Is your senior living community using social media?
The Senior Care Content Specialists crew includes team members who are self-described research geeks. Over the years, they’ve helped us connect with leading organizations ranging from Pew Research to Forrester.
These relationships have helped us stay on top of the latest trends in aging and senior behavior.
Research on the topic of social media recently released by Pew Research proved what many of us have suspected: adults are using social media every day. Facebook and YouTube remain the most popular platforms with adults.
What Research Shows about Adults and Social Media
While many people think teens and young adults are the true consumers of social media, they aren’t alone. Older adults are onboard, too.
We’ve heard the arguments from senior living communities against team members using social media, especially Facebook.
Largely that it opens up a whole can of worms with regard to privacy. Then there are those who say it provides disgruntled employees with a forum for spreading disinformation. It’s time-consuming and expensive are others.
But, the bottom line is social media continues to give older adults and their families insight in to community life that blog posts and newsletters can’t.
So, what should you be sharing on your social media channels?
Here are a few tips to get you moving on the right track…
Ways to Make the Most of Social Media for Senior Living
First, have a chat with your legal team about what kind of release you’ll need residents and families to sign, if you don’t already have that piece in place.
Next, consider creating a few rules for employees to follow with regard to social media. In most cases, the missteps we see aren’t deliberate. They are team members genuinely not understanding the do’s and don’ts of engaging. HubSpot has some great resources for creating a policy from scratch.
Before you start posting, make sure you have a strategy in place that aligns with the rest of your marketing goals. Integrating offline and online goals is essential.
Finally, the fun stuff. One big advantage of social media is it allows you to be creative in showcasing your community and the life that residents enjoy every day.
We have a few suggestions to help you get started.
The Visual Appeal of Senior Living Social Media
Our first suggestion is not to fall in to the trap of thinking you need professional photographers and video teams for everything. A good quality cell phone can do the trick.
Think about the questions families ask at each point in the decision journey. Answering this in a quick video series is easy and inexpensive to do.
Make a list of the places and activities in your community that residents and visitors enjoy most. The raised garden beds your residents plant, for example. Or the program on hummingbird migration. These make great videos for your social channels, too.
Also consider the scenes you see each day that give your heart a good feeling about what your community is doing. Those can make for great photos.
How about that new resident who was isolated and alone for a long time in their own home? Now you see them throughout the day truly enjoying themselves. It might be having a cup of coffee with new friends in the dining room in the mornings or participating in an afternoon watercolor workshop.
Finally, don’t forget to incorporate the great content you create for your website and blog. Link to those posts from your social media channels.
Drop us a note
Have questions about senior living content or need help creating some? Drop us a line. We’ll be happy to help…