For Immanuel Senior Living, Social Media is a No-Brainer [Part 1]
Posted by Brian Geyser on Mon, Jan 25, 2010 @ 10:53 AM
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.
For this post, we interviewed Roxann Rogers Meyer, Director of Sales/Marketing
for Immanuel Senior Living, the leading provider of senior living in Nebraska.
1. What online properties, aside from your website, do you own/operate and how long have you been using each?
We've been using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn since October 2009.
2. Do you have a blog?
We do not have a blog right now, but it’s something we’re looking into launching in the near future.
3. Why did you choose each of these particular social media tools?
Because social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are where our target audience is searching and these are the tools they are using. As a retirement community, Immanuel Senior Living is in the midst of a perfect storm. The 2000 census found that there were 35 million Americans at the age of 65 or older. In addition, the U.S. Census Bureau projects that by the year 2030, approximately 71.5 million Americans will be over the age of 65. That means the percentage of people 65 or older will more than double from 2000 and will make up nearly 20% of the entire projected U.S. population. In addition, adult children and prospects are actively using these popular social media sites to network and gain information.
According to a digital marketing firm iStrategyLabs, from January to July of 2009, the number of Facebook users older than 55 jumped by more than 500 percent. In addition, people 35 to 54 now are the largest age group on the site, accounting for 28.2 percent of users in this country.
For us, it’s the opportunity to connect with these people and show them what kind of lifestyle they or a loved one will have if they choose to come live in our community. It’s also an opportunity to educate the general public on senior issues and aging.
4. Why haven't you launched a blog yet?
We decided against blogging right from the start because while it’s important to have a social media presence, it’s also important to put out fresh content on a regular basis. We felt if we launched our social media sites & also started a blog—that would be a lot to handle all at once. Right now we are going through a brand study and once we’ve completed that, we will make those decision about when to launch the blog. As for content, ideally, we would like several blogs from various perspectives including a day-in-the-life of a resident, from a CEO’s perspective as well as health care.
Immanuel is the leader in senior housing in our area, so we have a lot of expertise on a variety of topics. We are considering using WordPress to build a blog, and then linking it to the homepage of our website, but that too is still in the developing stage.
Immanuel Senior Living Homepage
5. Who manages your social media sites?
Our corporate marketing assistant, Lora Ullerich.
6. How much time does it take Lora to manage your social media activities per week?
She usually checks in several times a day, tries to tweet/retweet at least once a day and post fresh content on Youtube and Facebook once a week. It’s something that you continually have to keep up and not just post and ignore.
7. Are your senior executives planning to use the social media tools you've chosen?
We have asked some key members at each of our communities if they are interested in joining in the social media conversation. People like activity directors, wellness managers, health care directors and others who can provide some interesting insight into the day-in-the-life of a senior living community. The key again, is, someone who can consistently provide fun, interesting content that is also meaningful for our audience. Immanuel Senior Living YouTube Video
8. How are you using each tool and who are you trying to reach?
Again, we’re trying to reach prospective and current residents along with adult children to educate them about the lifestyle at Immanuel Senior Living and to gain insight on how we’re doing.
9. Do you have a social media strategy?
Our social media strategy is to inform and respond to issues regarding Immanuel Senior Living, the senior living industry and those affecting seniors.
10. Are you getting help from outside professionals or are you trying to do it all on your own?
Staying on top of the current trends in social media involves research, attending conferences/webinars, and looking to experts in the social media realm who continually are putting out fresh content and answering questions.
11. Do you have a social media policy or set of guidelines? How are you addressing HIPAA?
We are currently working on one. We are looking at what other industry experts are doing and then fine-tuning it for our purposes. Since we’re not talking about a senior’s health issue, there’s not necessarily a HIPAA violation--at the same time, our resident’s privacy is something we take very seriously. For some videos, we do have consent forms signed and make sure our residents feel comfortable being part of the story. If they don’t feel comfortable, we do not feature them in the story, video or picture. Each community is the resident’s home and we are fortunate enough to work there.
Part 2
Be sure to read Part 2 of this post where Roxann provides insight into the realities of social media time management, success measurement, and ROI; and shares some real-life stories about how Immanuel is benefiting from their social media efforts. Stay tuned by suscribing to this blog via RSS or email.
Contact Information
Roxann Rogers Meyer, Director of Sales/Marketing
rrogers@ihsi.org
6757 Newport Ave. Suite 200
Omaha, NE 68152
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