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is Boomers and Seniors
- The fastest growing segment on Facebook is females age 55-65
- 47% of Boomers maintain a profile on the social web
- In 2009 there were 18 million active online seniors
- Seniors spend 58 hours per month online
- 96% of Millennials have joined a social network
Many of the questions posed by the executives attending the conference related to getting started; best practices; privacy,HIPAA, and risk; resources/time; and ROI. With this in mind, I started a group on the new ALFA Exchange online community to address these very issues. You can check out the first discussion post here where I share a fantastic case study of a senior living company that clearly is leading the pack in this space. If you’re a senior living or LTC professional and are not a member of ALFA’s new online community, it may be worth exploring.
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New Study Will Examine Impact of Social Media On Assisted Living Residents
The University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Sociology and Social Work was recently awareded a $1.9 million National Institute on Aging grant to study the ability of computer use and social media to enhance the quality of life of elderly adults through online social connections and easier access to health information.
Here’s a copy of the press release from NewsWise:
Many elderly adults are increasingly isolated and grapple with depression, loneliness and declines in physical health. The UAB Department of Sociology and Social Work will use a five-year, $1.9 million National Institute on Aging (NIA) grant to study the ability of computer use and social media networking to enhance the quality of life of elderly adults through online social connections and easier access to health information.
In the study, UAB sociologist and principal investigator Shelia Cotten, Ph.D., will examine the extent to which access to the Internet and the use of social networking sites by seniors in assisted living facilities enhances their personal interactions and relationships.
“With increasing numbers of older adults living in long-term care facilities and declines in quality of life as people age, we need innovative ways to lessen these negative impacts and to enhance quality of life,” Cotten said.
UAB graduate students will train 300 senior adults at 15 Alabama assisted-living facilities to use the Internet, e-mail, Facebook and other social media networking sites. The residents also will learn about blogging, online groups and ways to evaluate online health information.
Cotten says a primary benefit of the study is that it will help decrease inequalities in access to health information due to age-related declines in mobility. An increasing amount of health information is available electronically, says Cotten. “Once older adults cross the digital divide, they can access health information much more easily using the Internet than they can go to the library or visit a health-care professional,” she said.
About the UAB Department of Sociology and Social Work
The UAB Department of Sociology and Social Work provides quality graduate and undergraduate training and original research to advance knowledge, promote research and social justice and service.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a separate, independent institution from the University of Alabama, which is located in Tuscaloosa. Please use University of Alabama at Birmingham on first reference and UAB on all consecutive references.
Brian Geyser, APRN-BC, MSN is a clinician, consultant, educator, blogger,
online community manager and the founder of Carenetworks, LLC. He blogs
regularly here at Carenetworks.com and would love to connect with you on Twitter, Linkedin, and/or Facebook.