Posted by Brian Geyser on Wed, Oct 28, 2009 @ 12:00 PM
Here's a great example of a senior living company building an online community using a blog as their platform. Beacon Hill Retirement Community, located in Lombard, Illinois, recently set up and launched a resident-owned "online magazine" called "Let's Talk" built on the popular blogging platform WordPress. The blog allows residents (average age of 86) to publish multimedia content to the site including articles, videos, photos, menus, polls, and more.
According to the marketing firm that helped Beacon Hill set up the blog, nearly 1500 visitors have visited the site to date. Fresh content is added to the site over 50 times per month with an average of 23 feature stories designed to appeal to seniors and their adult children along with other items geared to resident's interests. A Beacon Hill resident committee helps steer and develop content by telling management what they want to read, link to, write themselves; and also how to promote the site to other residents, peers and family members.
Management is also helping to promote the use of the site. They have installed two computers in common areas that are dedicated to Let's Talk; they've added special suggestion boxes in the dining areas; they promote the site in the monthly newsletter; and local TV stations have apparently picked up on the story.
Beacon Hill's marketing firm created the site and assists with community engagement, content creation, site management, evaluation metrics and strategy. According to the firm, Let's Talk is becoming as popular with the resident's as Nintendo Wii and the site is helping with marketing to prospects.
This is just another example of what the future holds for senior living and eldercare as more and more seniors take to the social web and social media marketing moves into the mainstream.
To learn more about how online community and social media can benefit your senior living, homecare, or eldercare company, visit CareNetworks.com. To ensure you continue to get great articles and news like this delivered as it's published, subcribe to our blog.
Related Articles
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.
Posted by Brian Geyser on Fri, Oct 23, 2009 @ 01:33 PM
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.
Posted by Brian Geyser on Wed, Oct 21, 2009 @ 05:01 PM
Having trouble getting noticed online? Feeling depressed about your social media failings? Overwhelmed with social media overload? This new drug just may help...Too Funny!
Posted by Brian Geyser on Wed, Oct 21, 2009 @ 04:26 PM
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:
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
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.
Posted by Brian Geyser on Wed, Oct 21, 2009 @ 09:22 AM
Am I living in the dark? We don't have T.V. in our house (by choice) so maybe you've all seen this, but I just ran across it and had to post. Not only is the trailer cool and the seniors in it an inspiration, but they have a fantastic online community built on Ning too! Gotta Dance is an independent documentary film about the senior dance group, The New Jersey NetSationals, and it's been getting rave reviews. Check out the trailer below and let me know what you think.
Find more videos like this on Gotta Dance With Us
Posted by Brian Geyser on Sun, Oct 18, 2009 @ 07:24 PM
One question I'm always asked about when it comes to health care or senior care and social media is, "What about HIPAA?" Online privacy and security are important issues, especially on the new social Web. But I have good news for the those folks in health care, senior care, home care, hospice, and dementia care who want to start using social media but fear HIPAA: It's not as complicated as you think. In fact, it's all about common sense. Below I provide a brief overview of the main issues, three examples of health care/senior living organizations effectively using social media without violating HIPAA, and some resources for developing your own social media and online communications policies.
HIPAA & Social Media
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires that a patient's identity and personal health information be protected (also called Protected Health Information, or PHI). Health care providers who violate HIPAA can face stiff penalties, including fines up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment for up to 10 years for knowingly misusing individually identifiable health information. As a result, many care-related organizations shy away from deploying social media, blogs, and online communities due to fear of HIPAA violations. This is unfortunate as these organizations are missing out on the many opportunities and benefits that social technologies offer.
Senior living companies, homecare agencies, skilled nursing facilities, hospitals and the like, should feel free to engage in social media - as long as mechanisms to secure PHI are employed. Information posted to blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, or online communities by health care companies should be prepared for public consumption and each organization engaging in social media should have policies and guidelines related to social media and online communications in place prior to deploying these technologies. Here are three examples of health care and senior care organizations using social media, as well as some social media policies and online communications guidelines for your reference:
Innovis Health
Innovis Health is a non-profit hospital and health care organization based out of Fargo North Dakota. Innovis has a blog (shown below) plus Twitter, Facebook (show below), YouTube, and Flikr accounts. On the blog, Innovis publishes hospital news and general health news. This content is then syndicated out to their Twitter and Facebook accounts. The blog also features a Twitter feed - showing Innovis Twitter activity in real-time. The Innovis YouTube channel features hospital commercials and local news coverage. Their Flikr account displays photos of their various facilities, their staff, and marketing images from different marketing campaigns. This complement of social media tools allows Innovis to broadcast their message, engage a following, and drive traffic back to their website.
There's very little patient-specific information on any of their social media properties, however, the blog does feature two stories about babies that were born at the hospital during a March 2009 flood, including parent names and, in one case, a photo of the new parents with their infant. The assumption here is that the parents gave Innovis specific written permission to publish these stories (a must if you plan to publish PHI or patient identity).
Innovis Health Blog
Innovis Health Facebook Page
Children's Hospital L.A.
Children's Hospital L.A. actually encourages patients and families to tell their stories on the hospital website. The way they work within HIPPA rules is by employing a 3-step process where the person submitting the story must:
- Review a "Use and Access" Statement
- Review the hospital HIPAA policy
- Fill out a secure online form where the story, images, and any links are uploaded to and reviewed by hospital staff for approval prior to being posted to the site for public viewing
Children's Hosptial L.A. "Share Your Story" Page
Children's hospital L.A. "Use & Access" Statement
This is a shrewd business move on the hospital's part because it allows them to publish vetted positive stories from actual patients - which clearly has marketing benefits - without violating HIPAA.
Terrace Communities
Terrace Communities is a group of seven assisted living residences located in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Florida. Terrace uses a member-only, public facing branded online community to connect residents, staff, and family members from all seven facilities. Members have unique profile pages and can participate in discussions, post to the group blog, add to the calendar, and upload photos to the galleries. Below you can see the community homepage with a photo of a Terrace resident and her son prominently displayed.
Terrace Communities
Notice that, like Children's Hospital L.A., Terrace Communities encourages their members to interact and post content to the community website. Also, as you can see from the screenshot below, Terrace regularly posts photos of and stories about residents, family members, and staff to their community site. One difference here is that residents of Terrace communities are NOT considered or referred to as "patients." Therefore, while privacy and information security are issues for Terrace, HIPAA is not a major concern. Terrace does have each resident and family sign a generic photo release form allowing them to publish photos on their website and in marketing materials.
Terrace Communities (Cont.)
Conclusion
Blogs, social media, and online communities can be powerful tools for organizations to broadcast news and information, as well as engage prospects and customers. The vast majority of what health care and senior care organizations publish using social technologies has nothing to do with PHI. As long as organizations take proper measures to ensure that Protected Health Information is kept private and secure there's nothing to fear. If you are going to publish patient photos or stories, get a written release. Of course, it's always possible that a rogue employee who doesn't follow the rules can violate HIPAA, but that can happen offline even more easily than online - and should not be a reason to avoid getting into social media. Additionally, proper social media management allows companies to monitor posted content and quickly remove anything inappropriate. The following resources can help you get started developing your own social media policies.
Resources
Related Posts
References
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.
Posted by Brian Geyser on Tue, Oct 06, 2009 @ 09:24 AM
What? Why?
If there's one thing every senior living company needs to have on their Website right now, its a blog. Why? First, a blog allows you to easily post dynamic content to your site, broadcast it across the Web for free, and puts your company on the social media grid. Second, your competitors are doing it. Third, your customers are all over it. Forth, done right, your blog will supercharge your SEO, establish you as a trusted resource, and drive prospects, potential partners, and potential employees to your Website. If you want proof, check out this interview with SeniorsforLiving.com. And finally, without one, you will become invisible online.
Explain.
Every day, boomers with elderly parents, caregivers seeking senior living or eldercare solutions, and skilled employees looking for a good company to work for use the social Web and new media to search for answers and opportunities. Your blog is the place that can (and should) provide them with the information, advice, tips, resources, knowledge, skills, help, support, and opportunities they need. Unless your Website has social components (like a blog), its basically an online brochure with nothing more than canned marketing messages, fancy photos, and information about you. These days, that's not enough. You need more, and a good place to start is a blog.
How?
Setting up a blog is fairly easy. For companies on a serious budget, I recommend using WordPress, a free blogging platform that has all the features a company needs to get started. The more challenging aspect of having a blog, of course, is the blogging itself. Blogging takes time and has to be done right. But in this new world of social media, you can't afford not to do it.
Here are 14 tips to help you succeed with a company blog:
- Pick the "Main Blogger." Someone in the company has to be responsible for posting to and maintaining the blog. That person should be someone who you trust to be the online voice of your company or organization. Staff like your conceirge, activity director, or marketer may be a good choice. Senior executives should contribute to the blog at least monthly. If you can get your department heads to post one article a month, that would be ideal.
- Be human. Write as though you're writing to a family member, not a faceless mass of people. Use your postings to connect with
your audience through your own (or your company's) style and personality. Let YOU come through. Write in the first person, using "I" and
write almost like you're having a conversation. Speak to your specific
audience and always keep them in mind as you write.
- Be Helpful. I hate to say it, but nobody really cares about the fancy messaging on your company Website. Every senior living company Website says pretty much the same thing. So on your company blog, you want to give people fresh, honest, unique content and actionable information they can use today to make informed decisions and get stuff done.
- Break information into chunks. People typically don't like to read long
drawn-out paragraphs. Break up your
paragraphs, use bullet points, use lists, and stay on topic. If you want to cover other topics, it's
better to write new posts covering those other topics.
- Use a captivating title. Your title should prompt people to want to read
the post. Use calls to action like, "Three
Must-Read Books On Healthy Aging For 2009" or lists like, "15 Ways To Stay Connected To Family
In Assisted Living." Use all caps in the
title.
- Post from experience. Boomers and seniors love stories and first-hand accounts. If you have personal experience in certain aspects
of care giving for example, write about it. Use case studies; tell readers how you or your company solved a
particular problem. This shows readers
that you know what you're talking about and you're trust worthy. It can also begin to position you and your
company as an authority on the subject.
- Write well. This cannot be taken for granted. I don't care how salient your
post is, if it's poorly written, you will not be taken seriously. In fact, you
can even damage your online reputation.
- Use images. Always try to place an "intro image" at the beginning
of a
post. The image should have something to
do with your content.
Be mindful of copyright issues. Try to use images licensed under
creative
commons licensing. You can find a lot of
these on Flikr.
- Post regularly. Readers are more likely to read your blog if you have a
regular posting schedule. Post at least
once per week, and stick to it.
- Market your blog. Syndicate your content out to other social media sites
like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Put a link to your blog in your email signature and on business
cards.
- Create a "sneeze page." A sneeze page is a blog post that reviews your
previous blog posts and provides links to them. You can do this one a week or once a month, depending on how often you
post.
- Link out. Whenever you reference something or someone that can be found on
the internet, make it a link. Always give others credit for their work and
link to their sites. At the bottom of
your post, add your name, title, and a link to your main Website.
- Don't sell. People who read blogs don't want to be sold to. They want interesting and informative
content. Help your readers by providing
them with this, not by trying to tell them on how great you your company is. If you provide great content, it will be a
reflection of your company and will help you sell your brand organically.
- Don't give up. Blogging requires commitment and focus. While most of the time it's great fun, it can get tedious and time consuming sometimes. Don't let that stop you. Just push through and keep
blogging. Your audience will appreciate
it.
For senior living companies that want to go beyond just a blog to fully tap into the social web, I recommend setting up a branded online community, which combines a blog with other social media tools like member profiles, discussion forums, event calendars, photo galleries, and much more. You can learn more about the benefits of blogs, social media, and online communities at http://carenetworks.com/benefits.
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Related Posts:
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.
Posted by Brian Geyser on Sun, Oct 04, 2009 @ 03:47 PM
This is the third post in our new Social Media Success Series, which features interviews with innovative senior living, eldercare, home care, and dementia care companies who are using social media as a business/marketing tool. If you would like to have your organization considered for inclusion, contact us.
In this interview, Gina LaGuardia, Editorial Director at SeniorsforLiving.com shares some fantastic insights about how they are using Twitter, Facebook and a company blog to drive traffic to their Website, establish strategic alliances, nurture relationships, listen to and learn from others in the industry, extend their online reach, and build brand awareness.
Company Profile
SeniorsforLiving.com is a free consumer service that helps seniors and their families research, evaluate, compare and connect with quality assisted living, independent living, retirement communities, and other senior care providers.
Interview
1. What online properties, aside from your website, do you own/operate? We have a Twitter and Facebook account, plus a company blog on our Website.
Website
2. Why did you choose those? My personal experiences on Twitter have been immensely successful and edifying to my professional growth, so it made sense to try this for our business as well. As for Facebook, the statistics show tremendous growth in usage by baby boomers and seniors, and that's our target audience. Our blog is our main content “voice.” Though we typically publish new features on our “Articles & Resources Page,” our blog — consistently updated five days a week — enables us to talk about current topics within the senior housing and senior care space/boomer trends/etc.
3. Who manages your blog, Twitter & Facebook accounts? I'm the editorial director for the company and I manage them. I have two bloggers who contribute to the blog, and I manage all posts. One blogger is a public policy coordinator for the Alzheimer’s Association and a former activities director at an assisted living community; the other works in health care.
4. How much time does it take you to manage the accounts per week? We are active on Twitter at least five days a week at various points throughout the day and night. We are in the process of allocating additional time to our Facebook group. On the blog, we update posts everyday, so it's a full-time effort. ;-)
5. How are you using each and who do want to reach? Twitter has been an invaluable source for connecting with other professionals in our industry who have similar interests and target markets. Although many of our followers may be perceived as “competition,” the potential for establishing business development and affiliate relationships has far outweighed any of those concerns. We are also primarily utilizing Twitter and Facebook to deploy content from our blog and establish a working partnership with other blogs and sites that provide content around similar issues.
One project I am particularly proud of that has developed from our initiative on Twitter is our Seniors/Boomers: News You Can Use blog carnival, which ensures high page views with each installment and numerous linkbacks (great for SEO), as well as increasing our blog readership and keeping us abreast of topics being discussed about senior housing/caregiving/boomer issues, etc.
We also regularly feature guest bloggers’ contributions on our blog based on synergies either between our two companies and/or the sharing of a common interests/goals. We do not pay for guest blogs, but we typically “blog post swap” where we also contribute a post to their site/blog. Without our blog, we wouldn’t have much “meat” to engage our SM followers with, so I’d say that is the means to the end. The tool I most enjoy and from which I personally derive the most value is Twitter.
6. Do you have a social media strategy? We definitely have a strategy — that is, to use social media to engage potential users and/or those who care deeply about seniors. As I mentioned, the relationships we have made has served to enhance our business, hone our editorial message, and enable us to emerge as a leader among online senior housing/senior care directories.
7. What is your primary goal for using social media? To increase branding for our site across social networks, establish ourselves as a content leader in the space, and affiliate with those who are equally passionate about seniors and providing the best care for loved ones.
8. Are you planning to expand your social media reach? Yes, we are planning to increase our footprint on Facebook in coming months and are considering LinkedIn as another avenue for expansion.
9. Are people responding? They are, and those with whom we have connected have proven helpful both in terms of expanding our base of knowledge about issues related to senior housing and senior care and in expanding our audience. Social media is truly a community of colleagues and friends. The key is to find people with whom you share interests, goals, and passion. For us, we regularly watch the #seniors, #boomers, and #caregiving hashtags (on Twitter) and conduct those (and related) keyword searches. What may begin as a business initiative to garner a mass to whom you can share news of your services, offerings, products, etc. will turn into a group of people you respect, rely on for information, advice, and insight, etc. It’s truly an amazing thing to watch evolve and flourish!
10. What are your biggest challenges so far? There is a time issue.... The best cultivation of social media, in my opinion, is enhanced by an adequate investment of time.
11. Did you have to try to convince someone at your organization to try social media? The management of SeniorsforLiving.com has been very supportive of our social media efforts, and the rewards are plentiful -- from increased site visits and SM referrals to connecting with our partners and clients online.
12. Are employees on board with your efforts? Yes, although I am the only representative Tweeting at this time.
13. How are you measuring success? We are monitoring success via page referrals from the SM sites, linkbacks to content hubs, feedback from clients and users, etc.
14. Can you tell if your social media activities, including the blog, have actually affected your bottom line? Have you garnered actual paying customers because of your blog, twitter or facebook accounts? We have certainly reaped an increase of traffic thanks to those users who have discovered us via our various SM endeavors. Additionally, the linkbacks garnered as a result of SM are very effective for our SEO initiatives. We have also made quite a mark with our partner communities and providers who are watching our SM efforts and seeking us out as they climb aboard themselves.
15. What's the one piece of advice you would give other senior living, home care, eldercare, or dementia care companies about getting into social media? Social media should be an important aspect to your online marketing plan. The potential to connect with customers and potential customers is ever evolving and never ceases to amaze me. Smart companies will not only converse with others about their services and offerings, but about the everyday challenges of senior housing and senior care. It should be about relationship building, not drumming up business.
___________________________________________________________________
For more about senior living online communities and social media, visit carenetworks.com. To ensure you get more post like this delivered right to you as they are published, subscribe to our blog.
For more information about SeniorsforLiving.com, contact:
Doug Johnson | EVP-Sales & Marketing | Seniors for Living | P: 212-490-6290 x227| F: 212-490-6296 or visit them online at SeniorsforLiving.com, Twitter, or Facebook. My thanks to Gina LaGuardia for taking the time to share her amazing insights!
Related Posts
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.