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

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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?

Employer Branding: Using Social Media To Recruit Senior Care Staff

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Here's a great social media/networking story for you. Today I was contacted by Jodi Bach of Pacific Resources, a company that does recruiting for the senior living industry. She found me via my Linkedin profile. She was interested in what we do here at CareNetworks and wondered if, in addition to helping senior living and eldercare companies connect with customers, we did any "employment or employer branding." I was intrigued by her question, but had to confess that I wasn't sure exactly what employer branding was. She explained that employer branding is essentially marketing companies to potential employees, as opposed to marketing to potential customers. Jodi went on to say that, in the senior living and eldercare industries, this makes a lot of sense because companies are often trying to recruit from a small pool of qualified candidates (she should know). After she explained it, I realized I knew exactly what employer branding was (duh). I just didn't realize it was called employer branding. And yes, we do help with that, however, it's not something we have focused on, but maybe it should be. We did cover some elements of employer branding and social media in this post.

Jodi also mentioned that some of the larger senior living companies like Sunrise and Kisco are trying to use social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter to boost their brands and build a following of potential employees (I'm now following both on Twitter).

Social media changes the game of employer branding because it allows current employees and customers to throw their two cents in to the mix and opens up a dialog between companies and job candidates like never before.

To test how employer branding combined with social media might work for a home care company, we will be adding a job board to the Living Well Community site where prospective employees can view job openings, submit an online resume, ask questions, and get feedback from company executives. Living Well, a company that provides concierge style "at-home" assisted living services is in startup mode and they want to attract exceptional caregivers in a highly competitive market (San Francisco). Using their online community to attract, engage, and build relationships with prospective employees will surely be an interesting endeavor to watch.