Social Media

Silverado Senior Living and the ROI of 24/7 Chat

Posted on Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011 by Brian Geyser

I’ve been watching what Silverado Senior Living has been doing with social media for a while now, and I’ve always been a big fan of the company and the services they provide. So when I moderated a round table discussion on Social Media for Senior Living at LTC LINK in Chicago last week, I was excited that Nancy Convertito, Regional Director for Sales & Marketing for Silverado Senior Living, Hospice, and At-Home, was at the table. Nancy shared some interesting stats about Silverado’s innovative 24/7 Chat Line featured on their website. First, let me explain how it works:

When you land on Silverado’s website, a window pops up that asks if you would like to chat with live professional to get answers to your questions right now. Here’s an image of the pop-up…

If you click “yes,” you are immediately connected to a person who can answer your questions, even at 2AM when you can’t sleep because you’re trying to figure out what to do with your mother who is unsafely living at home with moderate-stage dementia. If you click “no,” the pop-up disappears and you are free to navigate the company’s website. You can also call call a toll-free number to chat with a Silverado representative about your issues 24/7.

Now, I’m not a big fan of pop-ups on any website, but this one is pretty benign, not obnoxious, and gives site visitors the ability to quickly get rid of it if they don’t want to use it. Plus, the value proposition to a site visitor is pretty compelling: find exactly what I need right now with the help of a real human being vs. spend 20 minutes looking around a website with no guarantee I’ll find what I’m looking for.

But here’s the most compelling part: Nancy shared that the Chat Line paid for itself in 7 months. Since January 2011, 350 inquiries have come through the Chat Line and 10% of those inquiries converted.

So why are so many people who visit Silverado’s website using the Chat Line? It’s because many family caregivers who are looking for the type of services Silverado offers don’t have time to futz around on a big company website. They need answers, and they need them now. They need solutions to their problems, and they want them yesterday. The Chat Line gives site visitors this option. And it’s clearly paying off for Silverado.

But this story illuminates another very important issue for the vast majority of senior living, long-term care, homecare and hospice providers (detailed in this 2009 post): your websites are obsolete, outdated, and totally ineffective. The Silverado Chat Line story shows that if you provide your site visitors with a more human experience, easy access to the information they need, and resources designed to help them make informed decisions, you will gain customers.

Your website should be strategically designed to do 4 things:

Attract new visitors
Inform site visitors
Engage site visitors
Create business value by converting site visitors to customers

The 24/7 Chat Line is helping Silverado do all of the above. Kudos to Nancy and the Silverado crew for innovating “next practices” and sharing their results with us.

To learn more about how CareNetworks call help your organization create an amazing online presence, contact us. We design and build websites and provide social media strategy and solutions to senior living, LTC, homecare, and hospice providers.

Posted in ROI, Senior Living, Social Media, Technology, Websites | 2 Comments

Feed Your Facebook: Tips for Managing Your Social Media Presence in a Time-Starved World

Posted on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011 by Brian Geyser

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.

Posted in Best Practices, Blogging, Facebook, homecare, hospice, Marketing, Social Media, strategy | Leave a comment

How Modern Social and Contextual Search Will Change Your Search Experience

Posted on Monday, May 9th, 2011 by Brian Geyser

I don’t know about you but I’m starting to like some of the things Google is doing to search. These days when I go to search for something, it’s almost as if Google knows who I am and where I’m at. The results are becoming eerily specific to my needs. In the old days (about a year ago), when I searched for “ice cream Durham,” Google would pull up a million irrelevant links about ice and cream and Durham North Carolina. Today, when I do the same search, Google gives me “Durham Dairy Serve” located in Durham, CT. Wow. that’s exactly what I was looking for! How did they do that? Does Google know that I live in Durham, Connecticut and I was looking for the phone number to Durham Dairy Serve? The answer is most likely YES.

The specificity of search these days is in part due to advances in social and contextual search. What does that mean and how does it apply to health care, home care, long-term care, or senior living? Let me give you an example:

Let’s say a prospective client is searching for “assisted living communities North Carolina”. In older versions of search, she would find a ton of links to anything related to “assisted living” and “North Carolina.” She would certainly find links to an overwhelming number of assisted living facilities, their homepage, address, phone number, and maybe a rating. In new iterations of search, she will find assisted living communities located right near her along with their address and a map, a view of their recent photos on Facebook, activity calendars, and the option to contact the facility directly, see their ranking on Yelp and CitySearch —along with photos, tweets, what your friends may have said about them in your private social networks, and a quick and simple way to compare them with other similar facilities in North Carolina.

The bottom line is that health care companies need to be paying close attention to their entire web presence (website, social sites, external ratings and reviews sites) because this is what people are going to discover when they search. If your website is out of date, if you have no social presence or one that is dormant, and if you have ratings and reviews out there that you don’t even know about – all of it can bite you when that prospective client finds you on a search engine these days.

New search technologies will most certainly make our lives easier, AND they will create great challenges and opportunities for companies who want to attract and impress a new breed of web savvy customers.

Posted in Google, Search, Social Media | Tagged contextual search, social search | Leave a comment

Children’s Hospitals Innovating on Facebook. Others, Not So Much [STUDY]

Posted on Thursday, March 3rd, 2011 by Brian Geyser

A new study published by Verasoni, a New York based marketing and PR firm, shows that among hospitals, it’s the ones caring for kids that are kicking butt on Facebook. According to the study, children’s hospitals are building community, engaging and partnering with patients and developing lasting relationships with families on THE social network faster and better than their adult counter parts. In fact, the study concludes that most hospitals are not taking advantage of the opportunities Facebook provides to build their brands and advance their mission and business objectives. The authors also argue that hospitals that do not begin to engage on the social web risk falling behind their younger patients, doctors, and nurses who were practically born with social media in their DNA.

Here are some other key findings from the study:

Hospital Facebook Pages tend to have a high degree of interaction between the hospital and members
Members frequently connect with other members facing similar challenges
Members share stories of hope and struggle – using the Page like a virtual support group
Activities ranged from patients and their families posting videos of their experiences at the hospital that demonstrated the quality of care they were receiving to how nurses, physicians or staff helped patients during their stay at the hospital
Activity by parents in support of the hospital was high
Members posted questions and concerns – giving the hospitals public-facing customer service opportunies
Facebook also allowed children’s hospitals themselves the opportunity to broadcast their accomplishments to a targeted audience that believe in the work they are doing
Patients remained engaged on the Facebook Pages long after discharge

Major Business Implications

Facebook and other social media outlets offer visitors insights into an organization’s culture and brand experience. The brand promise shines through on these emerging customer touch points. How a Facebook Page is organized, what the Page looks like, the types of messages posted, the frequency and recency of postings, and the tone of the dialog all convey certain messages about the company (positive, negative, neutral) to the visitors. There are clear business implications here. Companies can appear warm, caring, sophisticated, engaged, open, and transparent, OR, uncaring, uninterested, distant, and self-centered based on how their Facebook Page is perceived by visitors.

Industry Examples

Here are some examples of great Facebook Pages from different healthcare industry segments:

If you know of other healthcare, hospital, senior living, LTC, home care, or hospice company Facebook Pages worthy of recognition, I would love to know about them. Please share in the comments below.

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Join the CareNetworks Facebook Page to keep up to speed on emerging social technology issues related to the health and senior care industries.

Contact us to learn about how we can help your company kick butt on the social web.

Posted in Facebook, Healthcare, Hospitals, Social Media | Leave a comment

Can Facebook Revolutionize Heathcare?

Posted on Monday, February 28th, 2011 by Brian Geyser

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.

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Posted in Assisted Living, Facebook, Health Care, homecare, hospice, Senior Living, Social Media | Leave a comment

Seabury Retirement Community Talks Social Media

Posted on Monday, January 10th, 2011 by Brian Geyser

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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Seabury is a premier New England retirment community that combines wellness, active lifestyle and healthcare on 66 acres in the Bloomfield Connecticut countryside. I recently connected with Courtenay Knox, Seabury’s Social Media Coordinator, who submitted this post.

Seabury has always been on the cutting edge of technology. We created our first webpage early on in the development of the “world wide web.” In fact, fellow organizations often ask us why our website is a “.com” rather than a “.org.” The reason for this is that Seabury developed its first website when the only domain available was “.com!”

With the advent of Web 2.0 and Social Media marketing, Seabury realized that to stay on top of our field we would have to move towards a more interactive and dynamic website. We wanted to be able to engage our audience with fresh content and pertinent, timely information on successful aging. We wanted to start a conversation with the world and let them know that Seabury is an expert on aging successfully. Historically, Seabury has always done this on a local level. We host experts in the field to present lectures to our residents, we publish articles in traditional print media, and we strive to offer services based on the most up-to-date research on successful aging. Because we have so much to offer our residents, why not share it with the world via our website, Twitter, Facebook, and blogging and more? And so began our journey towards social media.

Renee Bernasconi, Seabury’s Vice President of Marketing and Communications, knew that the key to launching a dynamic website would require daily maintenance. There would have to be a point person whose responsibility would be to write a blog and respond to comments, update Seabury’s Facebook status and send out informative “tweets.” This job would require someone with good writing and communications skills. Because Renee knew I had been writing Seabury’s monthly fitness bulletin for several years, she knew I had the skills necessary to write articles and cull valuable information that would be of interest to our audience. Thus the Social Media Coordinator position was born.

Renee and I began working with our IT company to develop a fully updated, user friendly, dynamic 2.0 web site. After many months of planning, the site was launched in mid-October 2010, and continues to grow. We consider the site to be a continually evolving entity as we further develop our tabs and constantly update content. Our home page has two “Latest News” tabs that are changed biweekly. We also have direct links to our Twitter and Facebook pages, both of which are updated on a daily basis, as well as links to our Flickr and YouTube sites. Also featured on our home page is a link to our blog: “We Know Aging.”

While our foray into Social Media is still in its infancy, we anticipate extended growth over the next few years as more and more people (especially those over 50) begin to accept social networking. We hope to establish a presence online by building a branded, customized blog, creating an exciting Facebook page, and attracting high-quality followers on Twitter. Ultimately, when consumers are searching the internet using key words such as “successful aging”, “active aging”, or “expert long term care”, we hope Seabury appears at the top of the fold.

In the meantime, we will continue to develop our site and create content as if we were receiving thousands of hits per day, so that when that day does come we are fully equipped to handle the volume!

Contact Information:

Courtenay Knox
200 Seabury Drive
Bloomfield, CT. 06002
Direct phone: 860-243-6007
Main phone: 860-286-0243
Toll free phone: 1-800-340-4709
Fax: 860-243-6072
courtenayknox@seaburyretirement.com
www.seaburyretirement.com

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Posted in Senior Living, Senior Living Industry, Social Media | Leave a comment

Brookdale Senior Living and Social Media: One Year Later [INTERVIEW]

Posted on Wednesday, January 5th, 2011 by Brian Geyser

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.

Posted in Assisted Living, Facebook, Internet Marketing, LinkedIn, Recruiting Staff, Senior Living, Senior Living Industry, Social Media, strategy, Success Series, Twitter, YouTube | Leave a comment

How ‘Open Community’ Applies to Senior Living, LTC, and Home Care

Posted on Monday, November 22nd, 2010 by Brian Geyser

Here at CareNetworks, we’re taking part in the virtual book tour that our good friends Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer of SocialFish have launched to explore the concepts in their new book, Open Community: a little book of big ideas for associations navigating the social web. This post is Lindy’s take on the Open Community concept and why it’s important to you.

Building Community on the Web

We come from the association industry and for many of us “membership” people, community is old hat. It’s what we do. It’s central to our work. And yet, for some reason (actually a lot of reasons) what we know about community isn’t always translating well to building community online. Maddie and I have talked to thousands of association executives who have voiced their frustrations about the social web – from the overabundance of tools and the disorderly experimentation of staff and members, to the lack of organizational support and the unwieldy processes for monitoring and managing social media, and that’s just the beginning. It’s easy to get bogged down in the newness and the detail, and miss the bigger picture – not the 10,000-foot bigger picture, but the “just high enough to make practical sense” bigger picture.

What is “Open Community?”

So we started writing the book, and the idea that kept popping up is the concept of “Open Community.” Here’s the gist. Your Open Community is your people who are bonded by what your organization or company represents and care enough to talk to each other (hopefully about you!) online. To be clear, the Open Community concept is not about building an online community platform or internal, private social network. That could be one tactic in your arsenal, but one of the most important first steps toward building community online is accepting that your Open Community is out there, not just on your web site. Your stakeholders are connecting on their own terms in the social spaces where they spend the most time, and you need to be where they are. Sometimes, rather than hosting every conversation and leading every initiative, your company can (and should) simply be present and act as a supportive participant.

Open Community and You

The concepts we present in Open Community are important for the Senior Living, Long-Term Care and Home Care industries, too, because they get to the heart of why building community on the web can help companies like yours achieve business objectives. If you follow this blog, you already know why relationship building online is so valuable to companies and you already know that connecting with customers and prospects on the web is a smart business idea. Social sites like Facebook and Twitter are showing rocketing growth in usage among people age 50 and older (your audience) and therefore that social media sites can be a good way to interact with people in the places they are choosing to spend their time.

Engaging Your Open Community

But being able to harness what we call the “messy ecosystem” around your brand or your industry, being able to nurture and care for and engage the open community in which your staff, customers and prospects operate, those are the things that will lead to return on investment. How do you get your Open Community to rally for you – to share your ideas and content, to participate in your events or simply to spread good word-of-mouth about you. Unless you are able to build real relationships between real people, it cannot be done.

We hope our book will help you develop a good understanding of how to embrace the Open Communities around your companies – to engage them in the right way so that the full power of social media can be unleashed when you need it most.

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To purchase Open Community, click one of the following links:

To learn more about how to put Open Community to work for your company, contact us.

Posted in Facebook, Google, Internet Marketing, Online Communities, Online Community, Online Education, Senior Living, Senior Living Industry, Social Hub, Social Media, strategy | Leave a comment

How Emeritus Senior Living Tames the Social Media Beast: Part 1 [INTERVIEW]

Posted on Monday, October 25th, 2010 by Brian Geyser

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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…

Posted in Assisted Living, Case Study, Facebook, LinkedIn, Senior Living, Social Media, strategy, Success Series, YouTube | Leave a comment

Social Media Makes October 2010 Cover of Long-Term Living Magazine

Posted on Wednesday, October 20th, 2010 by Brian Geyser

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

Posted in Assisted Living, Facebook, HIPAA, Interview, Senior Living, Social Media | Leave a comment

BrightStar Care Shines Using Social Media Tools and Strategy [INTERVIEW]

Posted on Friday, July 23rd, 2010 by Brian Geyser

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.

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Posted in Best Practices, Blogging, Case Study, Facebook, HIPAA, homecare, Inbound Marketing, Internet Marketing, Interview, LinkedIn, ROI, Social Media, Stats, strategy, Success Series, Twitter, YouTube | Leave a comment

7 Things Every Senior Living, Home Care and LTC Provider Wants to Know About Social Media

Posted on Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 by Brian Geyser

I co-manage a vibrant online community for senior care marketers called the Daily Grind, and every so often, I pose a question to the community members. Back in April, 2010, I asked this: If you could ask any question about social media as it relates to our industry, what would it be? Many people responded. You can view the entire thread here. Below is a summary of some of the questions, and the answers I gave…

1. How do I find a credible vendor that I can trust that understands social media. What should I look for when selecting a vendor?

Look for a vendor that has a good track record of using social media for their own business. If the vendor is not blogging, using Twitter and Facebook, etc. successfully themselves, they cannot do a good job helping you. Also, if they tell you social media is easy and will provide huge returns, run. Finally, try to use someone with knowledge of and experience in our industry.

2. How do I overcome the IT department’s lack of support?

Education. Education. Education. IT departments need to develop a meaningful understanding of how social technologies both inside and outside the corporate firewall can benefit, and possibly harm, the company. Those of us within companies that have this knowledge need to demonstrate the transformative potential of social technologies to IT and other stakeholders. We need to champion the cause. We need to bring these tools to the right people and prove their value.

3. How do I find the time to manage social media?

The first and most obvious answer is you need to make time – you can’t afford not to. Find things you spend time doing in your week that are not working and replace them with new media initiatives. Your customers make time to get online to do research and make purchasing decisions and your competitors make time to provide your customers with information and help them with purchasing decisions. But beyond that, you need to develop a strategy that keeps you focused on the business goals of the tools you choose to use. Pull to together a team of internal folks and disperse the work load. If you need to, hire a pro to help you out.

4. We don’t have the money to invest in the development of social media. What does an on line community cost?

I can’t be more clear about this – you can’t afford not to invest some resources in social media. The longer you wait, the more invisible you become. Early adopters will have a distinct advantage in this space as time goes on. This has been proven by large companies like Zappos and Coke. If you have the right people in your organization – staff who use social technologies in their personal lives – and you dedicate some time to the cause, you can start using social media for very little up front cost.

5. What does it typically cost to start using social media?

See above. If you do it on your own, it could only costs your time. Then again, time is money, so it’s going to cost you money regardless of how you do it. Right now I’m working with a small homecare company that has chosen to “go social” using me as their guide. They are dedicating $1000 per month to the effort and together we are going to transform their online presence over the course of 6-12 months. They elected to shift dollars away from T.V. and radio ads that were not producing desired results and move that money into a social strategy. This is just one example and cost can vary. There are generally three ways to do this: 1. Do-it-Yourself (DIY), 2. Done-for-You (DFY), 3. Done-with-You (DWY). I prefer the Done-with-You approach and that’s how I work with my clients.

6. How do we get our residents families to participate in our social media?

By marketing your social sites effectively and giving them a reason to participate. First, they have to know about the sites and how to access them. Second, if you have a blog or Twitter account and all you ever do is shout about how great you are, nobody will care. You have to provide value in order for people to keep coming back. See my articles, “What Every LTC Organization Needs to Know About Their Website” and “Ten Reasons Why Your Company’s Blog Sucks” for more on this.

7. Are videos the way to go and how does it affect our SEO?

Absolutely YES to both. Video is taking over the internet and can drive tons of traffic to your site. I refer you to this article
I wrote on Brookdale Senior Living. Take a look at the video on the bottom of the post. You should also take a look at Brookdale’s YouTube Channel
- It’s awesome! They know how to rock video and are a model for how YouTube can be used by senior living/LTC companies for everything from marketing to SEO, to customer support. Finally, check out “HOW TO: Boost Your SEO with a YouTube Channel” which was just published by Mashable.

For more discussion on social media best practices for senior living, LTC and home care, join us over at Daily Grind and/or consider a free membership in ALFA’s new online community ALFA Exchange, where you can dialog with me and other pros in the Social Media Best Practices Forum.

Posted in Best Practices, Social Media | Leave a comment

How Social Media Can Empower Senior Living Companies [Case Study]

Posted on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 by Brian Geyser

I write a lot about senior living and social media here at CareNetworks and I love how social technologies are transforming the industry for the better. Case in point:

I recently discovered Senior Living Residences (SLR) via Twitter and I wanted to share what they are up to because they have a pretty advanced presence on the social web and we can learn a lot from them about how senior living companies can leverage social media for the good of the company – and their constituents. First, their website homepage (shown below) is very well designed with a good mix of relevant information, nice placement, and opportunity to connect with the company via Facebook, Linkedin, blogs, and YouTube. It also provides ample opportunity for visitors to easily share content from the page with their friends using Add This.

I love the “Unscripted Videos” section which demonstrates both the utility of YouTube and the power of “word-of-mouth” marketing. With a flip camera and a little creativity, senior living companies can produce an unlimited stream of entertaining, helpful, and informative, videos to share with the world. Done right, these videos can provide proof that you, as a company, are who you say you are.

The SLR Facebook Page is very well done. The landing page highlights their various senior living communities with contact information and links to each community. They also showcase the SLR CEU Program and list employment opportunities using separate tabs for each. Content from their various blogs is posted automatically to their Facebook Page along with videos from YouTube and calendar events from across the entire company.

But my favorite aspect of the site is the Alzheimer’s Care Blog. This is a fantastic resource for members of the SLR community (residents, family members, staff, prospects, etc.) and the general community who are caring for people with dementia. Content for the blog is produced by staff from across the company’s ecosystem – which is a fantastic example of how to leverage champions from within your organization to create great content for your various social sites.

Social media empowers senior living and other senior care organizations by giving them tools to connect, communicate, and share in ways never before possible. These tools provide an opportunity for companies to engage their audience, build trust and credibility, and be part of the conversations that are taking place both on and off the Web.

There are many more examples of senior living, LTC, homecare, and hospice providers who are pioneering the use of social media on my blog. If your organization is using social media successfully and you would like to be featured on this blog, contact us. Is your company using social media? If not, why not?

Posted in Employment Branding, Facebook, hospice, LinkedIn, Recruiting Staff, Senior Living, Social Media, strategy, Success Series | Leave a comment

Social Media Best Practices for Senior Living and LTC [STATS]

Posted on Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 by Brian Geyser

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.

Related Posts:

Posted in ALFA, Assisted Living, Best Practices, Social Media, Stats | Leave a comment

CareNetworks Community Wins ALFA Best of the Best Award!

Posted on Friday, May 7th, 2010 by Brian Geyser

I am excited to announce that Terrace Communities Online (TCO), our first ever senior living social media project, has just won a Best Practice Award from the Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA).

TCO was launched back in September of 2008 as a kind of “senior living social experiment” when I approached Robert Murano, COO of Terrace Communities with a proposal to build a private online community for his seven assisted living residences. The idea was to use social networking and social collaboration technology to connect the Terrace Communities ecosystem together under a branded virtual umbrella – allowing residents, family members, staff, referral sources, partners, and other stakeholders to connect, communicate, collaborate and share. Since then, 19,000 unique visitors have made 50,000 visits to TCO* and the community keeps growing.

Here’s a SlideShare of the full article in the May/June issue of Assisted Living Executive. The Terrace Communities piece is on the last page. If you would rather read the article on the ALFA site, click here. Enjoy!

2010 ALFA Best of the Best

View more documents from bgeyser.

*These statistics are different from the stats quoted in the ALFA article because data give to ALFA for the article were incorrect. We mistakenly left out date ranges from our Google analytics report when we reported to ALFA. Ooops!

Check out some other cool posts:

Brian Geyser, APRN-BC, MSN is a clinician, consultant, educator, blogger, online community manager, social media strategist, 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.

Posted in ALFA, Online Community, Social Media, Technology | Leave a comment

10 Things Social Media Can Do For Senior Living and LTC

Posted on Friday, April 23rd, 2010 by Brian Geyser

Senior living communities are dynamic, social places. Every senior living community offers a unique blend of people, environment, activity, culture, and energy. Whether you’re an active adult retirement community, an assisted living residence, a CCRC, or a skilled nursing facility, new media tools (like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs) and community platforms (like Groupsite.com and Ning) can help you put your physical community’s style and personality on display to the world.

But, they can also help you do a whole lot more. Here are just some of the many things these Web 2.0 technologies can help your organization do:

Set yourself apart from the competition. Most senior living companies are not yet using social media, but the ones who are will have a leg up as social media goes mainstream.
Expand your online reach and drive traffic to your website. Google now uses a social media index in its search algorithm. A senior living company with little or no social media presence is increasingly irrelevant to Goolge.
Engage prospects, nurture leads, and drive sales. Social media tools allow you to have a 2-way conversation with the people you are trying to attract – seniors and their adult children.
Publish company news as it happens and create buzz for community news, activities and events. Now anyone in your organization can post information to your website in real-time, keeping content relevant, fresh, and sharable.
Post information about jobs and recruit top talent. Job seekers are increasingly using social media as a way to find jobs and connect with companies in the senior living and long-term care industries.
Gain new business insights and stay on top of best practices. Everyday, senior living professionals from around the country share their thoughts and experiences via Twitter, Facebook, and other online communities.
Build better relationships. Build your professional network, develop relationships with potential partners, connect with new referral sources, and enhance existing relationships.
Provide a platform for word-of-mouth. Allow your best residents/families to share their love for you with the world. Give them a place to post information, perspectives, stories, and tips.
Provide support. Help residents and family members get the answers and support they need in a faster, more efficient way.
Share best practices. Share knowledge and insights across your organization in real time and keep that knowledge stored forever in a searchable database. Provide a place to capture and exchange knowledge and information – positioning your company as an experienced expert and trusted resource.

Related Posts:

Posted in Customer Service, Employment Branding, Senior Living, Social Media | Leave a comment

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