strategy
Let Your Customers Share Their Stories on Facebook
We continue to see social media superstars emerge from Children’s Hospital Boston. Here’s why they are simply the best in the business…
So, is your organization encouraging families to tell their stories on your Facebook Page? It’s all about the stories. Give them a platform to share their stories and it will serve you well.
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.
Brookdale Senior Living and Social Media: One Year Later [INTERVIEW]
Just over a year ago, I interviewed Eric Marsh over at Brookdale Senior Living for the post Nation’s Largest Senior Living Company Embraces Social Media. Because it’s one of our most popular posts, and I wanted to see how things have progressed since then, I contacted Eric to get some insights. Here’s what he had to say.
Q: How long have you guys been doing SM as a company?
We have been using social media for two years. We began with a single Facebook fan page, and have grown to what we have currently — two Facebook fan pages, a Twitter account, a LinkedIn profile and a Youtube channel.
Q: Now that you’ve been using social media for quite some time, what is your total “reach” on all of your social sites?
Her are our numbers:
13,000 e-mail subscribers
328 followers on Twitter
1,138 Facebook likes across our two fan pages
Q: Has there been any change in how your company social media accounts are managed? In other words, has your SM team grown or changed from 1 year ago? How?
Our team has grown. We added an additional person who helps us manage social media, among other things. Early in 2010 we added a Facebook page for our Ultimate Chef program. Then, during each Ultimate Chef America event we blog live with comments about the competition, photos and videos.
We also added Facebook recommend buttons to all of our pages. Doing this is just another way to get our messaging out and gives our users the ability to show their friends that they support Brookdale Senior Living.
Q: How much time is dedicated to your social media efforts now compared with 1 year ago?
It’s difficult to say exactly how much time we are spending for social media. An educated estimate would be a few hours a week. We are spending a bit more time on it this year since we are now managing the Ultimate Chef America fan page as well.
Q: Has your social strategy changed at all over the past year?
I wouldn’t say our strategy changed, we just have more to manage now, which shows growth and progression. Having the Facebook recommend buttons has been positive; we have been pleased with the results thus far.
Q: Do any of your local AL communities have their own social media accounts/blogs/etc.? If so, who manages them? Who monitors/moderates them?
Our corporate policy dictates that all social media be managed by the corporate office. We allow our communities to add content to our corporate pages, but we moderate it and control it.
We understand there is value in having separate accounts for our communities but since we are such a large corporation, we have challenges that many senior living companies don’t experience. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for us to manage 560 social media accounts.
Q: In our last interview, you mentioned that several of your communities were implementing MyWayVillage. Have you found that product to be useful? How?
Yes, in our initial pilot communities, we have found that Connected Living at Brookdale powered by MyWay Village is a resounding success. We have more than 45 percent engagement on the portal, the classes are some of the best attended, and the ambassadors provide high tech, high touch for our residents and families to live a connected life. The ability to stay socially connected is very important in the overall health and wellness of our residents.
Q: Have you been able to capture leads using social media? If so, provide some data and examples of how it works.
Through the last six months we have data that shows users connecting to our Web site through our Facebook pages and submitting lead information. Although it’s limited at this time, we are excited to see social media functioning as a lead generator.
Q: You mentioned in the last interview that you use social media for recruiting. How’s that going?
Our recruiting team continues an active presence on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The importance of social media in recruiting and networking continues to grow and challenge perceptions and opinions. Our social media policy, use, strategy and recruiting methodology continue to evolve with our learning and experience. As we continue to cultivate our use of social media, it will become a more important tool in the recruiters’ tool box as well.
Q: Have you been able to attribute any move-ins directly to SM? Do you have any data or comments on ROI?
We have not been able to attribute any move-ins yet, but we are excited about the possibilities since we have seen leads begin to trickle in.
Q: Can you share some data on how SM has impacted your overall web presence (i.e. increased website traffic, SEO enhancements, improved reach, etc.)
We have certainly seen an improved reach through our efforts on Facebook. Our Ultimate Chef America competition has been a great way to broaden the scope of our marketing efforts. People may not be familiar with Brookdale but we have been able to reach them through local efforts. The same goes for the recommend buttons.
Q: Do you think social media enhances your more traditional marketing/PR initiatives/campaigns? If so, how?
It certainly enhances it. We post every press release and article that our Public Relations Manager, Holly Botsford, writes for our Web site. These postings represent another avenue for reaching those who may not be familiar with us, were it not for social media. Social media also facilitates conversations and “buzz” about our company and our product offerings.
Q: What are the downsides you’ve experienced with using SM? Do you have any horror stories or crisis incidents you are able to share?
We have been fortunate that we have not had any horror stories. The only downside I would say is time and resources. Ideally, we would love to have an entire team do nothing but social media but in the current business landscape that just isn’t possible. However, I do think we do a great job with what we have.
Q: Do you have social media policies in place for your employees? For your site visitors and community members?
Our corporate policy dictates that our associates are not permitted to represent our company through their individual social media accounts. We want to make sure that all our messaging comes through our corporate office. We do this to ensure that our messaging and branding is consistent.
Q: Do you have any interesting stories to tell related social media and residents, family members, or staff?
One of our favorite uses of social media is to promote the heart-warming stories of our residents and our associates. We think it is an important message for people to see seniors making purposeful contributions and having life-changing experiences. We also firmly believe that “our people make the difference,” and enjoy having a different venue for sharing their stories and accomplishments.
Q: Which one SM tool do you think is the best and why?
I prefer Facebook. I think it’s the best way to start conversations and receive comments. I also like how when a user clicks a Recommend button, the information goes on their profile so the message provides value-added visibility for the company.
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For more interveiws like this one, read all of our Social Media Success Series posts. To learn more about how social media can help your organization, contact us.
How ‘Open Community’ Applies to Senior Living, LTC, and Home Care
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:
- Open Community on Amazon
- Open Community on Kindle
- Open Community on SocialFish
- Open Community on Engage365
To learn more about how to put Open Community to work for your company, contact us.
How Emeritus Senior Living Tames the Social Media Beast: Part 1 [INTERVIEW]
This post is part of our Social Media Success Series, which features interviews with innovative and fearless socially networked senior living, home care, and LTC companies that are achieving positive business results using media and other social technologies. To have your organization included in this series, contact us.
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Most senior living, long-term care, and home care companies across the country have either started dabbling in social media, or have at least come to realize that it’s something they must start thinking about. With boomers and seniors flocking to social networks, and sites like Facebook and Twitter being adopted by every demographic, these companies are being forced to go where no senior care provider has gone before.
But how can senior care companies leverage these tools to best serve their business interests and their customers? What tools work best and what strategies are proving to be most fruitful? To answer these and other questions, we go right to the very creative people and innovative companies in the industry, like Emeritus Senior Living, who are helping to define how social technologies work in the senior care space.
Emeritus Senior Living (ESL) is currently the nation’s largest assisted living (AL) provider with over 460 AL communities in 43 states. Their services range from Alzheimer’s and memory care, to skilled nursing, retirement living, independent living, and rehabilitation services. I recently caught up with Chris Kim, ESL’s eMarketing Specialist, and asked him how Emeritus leverages social media. Due to the length of the interview, I broke it up into two parts. Here’s what Chris had to say:
Q: When did Emeritus start using social media, how did you get started, and what were your initial objectives?
We started our initial social media efforts back in June of 2009. Like many companies utilizing social media for the first time, we first had to really organize our thoughts and brainstorm some ideas on how we can best utilize social media as a tool. I came on board with Emeritus as the online marketing specialist in July of 2009 and started putting together a general strategy around social media. We knew right off the bat that social media shouldn’t be used as a marketing venue to convert leads, but rather we took on an approach to use social media to engage with our customer. The questions we asked were “what kind of content do our customers like to see? How do we engage with our viewers? How do we take the feedback provided by our viewers and leverage to our benefit in creating marketing initiatives?
It took a little while to get things rolling but soon our objectives really became clear. Our main goal is to use our social media outlets for brand reputation management, build an online presence, and build a reputation of being an authoritative figure in the industry. If you look at our website, we’ve continually been building out our resource section with a glossary, guides, various resources to not only help residents and potential customers, but to draw in those who may be simply looking for some information. By utilizing our social media outlets to really promote these new resources, we were able to build a following.
Likewise, we found that our social media profiles created a great opportunity to connect with our employees out in the field, as well as build relationships with 3rd party partners who help promote some of our great content and resources we provide on our social media sites.
Q: What social media tools do you currently use? I see you have a corporate blog, Facebook, and Twitter. Do you have others? Do any of your individual communities have their own? If not, why not?
We are currently using Facebook and Twitter as our main social media venues. We do have a corporate blog that we update regularly with resources, events from communities, as well as our Brain Health Blog we run in partnership with Dr. Paul Nussbaum, a leading expert in brain health.
We also have a LinkedIn profile that is closely managed and run by our human resources department. This is to really connect with employees as well as 3rd party vendors who we may work with in various ways.
Likewise, our YouTube channel is something we recently started building in. In partnership with Dr. Vicki Rackner, an expert in doctor-patient relations, we are working towards creating a resource video library that touches on topics from care giving, health, and other topics. We also work with other departments at Emeritus to promote videos for employee candidates and to provide a visual look at our company culture.
As for Facebook and Twitter for our AL communities – We currently encourage all of our communities to use our corporate Emeritus Facebook Page instead of creating their own. We found that we get great engagement from viewers when we post more localized resources and events on our corporate Facebook Page. It really provides for an online community that is not just for corporate marketing purposes, but does a great job of reaching out to the local markets as well. Likewise, we realize that Facebook and Twitter provide many ways for current or previous customers and employees to respond to occasional negative feedback on our services. We want this to be as open as possible. We feel that by having a centralized profile where anyone can write their experience, we can address these issues openly and really show that we care about the feedback. We manage our social media outlets closely to make sure all issues are addressed.
Q: There seems to be quite a bit of fan participation on your Facebook Page. How do you make that happen?
When we first started our Facebook page, our main goal was to get our fans to participate and give us feedback as often as possible. We found that something as simple as directly asking our fans to give us feedback on various topics definitely helped. On any given resource, news article, or event we post, we try to ask what their thoughts are on that topic. For example, we provide a brain health assessment test on our website that gives visitors a quick assessment on how healthy their brain is. What we’ll typically do is promote the brain health assessment test on our social media sites and end the promotional statement by asking participants to share what score they received. Our viewers are genuinely interested in what we post, our job is to get them to tell us what their thoughts are on what we post. By doing so, we’re actually able to adjust our strategy accordingly by posting topics that we’ve found are more popular.
Another thing we strive for is being current with our communities’ events and being timely with our updates. Being timely is very important as we receive great participation and engagement from our fans after an event at a community. For example, say a community hosts an Alzheimer’s related event. We’ve found that people who attend the events follow our Facebook Page and are happy to see photos and event details – and they will often engage with us.
We also run contests on our Facebook page pretty regularly. On a seasonal/quarterly basis, our marketing team creates a contest around a topic that we feel are seasonally appropriate. For example, we had a very successful contest this past Valentine’s Day by asking participants to share a story of how they or their parents met each other. We had some great stories with that one! It is such a great way to get fans to engage with us, and it also doesn’t hurt that its free! We usually get a nice kick in number of fans during these contests.
Q: Who manages your corporate social media accounts? Do you have a social media team? How much time per week do they spend on SM?
Our social media accounts are all managed by me. We do not have a specified social media team but I work very closely with our marketing team, as well as the communities to obtain the best resources, events, and news stories to post on our social media. Social Media is really only a small part of our online marketing initiative so I don’t spend too much time on it. Perhaps a few hours per week. It really helps that I have the support of our marketing team to always provide photos and fresh resources to provide!
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In Part 2 of the interview, you’ll learn about ESL’s total online reach, lead generation results, ROI, SEO, how social media enhances ESL’s traditional marketing efforts, social media downsides, and policy issues. Be sure to subscribe to our blog via RSS or email to make sure you don’t miss it.
Have you seen the CareNetworks YouTube video? Check it out and share with your friends…
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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How Social Media Works in Home Care [CASE STUDY]
Back in September 2009, I interviewed Noelle Kurth, Corporate Communications Director (and social media marketing machine) for At Home Personal Care based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. The article, “Home Care Company Uses Twitter to Build Brand Awareness and More,” is one of our most popular posts. At that time, Noelle was helping the company design and build a new website and social media hub to replace their traditional brochure-style website.
Recently I decided to check in with Noelle to see how the new site was serving her and the company. Here’s what she had to say:
Thanks for checking in! Wow, our new site has definitely served us well over the last 4-5 months!
When creating the new site, I knew we had to utilize a “contact form” in order to capture data for our leads. This has been the biggest difference. Users can fill out our specific form to include fields like who is in need of care, care level, location, email, phone, etc. Then I can distribute the leads based on location and our care managers can follow up on them. Most recently, our Utah office turned a web lead into a $5,000 a month client!
I have been working diligently at driving traffic to our site and keeping our content “fresh” with new articles, videos, etc. We have seen definite improvements in our Utah and Texas market as far as SEO. I use Google Analytics to track progress. In 4 ½ months, we have had 16,015 page views with an average of 4:23 seconds time on site. 76.63% are new visitors and we have a nice mix of traffic coming from direct, search engines, and referring sites. I use link building tactics, social media, and our email campaigns to help promote the site. I have also redesigned most of our promotional items and print material to include our web address. Some of our material did not have it included previously.
I also implemented some online web “contests.” We partnered with a National Gift Basket Company and hold different contests depending on the holiday or time of year. During our Mothers Day Contest, we saw a 700% spike in traffic during the course of the contest, which was about a month. Each market promotes the contest with press releases, social media, and general networking. The Gift Company also promotes the contest on their site and social media outlets, so it’s a win-win. We do other fun things like “Caregiver of the month” etc. and promote with social media.
Not only have our patients and families commented on how well designed the site is, but also our referring partners and community alliances. I have even had competitors comment on our site. Its all very exciting and we are happy with the results thus far.
- Noelle
Now for a look at the new site compared to the old one…
OLD SITE
NEW SITE
The new AHPC website incorporates a search engine, contact forms, social bookmarking and sharing capability, a blog, and ample opportunity to engage visitors on various social outposts like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
Hats off to Noelle and the AHPC team for designing a great site that serves as both a resource destination and a social media hub for visitors and a lead generator and relationship builder for the company. As you can see from Noelle’s note, positive results do not come easy. She spends a ton of time nurturing the hub and it’s various outposts, creating content, building partnerships, monitoring for comments and inquiries, and designing engaging campaigns that – like gravity – pull people into the site’s orbit. So, if you think you’re simply going to launch a Facebook page and have a volunteer or intern manage it for one hour per week and suddenly get results, think again. Noelle is a skilled social media practitioner with all of the qualities necessary to help her company succeed in this socially networked world.
If you don’t have a social media rock star like Noelle Kurth at your senior living, home care, or LTC company, but you want to leverage social media for your business, contact us, we may be able to help. And yes, that is a call to action;-)
Kudos to Colby Wright of CW Design for his work on AHPC site.
Related Posts:
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?
How Social Media Can Empower Senior Living Companies [Case Study]
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?
Senior Living and Social Media: Time to Take the Plunge?
In case you missed it, the cover story in the March 2010 issue of Provider Magazine is all about how retirement communities, nursing facilities, assisted living residences and CCRCs are beginning to discover the operational and marketing benefits of social media – something I’ve been writing about for almost two years. I’ve embedded the entire article below for your viewing pleasure, but here are some of the highlights:
Ignore Social Media at Your Own Peril
- The internet is playing an increasingly important role in the lives of baby boomers caring for sick or elderly loved ones. Social media and social networks are changing the way people learn and make decisions.
- Your brand is no longer what you say it is, it’s what others say it is. Social media helps companies learn about their stakeholders and their priorities – how they make decisions and what they value.
- Your competition is already in the game. An increasing number of senior living communities are using Facebook and other social tools to keep residents and families connected and to enhance corporate communications.
- Despite the above fact, there is still a misconception among many senior living executives and long-term care providers that social media tools would not be used by residents, family members, or prospects.
- Baby boomers who are seeking care for a loved one value word-of-mouth recommendation, expert opinions, and trusted brands – all of which can be enhanced using social tools.
How To Start
- First off, don’t let fear stop you. Social media is a process, not an event. It’s always better to be part of the conversation. It does not replace traditional relationship-building, marketing, PR, or communications – it augments and enhances them.
- Start with a clear strategy. Answer the questions: who are you trying to reach, what are your goals, how are you going achieve them, who is going to do the work, what kinds of policies do you need in place, and how are you going to measure success.
- Consider your audience: residents, staff, family members, referral sources, business partners, prospects, potential donors, potential employees, the media, legislators, and other possible stakeholders.
- Consider hiring a pro. You have a brand and a reputation to protect. Delegating social media to an intern, in experienced staff member, or volunteer could be a costly mistake.
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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:
Why Senior Living and Long-Term Care Companies Need Google Places [Video]
When people begin the process of finding and researching senior living, eldercare, homecare or long-term care options, chances are, at some point they turn to Google. Google has a great free tool for businesses called Google Places
that allows local companies to take command of their listings on Google search results, keep track of traffic stats, customize their listing on Google Maps and more. If you’re not already using it, I suggest you give give it a try. Here’s a short video explaining the service:
Social Media, Risk, And Policies: Free White Paper By Social Fish
My good friends at Social Fish, Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer, recently published a fantastic white paper titled “Social Media, Risk, and Policies for Associations” – along with Croydon Consulting. While the publication is directed at associations and non-profits, there are many parallels in the senior living, retirement community, and long-term care worlds. If you’ve been trying to put together a social media policy for your company, this is a go-to document that will be a big help.
Many of the biggest concerns for companies in the senior living and long-term care space about adopting social media are related to privacy, HIPAA, and risk management issues. While the definitive guide book for social media policy in our industry has yet to be written, this white paper provides us with a good place to start, and will surely be used as a reference when it is written.
Congrats to Maddie and Lindy at Social Fish for a great piece of work! Here it is for your viewing pleasure: Social Media, Risk, and Policies for Associations
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.
Social Media Strategy: Learn How The Red Cross Does It
In my recent post on social media and HIPAA, I added a couple of resources to help you develop your own social media strategy. One of those resources included a link to the Red Cross Social Media Handbook, which includes a full PDF version of the handbook, an online communications guideline, and and a nice slide presentation that wraps it all together. The information covers the Red Cross social media strategy, national social media presence, a reference for how to create your own social media presence, social media best practices, and much more. If you’re thinking about getting into social media, or need to beef up your current social media strategy, these tools offer are a good reference for you. Here is the slide presentation. Let me know what you think.
How Senior Living & Eldercare Companies Can Build A Winning Social Media Team
Senior living and eldercare service providers who dabble in social media quickly realize that, in order to do it right, they need a small internal crew of Web savvy staffers who can manage and be responsible for the organization’s social media efforts. Just check out any of my recent interviews with industry organizations using social media to prove my point. Even if you decide to hire a pro to do some of the work for you, people inside the organization still need to be involved. Here are a few ways to build your internal social media team without breaking the bank:
- Identify your crew. Look for people from different departments (admin., marketing, recreation, nursing, social services, food services, dementia care) who are already using social media in their daily lives (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.) and who would be jazzed about helping your organization get into it, or get better at it.
- Recruit your best staff. Try to get your stars from each department involved, even if they’re not all social media savvy. Include your company’s social connectors, like your receptionist and your popular direct care staff, in the mix.
- Promote a social culture. Let everyone from staff to customers to partners know about your social media strategy, empower them to get involved, and give them tools to do it.
- Participate yourself. Top managers and senior leaders of the organization must participate on a regular basis, even if just once a week. It’s hard to get your staff involved, engaged and excited if you’re not stepping up too. Plus, you want to have the perspective of senior leaders added to the mix.
- Communicate expectations. Decide what you expect from each member of the team and put it in writing. Make sure each member is able to dedicate a little time each day or each week to meeting the expectations.
- Identify a social media manager. One person within the organization should ultimately be responsible for all social media activity, including posting content, monitoring social media outposts, and responding to company-related activity. The marketing person may be a good choice. Sometimes it makes sense to have two co-managers. You can also hire an external pro to do some of this for you, but you will still need a point person within your company to work with the pro. To get a sense of what a social media manager does, check out this list.
- Cover yourself first. Have policies and guidelines in place so everyone knows what they can and cannot do online. Make sure you address HIPAA in your policies.
- Measure progress. Set goals with time lines and develop ways to ensure that you are achieving them. Here are a few resources for measuring social media success:
- Social Media Success Doesn’t Start With ROI
- KDPaine’s PR Measurement Blog
- STATS: 84% Of Social Media Programs Don’t Measure ROI (make sure to check out all the comments on this post for some goodies!)
Getting Professional Help
For some organizations, it may make sense to hire a pro to do the heavy lifting. The benefits to having an outside seasoned professional on your team can far outweigh the costs. Their experience, objectivity, technical skill, and guidance can be invaluable in a social media world that just keeps changing. Just make sure the person has a verifiable social media and online community building track record. Ideally, the person would also have direct experience in the industry and segment your company belongs to. For more about professional social media services to our industry, visit carenetworks.com.
Oh, and you may want to aviod this guy:
Related Posts
- Online Communities: Let Your Best employees Do The Marketing For You
- What Is A Social Media Expert? [Video] Too Funny!
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.