With more than 100 million U.S. users on Facebook and Twitter alone, chances are someone’s talking about your company right now. Are you listening? Not only should you have your ear to the ground, you should help lead the conversation.
What are you doing right now? Just as you’re reading these words, the social media universe is pinging with activity—including tweets, blog posts, Facebook fans, LinkedIn connections, YouTube video comments, and Flickr photo exchanges. And it’s not just texting teens and techie geeks who are harnessing the power of social networking. Senior living executives—armed with iPhones, Blackberrys, laptops, and good old PCs—are tapping a vast network of social media platforms that in the past year has grown at break-neck speed. And as you read these words—perhaps in your print edition of Assisted Living Executive—the digital edition is getting hits on ALFA.org via blog posts, Twitter, Facebook updates, and more. —
Consider that the experts quoted in this article alone represent a combined network of 14,000+ Twitter followers, 1,200+ Facebook users, and a half-dozen blogs. This is great news for ALFA and the thousands of seniors the organization and its member companies serve. Now, through the hyperspeed network of social media platforms, ALFA can communicate and mobilize support on a whole new level. What’s more, senior living executives who follow ALFA on Twitter or participate in its blog, Facebook, or LinkedIn pages, for example, have tapped a resource-rich ticker of information that’s helping them more strategically run their companies and communities.
Social media strategies are also helping companies and communities reach out to more customers and prospective customers. Consider this scenario:
An executive tweets about the company’s newest memory-care community just outside Houston. That same executive is a fan of ALFA on Facebook—and since ALFA is a follower of that executive on Twitter, ALFA tells its other fans about it. Three of those fans have older loved ones in the Houston area, so they tap into the tweet and search for that company on Facebook and LinkedIn to start checking out their following. A couple of days later, these prospective customers show up at the community’s door to take a look around.
If this explanation of social media and its many interconnected applications sounds different from the way your kids or grandkids use social media, you’re right. Social media holds tremendous potential for businesses. If a company’s key customers can also be converted to “followers” and “friends,” the theory goes, the effectiveness and reach of the company’s marketing efforts can easily triple.
“There’s a difference between marketing or advertising to your customers, and marketing with your customers,” explains Dan Hobin, CEO of G5 Search Marketing, based in Bend, Oregon. “Your customers become your most important channel.”
Put another way: “Word spreads at no cost to us. It’s like word of mouth on steroids,” says Shannon Ingram, director of marketing for San Juan Capistrano, California- based Silverado Senior Living.
This is only true, however, if you can reach your target audience and give them reason enough to become loyal followers.
Convening Consumer Masses
About 75 million people in the United States use Facebook and 27 million use Twitter. Once considered the domain of teens and techies, social media sites are now drawing baby boomers and seniors in ever greater numbers. The largest cohort of users on Facebook, 28 percent, is 35 to 54 years old. The number of Facebook users 55 and older increased five-fold from January to July of this year, currently representing 8 percent of all users. Social sites offer even the most homebound seniors a way to stay connected and engaged with friends and family.
“Social behavior is natural for human beings. Staying connected is a basic human need. Social media simply embodies and reflects online how we behave in the physical world,” says marketing strategist Denise Shiffman, author of The Age of Engage.
More and more companies are seemingly buying into that premise. When Silverado Senior Living employees started logging onto interactive social Web sites during work hours, the IT department conscientiously considered shutting down access. The company’s marketing department, which uses such forums, quickly came to social media’s defense. But it was CEO Loren Shook who really rode to the rescue, and for reasons beyond marketing. Shook argued that social media outlets were another way to pursue the company’s mission—to give life—in this case, by engaging staff and consumers via social media.
Since then, Silverado has formally embraced social media, developing a presence on Facebook for its dementia-care communities. Employees and family members are encouraged to link up with the company through Facebook and Twitter.
“We like it when we can put people together whose family members are suffering through Alzheimer’s and dementia. We love it when we can tweet an article about Alzheimer’s,” says Ingram.
Silverado’s goal is to channel social media to deepen relationships forged around Alzheimer’s, energize company culture, build visibility and credibility for the company on the online frontier, and ultimately attract new customers.
Buying into Social Strategy
To gain traction, the decision to pursue a social media strategy has to come from someone at the top who has taken the time to understand it, agree business experts. A Gen-Y associate may be fluent with the world of social media, but a big-picture understanding of business is also a must.
Facebook and its more professionally focused cousin, LinkedIn, are fairly straightforward platforms to new users. Twitter, however, can take some figuring out.
“The first two months, I thought I was wasting time. It doesn’t come naturally to me,” says Blair Minton, founder and chairman of BMA Management in Bradley, Illinois. “Twitter is something you have to work at to get it to where you want it to be for your business.”
Once familiar with the options, experts advise, companies should approach social media like they would any other business strategy, e.g., know your audience, and where they do business.
“It’s really less about technology and more about relationships,” says social media expert Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich PR in Chicago. “It’s about developing and fostering relationships so you can become people to one another.” This is important for businesses, Dietrich continues, in part because people form judgments and buy things based on emotions. Regardless of which social media site or online technology you use, the ultimate goal is building relationships—something that is particularly important to the senior living sales process. Think of social media as a tool to get inside the marketplace and let people talk back.
“It gets people to notice us and create loyalty, but it’s really more about influencing the marketplace than closing a sale,” Ingram explains. That said, the quality of repartee has to add value to people’s busy day. “It’s not about ‘Hey, I just ate some grapes and I’m going home now,’” she adds.
In a few short months, Minton has built up an impressive audience of 4,200 followers on Twitter. His posts range from links to relevant articles to expressing support for key Senate legislation. “Anyone who has anything to do with assisted living, I will follow them and they will follow me,” Minton says.
Minton’s company is in the process of developing a Facebook page for each of its communities so that residents and families can communicate and share photos. Other companies with a Face-book presence include Wellesley, Massachusetts- based Benchmark Assisted Living, Brentwood, Tennessee-based Brookdale Senior Living, Seattle-based Emeritus Senior Living, Chicago-based Pathway Senior Living, McLean, Virginia- based Sunrise Senior Living, and many others. (See the sidebar on this page.)
“The biggest thing we advise is be an industry expert,” Dietrich says of the social media plunge. For example, find opportunities to assert your expertise and build credibility for your business, such as starting a blog or commenting on articles posted at reputable news sites. “Reporters are reading the comments made on these articles to tap new sources,” she adds.
ALFA President/CEO and Twitter user Richard Grimes has quickly become a well-followed voice of the organization and source of the senior living news, trends, and operational excellence strategies that ALFA also communicates via its print and electronic publications. The Twitter platform, however (www.twitter. com/rickgrimes), offers a quick and viral path toward widespread exposure for the resident-focused senior living issues ALFA champions.
Making Peace with Pandora
Social media also can change the tone of a workplace, by “humanizing” colleagues. Employees can post photos of their families, pets, or recent vacations on Facebook. These aspects of their lives—usually invisible to coworkers— can have a positive effect on relationships. “It’s amazing how much closer the corporate office has become with each other,” says Minton. “It has a cultural impact.”
And that raises the issue of risk involved in using social media. To be effective, a company’s social media efforts must transcend regurgitating press releases and leading people to a few company- produced YouTube videos. “That’s great, but that’s not social. Corporations don’t Facebook or tweet. People inside corporations Facebook or tweet,” says Shiffman.
The nature of the Internet has radically altered companies’ ability to control brand perception. Anyone can go online and publicly rant—or rave—about a company’s product. People increasingly turn to the Web for product reviews by other customers before making a purchase.
“Word of mouth becomes so much more important now. Your customer experience is the most important now,” says Hobin.
Nor is everyone convinced there is justification for senior care providers to dedicate a full-time staffer to social media. “Honestly, right now I think there’s a ton of hype around social media. I’m not sure we’re there yet as an effective advertising and marketing channel,” Hobin says. However, it is extremely important to join, and to keep one ear to the ground, he adds. “Listen to what is being said about you. You want to listen. Listen before you jump in and start leading the conversation.”
Others believe it is important to master the medium now. “People who are unhappy and blog against us will do it anyway. This way, we’ll hear about it quicker and respond faster,” Minton says. If you do have the irate family member who goes online, you need to address it, experts say. Think of it as if you’re dealing with that customer onstage in front of a thousand people.
By being proactively engaged in social media, responsive to what people are telling you, and led by altruistic instincts, he adds, “The chances for making people happy are much, much greater.”
Whitney Redding is a contributing writer to Assisted Living Executive.
Who’s Who
Contact information for members in this article.
› Gini Dietrich, www.twitter.com/ginidietrich
› Richard Grimes, www.twitter.com/RickGrimes
› Dan Hobin, www.twitter/G5SMarketing
› Shannon Ingram, www.twitter.com/shannoningram
› Blair Minton, www.twitter.com/BMAMan
› Loren Shook, www.twitter.com/silveradosenior
Senior Living on Facebook
This certainly isn’t an exhaustive list of ALFA members on Facebook, especially since more and more companies are showing up on Facebook everyday. Find ALFA and Assisted Living Executive on Facebook and become a fan.
- Benchmark Assisted Living
- BMA Management
- Brookdale Senior Living
- Carlton Senior Living
- Chelsea Senior Living
- Emeritus Senior Living
- Horizon Bay Retirement Living
- Pathway Senior Living
- Sunrise Senior Living
- The Arbor Company
- Vintage Senior Living
Your Social Media Cheatsheet
Here’s the reality—most senior living executives didn’t grow up with all the technology teens use so swiftly these days. If conversations about tweets, fans, connections, and posts make you feel dizzy, here’s a brief, straightforward look at some of the more popular sites.
Twitter —Registering and setting up a Twitter account is free. Users tweet as often as they wish. Any one Twitter message, or tweet, is limited to 140 characters, making it an ideal platform for individuals married to their hand-held devices. Sites like tweetie.com and tweetdeck.com allow Twitter users to organize their social media communications, including updates on other platforms like Facebook. You can follow ALFA at www.twitter. com/rickgrimes.
Facebook —Registering and setting up a Facebook page is free. There are subtle differences between creating a personal page and setting one up for your company. Your personal page has privacy settings that most users set at the highest level, so that only accepted “friends” gain access to your information, images, videos, etc. You must have a personal account to become an administrator for a business or product page. These pages are more public and you collect “fans” instead of friends. You can have multiple administrators for Facebook business pages. Both ALFA and Assisted Living Executive are on Facebook.
Flickr —This is a Yahoo! company so you must have a Yahoo! e-mail account to register with Flickr. A basic account is free and provides limited photo and video uploads. A Flickr Pro account is $24.95 per year and provides services like advertising-free browsing, unlimited storage and bandwidth, and unlimited photo and video uploads. What makes Flickr social are its extensive sharing features that allow users to share photos and videos as well as easily post Flickr features to blogs and Web sites. Go to the Flickr home page and search for Assisted Living Federation of America. Or go to the ALFA blog (alfa-resource.org) to see how Flickr feeds are incorporated.
LinkedIn —Creating a LinkedIn account is free and allows users to post a professional profile and reach out to other LinkedIn users to establish “connections.” You can also create a LinkedIn page for your company, and multiple company representatives can administer the page. ALFA is also on LinkedIn.
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