New Study Shows Elder Care Marketers Benefit from Social Media [SLIDESHARE]

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Elder Care Marketing Industry Report

Ryan Malone of Elder Care Marketer recently published results of a study in a white paper called the Elder Care Marketing Industry Report. The study surveyed 160 elder care marketers to glean insights into their marketing habits, what tools they use, and what impact social media has on their business. I've embedded the entire report below. It's definitely worth checking out. Nice job Ryan! You can find Ryan on Twitter , LinkedIn ,Facebook or YouTube. 

Here are the social media highlights from the Report:

• Small companies (1-50 employees) are twice as likely than big companies (50-500+ employees) to use social media in their marketing
• Overall, LinkedIn and Facebook are the most popular for marketing purposes
• Marketers spend an average of 6.6 hours per week on social media and would like to learn most about Twitter and blogs
• Interest is high in learning more about social media tools, which reflects the overall recognition of social media as a marketing vehicle
• Small businesses used a much broader base of social media tools than large businesses for marketing purposes
• Both B2B and B2C businesses benefited most from social media through increased mailing lists, traffic and subscribers, generating leads and creating partnerships.
• B2C reported a high increase in search rankings and B2B
  businesses reported a higher benefit for identifying new products more often

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?

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

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I recently spoke at the LTC-100 Conference in Key Biscayne, FL about the use of social media/social networking in senior living and long-term care. The room was packed with C-level executives who were simultaneously fascinated and frightened by the topic and my analysis of the subject. The fact is that senior living executives need to begin to embrace these new social technologies and, over time, become fluent in social media in order to keep their companies (and themselves) relevant. Why do I say this? Consider these facts:

• The Internet as we know it is only 14 years old
• Facebook alone has over 500 million active users and by numbers is the 3rd largest country in the world behind China and India - Yes Facebook's population outnumbers the U.S.
• The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is Boomers and Seniors
• The fastest growing segment on Facebook is females age 55-65
• 47% of Boomers maintain a profile on the social web
• In 2009 there were 18 million active online seniors
• Seniors spend 58 hours per month online
• 96% of Millennials have joined a social network

Many of the questions posed by the executives attending the conference related to getting started; best practices; privacy,HIPAA, and risk; resources/time; and ROI. With this in mind, I started a group on the new ALFA Exchange online community to address these very issues. You can check out the first discussion post here where I share a fantastic case study of a senior living company that clearly is leading the pack in this space. If you're a senior living or LTC professional and are not a member of ALFA's new online community, it may be worth exploring. 

Related Posts:

• Senior Living, LTC, and Social Media: What We Learned in 2009
• Senior Living, LTC, and Social Media: What to Expect in 2010
  

CareNetworks Community Wins ALFA Best of the Best Award!

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

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

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

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

Check out some other cool posts:

• 7 Best Social Media Tools for Senior Living and Long-Term Care 
• Senior Living Companies: You Must Blog Now! 
• Senior Living, LTC, and Social Media: What We Learned in 2009 [Part 1]

Brian Geyser, APRN-BC, MSN is a clinician, consultant, educator, blogger, online community manager, social media strategist, and the founder of Carenetworks, LLC. He blogs regularly here at Carenetworks.com and would love to connect with you on Twitter, Linkedin, and/or Facebook.