News

Despite the fact that it’s been a while since we posted here (we have posted a bunch to our Facebook Page more recently), SeniorHomes.com has nominated us as Best Senior Living Industry Resource for 2012. So why does the CareNetworks Blog deserve such recognition? Maybe it’s because we’re the only resource on the web dedicated to covering the convergence of senior living and social media. Or, maybe it’s because we gladly share industry-specific tips, case studies, and best practices with so you so your business can flourish on the social web. Or, maybe it’s because since August of 2009, long before social media was a player in the industry, we have been posting exclusive groundbreaking articles such as:

• What Every LTC Organization Needs to Know About Their Website
• Social Media and HIPAA: What You Need to Know
• How Senior Living & Eldercare Companies Can Build a Winning Social Media Team

Whatever the reason, we want to thank the good folks at SeniorHomes.com for nominating us, and thank you for voting for us (which you can do here).

So what’s in store for 2012 besides hopefully winning this awesome award? Well we’ve been busy helping senior living, home care, LTC and hospice companies around the country tap into the power of updating their websites and adding social media to the mix, and we’ll have some great real-life stories to tell in the coming months, so stay tuned.

I’m excited to announce that I will be doing a closing keynote address on the use of social media in home care at the Home Care 100 Conference at the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel in California in February 2011. Home Care 100 offers senior executives in home care and hospice a forum to discuss the current business landscape, growth strategies, and the future direction of the industry.

At a similar talk this year at the LTC-100 Conference in Florida, long-term care executives from around the country were intrigued and fascinated by the business opportunities provided by advances in social technologies. Home care companies have a unique opportunity to leverage these new social tools to connect caregivers, patients, and family members (who often feel isolated and alone) and to engage prospective customers and employees by building community around their brand.

For more information about the Home Care 100 Conference and LTC-100, visit Lincoln Healthcare Events.

We’re excited to announce that we’ve officially kicked off our Social Media Internship Program by brining in our first intern ever, Jennifer Hill. Jennifer 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. In the fall semester she interned in the Communication Department at Saint Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie and she just returned from studying abroad during the spring semester in Florence, Italy. Jen has experience writing for both her school newspaper and The New Haven Register. She is also a member of New York Women in Communications. At Marist, Jen is involved in the National Society of Leadership and Success and was treasurer of the Communication Arts Society.

Jen will be with CareNetworks for the summer and will take on a multitude of projects ranging from writing blog posts to doing research to co-authoring presentations and white papers. Welcome Jen!

You can follow Jennifer here on our social media blog and also on Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you are a college junior or senior, or a graduate student majoring in communications, journalism, graphic design, computer technology, business, or social science, we may have an internship opportunity for you. interested? Contact us.

Assisted Living Services (ALS) based in Meriden, Connecticut is diving head first into the social media ocean and we will be right there along side them to assist with planning, preparation, and plunging (into the waters that is). With our help, ALS will be transforming their existing static website into a dynamic social media hub and caregiver resource center complete with a blog and, ultimately, a collection of strategically chosen social outposts – all with the intention of building community around their company and connecting the growing ALS ecosystem together on the web.

Sharon and Ron D’Aquila, owners of Assisted Living Services, are excited about the potential positive impact the right social media strategy will have on their business and company stakeholders.

CareNetworks has been retained by ALS to assist with social media strategy, planning, development, and training, as well as ongoing community management and technical support. Service Internet Solutions of East Windsor, Connecticut will be providing website design services as part of the company’s overall online strategy.

Stay tuned to our Online Community and Social Media Blog as we will be posting periodic updates about the Assisted Living Services Go Social transformation there.

Related Posts:

• Homecare Company Creates Social Media Hub
• Homecare Company Uses Twitter to Build Brand Awareness and More
• How Senior Living & Eldercare Companies Can Build a Winning Social Media Team

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For more on how your company can benefit from social media and online community, contact us. 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, it’s free!

Maddie Grant (of SocialFish) and I will be speaking on the use of social media in senior living and long-term care at the LTC-100 conference in Key Biscayne on May 4th. This is the first time social media will be featured at this conference so this talk is sure to be both entertaining and informative for everyone involved. We will be posting social media-related highlights from the conference on Twitter, Facebook, and our blog so subscribe to one or all. Here’s the conference agenda:

Brian Geyser, APRN-BC, MSN is a clinician, consultant, educator, blogger, social media strategist and the founder of Carenetworks, LLC. He blogs regularly at Carenetworks.com and would love to connect with you on Twitter, Linkedin, and/or Facebook.

CareNetworks provides senior living and LTC companies strategic, operational, and tactical social solutions and helps them deploy, integrate and manage social communications on the web.

New Haven, CT – November 11, 2009 – CareNetworks.com has partnered with LTCAdmissionsCoach.com to build an online community, called The Daily Grind, specifically for marketing professionals in senior living, home health, private duty homecare, and hospice. The community is designed to help these marketers capture and exchange ideas, resources, and best practices anytime, from anywhere. The site combines the best social networking
applications with the most useful collaboration tools so members can
join forces and participate in a dynamic community of like-minded
professionals. Members can easily create and customize profile pages, network with other members, view and participate in discussion forums, view or post multimedia content, share documents or other files, post events to the calendar, participate in industry specific subgroups, and much more.

Membership in the community is free for marketing professionals. There is no traditional advertising on the site and self-promotion or direct selling to members is prohibited. Currently, the site is fully funded by its main sponsor, LTCAdmissionsCoach, and by CareNetworks.com, who also manages the site.

CareNetworks.com builds branded online communities for the senior living and eldercare industries and helps companies discover and adopt social media as a business and marketing tool. “CareNetworks offers senior living, eldercare, and LTC companies a simple, cost-effective solution to the complex and ever-changing world of social media and online community” says Brian Geyser, founder of CareNetworks.com. “It’s the easiest way for organizations in our industry to tap into the social Web. We’re excited to be working with LTCAdmissionsCoach on this project because marketers can now get a flavor for how social media and online community can be used within their organizations to engage customers and prospects, increase referrals, assist with recruiting, and increase sales. This community brings industry marketers and organizations together and provides opportunities for meaningful exchange.”

LTCAdmissionsCoach president Andrea Zabinski says, “We wanted to build a community where marketers in our industry could not only network, but also learn, share and collaborate with each other. We were using Linkedin but we found it pretty limiting and we just weren’t getting the engagement or results we wanted. We chose CareNetworks.com as a partner on this project because they not only have the community building expertise, but the direct experience in our industry. That part was huge for us.”

Daily Grind Community

To learn more about what the Daily Grind has to offer, visit the site here. and browse around. If you are a marketing professional in the industry and you would like to become a member, click here to join.

About LTCAdmissionsCoach

LTCAdmissionsCoach.com, based out of Gibsonia, PA, is the fastest growing LTC marketing training company in the U.S., and now being offered in Canada. The company provides online marketing classes, lead tracking and referral management systems, consulting, and speaking engagements. For more information, visit LCTAdmissionsCoach.com.

About CareNetworks.com

To learn more about CareNetworks and the benefits of online community for your organization, visit our website and subscribe to our blog. Also, feel free to contact us anytime. Be sure to ask about our free social media readiness assessment.

One year after building our first online community for the Terrace Assisted Living Group, we have launched our new Website and two new blogs. The Website, built on the HubSpot platform, will serve as our social media hub and will help us: 1. promote our products and services 2. educate the senior living and eldercare industries on the power of social media to help grow and improve their business 3. provide information about online communities and community building.

Our Online Community and Social Media Blog will cover all things social media as it relates to our target segments (senior living, retirement communities, assisted living, long-term care, home care, hospice, dementia care). We will provide social media news and tips, interview industry leaders who are using social media to improve their business, and be the go-to guide for organizations trying to integrate social media into their business practices.

Our News Blog will cover all CareNetworks company news and announcements.

While the new CareNetworks.com is now live, the site will be undergoing some minor revisions and lots of polishing over the coming weeks. We invite you to check back frequently and provide us with feedback (we love feedback) to help us optimize the site for visitors.

We will also be issuing some formal press releases, so keep an eye out for those.

I would like to personally thank Paula Meiselman for her design work on the site. She did a fantastic job and was always there when I needed her.

Thanks, now it’s time to build some online communities.

Brian Geyser is founder and CEO of CareNetworks.com

About CareNetworks

CareNetworks enables senior living, eldercare service providers, and other care-related organizations to create a public or private branded online community for customers, care givers, family members, staff, and business partners, allowing them to interact via member profiles, blogs, forums, event calendars, private messages and other tools.  Members can share and aggregate care-related news and information, stories, tips, products, and multimedia content from across the Web.

CareNetworks offers companies a simple and cost-effective solution to the complexities of online communities, interactive marketing, real-time Websites, and social media, and provides a comprehensive way to organize and manage a company’s online presence across multiple channels like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and others.