You may not think that a senior living community needs to advertise on social media – but you may be surprised to learn that adults over 65 are among the fastest growing social media demographics.
Not only that, adults who adopted social media at the outset are getting older, and many have parents ready for this stage of life.
As with any product or service, assisted living facilities need to go where their customers are – and increasingly, that audience is logging onto social media at least once a day.
This is driven in large part by the behaviors of their children and grandchildren, who tend to post details of their everyday lives on social media, and Grandma has learned it is an excellent way to stay in touch,
Not only are seniors using social media, but it is the seniors with higher income and more disposable income who use these services.
This fact gives assisted living facilities an excellent reason to stay in front of this demographic.
4 Tips for Assisted Living Social Posts
Seek out Reviews
In the digital world, reviews are of utmost importance. In fact, peer reviews are considered to be one of the most critical components of an online marketing strategy. Facebook is one of the easiest social media platforms to utilize to collect reviews, which are also ranked highly in Google searches.
Ask your happiest residents to review their experience at your residence on Facebook. Adding new reviews regularly will significantly help your profile on the search engines.
Important: Positive reviews don’t just happen. It is up to you and your staff to respond to and manage your policies and procedures according to your residents’ and their families’ needs.
In other words, positive testimonials come from positive experiences. Negative reviews should always get your attention. Never ignore negative feedback, instead proactively engage with the person providing it to solve the issue.
Once you receive a quality review, be sure to thank the resident or their family for their feedback and ask for permission to use the review on your website and on social media platforms.
Become a Desired Employer
Employee satisfaction does more than improving morale day to day; it saves you money in recruitment and training costs; and goes a long way towards having happy residents.
Use social media to celebrate your employees’ accomplishments, to spotlight their unique personalities, and reward their contributions to your facility.
You may also wish to show the interactions and relationships between employees and residents (be sure to ask permission of residents.)
Employees can be your greatest advocates and lead generators out in the community, so be sure to give them the recognition they deserve.
Promote Marketing Events and Efforts
Although COVID-19 has made this a little more complicated in 2020, it is still necessary to promote tours, resident celebrations, holiday events, and daily engagement activities such as art classes or service pet visits.
These events are critical to resident health, especially during times of challenge and isolation from their families.
Highlighting these events on social media is a great way to show the community how you are keeping everyone safe and that you value your residents’ mental health and happiness.
For special events, post announcements and build-up, live video or streams from the event itself, and follow-up photos after the fact.
Expert Tip: Facebook and Instagram stories are especially relevant for promoting events. Post live videos and updates keep families in the loop and like they are participating. Live-tweeting can also be utilized in this way.
Be sure to let families and loved ones know they can “participate” in this way. Send out links to all your social media contacts before and during the event, reminding them to tune in.
Maximize Each Platform’s Strengths:
You may think that being on Facebook is enough. However, each platform has evolved to provide unique benefits, and your target audience is using all of them.
While seniors over 65 are primarily on Facebook, job seekers are on LinkedIn. Families ask for advice on Twitter, and grandparents are looking to Instagram for cute videos of their grandchildren.
Learning to tailor your message to fit each platform is a sure way to maximize your marketing efforts and advertising dollars.
Most assisted living facilities have either hired an in-house, dedicated social media professional or hired a digital marketing agency to regularly message running on all relevant platforms.
Although social media ads, should you choose to use them, cost money, they are typically more cost-effective than many traditional print-type marketing efforts, providing better ROI.
Be sure to test engagement on multiple platforms to gauge your best and most engaged audience. You may find that Facebook is your best venue for contests and Instagram for promotional discounts.
You may think that this seems a bit overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Social media marketing is a specialty all its own, and there are experts dedicated only to these efforts.
If your assisted living facility has reached a point that traditional marketing doesn’t seem to be working to your desired level, it’s time to supercharge your online marketing efforts.
You may not think that a senior living community needs to advertise on social media – but you may be surprised to learn that adults over 65 are among the fastest growing social media demographics.
Not only that, adults who adopted social media at the outset are getting older, and many have parents ready for this stage of life.
As with any product or service, assisted living facilities need to go where their customers are – and increasingly, that audience is logging onto social media at least once a day.
This is driven in large part by the behaviors of their children and grandchildren, who tend to post details of their everyday lives on social media, and Grandma has learned it is an excellent way to stay in touch,
Not only are seniors using social media, but it is the seniors with higher income and more disposable income who use these services.
This fact gives assisted living facilities an excellent reason to stay in front of this demographic.
4 Tips for Assisted Living Social Posts
Seek out Reviews
In the digital world, reviews are of utmost importance. In fact, peer reviews are considered to be one of the most critical components of an online marketing strategy. Facebook is one of the easiest social media platforms to utilize to collect reviews, which are also ranked highly in Google searches.
Ask your happiest residents to review their experience at your residence on Facebook. Adding new reviews regularly will significantly help your profile on the search engines.
Important: Positive reviews don’t just happen. It is up to you and your staff to respond to and manage your policies and procedures according to your residents’ and their families’ needs.
In other words, positive testimonials come from positive experiences. Negative reviews should always get your attention. Never ignore negative feedback, instead proactively engage with the person providing it to solve the issue.
Once you receive a quality review, be sure to thank the resident or their family for their feedback and ask for permission to use the review on your website and on social media platforms.
Become a Desired Employer
Employee satisfaction does more than improving morale day to day; it saves you money in recruitment and training costs; and goes a long way towards having happy residents.
Use social media to celebrate your employees’ accomplishments, to spotlight their unique personalities, and reward their contributions to your facility.
You may also wish to show the interactions and relationships between employees and residents (be sure to ask permission of residents.)
Employees can be your greatest advocates and lead generators out in the community, so be sure to give them the recognition they deserve.
Promote Marketing Events and Efforts
Although COVID-19 has made this a little more complicated in 2020, it is still necessary to promote tours, resident celebrations, holiday events, and daily engagement activities such as art classes or service pet visits.
These events are critical to resident health, especially during times of challenge and isolation from their families.
Highlighting these events on social media is a great way to show the community how you are keeping everyone safe and that you value your residents’ mental health and happiness.
For special events, post announcements and build-up, live video or streams from the event itself, and follow-up photos after the fact.
Expert Tip: Facebook and Instagram stories are especially relevant for promoting events. Post live videos and updates keep families in the loop and like they are participating. Live-tweeting can also be utilized in this way.
Be sure to let families and loved ones know they can “participate” in this way. Send out links to all your social media contacts before and during the event, reminding them to tune in.
Maximize Each Platform’s Strengths:
You may think that being on Facebook is enough. However, each platform has evolved to provide unique benefits, and your target audience is using all of them.
While seniors over 65 are primarily on Facebook, job seekers are on LinkedIn. Families ask for advice on Twitter, and grandparents are looking to Instagram for cute videos of their grandchildren.
Learning to tailor your message to fit each platform is a sure way to maximize your marketing efforts and advertising dollars.
Most assisted living facilities have either hired an in-house, dedicated social media professional or hired a digital marketing agency to regularly message running on all relevant platforms.
Although social media ads, should you choose to use them, cost money, they are typically more cost-effective than many traditional print-type marketing efforts, providing better ROI.
Be sure to test engagement on multiple platforms to gauge your best and most engaged audience. You may find that Facebook is your best venue for contests and Instagram for promotional discounts.
You may think that this seems a bit overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Social media marketing is a specialty all its own, and there are experts dedicated only to these efforts.
If your assisted living facility has reached a point that traditional marketing doesn’t seem to be working to your desired level, it’s time to supercharge your online marketing efforts.