Blogging
Grammar Goofs for Health Care Bloggers [INFOGRAPHIC]
If your (ha ha) a blogger for your company, it’s importnat to know how to right (ha ha). Making grammer mistakes can make you, and you’re (ha ha) company look, well, foolish. Here’s a great info graphic with some common mistakes to avoid. Enjoy!
Feed Your Facebook: Tips for Managing Your Social Media Presence in a Time-Starved World
This post originally appeared on the Elder Pages Online Blog and is authored by Tasha Beauchamp, MSc. Tasha is the Webmaster and Research Scientist for Elder Pages Online, a company specializing in Internet marketing for hospice and geriatric care managers.The big concern about Facebook and other social media tools is that they take time.
Indeed, the purpose of a Fan page, blog or Twitter account is to develop relationships and community with your fans, subscribers and followers. Just as it takes time to have meaningful conversations, it takes time to create engaging posts. And you don’t develop trust and rapport by simply talking about yourself. Like any good friend, you need to be giving out at least as much energy as you are taking in.
You need to regularly offer content that inspires or educates your target audience. According to an ExactTarget social marketing study:
- 38% of Fans will UNLIKE you because your posts are boring or repetitive
- 24% of Fans will UNLIKE you because your posts are too self-promotional
Even as a non-profit, if your hand is always out asking for money or time, more than you are giving away information and useful resources, you will lose followers.
So how do successful social marketers create engaging content in a manageable amount of time? They become “Content Curators.” Because social networking is essentially distinguishing yourself through your content, you need to care for your social presence like a curator cares for an exhibit at a museum. (Facebook has sometimes been called “The Museum of the Self.” This makes the content curator analogy even more appropriate.)
The curator draws together pieces of art from different sources, each one a gem, and assembles them into an exhibit that as a whole inspires the visitors, draws crowds, and promotes membership to the museum. There is also a very practical side to curation: While the exhibit requires creativity, the curator does need to work within a budget and timeline.
It is the same for curating a social media site. Posts are assembled from a variety of sources, working together to create a whole that inspires and educates visitors, generates leads, and promotes LIKES, follows or subscribers. And it must all be done within a budget and timeline.
To accomplish their goals, successful social marketers follow some basic rules of thumb:
- Choose a target audience and identify keywords/categories of interest to this group
- Create a plan and work the plan
- Post on a regular basis
- Make 80% of the posts educational/inspirational to viewers (only 20% about yourself)
As an elder care professional, I would suggest that your target audience is family caregivers. Boomers are starting to robustly embrace Facebook. (According to Pew Internet data, approximately 33% of middle-age individuals are now using social networks).
Determine a list of topics that will be of interest to Boomer daughters and sons. In the realm of family caregiving, this would mean posts pertaining to the care of elders. But it also means presenting information to help manage the stress and challenges of being a family caregiver. Dementia, paying for care, and tips for handling daily life with chronic or serious conditions are just some of the many posts that would be welcomed by family caregivers.
Create a Content Calendar. According to Daniel Zarella, author of The Facebook Marketing Book, you want to plan and compose your posts ahead of time. Create a calendar so you will know what you will post on each day of the coming week. Give yourself a specific time each week to get in the social media headset, to think like a curator, and compose the next week’s posts. For truly thoughtful posts, it’s much easier to do several at once than to try spontaneously each day to say something meaningful when you are in a rush to meet other deadlines.
- Facebook status updates have 420 characters (not counting any web addresses you link to)
- Blogs typically have 300-1000 words, depending on how often you post
- Twitter has a 140 character limit per tweet
Post consistently. You must get in the habit of regularly making meaningful posts. Each channel has a culture of its own with an expected frequency:
- Facebook: once a day
- Blogging: 1-5 times a week
- Twitter: 3-5/day
Many people find it easiest to set a specific time aside each day to do the actual posting. (You can use automated programs, but these rank lower on the search results than posts that are submitted manually.) On a rushed day, you can simply copy/paste the text from your Content Calendar. But because this is the social network, you also want to respond to comments made on previous posts and take time to look at your News Feed and make meaningful contributions to conversations happening on the pages of allied businesses. If you are seen only to broadcast out and not to engage with others, you will quickly fall in the category of “marketing to” your audience rather than creating community and “marketing with them.”
Find content that is educational and inspirational. This is the part that takes time. You want to be sure you are posting across a wide range of topics. You also want to vary your content across the categories and keywords you identified earlier in the planning process.
Where do you find content? A recent survey of 150 marketers across many segments of the business world revealed that:
- 73% value original content, but are challenged by the time it takes to develop it
- 57% use a mix of original posts and third party content
Following the 80:20 rule, successful social marketers tend to use links to other materials for the majority of their posts, adding their own comments for flavor and personality. They save their time and creative energies for that 20% that is about them, where they can really fine tune the call to action (join our list, sign up for our webinar, come to our event, donate to our cause…). In this way, they are able to give their social networking presence the best chance of delivering a return on the investment.
Remember, a key business function of social networking is to generate leads and move people toward action that allows you to engage with them in a more personal way.
A study by Idealware indicated that companies need to spend at least 2 hours/week per social media channel in order to feel it was worth the effort. Companies that spent less than 2 hours a week were generally dissatisfied with the results. Those that spent 9-20 hours per week total, usually working across many channels (e.g., Facebook, Twitter and blogging) seemed to be the most satisfied.
You can conserve time by wisely leveraging the content of others. Mimic the workflow of successful social networkers. Link liberally and paraphrase or make commentary on the work of others. Tons of information already exists. You do not need to re-invent the wheel. You simply need to be smart about finding the info and then adding your own personality to the mix.
To learn more, visit the Elder Pages Online Blog, or Contact Us.
CareNetworks Nominated for Best Senior Living Industry Blog and Website!
Don’t you just love it when somebody you don’t even know recognizes how awesome you are? That’s assuming, of course, that you are in fact awesome. Well the good folks at SeniorHomes.com set up a little contest to give people the opportunity to recognize awesomeness on the web and some lovely person out there nominated us for Best Senior Living Industry Blog and Website for 2011(and no, it wasn’t my mom). As Willie Wonka once said as he helped his guests off the chocolate river boat, “A small step for mankind, but a giant leap for us.” So, if you’re one of our socially savvy clients, a regular reader of this blog, or a member of one of our ultra hip online communities, help us get out the vote. Click here to cast your vote for us. If we win, we’ll hook you up with an all expenses paid trip to our chocolate factory, where all of the social media candy is made. Ah… that last line was a bit of a joke. Again, to quote Wonka, “A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest men.” Thanks for your support!
Brian Geyser and the CareNetworks Crew
BrightStar Care Shines Using Social Media Tools and Strategy [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 social technologies. If you would like to have your organization included in this series, contact us.
For this interview, Jennifer Hill connected with Erin Schmidt, Marketing and Communications Coordinator for one of our favorite socially savvy companies, BrightStar Care. BrightStar was just featured in our new Social Media Video, which you can view here.
Interview
Q: What is your company’s primary goal of using social media?
A: Our primary goal for social media is two-pronged: we seek to “get found” by and add value for individuals, families and organizations who/that may need us (providing helpful content, serving as a resource), and then earn the trust of qualified leads that will convert into client business for our 150+ locations nationwide.
Q: What types of social media tools do you use and why did you choose them?
A: We maintain an active presence in Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and publish our videos to YouTube.
Twitter: Twitter serves as a great engagement platform as well as a river of information to stay on the pulse of what is being talked about in our industry.
Facebook: For starters, one of our target audiences (women aged 55+) is the fastest growing demographic on Facebook, but beyond that the platform allows for a lot more interactivity, better means of identifying where key audiences may be engaging and the ability to share multiple forms of content.
LinkedIn: LinkedIn has been important to our staffing and recruiting efforts, in both identifying qualified candidates to fill more skilled positions as well as key referral sources. But overall, the ability to serve as a resource in the Q & A forums is a value not to be ignored, as we view this type of activity as spreading seeds throughout the Web to help those in need to find us.
Q: Are you planning to expand your social media reach?
A: Yes, everything we do, both online and offline, is geared toward increasing our overall reach. In fact, we have seen significant incremental growth over the past six months and, with new features and functionality rolling out over the next six months, we predict that this will continue to grow.
Q: How much time do you invest in social media per week?
A: At the Corporate level, we invest no more than five to ten hours each week, but this does not include the time we’ve taken to create a series of “Inbound Marketing” webinars we’ve created to train our franchisees on how to leverage social media, online listening, link building, etc. to ramp up their online presence.
Q: Have you seen a return on your investment?
A: While it’s difficult to monetize the value of “reach,” having a captive audience of qualified leads with which to create multiple touch points has had a significant value in and of itself. In addition, a growing portion of our Website traffic comes from the various social media platforms and we’ve recently added some additional means to track these visits through the sales funnel on the back-end to calculate ROI from a dollar standpoint. Here are some interesting statistics:
Worth noting: we endured a Website re-design in February, so these numbers may be the result of a number of factors and not just social media.
- Reach. Our current reach is over four times what it was six months ago – equating to an average of just over 500 contacts per month.
- Website traffic. Site traffic is up by just over 20% in the past six months (potentially due in part to our other new Website changes), but the number of social media referrals to our site has quadrupled in the past year.
- Lead base. We’re still evaluating the impact of social media on our lead generation.
- Marketing costs. Aside from our time, social media is free, so the improved Web traffic and significant growth of our reach has cost us very little compared to other marketing initiatives.
Q: How do you measure the success of your social media strategy?
A: Primarily, the number of Website visits (and, soon, the number and quality of leads) and reach (number of blog subscribers, Twitter followers, LinkdeIn connections, Facebook fans, YouTube subscribers).
Q: What are your biggest challenges?
A: One of the biggest challenges has been conveying the benefits of leveraging social media to our franchisees and, again, the issue of “monetizing” reach.
Q: Who manages your social media initiatives?
A: At the Corporate level, our social media strategy is devised and executed upon by the marketing department.
Q: In regards to content, what do you think is a good strategy?
A: We’ve experimented with a few different things, but we love the idea of recruiting guest authors and tapping other industry experts to contribute. We’ve also set up an online listening station to gather content ideas in addition to taking common questions individuals, families and organizations have to inspire our content.
Q: Do you think that companies are apprehensive about using social media because of HIPAA restrictions?
A: Yes, absolutely.
Q: Does HIPAA effect the way that you use social media?
A: The privacy of the individuals, families and organizations we care for is of the utmost importance to us. We are certain never to provide any information that may be remotely sensitive and/or confidential. This methodology is woven into the fabric of all that we do at BrightStar, both online and offline.
Q: What new features do you see your company using to help expand you social media outreach in the coming months?
A: We’ll be rolling out the ability for our franchisees to add up to five pages to their local Websites in addition to the ability to blog, which will undoubtedly ramp up their local social media efforts and, thus, contribute to our national strategy.
Q: do you view social media as a PR tool in addition to a marketing tool?
A: Absolutely! In addition to being able to publish content and interact with our target audiences, social media is a great means of highlighting key happenings via a public facing platform.
Q: Do you have any PR examples?
A: From time to time, our franchisees will get some media coverage and we’ll use our blog to feature these stories and publish them to our social media profiles as a means of giving them some additional “push” (and, of course, kudos).
Q: Finally, Do any of your C-level executives use social media? Why or why not?
A: Many of our executive team members maintain an active presence on LinkedIn and some on Facebook and our CEO is on Twitter. But LinkedIn makes the most sense from a networking and business perspective. In fact, our executive team’s collective presence on LinkedIn has generated just over 1,000 Website visits in the past six months.
Like this post? Read more like it here:
- Social Media Success Series
- Seven Things Every Senior Living, Home Care, and LTC Provider Wants to Know About Social Media
- 7 Best Social Media Tools for Senior Living and Long-Term Care
For more insights into emerging media and social technologies, subcribe to our blog, follow me on Twitter, visit us on Facebook, or contact us here on our site.
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Five Examples of Social Media Use in Home Care and Senior Living
These days, an increasing number of senior living, home care, and LTC companies are using social media to reach out to social customers and prospects. At CareNetworks, we’re always on the look out for companies who are innovating in this space and who are helping to shape social media best practices for the industry. So we scanned the web and found five companies worth taking a look at.
1. Senior Helpers. This non-medical home care company has a well designed website that acts as their social media hub with active outposts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. They also have a WordPress blog
where they post generic articles about wellness, aging, and care giving. Their reach is pretty significant with 2,302 Twitter followers, 488 Facebook fans, and thousands of views of their many YouTube videos.
2. Adeste In-Home Care. This welcoming site is definitely one of my favorites. The non-medical home care company has an awesome blog
that is updated multiple times per month with search-optimized articles such as, “Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Companion Agency for Your Elderly Parents.” The blog provides great information and tips, especially for people whose parents need home care. On Twitter, they post tons of informational articles to over 1,550 followers. I was also very impressed with the list of resources they provide. They suggest support sites like Senior Information Network and SeniorNet to help family members feel comfortable and confident with their decisions. Their Facebook page seems to be new with very little content and only a few fans.
3. Emeritus Senior Living.
This national senior living company has definitely made a dent in the social media world. They have one of the best senior living Facebook pages
I’ve seen with over 1,440 fans. There are tons of images of different events they’ve held or conferences they have attended. It includes discussion boards and personal testimonials about the transition into senior living from both residents and family members. I was also impressed by the “Ask the Expert” portion of the website. Viewers can ask Dr. Vicki Rackner, M.D. any question and have an answer within 24 hours. Emeritus has partnered with an agency called Aging with Grace that seniors and their loved ones can call with questions and see what others are asking. They also have a Twitter page with about 345 followers.
4. Provision Living. This senior living company website includes links to developing Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn pages, as well as a tab dedicated to their Senior Assisted Living Blog. The blog is updated often and keeps readers informed on current events and happenings in the each of the companies communities. Blog readers have the option to e-mail articles or share them on Twitter, Facebook, Digg and LinkedIn. The blog’s most popular article to date is “Green Tree at Post Road Opens New Units and Adds Jobs.”
5. Senior Living Communities. While this senior living company has a Fledgling social media presence, what they seem to do very well is video. For example, Donald Thompson, the company CEO, has a series of video blog posts where he talks candidly about everything from the cost of living in one of their communities to the company’s stability over the past 21 years. The videos are very well done, except for the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a way to share them across the social web – big mistake! Additionally, the company’s Facebook page is not very engaging and doesn’t take advantage of the great videos they produce. This is a good example of missed opportunity where a company has great social objects (videos) to share, but no way to easily share them on social sites.
If you find other senior living, home care, or LTC companies experimenting with social media and they’re worthy of writing about, let us know about them in the comments section below. Also, we welcome your feedback on these sites!
Related Posts:
- How Senior Living and Eldercare Companies Can Build a Winning Social Media Team
- Social Media Success Series for Senior Living and LTC
- Online Communities in Senior Living and LTC
You can also join our free Online Marketing Community for marketing professionals and executives in senior living, homecare, LTC, and hospice. Just click the image blow:
Jennifer Hill
is currently at senior at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. She is a Communications major concentrating in Public Relations and Journalism and minoring in Psychology. You can connect with her on Twitter on LinkedIn.
Why Senior Living and LTC Execs Should Blog [VIDEO]
Richard Edelman, President and CEO of the worlds largest independent public relations firm, speaks to the business benefits of blogging and being connected on the social Web. Is your senior living, LTC, or home care leadership engaged?
Beth Israel Medical Center CEO Advocates for Social Media in Health Care [INTERVIEW]
Paul Levy, one of the country’s best known hospital CEOs, is the chief executive at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He’s also a self proclaimed blogging addict, an advocate for transparency regarding hospital operations, and is on a growing list of “social” CEOs who leverage social media to communicate with their audience. Levy writes his own blog called Running a Hospital, where he shares his thoughts on hospitals, medicine, and health care issues.
Our own Jennifer Hill spoke with Levy about health care executives and their organizations using social media. Here’s what he had to say:
1. Do you think it’s important for health care CEOs and other C-level execs to be educated about and to use social media?
Yes. They are definitely important tools just as telephones were when they were first invented. To not use them would mean losing opportunities to communicate and educate. Different segments of the population use different tools. For example, patients that come to the hospital in their 20s would rather use Facebook or text than e-mail. For me not to use those forms of media would mean that I wasn’t hearing from them.
2. What tools would you advocate? (Blog, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, others?) and why?
Different people prefer different tools and each tool has a different use. Facebook is a great communication tool and using it means that you are accessible. It is a good way to keep in touch with people. For me, Twitter acts as a library. I follow a bunch of people in the field who are up to date with what is going on. They act as librarians for me and are a valuable resource. Blogging is a time commitment that requires a personal commitment and interest in networking so that my blog gets picked up and read. All of them are valuable tools for different reasons.
3. Do you think having the CEO, or perhaps other C-level execs, involved with social media helps set the tone for the whole organization to embrace social media too?
Yes. I think it is a combination of leading by example and of being available. health care is becoming more accepting and more comfortable with the idea. However, many hospitals still block sites, but we have an open access policy for two reasons: one, these social media sites are tools that help to create a sense of community; and two, if the sites are blocked on the server, people will just go on them on their iPhones.
4. What do you see as the major benefits to C-levels execs using social media?
I think there a two major benefits. First, social media is a way to get educated about what is going on and to keep up to date. It provides information that we used to get from books, magazines and newspapers. Second, it creates a sense of community, which is very important.
5. What advice would you give to executives / organizations who are apprehensive about using social technologies? What advice do you have about the content that executives should be posting online?
Regarding what executives should be posting online, it is important to make judgments as to what you want to accomplish. These media outlets are flexible and can be used for many different goals. It is more powerful than traditional media because the outreach is so great. I think that it is actually lower risk because if you make a mistake it can be fixed whereas is if you make a mistake in an ad or on television, it’s there forever.
6. How much time do you spend blogging or using other social tools each week?
I don’t keep track, just like I don’t keep track of how much time I spend on the phone. It is a more efficient way to communicate. I can talk to thousands of people at once. It is asynchronous and people can communicate when it is convenient for them. When I talk on the phone, I can only talk to one person at a time and I’m usually leaving a message.
7. Some experts believe that there is a trend developing called the “social executive” and that “open leadership” is the way of the future. Do you agree? How do you envision social media will impact health care organizations and health care leaders in the future?
I’m not really sure. In the health care field it is very hard to predict trends. The medical field is slow to adopt things and different people have different approaches.
Here’s a video interview with Levy and other social CEOs from Ragan Communications:
Finally, we’ve been having a lively discussion about senior living and long-term care CEOs using social media over at the ALFA Exchange community. If you want to dive deeper into this subject, feel free to drop by there and join the conversation.
We want to thank Paul Levy for taking the time to talk with us and we wish him well with his blogging efforts.
To view more health care executive blogs, check out this list:
- Bruce Bullen, CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
- Ray Spadoni, CEO of VNA of Boston
- Tom Quinn, President & CEO of Community General Hospital
- Scott Kashman, CEO of St. Joseph’s Medical Center
Photo credit: BostonHerald.com
Jennifer Hill is currently at senior at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. She is a Communications major concentrating in Public Relations and Journalism and minoring in Psychology. You can connect with her on Twitter on LinkedIn.
New Study Shows Elder Care Marketers Benefit from Social Media [SLIDESHARE]
Elder Care Marketing Industry Report
Ryan Malone of Elder Care Marketer recently published results of a study in a white paper called the Elder Care Marketing Industry Report. The study surveyed 160 elder care marketers to glean insights into their marketing habits, what tools they use, and what impact social media has on their business. I’ve embedded the entire report below. It’s definitely worth checking out. Nice job Ryan! You can find Ryan on Twitter , LinkedIn ,Facebook or YouTube.
Here are the social media highlights from the Report:
- Small companies (1-50 employees) are twice as likely than big companies (50-500+ employees) to use social media in their marketing
- Overall, LinkedIn and Facebook are the most popular for marketing purposes
- Marketers spend an average of 6.6 hours per week on social media and would like to learn most about Twitter and blogs
- Interest is high in learning more about social media tools, which reflects the overall recognition of social media as a marketing vehicle
- Small businesses used a much broader base of social media tools than large businesses for marketing purposes
- Both B2B and B2C businesses benefited most from social media through increased mailing lists, traffic and subscribers, generating leads and creating partnerships.
- B2C reported a high increase in search rankings and B2B
businesses reported a higher benefit for identifying new products more often
Senior Living, LTC, And Social Media: What We Learned In 2009 [Part 1]
This was the year that senior living, long-term care, homecare, and hospice providers began experimenting with social media. Social tools like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn; blogging/publishing platforms like WordPress; and white-label social/group networking platforms like Ning and Groupsite have started to penetrate these industry segments and are slowly beginning to change the way these companies are doing business. Even ALFA, the Assisted Living Federation of America, launched a social media initiative this year and is active on multiple social sites.
Since August when I launched this blog, I have posted many articles about companies in our industry, both small and large, that are beginning to use social technologies to derive business benefits. Some posts feature interviews with industry insiders who share their experiences and offer great insights into what’s working, and what’s not. Other articles provide information, tips, and resources designed to help your company navigate the social media landscape. In case you missed any, here is a list of my Top 10 Most Popular Posts for 2009:
- California’s Largest Retirement Community Kicks Butt Using Social Media [Interview]
- Home Care Company Uses Twitter To Build Brand Awareness And More [Interview]
- 7 Best Social Media Tools For Senior Living And Long-Term Care
- Social Media And HIPAA: What You Need To Know
- Nation’s Largest Senior Living Company Embraces Social Media [Interview]
- How Senior Living And Eldercare Companies Can Build A Winning Social Media Team
- Senior Living Companies: You Must Blog Now!
- Beacon Hill Retirement Community Launches Resident Blog – Smart Move
- Blog, Twitter, And Facebook = Big ROI At SeniorsForLiving.com [Interview]
- Web-Savvy Senior Living Companies Are Making The Move To Social Media. Are You?
What We Have Learned: A Year In Review [Part 1 of 2]
Below is a summary of important lessons from the world of social media as they apply to the senior living and long-term care industries, along with links to more detailed content if you want more juice:
- Social technologies are transformative and are here to stay. The statistics are mind blowing. This video drives that point home.
- The static, brochure-style website is going the way of the dinosaurs. Dynamic, interactive websites that encourage dialog and participation and help you build relationships with customers and prospects is where it’s at. If you don’t have social and community-building elements built into your website, it’s time to rethink your online strategy.
- Your customers are online, in a big way, and they love social networking and social media. This video from MSNBC is one example. The fact that seniors are Facebook’s fastest growing demographic, by far, is another.
- Many experts, including myself, believe that social media/networking can and will have a profound impact on the quality of life of seniors living at home and in retirement communities – allowing them to stay connected to friends and family like never before. This study from the University of Alabama, and others like it, aim to prove that point with real data.
- Social media can be used for employer branding purposes and to help you recruit top talent. Sites like LinkedIn and Twitter can help you attract and engage both management and care staff. Branded online communities, like the one over at Terrace Communities, can function as a recruiting tool by posting jobs in the discussion forums and asking prospective employees participate in the online community during the interview process.
- Privacy and HIPAA issues, while important in our industry, should not prevent companies from adopting social technologies. With the proper strategies, policies, and guidelines in place, senior living and LTC companies can safely participate on the social web.
- A company blog is a critical tool in the social media tool box. It can drive traffic to your site, position your company as a trusted resource, and help you build community on the web. Whether you have a company blog or have yet to build one, these articles can help with your blogging strategy.
- Keeping up with the fast paced world of social media can be a job in and of itself, and presents as one of the biggest challenges for companies in every industry. New tools and applications enter the market every day. For companies in our industry, these 7 tools are the best place to start.
- Most senior living and LTC companies I’ve interviewed believe that social media ROI is difficult, if not impossible, to measure. Lucky for us, a couple of smart social media pros have shown that this is not necessarily the case. These articles cover the all-important ROI issue.
In part 2 of this series, which will be published next week, I will summarize what we learned from the interviews I conducted in the Social Media Success Series.
Build Your Social Media Presence In 2010
Thinking about starting a company blog? Interested in getting into social media but don’t know where to start? Fascinated by the prospect of online community? Contact us. CareNetworks is the only company dedicated soley to providing social media strategy and solutions to senior living and LTC providers.
Brian Geyser, APRN-BC, MSN is a clinician, consultant, educator, blogger, social media strategist, 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.
7 Best Social Media Tools For Senior Living And Long-Term Care
As we’ve seen from my Social Media Success interview series and related posts, innovative senior living and LTC companies are beginning to discover the many benefits of social media and online community. These early adopters are paving the way for everyone else as they discover what works, and what doesn’t on the social Web. Based on these posts, I’ve compiled a list (not in any particular order) of the top seven social media tools for the industry, along with some descriptions of why they made the list and how they can help your organization.
Social media is not a panacea. Your online presence and activities won’t replace the relationships you build with residents and families and the great work you do in the physical world. However, used properly, these tools can accelerate your growth by helping you expand your online reach, attract and engage new customers, build relationships with prospects, and participate in the online conversations. Here’s the list:
- Twitter. Noelle Kurth, Marketing Director for At Home Personal Care in Mesa, AZ showed us in this post that Twitter can be an easy, powerful, and free tool for networking with other professionals, broadcasting news and information about your company, recruiting, and building brand awareness. Twitter can help you build a community around your brand as well as keep you on top of important industry news and events in real time. By syndicating content from your blog or website to Twitter, you can build a following, enable sharing of your content, and drive traffic back to your website.
- Facebook. If there is one place online that you can bet many of your customers and prospects are hanging out, it’s Facebook. Building a Facebook Page is a smart move for companies in our industry because it allows you to tap into an existing popular online community of boomers and seniors that’s growing by the minute, literally. People who already have a Facebook account (and there’s only about 300 million last I checked) can easily follow and engage with your company. The best part is that they can easily share their love for you with their friends. Like Twitter, Facebook Pages can be used to syndicate blog content, post news, information, and events, and share other multimedia content (like YouTube videos) with your followers. And like Twitter, Facebook can be used to help with employer branding and recruiting.
- Linkedin. This is THE social network for professionals. If you’re a senior living or LTC professional, you should have a free Linkedin account. Linkedin allows you to build a professional network, share content, post job openings, research prospects, join industry groups, participate in forums, scan industry news, and much more.
- Blog. These days, a company blog is an essential tool in the online arsenal. I review the details of why you need a company blog in this post, but the bottom line is that a blog is a fantastic tool for building community, and for many companies, it can serve as a social media hub. Content and links are currency on the new social Web, and a blog allows you to publish content and distribute that content to your social media outposts like Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin. From there, your community can share your content with their friends – driving traffic back to your blog and website organically. This is called inbound marketing and it’s much more powerful these days than in-your-face interruptive marketing. Another creative way to use a blog is to build one for your customers to use, like Beacon Hill Retirement Community did. You can check out an example of that here.
- YouTube. My friends over at Brookdale Senior Living do some good stuff with YouTube. Here’s an example. YouTube makes it very easy to publish video content to your Website. If you have a blog, it’s even easier to take your YouTube videos and embed them right into your posts. Video is an incredibly powerful medium, and with little or no money, you can create fantastic video content that your Twitter and Facebook fans will love (and share).
- Branded Online Community. For a more comprehensive social media solution (and here’s the shameless plug for my business), a branded online community like the ones built by Terrace Communities and Living Well Assisted Living At Home may be your best bet. Branded online communities have a distinct advantage over using, say, Facebook to build community in that you have much more control over the platform, the features, the branding, the ads, and the content. Most community platforms include a blog and discussion forums and some, like the ones mentioned above, come with community calendars, file cabinets, and photo galleries – all of which can be syndicated to your social media outposts like Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook. Learn more about branded online communities here.
- Email. Yes that’s right, I said email. Email is actually the largest and most popular (by far) social media and online community platform in the world. If you think about it, anybody who uses email has an address book filled with the contact information of people in their various networks – and they connect, communicate, and share with their networks via email all the time. Tools like eNewsletters using platforms like MailChimp and ConstantContact can be a great way to stay in touch with your customers and provide them with interesting news and information (with linkbacks to your site or blog) that they can pass on to their email networks.
While all of these tools take proper strategy, resources, and time, the potential benefits to your organization, your customers, your staff, and your prospects are clear. Social networks and social media are fundamentally changing the way your customers and prospects learn, evaluate and ultimately make decisions. Social tools like the ones mentioned above are increasingly influential in marketing and sales practices. Customers seek evidence online to validate decisions and get instant feedback from their peers through social networks. By joining the conversation and giving people an opportunity to connect with you online, you have the ability to educate, inform, support and engage your audience in new ways never before possible. Are you using social media?
Related Posts
- Web Savvy Senior Living Companies Are Making The Move To Social Media. Are You?
- What Every LTC Organization Needs To Know About Their Website
- Blog, Twitter, & Facebook = Big ROI At SeniorsForLiving.com
Are You A Marketing Professional?
Are you a marketer in senior living, home health, private duty homecare, or hospice? Join our new free online marketing community specifically for built for you. Get all of the networking benefits of attending a conference without ever leaving your office. To check it out, click here.
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.
Social Media ROI: The Real Deal [SlideShare]
One of the best presentations on social media ROI I’ve seen. humorous, informative, entertaining. A little long, but worth it. If you’re wondering about how your senior living, eldercare, LTC, or homecare business can afford social media, watch and learn…
Beacon Hill Retirement Community Launches Resident Blog – Smart Move
Here’s a great example of a senior living company building an online community using a blog as their platform. Beacon Hill Retirement Community, located in Lombard, Illinois, recently set up and launched a resident-owned “online magazine” called “Let’s Talk” built on the popular blogging platform WordPress. The blog allows residents (average age of 86) to publish multimedia content to the site including articles, videos, photos, menus, polls, and more.
According to the marketing firm that helped Beacon Hill set up the blog, nearly 1500 visitors have visited the site to date. Fresh content is added to the site over 50 times per month with an average of 23 feature stories designed to appeal to seniors and their adult children along with other items geared to resident’s interests. A Beacon Hill resident committee helps steer and develop content by telling management what they want to read, link to, write themselves; and also how to promote the site to other residents, peers and family members.
Management is also helping to promote the use of the site. They have installed two computers in common areas that are dedicated to Let’s Talk; they’ve added special suggestion boxes in the dining areas; they promote the site in the monthly newsletter; and local TV stations have apparently picked up on the story.
Beacon Hill’s marketing firm created the site and assists with community engagement, content creation, site management, evaluation metrics and strategy. According to the firm, Let’s Talk is becoming as popular with the resident’s as Nintendo Wii and the site is helping with marketing to prospects.
This is just another example of what the future holds for senior living and eldercare as more and more seniors take to the social web and social media marketing moves into the mainstream.
To learn more about how online community and social media can benefit your senior living, homecare, or eldercare company, visit CareNetworks.com. To ensure you continue to get great articles and news like this delivered as it’s published, subcribe to our blog.
Related Articles
- Senior Living Companies: You Must Blog Now!
- California’s Largest Retirement Community Kicks Butt Using Social Media
- Boomers Love Social Media. PS. These Are Your Customers [Video]
- Web Savvy Senior Living Companies Are Making The Move To Social Media. Are You?
- 10 Reasons Why Your Company’s Blog Sucks
- How Senior Living And Eldercare Companies Can Build A Winning Social Media Team
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.
Social Media And HIPAA: What You Need To Know
One question I’m always asked about when it comes to health care or senior care and social media is, “What about HIPAA?” Online privacy and security are important issues, especially on the new social Web. But I have good news for the those folks in health care, senior care, home care, hospice, and dementia care who want to start using social media but fear HIPAA: It’s not as complicated as you think. In fact, it’s all about common sense. Below I provide a brief overview of the main issues, three examples of health care/senior living organizations effectively using social media without violating HIPAA, and some resources for developing your own social media and online communications policies.
HIPAA & Social Media
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires that a patient’s identity and personal health information be protected (also called Protected Health Information, or PHI). Health care providers who violate HIPAA can face stiff penalties, including fines up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment for up to 10 years for knowingly misusing individually identifiable health information. As a result, many care-related organizations shy away from deploying social media, blogs, and online communities due to fear of HIPAA violations. This is unfortunate as these organizations are missing out on the many opportunities and benefits that social technologies offer.
Senior living companies, homecare agencies, skilled nursing facilities, hospitals and the like, should feel free to engage in social media – as long as mechanisms to secure PHI are employed. Information posted to blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, or online communities by health care companies should be prepared for public consumption and each organization engaging in social media should have policies and guidelines related to social media and online communications in place prior to deploying these technologies. Here are three examples of health care and senior care organizations using social media, as well as some social media policies and online communications guidelines for your reference:
Innovis Health
Innovis Health is a non-profit hospital and health care organization based out of Fargo North Dakota. Innovis has a blog (shown below) plus Twitter, Facebook (show below), YouTube, and Flikr accounts. On the blog, Innovis publishes hospital news and general health news. This content is then syndicated out to their Twitter and Facebook accounts. The blog also features a Twitter feed – showing Innovis Twitter activity in real-time. The Innovis YouTube channel features hospital commercials and local news coverage. Their Flikr account displays photos of their various facilities, their staff, and marketing images from different marketing campaigns. This complement of social media tools allows Innovis to broadcast their message, engage a following, and drive traffic back to their website.
There’s very little patient-specific information on any of their social media properties, however, the blog does feature two stories about babies that were born at the hospital during a March 2009 flood, including parent names and, in one case, a photo of the new parents with their infant. The assumption here is that the parents gave Innovis specific written permission to publish these stories (a must if you plan to publish PHI or patient identity).
Innovis Health Blog
Innovis Health Facebook Page
Children’s Hospital L.A.
Children’s Hospital L.A. actually encourages patients and families to tell their stories on the hospital website. The way they work within HIPPA rules is by employing a 3-step process where the person submitting the story must:
- Review a “Use and Access” Statement
- Review the hospital HIPAA policy
- Fill out a secure online form where the story, images, and any links are uploaded to and reviewed by hospital staff for approval prior to being posted to the site for public viewing
Children’s hospital L.A. “Use & Access” Statement
This is a shrewd business move on the hospital’s part because it allows them to publish vetted positive stories from actual patients – which clearly has marketing benefits – without violating HIPAA.
Terrace Communities
Terrace Communities is a group of seven assisted living residences located in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Florida. Terrace uses a member-only, public facing branded online community to connect residents, staff, and family members from all seven facilities. Members have unique profile pages and can participate in discussions, post to the group blog, add to the calendar, and upload photos to the galleries. Below you can see the community homepage with a photo of a Terrace resident and her son prominently displayed.
Terrace Communities
Notice that, like Children’s Hospital L.A., Terrace Communities encourages their members to interact and post content to the community website. Also, as you can see from the screenshot below, Terrace regularly posts photos of and stories about residents, family members, and staff to their community site. One difference here is that residents of Terrace communities are NOT considered or referred to as “patients.” Therefore, while privacy and information security are issues for Terrace, HIPAA is not a major concern. Terrace does have each resident and family sign a generic photo release form allowing them to publish photos on their website and in marketing materials.
Terrace Communities (Cont.)
Conclusion
Blogs, social media, and online communities can be powerful tools for organizations to broadcast news and information, as well as engage prospects and customers. The vast majority of what health care and senior care organizations publish using social technologies has nothing to do with PHI. As long as organizations take proper measures to ensure that Protected Health Information is kept private and secure there’s nothing to fear. If you are going to publish patient photos or stories, get a written release. Of course, it’s always possible that a rogue employee who doesn’t follow the rules can violate HIPAA, but that can happen offline even more easily than online – and should not be a reason to avoid getting into social media. Additionally, proper social media management allows companies to monitor posted content and quickly remove anything inappropriate. The following resources can help you get started developing your own social media policies.
Resources
- Sample Social Media Guideline from the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council
- Social Media Governance Policy Database
- American Red Cross Social Media Strategy Handbook
- Social Media Risk and Policies: Free White Paper by SocialFish
Related Posts
- California’s Largest Retirement Community Kicks Butt Using Social Media
- Homecare Company Uses Twitter To Build Brand awareness And More
References
- http://jennifersreport.blogspot.com/2009/02/not-getting-around-hipaa.html
- http://philbaumann.com/2008/07/17/twitter-hipaa-privacy-and-freedom-of-speech/
- http://ebennett.org/data/comment-page-1/#comment-2191
- http://www.hospitalimpact.org/index.php/scoop/2007/12/18/hospitals_and_social_media
- http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/2009/10/01/hospitals-need-to-friend-their-employees/
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.
Senior Living Companies: You Must Blog Now!
What? Why?
If there’s one thing every senior living company needs to have on their Website right now, its a blog. Why? First, a blog allows you to easily post dynamic content to your site, broadcast it across the Web for free, and puts your company on the social media grid. Second, your competitors are doing it. Third, your customers are all over it. Forth, done right, your blog will supercharge your SEO, establish you as a trusted resource, and drive prospects, potential partners, and potential employees to your Website. If you want proof, check out this interview with SeniorsforLiving.com. And finally, without one, you will become invisible online.
Explain.
Every day, boomers with elderly parents, caregivers seeking senior living or eldercare solutions, and skilled employees looking for a good company to work for use the social Web and new media to search for answers and opportunities. Your blog is the place that can (and should) provide them with the information, advice, tips, resources, knowledge, skills, help, support, and opportunities they need. Unless your Website has social components (like a blog), its basically an online brochure with nothing more than canned marketing messages, fancy photos, and information about you. These days, that’s not enough. You need more, and a good place to start is a blog.
How?
Setting up a blog is fairly easy. For companies on a serious budget, I recommend using WordPress, a free blogging platform that has all the features a company needs to get started. The more challenging aspect of having a blog, of course, is the blogging itself. Blogging takes time and has to be done right. But in this new world of social media, you can’t afford not to do it.
Here are 14 tips to help you succeed with a company blog:
- Pick the “Main Blogger.” Someone in the company has to be responsible for posting to and maintaining the blog. That person should be someone who you trust to be the online voice of your company or organization. Staff like your conceirge, activity director, or marketer may be a good choice. Senior executives should contribute to the blog at least monthly. If you can get your department heads to post one article a month, that would be ideal.
- Be human. Write as though you’re writing to a family member, not a faceless mass of people. Use your postings to connect with
your audience through your own (or your company’s) style and personality. Let YOU come through. Write in the first person, using “I” and
write almost like you’re having a conversation. Speak to your specific
audience and always keep them in mind as you write. - Be Helpful. I hate to say it, but nobody really cares about the fancy messaging on your company Website. Every senior living company Website says pretty much the same thing. So on your company blog, you want to give people fresh, honest, unique content and actionable information they can use today to make informed decisions and get stuff done.
- Break information into chunks. People typically don’t like to read long
drawn-out paragraphs. Break up your
paragraphs, use bullet points, use lists, and stay on topic. If you want to cover other topics, it’s
better to write new posts covering those other topics. - Use a captivating title. Your title should prompt people to want to read
the post. Use calls to action like, “Three
Must-Read Books On Healthy Aging For 2009″ or lists like, “15 Ways To Stay Connected To Family
In Assisted Living.” Use all caps in the
title. - Post from experience. Boomers and seniors love stories and first-hand accounts. If you have personal experience in certain aspects
of care giving for example, write about it. Use case studies; tell readers how you or your company solved a
particular problem. This shows readers
that you know what you’re talking about and you’re trust worthy. It can also begin to position you and your
company as an authority on the subject. - Write well. This cannot be taken for granted. I don’t care how salient your
post is, if it’s poorly written, you will not be taken seriously. In fact, you
can even damage your online reputation. - Use images. Always try to place an “intro image” at the beginning
of a
post. The image should have something to
do with your content.
Be mindful of copyright issues. Try to use images licensed under
creative
commons licensing. You can find a lot of
these on Flikr. - Post regularly. Readers are more likely to read your blog if you have a
regular posting schedule. Post at least
once per week, and stick to it. - Market your blog. Syndicate your content out to other social media sites
like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Put a link to your blog in your email signature and on business
cards. - Create a “sneeze page.” A sneeze page is a blog post that reviews your
previous blog posts and provides links to them. You can do this one a week or once a month, depending on how often you
post. - Link out. Whenever you reference something or someone that can be found on
the internet, make it a link. Always give others credit for their work and
link to their sites. At the bottom of
your post, add your name, title, and a link to your main Website. - Don’t sell. People who read blogs don’t want to be sold to. They want interesting and informative
content. Help your readers by providing
them with this, not by trying to tell them on how great you your company is. If you provide great content, it will be a
reflection of your company and will help you sell your brand organically. - Don’t give up. Blogging requires commitment and focus. While most of the time it’s great fun, it can get tedious and time consuming sometimes. Don’t let that stop you. Just push through and keep
blogging. Your audience will appreciate
it.
For senior living companies that want to go beyond just a blog to fully tap into the social web, I recommend setting up a branded online community, which combines a blog with other social media tools like member profiles, discussion forums, event calendars, photo galleries, and much more. You can learn more about the benefits of blogs, social media, and online communities at http://carenetworks.com/benefits.
Don’t forget to subscribe to our blog to get post like this delivered right to your inbox or RSS reader as they are published.
Related Posts:
- Blog, Twitter, Facebook = Big ROI at SeniorsforLiving.com
- 10 Reasons Why Your Company’s Blog Sucks
- Employer Branding: Using Social Media To Recruit Senior Care Staff
- How To Use Social Media To Grow Your Senior Living Or Eldercare Business
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.
Blog, Twitter, & Facebook = Big ROI at SeniorsforLiving.com
This is the third post in our new Social Media Success Series, which features interviews with innovative senior living, eldercare, home care, and dementia care companies who are using social media as a business/marketing tool. If you would like to have your organization considered for inclusion, contact us.
In this interview, Gina LaGuardia, Editorial Director at SeniorsforLiving.com shares some fantastic insights about how they are using Twitter, Facebook and a company blog to drive traffic to their Website, establish strategic alliances, nurture relationships, listen to and learn from others in the industry, extend their online reach, and build brand awareness.
Company Profile
SeniorsforLiving.com is a free consumer service that helps seniors and their families research, evaluate, compare and connect with quality assisted living, independent living, retirement communities, and other senior care providers.
Interview
1. What online properties, aside from your website, do you own/operate? We have a Twitter and Facebook account, plus a company blog on our Website.
Website
2. Why did you choose those? My personal experiences on Twitter have been immensely successful and edifying to my professional growth, so it made sense to try this for our business as well. As for Facebook, the statistics show tremendous growth in usage by baby boomers and seniors, and that’s our target audience. Our blog is our main content “voice.” Though we typically publish new features on our “Articles & Resources Page,” our blog — consistently updated five days a week — enables us to talk about current topics within the senior housing and senior care space/boomer trends/etc.
3. Who manages your blog, Twitter & Facebook accounts? I’m the editorial director for the company and I manage them. I have two bloggers who contribute to the blog, and I manage all posts. One blogger is a public policy coordinator for the Alzheimer’s Association and a former activities director at an assisted living community; the other works in health care.
4. How much time does it take you to manage the accounts per week? We are active on Twitter at least five days a week at various points throughout the day and night. We are in the process of allocating additional time to our Facebook group. On the blog, we update posts everyday, so it’s a full-time effort. 
5. How are you using each and who do want to reach? Twitter has been an invaluable source for connecting with other professionals in our industry who have similar interests and target markets. Although many of our followers may be perceived as “competition,” the potential for establishing business development and affiliate relationships has far outweighed any of those concerns. We are also primarily utilizing Twitter and Facebook to deploy content from our blog and establish a working partnership with other blogs and sites that provide content around similar issues.
One project I am particularly proud of that has developed from our initiative on Twitter is our Seniors/Boomers: News You Can Use blog carnival, which ensures high page views with each installment and numerous linkbacks (great for SEO), as well as increasing our blog readership and keeping us abreast of topics being discussed about senior housing/caregiving/boomer issues, etc.
We also regularly feature guest bloggers’ contributions on our blog based on synergies either between our two companies and/or the sharing of a common interests/goals. We do not pay for guest blogs, but we typically “blog post swap” where we also contribute a post to their site/blog. Without our blog, we wouldn’t have much “meat” to engage our SM followers with, so I’d say that is the means to the end. The tool I most enjoy and from which I personally derive the most value is Twitter.
6. Do you have a social media strategy? We definitely have a strategy — that is, to use social media to engage potential users and/or those who care deeply about seniors. As I mentioned, the relationships we have made has served to enhance our business, hone our editorial message, and enable us to emerge as a leader among online senior housing/senior care directories.
7. What is your primary goal for using social media? To increase branding for our site across social networks, establish ourselves as a content leader in the space, and affiliate with those who are equally passionate about seniors and providing the best care for loved ones.
8. Are you planning to expand your social media reach? Yes, we are planning to increase our footprint on Facebook in coming months and are considering LinkedIn as another avenue for expansion.
9. Are people responding? They are, and those with whom we have connected have proven helpful both in terms of expanding our base of knowledge about issues related to senior housing and senior care and in expanding our audience. Social media is truly a community of colleagues and friends. The key is to find people with whom you share interests, goals, and passion. For us, we regularly watch the #seniors, #boomers, and #caregiving hashtags (on Twitter) and conduct those (and related) keyword searches. What may begin as a business initiative to garner a mass to whom you can share news of your services, offerings, products, etc. will turn into a group of people you respect, rely on for information, advice, and insight, etc. It’s truly an amazing thing to watch evolve and flourish!
10. What are your biggest challenges so far? There is a time issue…. The best cultivation of social media, in my opinion, is enhanced by an adequate investment of time.
11. Did you have to try to convince someone at your organization to try social media? The management of SeniorsforLiving.com has been very supportive of our social media efforts, and the rewards are plentiful — from increased site visits and SM referrals to connecting with our partners and clients online.
12. Are employees on board with your efforts? Yes, although I am the only representative Tweeting at this time.
13. How are you measuring success? We are monitoring success via page referrals from the SM sites, linkbacks to content hubs, feedback from clients and users, etc.
14. Can you tell if your social media activities, including the blog, have actually affected your bottom line? Have you garnered actual paying customers because of your blog, twitter or facebook accounts? We have certainly reaped an increase of traffic thanks to those users who have discovered us via our various SM endeavors. Additionally, the linkbacks garnered as a result of SM are very effective for our SEO initiatives. We have also made quite a mark with our partner communities and providers who are watching our SM efforts and seeking us out as they climb aboard themselves.
15. What’s the one piece of advice you would give other senior living, home care, eldercare, or dementia care companies about getting into social media? Social media should be an important aspect to your online marketing plan. The potential to connect with customers and potential customers is ever evolving and never ceases to amaze me. Smart companies will not only converse with others about their services and offerings, but about the everyday challenges of senior housing and senior care. It should be about relationship building, not drumming up business.
___________________________________________________________________
For more about senior living online communities and social media, visit carenetworks.com. To ensure you get more post like this delivered right to you as they are published, subscribe to our blog.
For more information about SeniorsforLiving.com, contact:
Doug Johnson | EVP-Sales & Marketing | Seniors for Living | P: 212-490-6290 x227| F: 212-490-6296 or visit them online at SeniorsforLiving.com, Twitter, or Facebook. My thanks to Gina LaGuardia for taking the time to share her amazing insights!
Related Posts
- California’s Largest Retirement Community Kicks Butt Using Social Media
- Homecare Company Uses Twitter To Build Brand Awareness & More
- Web Savvy Senior Living Companies Are Making The Move To Social Media. Are You?
- Social Media: Are You Ready? [Great Video]
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.
Interview: Home Care Company Uses Twitter To Build Brand Awareness And More
This is the second post in our new Social Media Success Series, which features interviews with innovative senior living, eldercare, home care, and dementia care providers who are using social media as a business/marketing tool. If you would like to have your organization considered for inclusion, contact us.
Today we talk with Noelle Kurth, Marketing Director for At Home Personal Care, a Mesa, Arizona based company that provides affordable home care services for elderly and disabled people. We will present the interview in full and then provide some analysis and a summary with take away points at the end.
At Home Personal Care Website
1. What online properties, aside from your website, do you own/operate (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, Flikr, etc.)?
Twitter , Facebook & Constant Contact for our monthly e-communication. We’ve been using Twitter for about three months and Facebook for two months. We are also launching a new Website in October (hopefully) which will have a main corporate site with pages dedicated to each of our five offices. The new site will also include a video and a blog where we will post information on senior/elder topics, company events, letters from clients/families, etc.
Twitter Page
Facebook Fan Page
2. Why did you choose those?
Twitter because there is a wealth of information there, real time updates, its free, I can connect with my network, its easy to use (can use my iPhone app), and I can reach thousands of users easily. Facebook because it is manageable, free, I can reach a targeted audience, and it has a clean interface. Constant Contact because it is very affordable, easy, and doesn’t take a whole lot of effort.
3. Who manages your online properties?
I manage Twitter & Constant Contact. Samantha (Operations Manager) manages Facebook—–although she has been slacking!!!
4. How much time does it take to manage per week?
I Twitter on the go. My time is valuable and Twitter is very quick and easy for me. I would say 2 hours a week, if that.
5. How are you using each and who are you trying to reach?
I use Twitter to stay in contact with my peers, referral sources, and local contacts. I read articles and gain new knowledge on topics I feel I wouldn’t have know about otherwise. I post information about events we take part in, company news, and networking opportunities. We have not seen much value from Facebook yet, but as I mentioned, we have not devoted enough time to getting it up and running. We are planning to attend more to it once our new site is launched. In fact, each of our five offices will have their own Facebook fan page. Our one Twitter account will represent all five offices.
6. Do you have a social media strategy? What is it?
Be consistent, post compelling information, make it fun, engage, interact, and don’t make it all about me/us.
7. What is your primary goal for using social media?
Share information, gain knowledge, reach targets, gain new opportunities, branding.
8. Are you planning to expand your social media reach?
Yes, I use twitter in my marketing efforts consistently and will build a Facebook page for each of our five locations soon.
9. Are people responding?
I’ve had several responders and have made great contacts.
10. What are your biggest challenges so far?
Haven’t come across any challenges so far!
11. Did you have to try to convince someone at your organization to try social media?
I am the leader in my organization when it comes to media outreach, marketing efforts, and technology advances. Our president luckily is very opened minded to hearing new ideas and ways to reach our audience.
12. Are employees on board with your efforts?
I would say 50% of them are. It has been a challenge to get some of the “old school mentality” minded individuals to realize that social media works. I think people “over think” it too much and get frustrated or intimidated by it. They don’t know where to start or how to get going. They think it is too time consuming, etc.
13. How are you measuring success?
I don’t necessarily track success with a specific formula. I base the success off the opportunities I’ve come across and the number of responses I get from users. As long as people are interacting with me, I find that successful. I know I am strengthening my brand recognition and market awareness every day just by sending a second “tweet.” Before using Twitter, I didn’t have access to the thousands of articles, blogs, websites, contacts, opportunities, events, and FUN!
14. What’s the one piece of advice you would give other senior living, home care, eldercare, or dementia care companies about getting into social media?
I would advise them that social media is a very low cost, mostly free, way of increasing brand recognition, reaching a targeted audience, gaining new opportunities, announcing upcoming events, promoting specials, increasing referral sources, and staying consistent or ahead of your competition. As the population ages, people will need to realize that adopting new methods of outreach such as social media is crucial. Social Media, Blogs, Website SEO, etc is only increasing…it is not going away, and if you are not adapting to it, you will be missing out now and in the months ahead, and eventually you will be left in the dust. The age range for internet users is your targeted audience. These are the adult children/family/friends that are making decisions regarding their loved ones care. Gone are the days of the paper yellow pages. People are going online and to the web. Social media is easy to use, low maintenance, and extremely manageable. Put it this way….there is not ONE reason NOT to being engaged in social media.
Summary and Analysis
With Noelle’s help, At Home Personal Care (AHPC) is clearly moving in right direction with their social media strategy. At this time, they have 683 followers on Twitter, and that number is growing daily. Noelle’s Twitter prowess is quite impressive. She knows how to use Twitter to make connections, increase brand awareness, and build relationships with clients, referral sources, local businesses, prospects, families, and others. You can learn how Noelle is using Twitter by following her and AHPC here.
AHPC’s decision to develop a new Website that incorporates a blog is critical. Their current site is a classic Web 1.0 static online brochure which provides generic information about the company and their sevices (for more on a good Website, click here). These days, a blog is a minimum requirement for any company Website. A blog will enable AHPC to syndicate information out to Twitter, and from Twitter, they can drive traffic back to the blog and the site. Presumably visitors will be able to subscribe to the blog – allowing for lead capture, and readers should be able to comment on posts – allowing for dialog between the company and readers (for more on how to avoid making a company blog suck, click here).
One way AHPC could inject some steroids into their social media plan is to add a centralized online community to their new site (disclosure: we build and manage online communities for senior living and eldercare organizations, so this part may be slightly bias). An online community would allow members of the AHPC community (patients, families, referral sources, staff, management, partners) to sign up, create a profile, connect with each other, and add content to the community site themselves. In our last interview post with Laguna Woods Village, we learned how they were attempting to do this using “Club Pages.”
One way to add community to an existing Website is to use a white label social networking/online community platform like KickApps, Ning, Groupsite, or SocialGo. All of these sites have “freemium” pricing, allowing you to build your own online community or social network for free (like Twitter). Be warned though, freemium pricing includes advertising, limited features, minimal ability to brand or customize, and limited customer support. In addition, while an online community can be a fantastic business/marketing tool, it can also be technically complex and a time killer. Look for many more posts about this subject on this blog in the future.
Takeaway Points
- A static Web 1.0 style Website will make you invisible. You need dynamic content, relevant information, and interactivity to compete these days.
- Having multiple social media outposts like Twitter and Facebook can be useful, as long as they are attended to.
- Twitter can be a fast and free way to build a network and increase brand recognition – and maybe even drive sales.
- Having a comprehensive social media strategy is key to success.
- There is an “old school” mentality in business about social media that needs to be overcome. Remember back in the 90′s when businesses weren’t convinced they needed a Website?
- Your customers are using social media. You should be too!
For more about senior living, eldercare, or home care online communities and social media strategies, visit carenetworks.com. To ensure you get more post like this delivered right to you as they are published, subscribe to our blog.
For more information about At Home Personal Care, contact Noelle Kurth at Noelle@athomeprc.com or 480.205.8320. I would like to thank Noelle for generously sharing her insights and experiences. We will check in with her in several months to see how she and AHPC are doing with their new Website and post the results here.
Related posts:
- California’s Largest Retirement Community Kicks Butt Using Social Media
- Can Social Media Convert Senior Living Prospects To Customers?
- Web Savvy Senior Living Companies Are Making The Move To Social Media. Are You?
- Assisted Living Group Using Social Media To Combat Swine Flu
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.