Posted by Brian Geyser on Mon, Nov 30, 2009 @ 01:57 PM
As we've seen from my Social Media Success interview series and related posts, innovative senior living and LTC companies are beginning to discover the many benefits of social media and online community. These early adopters are paving the way for everyone else as they discover what works, and what doesn't on the social Web. Based on these posts, I've compiled a list (not in any particular order) of the top seven social media tools for the industry, along with some descriptions of why they made the list and how they can help your organization.
Social media is not a panacea. Your online presence and activities won't replace the relationships you build with residents and families and the great work you do in the physical world. However, used properly, these tools can accelerate your growth by helping you expand your online reach, attract and engage new customers, build relationships with prospects, and participate in the online conversations. Here's the list:
- Twitter. Noelle Kurth, Marketing Director for At Home Personal Care in Mesa, AZ showed us in this post that Twitter can be an easy, powerful, and free tool for networking with other professionals, broadcasting news and information about your company, recruiting, and building brand awareness. Twitter can help you build a community around your brand as well as keep you on top of important industry news and events in real time. By syndicating content from your blog or website to Twitter, you can build a following, enable sharing of your content, and drive traffic back to your website.
- Facebook. If there is one place online that you can bet many of your customers and prospects are hanging out, it's Facebook. Building a Facebook Page is a smart move for companies in our industry because it allows you to tap into an existing popular online community of boomers and seniors that's growing by the minute, literally. People who already have a Facebook account (and there's only about 300 million last I checked) can easily follow and engage with your company. The best part is that they can easily share their love for you with their friends. Like Twitter, Facebook Pages can be used to syndicate blog content, post news, information, and events, and share other multimedia content (like YouTube videos) with your followers. And like Twitter, Facebook can be used to help with employer branding and recruiting.
- Linkedin. This is THE social network for professionals. If you're a senior living or LTC professional, you should have a free Linkedin account. Linkedin allows you to build a professional network, share content, post job openings, research prospects, join industry groups, participate in forums, scan industry news, and much more.
- Blog. These days, a company blog is an essential tool in the online arsenal. I review the details of why you need a company blog in this post, but the bottom line is that a blog is a fantastic tool for building community, and for many companies, it can serve as a social media hub. Content and links are currency on the new social Web, and a blog allows you to publish content and distribute that content to your social media outposts like Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin. From there, your community can share your content with their friends - driving traffic back to your blog and website organically. This is called inbound marketing and it's much more powerful these days than in-your-face interruptive marketing. Another creative way to use a blog is to build one for your customers to use, like Beacon Hill Retirement Community did. You can check out an example of that here.
- YouTube. My friends over at Brookdale Senior Living do some good stuff with YouTube. Here's an example. YouTube makes it very easy to publish video content to your Website. If you have a blog, it's even easier to take your YouTube videos and embed them right into your posts. Video is an incredibly powerful medium, and with little or no money, you can create fantastic video content that your Twitter and Facebook fans will love (and share).
- Branded Online Community. For a more comprehensive social media solution (and here's the shameless plug for my business), a branded online community like the ones built by Terrace Communities and Living Well Assisted Living At Home may be your best bet. Branded online communities have a distinct advantage over using, say, Facebook to build community in that you have much more control over the platform, the features, the branding, the ads, and the content. Most community platforms include a blog and discussion forums and some, like the ones mentioned above, come with community calendars, file cabinets, and photo galleries - all of which can be syndicated to your social media outposts like Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook. Learn more about branded online communities here.
- Email. Yes that's right, I said email. Email is actually the largest and most popular (by far) social media and online community platform in the world. If you think about it, anybody who uses email has an address book filled with the contact information of people in their various networks - and they connect, communicate, and share with their networks via email all the time. Tools like eNewsletters using platforms like MailChimp and ConstantContact can be a great way to stay in touch with your customers and provide them with interesting news and information (with linkbacks to your site or blog) that they can pass on to their email networks.
While all of these tools take proper strategy, resources, and time, the potential benefits to your organization, your customers, your staff, and your prospects are clear. Social networks and social media are fundamentally changing the way your customers and prospects learn, evaluate and ultimately make decisions. Social tools like the ones mentioned above are increasingly influential in marketing and sales practices. Customers seek evidence online to validate decisions and get instant feedback from their peers through social networks. By joining the conversation and giving people an opportunity to connect with you online, you have the ability to educate, inform, support and engage your audience in new ways never before possible. Are you using social media?
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Are You A Marketing Professional?
Are you a marketer in senior living, home health, private duty homecare, or hospice? Join our new free online marketing community specifically for built for you. Get all of the networking benefits of attending a conference without ever leaving your office. To check it out, click here.
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, Nov 25, 2009 @ 12:49 PM
1. Just had a great conversation with @ over at Social Fish. She's for real, check her out
about 1 hour ago
from web
Brian Geyser has amazing vision; his new business, , seeks to connect patients, residents, families, staff (cont.)
2:25 PM Oct 3rd
from txt
3. What Senior Living Companies Can Learn About Community Building From Dell [Interview]
2:16 PM Nov 18th
from HubSpot
4. Any senior living or
homecare companies have a formal social media policy? I'm writing an
article about this and would like to include.
1:08 PM Nov 18th
from web
5. Why makes fiscal sense for [video]
1:44 PM Nov 17th
from bit.ly
6. Senior Living And Socialnomics: Why Online Community Makes Fiscal Sense [Video]
11:26 AM Nov 16th
from HubSpot
7. Interesting post - Social Media ROI: The Real Deal [SlideShare].
9:08 AM Nov 16th
from web
8. New online community for marketers in , , , , . Join here
3:58 PM Nov 15th
from bit.ly
9. Social Media ROI: The Real Deal [SlideShare]
11:34 AM Nov 14th
from HubSpot
10. Join the new online marketing community for senior living, homecare, LTC, hospice marketers. Connect, discover, share
4:22 PM Nov 12th
from bit.ly
11. CareNetworks.com Launches New Online Community For Marketers In Senior Living, Home Health, Private Duty Homecare, ...
2:49 PM Nov 11th
from HubSpot
12. @ Interviewed by @ for their prowess
3:37 PM Nov 6th
from web
13. Nation's Largest Senior Living Company Embraces Social Media [Interview]
3:13 PM Nov 6th
from HubSpot
14. Fourty-five % of 70-75 year olds are online How are you engaging them?
10:31 AM Nov 1st
from Twitterrific
Posted by Brian Geyser on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 @ 12:47 PM
At the 2009 Online Community Summit in Sonoma, CA, companies from around the world met to discuss best practices in social collaboration and online community. Vida Killian, of Dell's Idea Storm Community, was there and she shared a few minutes of her wisdom with Bill Johnston of Forum One Networks in this 3 minute video below. In the video, Vida discusses the value online community for Dell and their customers. What can our industry learn from companies like Dell who are on the cutting edge of social technology? Is online community even applicable to senior living, homecare, eldercare, long-term care, or hospice organizations? What do you think?
Related Posts
Posted by Brian Geyser on Mon, Nov 16, 2009 @ 09:55 AM
"Why the heck would any senior living company want to invest in an online community? What's the big whoop about all this social media babble anyway? I need to see some hard figures. What's the ROI?"
Sound familiar? It kind of reminds me of back in the '90's when companies were still trying to decide if they should have a Website. "I mean, why do we need a Website? People can just look us up in the phone book." That statement is laughable now, but the same phenomenon is occurring today when it comes to social media. While some progressive senior living companies have seen the light, most are still either burying their heads in the sand or just don't get it (yet). The fact is, the vast majority of senior living company websites today are static, information-only billboards that don't allow for user interaction, participation, or engagement. Smart senior living companies are capitalizing on the new social Web by building online communities for their audience, joining the conversations, and combining information with participation.
Wait, lets back up. What exactly is social media anyway? Well, according to Wikipedia, social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing tools (like blogs, wikis, discussion forums, shared videos, etc.). It supports the human need for social interaction with technology, transforming broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogs (many to many). Social media supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.
"Got it. So, what's an online community?" An online community is simply a group of people who have something in common and who gather together using social media tools to connect, communicate, collaborate, and share. Everyday, millions of people with common interests or facing similar challenges create, join, and contribute to online communities; and business in every industry have taken notice.
"Okay, so how do I apply this to my business?" Senior living companies are in the business of community. An online community is simply a natural extension of what you already do everyday. Senior living communities are vibrant, dynamic places made up of residents, family members, staff, outside professionals, referral sources, and many others. The interactions, conversations, and activities that happen everyday in your offline community, can (and should) also be happening online. An online community can have marketing and operational benefits for you, and, more importantly, can provide a host of benefits to your residents, family members, and staff.
"Yeah, that's all great, but (and here is the dreaded ROI question) what's the ROI? I need to see some hard data." Okay, I'll show you some data in a minute, but let me first ask you a few questions.
- What's the ROI for that Veteran's Day event you held last week? You spent $1,700 on food, decorations, the bag pipers, and flyers. How do you measure ROI there?
- What's the ROI of your phone system?
- What's the ROI of your email system?
- How much would it be worth to have the ability for prospects to easily find you online and have an open dialog with your sales and marketing team, your clinical team, or your executive team anytime, from anywhere?
- What's the value of providing a platform where staff can post articles with photos about the amazing things going on in your community every day; you can easily communicate company news to the world; and family members can stay in touch with their loved ones or reach out to staff for support?
Okay, now back to your ROI question. This video should cover it...
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 Sat, Nov 14, 2009 @ 10:25 AM
One of the best presentations on social media ROI I've seen. humorous, informative, entertaining. A little long, but worth it. If you're wondering about how your senior living, eldercare, LTC, or homecare business can afford social media, watch and learn...
Posted by Brian Geyser on Fri, Nov 06, 2009 @ 12:24 PM
This is the latest post in our Social Media
Success Series, which features interviews with innovative senior
living, eldercare, home care, and long-term care providers who are using
social media as a business/marketing tool. If you would like to have your
organization considered for inclusion, contact us.
Brookdale Senior Living is the largest owner/operator of senior
living communities in the U.S. serving over 52,000 residents across the nation in a variety of settings. They are a leading national provider of
senior-related services employing over 32,000 associates nation wide. For this post, we interviewed Eric Marsh, Brookdale's Web Content Manager.
Brookdale Senior Living Website
Interview
1. What online properties, aside from your website, do you own/operate? We as a company have really embraced the idea of using social media, and have explored many different options. Currently we are actively using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.
2. Why did you choose those? We chose these for for a couple of different reasons. These social media sites are those that have received the most buzz, and have the largest audience at the moment. The idea of social media is to see what people are discussing, connect with them by contributing to the conversation and hopefully act as a resource for someone in need, and, ideally, building a relationship with them. We believe these four sites target who we're trying to connect with to have a conversation. That said, we always have an eye out for other venues, and do not intend to limit ourselves.
3. Who manages them? I take charge with our company's social media sites, such as the Facebook and Twitter accounts. Ray Swatzell, Recruiting Systems Manager, and Lindsay Elias, Staffing Coordinator, take care of the recruiting sites, such as our LinkedIn and Facebook recruiting pages, which we've just started constructing. Some of our associates have professional pages on Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, and use those separately from our company sites.
4. How much time does it take to manage per week? It's hard to say how much time, because every day is different when it comes to social media. We post all of our press releases as well as senior living news that we feel is noteworthy. We also keep our ear to the ground for people mentioning our brand or senior living topics so that we can read about or comment further. We try to keep up with the conversation and manage our sites as often as we can so we are able to connect with people quickly, rather then letting time go by and their questions go unanswered.
5. How are you using each and who are you trying to reach? Twitter has been utilized to connect with other senior living professionals to discuss trends and hot topics. It has been a beneficial tool for broadcasting company and industry news. It's also useful for our recruiters to announce our open positions and it is also a good tool for learning about what others are saying regarding our brand and senior living.
Facebook is a great way to connect with people of all ages, since it's become available to everyone. Our recruiters have joined numerous Facebook groups and pages to help recruit for specific candidates. Some of these groups include "Allied Health Jobs Available," "Jobs & Vacancies Announcements!" and "Careers." Facebook is also useful as a branding tool as well as a place for Brookdale associates to connect.
Linkedin has become a valuable recruitment tool, due to the fact that you can find qualified people, post jobs, and connect on a professional level. Our recruiters use it as a tool to recruit
first-rate employees. We just started this for our recruiters; we also
have a Brookdale Senior Living group on Linkedin and most of our
company uses it.
6. Do you have a social media strategy? Our social media strategy is to inform and react to issues regarding Brookdale Senior Living and the senior living industry.
7. What is your primary goal for using social media? Our goal is to provide information to those seeking it regarding Brookdale Senior Living, its affiliates, its programs, our individual communities and/or our industry as a whole. Our goal is to drive people to our Web site so that they can learn more about what our company offers for their needs.
8. Are you planning to expand your social media reach? We are definitely interested in exploring new sites in social media. Right now a few of our communities are exploring social media by using MyWayVillage, which provides our residents with a way to connect with their families, share their stories, and manage their daily schedules. We're really excited to see how it progresses.
8. Are people responding? People who would have not normally connected with Brookdale are taking notice. We have made our presence known on these social networking sites, and people who are searching for our services or our industry as a whole are finding us.
9. What are your biggest challenges so far? There's only so much you can do with the visual content of these sites, since they're formatted to look the same as other pages and "tweets." Keeping our information up to date is the best way to insure our sites reflect our brand integrity, and it can take up quite some time.
10. Did you have to try to convince someone at your organization to try social media? Yes, not everyone is aware of the many benefits of social media. Many people think that social media is just for teenagers to gossip or for family members across the country to connect, but it's much more. There are many ways social media can benefit a company and their individual goals.
11. Are employees on board with your efforts? Relationships are key; many of us have connected with numerous employees who have added Brookdale as "friends" or "connections" to foster and grow relationships across the miles.
12. How are you measuring success? We use a variety of tools to measure how many people are being directed back to our main Web page, but mostly we're just pleased when we can reach out to others through these sites to inform them about Brookdale, whether it's a future resident, someone in the industry or someone wanting to work for us. We also measure success by looking at the increase in followers for each of our social media platforms
13. 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 can be as powerful as you want it to be. It just takes time and effort to grow your presence. Some companies put up a profile just because they read that it's important, but if you don't do anything with it, you won't get anything in return. Set goals and take the time to nurture and grow your social media endeavors.
Takeaway Points
- The people you want to reach are online. Brookdale understands that the people they want to reach are using sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Linkedin; and they regularly engage on those sites where their audience hangs out. This helps people both find and connect with them online.
- Social media can help with recruiting. Free tools like Linkedin and Twitter can help you find and attract top talent.
- Social media helps you broadcast your message. Social media tools can be a great way to broadcast your newsletters, calendar events, press releases, company information, and helpful content to the world for free.
- Social media helps you listen. Using social tools, you can find out what people are saying about you, your organization, and your industry - then respond accordingly.
- The big social media sites and tools are limiting. Sites like Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook can be good, but can only take you so far in terms of branding and functionality. If you want to step up your game, you should consider building a branded online community for your website. Learn more about that here.
- You get out what you put in. Social media and online community are not fast fix solutions or get rich quick schemes. To do it right, you've got to commit, devote resources, and be persistent. Done right, the rewards can be far more than just monetary.
- Video Rocks. If you really want to impress, use video to engage your audience. Brookdale has an entire YouTube channel with tons of great video content for all to enjoy. Here's a sample:
For more information about Brookdale, contact:
Holly Botsford
Brookdale Senior Living
Public Relations Manager
6737 W. Washington St., Suite 2300
Milwaukee, WI 53214
414-918-5314
hbotsford@brookdaleliving.com
You can also connect with Brookdale on:
Other Posts In This Series
Special Offer
For a free live social media readiness assessment for your organization, fill out our contact form and put the words "Brookdale offer" in the message.
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. To see examples of senior living online communities powered by CareNetworks, click here.
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.