Posts Tagged ‘social media’

Redefining Assisted Living Through Social Media

Monday, March 21st, 2011 by Angela Stringfellow

One of the biggest upsides to living in a communal setting, such as assisted living or skilled nursing facilities, is the ability to connect with like-minded older adults, build relationships and achieve a sense of community. Yet many older adults enter these settings fearful of meeting new people and hesitate to take part in the activities offered, and thus they fail to make valuable connections that could greatly improve the quality of this stage of their lives. Connected Living aims to reduce this anxiety by creating a social network designed specifically for older adults in senior living, recently reported by BostInnovation.com. Connected living helps assisted living residents keep in touch

The Connected Living network enables seniors living in senior living communities to make contact with and keep in touch with not only fellow residents in their own community, but with family and friends from their home communities and even years past. Seniors are taught how to use the simple, Facebook-like interface and how to share calendars, send emails and upload photos. Seniors can post their interests to their personal profile (dubbed “MySelf”), and members within the same community can connect with one another based on shared interests and activities.

To encourage residents to share their life stories through social media, Group Sessions are open to all residents, which teach residents about technology and how it can be used to share personal moments and memories with loved ones–memories that may otherwise go unshared. Sarah Hoit, CEO and Co-Founder of Connected Living, says, “Aging in America is changing, and we are transforming how generations connect with each other, share their life experiences, learn together, and access health services.”

The benefits of social networking aren’t limited to residents of assisted living facilities, however. Aging in Action reports on a Canadian study that shows caregivers showed significant improvements in stress levels by participating in an internet-based intervention program, whether through web-based chat or video-based group therapy. The group participating in group video therapy not only had reduced stress levels, but also showed improved mental health.

The future of technology shaping senior living and caregiving has only just begun. New and exciting innovations are yet to be made which will streamline seniors’ and caregivers’ ability to stay connected, meet new people, learn new things, and receive support from those in similar situations.

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Posted in Online Media, Senior Living News | 2 Comments »

Social Media Metrics for Assisted Living Providers

Saturday, February 26th, 2011 by Angela Stringfellow

Major players in the assisted living industry are touting the benefits of internet lead generation, including the use of social media marketing. One of the biggest questions assisted living providers face when trying to incorporate social media into the marketing mix is measurement: All this buzz is great, but how do we know if our time investment is paying off? Social Media Examiner recently posted a collection of 22 of the hottest new social media tools for businesses; among them, a few gems worth investigating that can help you manage and track your social media efforts. Social media analytics tools for assisted living marketers

Argyle Social: A bit pricier than the others, starting at $149 per month, assisted living marketers just getting into social media might find it a bit much budget-wise. Argyle Social integrates all your social media profiles in one place, so you can authenticate and access all your accounts from one interface. A collective inbox helps you maximize customer engagement by allowing you to respond to comments, retweets and mentions directly from your Argyle profile. Argyle allows you to break down your social media marketing into “campaigns” and print out a report outlining your engagement and data from all related posts. You can also download raw data into an Excel spreadsheet if you want to do more with the numbers. Downside: In addition to the price, LinkedIn isn’t yet a part of their package.

TwentyFeet: You can try TwentyFeet for the first 30 days free, and you can have one Twitter and one Facebook profile free forever. Can’t beat that if you’re looking to try out a social media analytics tool! Other accounts, such as YouTube and Google Analytics, start at 1 credit per year (1 credit = $2.49). We find the “credit”-based pricing a little unnecessarily complex, but other than that, the pricing is attractive; however, the website doesn’t offer much in the way of a solid description of how their analytics work, other than saying you’ll be able to access your metrics in one place. They estimate that their “live” version will be available in August 2010, but, well…it’s February 2011, folks.

PostRank and PostRank Analytics: PostRank Analytics integrates data from over 20 of the most popular social media networks, the most of any service on the list so far. You can track your marketing efforts by learning what posts your customers are engaging most with, allowing you to target your efforts and ramp up interaction and followers. Google Analytics is also in the mix, so you can track both your on-site and off-site conversion rates in one place. Bonus: You can also track your competitors’ engagement! The best part: As an assisted living provider, you’ll be using PostRank as a solo company, so you can track up to five sites and 10 custom pages per site — free!

Postling: The claim to fame for Postling is that it’s designed with small businesses in mind–and, it integrates with WordPress. You can publish to any available social network from the Postling interface, and even schedule posts in advance. An analytics dashboard lets you know how well your posts are doing, and you’ll receive notifications when someone engages with your content (for the paid plans only). You can also respond and engage with your customers directly from the Postling interface. You can get a starter plan for free (one user, one account per social network and one brand), but the other plans are also reasonable: up to $49/month.

If you’re starting out in the social media world, you’ll want to track the effectiveness of your efforts. Check out one of the free or low-priced plans, or try a more advanced plan for a free trial period. Measuring your results is the best way to refine your efforts and make the best use of your resources.

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Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Senior Housing Marketing | 1 Comment »

Brookdale Senior Living Offers Social Media Insights

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 by Angela Stringfellow

About a year ago, Brian Geyser of CareNetworks interviewed Eric Marsh of Brookdale Senior Living on the company’s social media usage. At the time, Brookdale was among the first of the larger senior living organizations to embrace social media as a core marketing tool. In a blog post appearing on ALFA Exchange, Geyser revisits Brookdale’s social media strategy to find out how the company’s methodology and reach has changed over the past year.

Brookdale utilizes several channels as part of their overall social media strategy. The company has a Twitter account, a YouTube channel and LinkedIn account, and two Facebook fan pages. The second Facebook page was added in 2010 specifically for the Ultimate Chef program, a nationwide contest in which more than 430 chefs from Brookdale Senior Living communities competed in a first-class cooking challenge to win the coveted “Ultimate Chef America” title.Brookdale Senior Living

Brookdale’s company policy dictates that social media is handled through the corporate office; individual senior living communities aren’t permitted to create their own social media profiles or accounts. This is common to larger corporations who wish to maintain control of the message delivered via social media and it becomes impossible (as in Brookdale’s case, which has 560 individual senior living communities) to monitor every individual account.

Marsh says the company’s social media strategy hasn’t changed much over the past year, and Brookdale has been using social media for a total of about two years. He says that the addition of a second Facebook fan page coupled with follower growth means there’s more to manage, although they still spend on average a few hours per week on social media. He also reports that the addition of Facebook recommend buttons has brought the company positive results. (A Facebook recommend button is a tool that allows consumers to share content with their Facebook connections through the click of a button — the reach of a single piece of content is easily multiplied when shared by a few people on Facebook.)  

Marsh reports that Brookdale has tracked a number of leads resulting from Facebook fans linking to the company website and requesting information. He says that while this tracking is in its infancy, it’s a positive sign that social media could prove to be a valuable lead generation tool.

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Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Senior Housing Marketing | 1 Comment »

New Research on Baby Boomers Using Social Media

Sunday, January 2nd, 2011 by Angela Stringfellow

The New York Times reported on December 26, 2010 that while the 18 to 33 age demographic is still predominant among internet usage, older age demographics are rapidly catching up. Adults 45 and over more than doubled their social networking use in the period between December 2008 and May 2010, but the most surprising gain came from adults 74 years and older — this group quadrupled its social networking participation, with 16 percent of adults in this group now actively using social networking. Social networking among baby boomers

A similar report issued in November by AdvertisingAge points out another interesting piece of data: Baby Boomers who are caring for their aging parents are heavier internet users (among social networking sites like Facebook) than their non-caregiving counterparts. Laurel Kennedy, author of “The Daughter Trap” and president of Chicago-based consulting firm Age Lessons, estimates that approximately 15.5 million baby boomers are serving as caregivers out of the 78 million-strong boomer population.

The gender gap is nearly evenly split, with a slight edge towards women (60%, versus 40% men). This group spends an average of 150 minutes each month on social media and visits 70% more pages than the typical internet user. ComScore, which conducted research on behalf of Age Lessons, breaks down the top ten sites among Boomer Caregivers. It’s not surprising that Facebook leads the pack, with a 91 percent reach. Among some online retailer sites (Amazon.com, Target, WalMart), LinkedIn has a 37% reach and Twitter a 21% reach.

One interesting discovery from comScore’s research is that the online review site Yelp has a 30% reach among Boomer Caregivers, beating out Twitter. In our previous posts reporting on assisted living marketing and social networking use, Yelp never entered the conversation as a most-used site for either internet users or marketers. Could this be an untapped resource for senior housing marketers? Possibly, if boomers are using Yelp to read reviews of health and medical providers and not merely to decide what restaurant to visit that evening. Only more in-depth research could tell for sure, but it’s probably worth your time to monitor your presence on Yelp.

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Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Home Care Marketing, Nursing Home Marketing, Senior Housing Marketing, baby boomers | No Comments »

Social Media Usage Tips From Senior Living Executives

Monday, August 23rd, 2010 by Angela Stringfellow

The August 19, 2010 edition of ALFA Update featured a case study focusing on social media, where two top senior living executives shared their tips and strategies for implementing a successful social media campaign. As both pointed out, social media is now an important component of word-of-mouth marketing, and it shouldn’t be ignored. Twitter

Tricia Lilly Ourand, Director of Marketing for Brightview Senior Living, points out that staying focused on the objective is the first key to using social media effectively as part of your overall marketing strategy. Determine what you want to gain from using social media, and why your audience is using social media. You might be using it to gain visibility or brand recognition, to make sales, or even to recruit staff.

Your audience is probably seeking information — what do they want to learn or discuss? Do they already have knowledge of your assisted living facility or nursing home, or are they being introduced to your organization for the first time? From this point, Ourand says, you can create your strategy by developing policies that outline who can post content to what social sites, and ensuring that your posted content is search-engine friendly by using keywords.

Laura Ellen McAvoy, Operations Manager for The Arbor Company, recommends designating a specific social media point person who is in charge of posting regular updates, growing connections, and engaging your audience. She recommends setting your pages up with photos, details, and information before ramping up your fan base. Finally, utilizing family and friends who are already members of your social networks to start conversations is a great way to encourage initial interaction on your pages.

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Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Home Care Marketing, Nursing Home Marketing, Senior Housing Marketing | No Comments »

Social Media Marketing for Long-Term Care

Monday, April 12th, 2010 by Angela Stringfellow

If you think social media marketing is out of scope for assisted living, nursing homes, and other long-term care facilities and providers, think again. According to the Assisted Living Federation of America, “New research shows that companies with the highest levels of social media activity averaged an 18 percent jump in revenue over the past year.”

Check out these detailed findings on Pingdom, which breaks down the average social media usage by age as well as age distribution by site. Although it might come as a surprise, the 35 to 44 year age demographic actually dominates social media usage. 35 to 44 is a key demographic for senior living homes and long-term care providers, because these adults are reaching the age when they’ll begin to take a more active role in their parents’ health care. Some adults in this demographic may already be serving as primary caregivers — and decision-makers — for aging parents or disabled spouses.

So how can you target your social media efforts?

Social media is such a broad area, it’s easy for even more experienced internet-users to get lost in the sea of possibilities. Pingdom’s post mentions a few noteworthy findings:Facebook

  • 61% of Facebook users are 35 and older; average user is 38 years old
  • 64% of Twitter users are 35 and older; average user is 39 years old
  • Average LinkedIn user is 44 years old

These three sites are a great place to launch your social media efforts. In addition to building exposure for your website, a social media presence enhances brand recognition and provides an easy way to engage your audience. Log on, build a profile, and start interacting with your potential customers. Look for more tips from us in the coming weeks on maximizing your usage of social media tools.

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Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Home Care Marketing, Nursing Home Marketing, Online Media, Senior Housing Marketing | 4 Comments »