Social media for retirement communities (CCRCs) - Understanding what you can do, should do and why when marketing to seniors through social networks. Deck from September 2010 webinar presented by Todd Harff and Creating Results Strategic Marketing

1. Social Media for
Retirement Communities
What You Can Do,
What You Should Do,
And Why
Presented by Todd Harff
©2010 Creating Results, LLC

2. Agenda
• Benefits of Social Engagement
• What Social Media Is
• Who Is Using Social Media
• How They’re Using It
• What You Can Do
• What You Must Do

3. Hourly Commitment Per Week

4. Confidence in Your Social Media Strategy

5. Have a Social Media Policy

6. Is Social Media Marketing worth my
company’s investment?
What can it do for us today?
What can it do for us tomorrow?

7. Benefits of Social Engagement
• Drive traffic – Generate leads
– Branding, name recognition
– Lift and substitute for traditional advertising and
community outreach
– Lift search results
– Lift web traffic
– Connect with media
– Leverage the networks of your Residents, their
families, supporters and employees

9. Benefits of Social Engagement
• Listen, get feedback
• Improve relationships with all stakeholders
• Find vendors, sources, partners and prospects
• Recruit
• Inspiration

10. Social Media:
What It Is

11. When you boil it down,
it’s about listening to your customers,
being helpful by offering your knowledge and
giving them interesting content
to share and thereby advocate for you.
- Amy Mengel

20. Social Networking Defined
• The stops your brand’s message makes
• Faster, wider, more transparent
• Fewer barriers between you and your audience
• Less control
• Interactive and instant

21. Platforms and Tools
• Social Networking Sites • Online Conversations
– Facebook, LinkedIn, – Blogs
Twitter… – Message boards, forums
– Niche sites – industry or – Comments
passion
• Podcasts
• Social (Content) Sharing
• Wikis
– YouTube, Flickr
– Digg, De.li.cio.us, reddit

23. Social Media:
Who Is Using It and How

27. Social Media:
How They Are Using It

28. Creating Results’ Research: Silver & Social Surfers
• National survey of 40+ Internet users plus video in-
depth interviews
• Look at motivations, ease of use, attitudes

29. Primary Reason for Trying Social Networking
Curious/N reason
o
9%
O friends
ld
Connect w/ family
5%
7%
Fam invite
ily Photos
9% 4%
Never tried
Friends invite 4%
14%
Connect w/ friends
16% Work/career
29%

30. Forced by W ork W hat W ould Motivate Trial?
4%
Pressure from Friends
More Time
4%
4%
Connect with Family
4%
Better Privacy Controls
7%
Absolutely Nothing
62%
Better Understanding/
Clearer Advantages
15%

31. Do You Want To Engage With Companies Through Social N orks?
etw
Yes
18%
No
30%
Maybe
23%
Not Really
29%

34. Creating Results’ Research: Silver & Social Surfers
• Anti-Social Media?
– “I am enrolled in social networking to reconnect with
friends not to be bothered with advertisements.”
– “I see this as my personal time. If I were out with
friends I wouldn’t want a business to try to join us.”
– “Maybe it would be okay with LinkedIn.”

35. Social Engagement:
What You Can Do

36. 1. Monitor
• Know what people are
saying …
– About you
– Your company
– Your competitors
– Industry trends
• Resources:
– Google alerts,
SocialMention, Twilert
– Search w/in platforms
– RSS and email subscriptions

37. 2. Recruit
• Advertise job opportunities
• Build positive brand image
with future hires
• Resources:
– LinkedIn – used by nearly
80% of companies recruiting
with social media … and
proving most successful
– Twitter – jobs feeds
– SlideShare – case studies on
social recruitment

38. 3. Extend your brand’s reach
• Generate awareness
• Be introduced to new circles by a “friend” who
vouches for you
• Find new channels to distribute content
• Resources:
– AddThis
– YouTube, Digg, etc.

39. 4. Drive traffic
• Link to your website in
content, on personal/
professional profiles
• Promote events
• Resources:
– Bit.ly (for shorter links)
– Facebook events
– Flickr (for post-event photo
galleries)

41. 5. Boost natural search results
• Backlinks to your site from
highly-valued websites
• Drive more and new traffic
to your website
• Start a blog
• Join or start conversations
(w/ backlinks)
• Real-time tweets included
in results delivered by
Google, Bing, Yahoo

42. 6. Listen
To what they say … and how
they say it …
• On your channels, promote
conversation and encourage
honest feedback
• On other channels,
“eavesdrop” Listen & Learn

45. 6. Listen
• Resources:
– TimeGoesBy.net (especially
the comments! Great list of
elderbloggers, too)
– Eons
– A Place for Mom

46. 7. Learn
• Ask questions and get answers
– Of industry colleagues
– Of residents
– Of prospective residents
• Find metrics and benchmarks and best practices
• Resources:
– LinkedIn, Facebook, et al
– Association platforms
– SlideShare, blogs, more

47. 8. Build community
• Start first by proving yourself a valuable member of
existing communities
• Share relevant news/resources

49. 8. Build community
• Make it easy for your
audiences to connect with
each other
– You provide the spark
– They interact freely (unfiltered)
• Spotlight contributors,
influencers (in a genuine way)

50. 8. Build community – Engagement
• Loss of message control
• Involve your audience
• Create a dialogue

51. 9. Make friends
• Give. Give generously.
Give frequently.
– Of your time
– Of your content
– Of discounts & freebies
– On your platforms
– In comments on others’
platforms
• Play match-maker for
resources, partners,
influencers
• Make it easy for them to
share your news

52. 10. Provide customer service - Monitor
• Monitor for issues and quickly respond
– The earlier you respond the more effective you can be
• Respond to requests on and offline
• Resources:
– Google alerts, Twitter searches (Hootsuite, Co-Tweet)

53. 10. Improve customer service – Deliver?

54. 10. Improve customer service - Deliver
• Use social networks to
make relationships with
prospects/targets feel more
intimate
• Fill seniors’ insatiable need
for information by
providing more details
• Resources:
– Twitter, Flickr
– 1to1media.com

55. And …
11. Encourage user generated content
12. Run contests
13. Run a location-based promotion or implement a loyalty
rewards system for staff, residents or prospects

57. Social Media:
What You Must Do

58. Where to Start
1. Set simple policies to guide social engagement
2. Develop a strategic social media plan
3. Commit resources
4. Educate yourself
5. Face Reality

59. Face Reality
• Even contagious messages die
– 10% forward rate would be great
• Reach and Frequency now cheap
– The new challenge => Getting people’s attention

60. Face Reality
• Brand messages are no
longer in your control
– If you invite users to upload
photos … be prepared and
welcoming of a bunch of old
wrinkly people
– Know how you’ll handle
negative/off topic comments
• It takes time and
commitment

62. Baby Boomers and seniors still value a personal, direct, one-to-one feeling

63. You don't need a social media strategy –
You need a brand strategy that leverages social media.
Don't get off the brand strategy just because there's a
new communications channel,
that's how you lose the plot as a brand.
Technology is the tail, not the dog.
- Chris Kirubi, Coca Cola Nairobi

64. QUESTIONS?
Todd Harff
todd@creatingresults.com
703.494.7888 ext 13
Blog: maturemarketingmatters.com
Web: CreatingResults.com
Twitter @ToddHarff @CreatingResults
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